ذهنیت آزمون و خطای کارکنان R & D و رابطه آن با جو خلاقیت سازمانی

This paper aims to reveal the mindset of corporate R&D personnel's behavior when they break through a difficult problem. In addition, we examine the relationship between that mindset and the organizational creative climate. We defined trial and error behavior as the process of continuous knowledge creation and acquisition until success is achieved, and constructed a model. We distributed a questionnaire survey on invention and discovery activities to 706 corporate R&D personnel who had received awards from leading Japanese science academies. The results of qualitative data analysis revealed six mindsets and approaches: (i) elimination approach, (ii) idea exploration-oriented mindset, (iii) cause exploration-oriented mindset, (iv) repetitive approach, (v) passion for trial and error, and (vi) experience-oriented mindset. In addition, the results showed that the creative climate did not have a significant impact on the exploration-oriented trial and error mindsets of R&D personnel, such as with (ii) and (iii). Technology-oriented firms cannot develop innovative achievements if they are not willing to encourage risk taking. Our findings indicate that managers should try to understand their employees' trial and error mindsets and create an effective organizational climate that goes beyond an organizational creative climate.

Innovative achievements such as inventions and discoveries of new things by R&D personnel are very important for corporate growth. To encourage and forecast these achievements, it is necessary to understand the activities of R&D personnel [1] and [2]. Two analytical perspectives are dominant in academic research in terms of understanding the activities of R&D personnel; one is concerned with individual behavioral mechanisms [3], and the other with the organizational environment that affects individual behavior and the absorptive capability of knowledge [4]. In the process of invention and discovery, R&D personnel often face difficult problems that they need to overcome. Regarding individual behavioral mechanisms, studies have been conducted on R&D personnel's personal inspirations [5], intrinsic motivation [6] and [7], cognitive types [8], and serendipity [9] as factors contributing to the ability to discover important things by accident. However, few studies have been done that focus on the detailed activities of R&D personnel, including their everyday trials at work, regardless of the importance of understanding individual behavioral mechanisms. R&D management studies have recently emphasized the importance of managing R&D personnel's trial and error activities [9], [10] and [11], which consist of detailed tasks of R&D personnel. In Webster's dictionary, trial and error is “a finding out of the best way to reach a desired result or a correct solution by trying out one or more ways or means and by noting and eliminating errors or causes of failure and also means the trying of one thing or another until something succeeds.” The concept of trial and error includes the process of knowledge creation to find the key knowledge that can lead to a breakthrough. This indicates that the concept of trial and error is a kind of knowledge creation that includes repetitive actions carried out to reach a breakthrough. This paper focuses on the concept of trial and error and defines it as a continuous knowledge creation and acquisition process until something succeeds. Many aspects of the organizational environment have been studied to determine the important catalysts that influence R&D personnel's behavior. These aspects include leadership [12], [13] and [14], circumstances that influence R&D personnel, such as the organizational climate affecting the behavior of personnel [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20] and [21], having a team leader [22], and corporate systems implemented to improve R&D personnel creativity [23]. In addition, the importance of team communication [24], [25] and [26] and closeness of partners [27] is also widely acknowledged in research on factors leading to breakthroughs. These studies are valuable for analyzing the relationship between organizational factors and R&D personnel output. However, there is a need to further analyze organizational factors and detailed trial and error activities of R&D personnel in order to forecast an effective people management strategy in R&D settings. Based on this background, we set two research questions to promote R&D management research focusing on generating innovative achievements. The first question was intended to determine what kind of mindset highly successful R&D personnel had when carrying out trial and error activities. The second one was intended to determine to what extent organizational factors including the organizational climate and the corporate system affected R&D personnel's trial and error behavior. The purpose here is to answer these questions. We set two research perspectives: trial and error behavior and the organizational creative climate. This paper first proposes a model of trial and error behavior based on knowledge creation behavior. Next, we analyze a questionnaire survey we distributed based on the model to find the reality of the trial and error mindset of accomplished corporate researchers who had made valuable inventions and discoveries. Then we analyze the relationship between R&D personnel's mindsets and organizational creative climate using structural equation modeling analysis.

This paper focused on the research-oriented trial and error behaviors of high-achieving R&D personnel. We defined trial and error behavior as the process of continuous knowledge creation and acquisition until something succeeds. We created a behavioral model based on this definition and conducted a questionnaire survey to identify the mindsets behind trial and error behavior. We also analyzed the relationship between this behavior and the organizational creative climate. The results of the questionnaire survey revealed six mindsets and approaches and a unique relationship to organizational factors. A technology-oriented firm cannot develop innovative achievements if it is not willing to encourage risk-taking. Managers should try to understand their subordinates' trial and error mindsets and create an effective organizational climate. They should also create opportunities to reflect on data and provide support to researchers in communicating with different people to promote successful trial and error activities. One limitation of this study is that we investigated only R&D personnel who had succeeded in their inventions or discoveries and did not compare it with failure cases. Therefore, we cannot describe how different the trial and error mindsets of successful R&D personnel are from unsuccessful ones. In addition, we mainly focused on small R&D teams and analyzed the relationship between trial and error mindsets and the organizational creative climate. Therefore, our results may well accurately reflect the small group environment, as researchers in such an environment may have substantial autonomy. However, we need to expand the investigation to consider the results for large R&D teams. The journey to understand R&D personnel behaviors leading to innovative output is long. Our model of trial and error mainly focused on scientific based R&D activities. Corporate R&D personnel need to have a scientific base and also to take part in human-oriented trial and error. Therefore, in the future we need to consider human-oriented trial and error behavior such as the behavior used in bargaining and making presentations in addition to scientific trial and error.