Combined micro-ergonomics, macroergonomics and system study of the application and internationalization of WAITRO-developed best management practices by research and technology organizations'

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According to the World Association of Industrial and Technology Organizations (WAITRO), it had become obvious over the years that the key impediment to successful performance of Research and Technology Organizations (RTO) is often not technology, but management. Hence, WAITRO benchmarked 10 management practices for application by the RTOs (Mengu and Grier, 1999), but which most of them could not successfully use and internalise. Thus this study was conducted with the purpose of identifying the environmental factors, which constrained the RTOs' benchmarks implementation efforts, and also ways to remediate them, using a combined micro-ergonomics, macroergonomics and systems study approach. A two-way experimental design approach was used. Mail survey, using "self-completion" questionnaire was carried out among RTOs in 8 industrially developing countries. Activity analysis, based on observations, interviews, and "future workshops" was also carried out on 3 RTOs in Ghana. The results showed that the external environmental factors which constrained the RTOs' efforts in using and internalising the WAITRO benchmarks included the prevailing socio- economic and legal frameworks, influence of consumer and market forces, the political atmosphere, the operating climate, the subsystem (operating system) stability, the existing communication interfaces within the RTO's organizational structure, as well as between the RTO and the surrounding environment, the educational background (qualification) of its staff, and the decision-making approach. Influences of these environmental factors were also found to exist, irrespective of whether the benchmarks are adopted, adapted or were implemented using other processes by the RTOs. The extent to which these external environmental factors inhibited the efforts of individual RTOs was also found to be dependent on the level of contradictions existing in the RTO's activity sys...