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Transformations to Quality Organizations


Program Guideline

Deadlines:

Concept Paper -
Received at NSF by close of business on May 16,

Proposal -
Received at NSF by close of business on August 8, 1994

Program Description

Objective

This announcement provides guidelines for the first year of a three-year program to support multidisciplinary research on quality in organizations based on partnerships between researchers and firms or organizations. The objective is to support research to develop or improve concepts, tools, and methods for better managing transformations to quality organizations.

Background

The adoption of quality practices has caused a revolution in organizations throughout the US. Practices associated with Total Quality have spread not only throughout industrial and service organizations, but increasingly through organizations in the health, education and non-profit sectors. While managers are now aware of many of the characteristics of quality firms, there is a need for systematic research to build a generalizable knowledge base about transformations to quality organizations.

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.

The Research Domain

While the research domain associated with Quality is still developing, there is emerging consensus around certain core concepts. NSF will use the content areas accepted for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Program 1/ to suggest the research domain, but this is meant to help focus research proposals, not to imply strict limits. Research opportunities exist for new conceptualizations or definitions.

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).

Continuous Improvement

This could include research to understand barriers to continuous change or improvement; step level or breakthrough change; the role of crises in reducing barriers to change; and sustaining improvement in the absence of a crisis. It could also include evaluations of the impact of such tools as re-engineering, information systems or software, or studies of methods for replicating success within an organization.

Customer-Driven Quality

This might include research on the development of effective and responsive customer-firm relations, (including supplier networks), or on identifying factors that facilitate or inhibit customer, client or stakeholder focus in design, production, or service processes.

Design Quality

This could include studies of methods for translating quality requirements into the language of design and engineering of products, services, software and processes in manufacturing and non-manufacturing environments. It could also include developing models that incorporate experimentation or information feedback into design processes, or understanding the role of design in quality results for the entire enterprise.

Employee Participation

Research under this topic might include studies of the impact of such factors as problem solving activities, work teams, (including cross-functional or customer/supplier teams); cultural diversity, the roles of rewards and recognition, education and training, or the impact of contract or temporary employment, in creation of a quality organization.

Fast Response

Research related to this topic might include understanding the role of information technology or integration of customer information on reducing cycle time. It could also cover the impact of supplier quality linkages on organizational response time and agility.

Leadership

Topics might include the role of leadership at any level of an organization; understanding the role of leaders in relation to other quality concepts or tools; or the role of leadership in facilitating or preventing change.

Long-Range Outlook

Research related to this area might include studies on the integration of quality strategies with other business strategies and goals. Research could also evaluate the interaction of long- range outlook with decentralization or employee autonomy, or could analyze long-range outlook in relation to systems integration.

Management by Fact

This could include research on development and impact of information systems and technologies, as well as analyses of predictive models for specific processes or sectors, or analyses of organizations' actual quality-driven decision processes.

Cross-Cutting Research Concerns

In addition to the eight categories listed, four additional research concerns offer high probabilities for important breakthroughs in research and implementation. These concerns cut across the domain outlined above.

Integrative Models

The interdependence of the eight categories listed above is obvious. One purpose of this program is to encourage studies that build integrated understanding of the elements that make up the research domain. The state of the art in this field indicates a high value for proposals that hold promise for improving understanding of the interdependence of concepts and tools, or clarify understanding of the systemic effects of change.

Culture Change

Experience with implementing organizational changes has led in many cases to a recognition of the central importance of corporate or organizational culture change in determining effectiveness or success. Research topics related to this concept would include understanding the role of leadership in achieving change, understanding barriers to changing corporate culture; incorporating workforce diversity into models of managing change, or sustaining continuous improvement.

Diffusion of Ideas or Innovations

Research on diffusion (deployment) of quality concepts and innovations is important both to research users (practitioners) and to development of theory. This could include studies of diffusion of quality practices within firms (e.g., organizational learning), or between firms (e.g., customer/supplier networks). It could also include studies of the impact of inter-firm quality networks (such as regional consortia) on acceptance of innovation, competitive success, or financial performance. Diffusion of ideas both between sectors and cross-nationally is also of growing importance.

Measures of Effectiveness

Finally, in combination with the entire research domain, measures of effectiveness emerged as an important focus. Measures of effectiveness for studying or evaluating quality in organizations are of crucial importance to both practitioners and to researchers. Research on measures of effectiveness could be related to any of the previously cited topics, and could include such topics as evaluating qualitative measures of effectiveness, studying the relationships between quality changes in organizations and traditional indicators of financial performance, or analyzing high performance in the absence of accepted indicators of quality.

Research Guidelines and Selection Criteria

The NSF/LSC partnership has three goals in supporting this research: To improve the knowledge base and research methods, to improve practice; and to improve education. To achieve these three goals, the program requires that research proposals respond to the following guidelines:

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.

Evaluation and Selection of Proposals

Proposals will be evaluated in light of the criteria in this program description in two stages, first as concept papers and then as full proposals. Only concept papers that are approved by NSF's review process can be submitted as full proposals.

Concept Papers

Concept papers shall be no more than five pages long, printed on one side only, plus a letter confirming the organizational partnership, and a maximum of one-page vita for each of the key personnel or co-investigators. Pages should be standard size (21.6 cm by 27.9 cm, with at least 2.5 cm margins and 12-point font size or larger). Conformance to page limits will be strictly enforced for concept papers. The five-page concept paper should adhere to the following outline:

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

Special Notes

1. International Research
Transformations to quality organizations has been an international phenomenon, and much of the current knowledge base is derived from international studies. However, awards under this program will only be made to US institutions. NSF supports international research collaborations and research at sites outside the US through support of a US researcher. For additional information on requirements or opportunities for international research, see NSF bulletin 93-51.

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.

Format and Requirements

Proposals should be prepared and submitted following the guidelines, including required forms, outlined in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) (NSF 94-2). These guidelines will replace the NSF Grants for Research and Education in Science and Engineering (GRESE) (NSF 92-89) effective April 4, 1994.

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).

Grant General Conditions

NSF Grants are administered in accord with either the NSF Grant General Conditions (GC-1) or the Federal Demonstration Project General Terms and Conditions (FDP II), depending on the awardee institution. Copies of these documents may be requested at no cost from the Publications Section (phone above). More comprehensive information is contained in the NSF Grant Policy Manual (NSF 88- 47), available through a subscription from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.

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.

Publication and Patent Policy

Research projects under this program are pre-competitive and, consistent with preserving patent opportunities, timely publication of results is expected. Patent rights to inventions under NSF- sponsored projects are governed by NSF policy, as expressed in Section 650 of title 45 of the Code of Federal Regulations and in accordance with Public Law 96-517 (the Bayh-Dole Act). Small- business firms and nonprofit organizations, including universities, usually receive patent rights to any inventions they make during Federally supported research.

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.

Privacy Act and Public Burden

Information requested on NSF application material is solicited under the authority of the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended. It will be used in connection with the selection of qualified proposals and may be used and disclosed to qualified reviewers and staff assistants and to other government agencies as part of the review process. See System of Records, NSF-50, Principal Investigator/Proposal File and Associated Records and NSF-51, Reviewer/Proposal File and Associated Records 56 Federal; Register 54907 (October 23, 1991). Submission of the information is voluntary. Failure to provide full and complete information, however, may reduce the possibility of your receiving an award.

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.

Additional Information

Telephone and mail inquiries about this program are welcome, and should be addressed to either:

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)


Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 47.041 and 47.075.

OMB#3245-0058
PT 34
KW 1016000

NSF 94-30