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Proposal -
Received at NSF by close of business on August 8, 1994
To develop this knowledge base and to answer questions about transformations to quality organizations, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Total Quality Leadership Steering Committee (LSC) propose to fund an expansion of research on organizational quality over the next 3 years. This will provide an unparalleled opportunity to improve both empirical and theoretical understanding of organizational transformations and quality systems. The challenge for researchers is to work in partnership with organizations to conduct research with the potential both to contribute to the knowledge base and to improve practice in organizations. The results of this research should enable US businesses and organizations to implement quality improvements more rapidly and successfully. The impact of these changes should include improved work processes, products, job security, customer satisfaction and financial performance.
First, research is needed to identify best practices that can be used by organizations involved in managing change. The principles that ensure effective practices or outcomes are in most cases not yet generalizable to a wide variety of firms, sectors, or operations. Second, research based on data from organizations is needed to build and strengthen theories about quality organizations and change. This will lead to better theories and knowledge in the social, behavioral and engineering sciences. Research on transformations to quality organizations represents an opportunity for empirical study of fundamental issues such as organizational change, diffusion of innovation, and cultural differences in organizations.
Proposals in response to this announcement may come from individuals or multidisciplinary teams from the engineering sciences, statistics, marketing, operations management, accounting, organizational behavior, management science, economics, information systems, anthropology, sociology, psychology, technology studies, or other disciplines, as appropriate.
Examples of Research
NSF believes that the best ideas for research within this, as any other domain, will originate from the investigators themselves. Thus the research examples provided for eight of the ten Baldrige core values and concepts, below, are meant only as illustrations and are not intended to exclude other ideas. The illustrations do, however, reflect extended consultations with a variety of organizations on their most critical information needs.
(Footnote to above section)
1/ A copy of criteria for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality
Award Program is available from the Malcolm Baldrige National
Quality Award Office, National Institute of Standards and
Technology, US Department of Commerce, by calling (301) 975-2036 or
(fax) (301) 948-3716.
A report on research priorities associated with quality in
organizations from an NSF workshop held in 1993 is available by
calling National BioSystems, Inc., at (301) 770-9380 (attention
Sara Pula).
1. Proposals must reflect a real partnership between researchers and one or more firms or organizations. Eligible proposers can be academic institutions or other non-profit research institutions. Firms can be small, large, or associations or sets of firms. Organizations can be in the manufacturing, service, health, education, or public sectors. It is vital that the proposal identify significant contributions from the organizational partner, including involvement in planning the research and in providing access to data and opportunities for implementation.
2. Proposals should reflect an interdisciplinary perspective. Ideally, they should integrate perspectives from the social, behavioral, management and engineering sciences. The purpose of this requirement is to encourage the development of new, interdisciplinary approaches that expand the concepts, techniques, hypotheses and models brought to bear on studies of quality in organizations.
3. Research proposals should include data from organizations. While other sources of data, such as laboratory experiments or secondary data may be included, the focus should be on primary data from organizations.
4. Proposals should demonstrate potential contributions to both theory and improvements to practice. In addition to potential contributions to practice in organizations, this might mean plans for using research results to improve curricula or training in schools of business, public administration or engineering, or alternative methods to sustain the linkages between research universities and the research user community.
5. Proposers are encouraged to include plans for improving research methods or tools. At a minimum, variables proposed for study must be clearly defined and justified in relation to potential alternatives; time frames must be justified for each measure selected (especially for measures of effectiveness or success); and linkages between variables must be discussed.
6. Proposals should include plans for disseminating results to practitioners as well as to the research community. In addition, awardees will be expected to participate in two NSF-sponsored conferences. The first, for discussion of methods and preliminary results, will take place in the Fall of 1995. The second, to present research results in formats that can be widely disseminated by the LSC, will take place about December, 1997.
A. Name, institution, address, phone and fax number, and e-mail address of primary contact.
B. Brief problem statement, describing the research problem or opportunity.
C. Abbreviated summary of literature and leading edge practices. This should demonstrate familiarity with the most important existing work related to the proposed research.
D. Summary of proposed approach and methods, describing what the team will do, and how it will be done.
E. Significance and impact of the proposed research, explaining the intended results of the research, how they can be used, and potential value added.
F. Research team, including their respective responsibilities and skills.
G. Estimated budget request.
The document confirming the organizational partnership should be signed at an appropriate level of management.
Concept papers will be evaluated and ranked by a merit review panel that includes experts from industry/organizations, using the research guidelines in this program description. Only concept papers selected by NSF will be accepted in the second stage as full proposals. NSF expects to make somewhere between 10 and 40 awards in the range of $50,000 to $200,000 per year for three years.
Seven copies of the concept paper are required. They must be received by NSF by May 16, 1994, by mail to:
Transformations to Quality Organizations
Room 905
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22230
Concept papers approved for development into full proposals will be selected by June 17, 1994. Full proposals, submitted in conformance with the guidelines in NSF's Grant Proposal Guide (GPG), must be received at NSF no later than August 8, 1994. Awards under this program description are anticipated in the second half of November, 1994
2. Protecting Confidentiality of Data
Data collected with NSF support remain the property of the
researcher, and are not transferred to NSF or to any agency of the
US government. NSF expects awardees to share research results to
the maximum extent possible, to build the knowledge base. However
the form in which the data are shared is the responsibility of the
awardee. Data and analysis remain the property of the awardee, and
dissemination in the form of licensing or sale for profit is not
excluded. Research results presented at the NSF-sponsored
dissemination conferences described above may be published by the
LSC or its agent as conference proceedings.
The GPG will be effective for all proposals submitted on or after April 4, 1994. Concept papers submitted prior to April 4, 1994, may continue to use guidelines contained in the GRESE. After April 4, 1994, all versions of the GRESE and its forms should be discarded, and GPG and its forms should be used.
Copies of all relevant NSF publications, including GRESE (92-89), GPG (94-2), and this Announcement (94-30) are available at no cost from:
NSF Publications Section
Room P15
4201 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22230
Phone (703) 306-1130
If you are a user of electronic mail and have access to either BITNET or Internet, you may order publications electronically. BITNET users should address requests to pubs@nsf; Internet users should send requests to pubs@nsf.gov.
In your request, include the NSF publication number and title, number of copies, your name, and a complete mailing address. Publications will be mailed within two days of receipt of request.
Copies of the text of most program announcements and other key NSF publications are also available electronically. You can get information fast through STIS (Science and Technology Information System), NSF's on-line publishing system, described in NSF 91-10 (rev. 10/4/91), the STIS flyer. To get a paper copy of the flyer, call the NSF Publications Section (phone above). For an electronic copy, send an E-mail message to stisfly@nsf.gov (Internet) or stisfly@nsf (BITNET).
NSF provides awards for research in the sciences and engineering. The awardee is wholly responsible for the conduct of such research and preparation of the results for publication. The Foundation, therefore, does not assume responsibility for such findings or their interpretation.
The Foundation welcomes proposals on behalf of all qualified scientists and engineers, and strongly encourages women, minorities, and persons with disabilities to compete fully in any of the research described in this document.
In accordance with Federal statutes and regulations and NSF policies, no person on grounds of race, color, age, sex, national origin, or disability shall be excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under, any program or activity receiving financial assistance from the National Science Foundation.
Facilitation Awards for Scientists and Engineers with Disabilities provide funding for special assistance or equipment to enable persons with disabilities (investigators and other staff, including student research assistants) to work on an NSF project. See that Program Announcement (91-54), or contact the FA program coordinator in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources at (703) 306- 1636. The Foundation has a TDD (Telephonic Device for the Deaf) capability at (703) 306-0090.
Universities and industrial organizations that propose to collaborate on a project under this Announcement should reach their agreement as to the disposition of patent rights from the project before submitting the proposal to NSF.
Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 120 hours per response, including the time for reviewing instructions. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to: Herman G. Fleming, Reports Clearance Officer, Division of Contracts, Policy and Oversight, NSF, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22230; and to Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project (3145-00580), Washington, DC, 20503.
Catherine Hines
Acting Program Director
Transformations to Quality Organizations
Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences
(703) 306-1741
(chines@nsf.gov)
F. Stan Settles
Director, Design and Computer-Integrated Engineering Program
Division of Design, Manufacture and Industrial Innovation
Directorate for Engineering
(703) 306-1328
(fsettles@nsf.gov)
Hal Arkes
Director, Decision, Risk and Management Sciences Program
Division of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences
Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences
(703) 306-1757
(harkes@nsf.gov)
OMB#3245-0058
PT 34
KW 1016000
NSF 94-30