Motivating desired performance Darlington Engineering is a research and development company that designs equipment for nuclear generating stations. The company consists of an administrative unit, a research laboratory, and a facility used to develop prototypes of new designs. The major costs in this company are the salaries of the research staff, which are substantial.

In the past, the research scientists working at Darlington Engineering have been rewarded based on their proven scientific expertise. Salaries of these re¬ search scientists are based on the level of education achieved and the number of research papers published in scientific journals. At a recent board of direc¬ tors meeting, an outside director criticized the research and development ac¬ tivities with the following comments:

There is no question that we have the most highly trained scientists in our industry. Evidence of their training and creativity is provided by the number of research publications that they generate. However, the knowledge and creativity are not translating into patentable inventions and increased sales for this company. Our organization has the lowest rate of new product in¬ troduction in our industry, and we have one of the largest research and de¬ velopment teams. These people are too far into basic research, where the rewards lie in getting articles published. We need these people to have more interest in generating ideas that have commercial potential. This is a profit-seeking organization, not a university research laboratory.

REQUIRED

(a) Assuming that the director's facts are correct, do you agree that this is a problem?

(b) The board of directors has ordered the president of Darlington Engineer¬ ing to increase the rate of new products and the time devoted to new product development. How should the president go about this task?

LO1