The Innovation and Organizational Change (IOC) program seeks to create and apply fundamental new knowledge with the aim of improving the effectiveness of the design, administration, and management of organizations, including industrial, educational, service, government, nonprofit and voluntary organizations. Additionally, the program seeks a better understanding of how teamwork, coordination, and institutional arrangements contribute to innovation. The program encourages dissemination of knowledge gained from research to organizations and institutions that can implement reforms based on what has been learned.

The IOC program places a priority on investigator-initiated research that advances our understanding of fundamental processes and structures of organizations in a variety of institutional contexts. It supports research that develops and tests theories, concepts, and methodologies related to organizational learning and redesign, strategic and cultural change, quality and process improvement, the genesis and management of innovation, new product and service development, and the organizational development and integration of new technologies. IOC supported research should ordinarily combine theory with empirical validation. Simulation models and lab studies are expected to be tested and validated with organizational data. A high priority is given to research that includes working with partner organizations to get deep inside the "black box" of organizations and institutions. Projects that develop or build on research perspectives that cross disciplinary lines are another program priority. In appropriate cases interdisciplinary proposals may be evaluated through joint review among relevant programs and NSF-wide multi-disciplinary panels.

Perspectives IOC research might draw on include, but are not limited to, organizational behavior and theory, industrial engineering, industrial/organizational psychology, organizational sociology, public administration, and management science. Research methods may span a broad variety of qualitative and quantitative methods, including archival analyses, surveys, field studies, simulations, case studies, organization simulation modeling, lab studies that are grounded in organizational issues, organizational learning curves, and social network analysis. Partner organizations to serve as data sources or test beds may be drawn from all sectors, including businesses, nonprofit organizations, governmental agencies and educational institutions.

PROPOSALS SUBMITTED UNDER THIS PROGRAM SOLICITATION MUST:

Demonstrate potential contributions to both theory and practice. The proposal should identify explicitly the connection between the proposed research and fundamental problems of innovation and/or transforming organizations and institutions. In addition the proposal should address potential contributions to practice in organizations. Improvements to practice might mean, for example, plans for using research results to improve university curricula or the delivery of social services, to improve an industrial process, to develop methods, to create or sustain productive linkages between regulated industries and their regulators or between research universities and the research user community, or to introduce more flexibility into workforce routines. Improvements in practice should be applicable well beyond the partner organization(s). Basic research that clearly will lay the  groundwork for future work with important practical applications is also solicited.

Build on existing research and represent clear value-added over existing literature. Research in any topic area is a cumulative enterprise. While the body of research on innovation and/or organizational change and performance improvement is not always large, it is usually a mistake to assume that no research has been performed on a particular topic and that no research results exist. Proposers are encouraged to do thorough checks of the literature to ensure that they are going beyond the knowledge that already exists. While NSF limits on the length of proposals preclude extended literature reviews, proposals should clearly indicate the literature base of the study, and how it will be enhanced by the proposed research. 

Clearly describe an appropriate intended methodology and research design. Many different research methods are acceptable, which makes it impossible to identify specific methodological criteria for all proposals. Proposals whose methods and design would be accepted as appropriate by a consensus of the researchers in the relevant disciplines will meet the requirements of the Innovation and Organizational Change program. For example, for quantitative social science type research, requirements include research designs that allow research questions to be answered and rival explanations to be ruled out, appropriate samples, valid and reliable measures of constructs and appropriate analytical methods. Research using other methods should also be rigorously designed. 

Include plans for disseminating results to practitioners as well as to the research community. The creative dissemination of research results, as well as information about how to most productively use the new information, is encouraged. Possible modes of dissemination include presentations at workshops, publication in academic and practitioner journals, and web delivery. Ordinarily it is expected that academic publications will be part of this mix. In addition, awardees may be required to participate in NSF-sponsored conferences to share results. When such conferences are held, awardees will be authorized to use grant funds to support travel to attend them. 

Research will be supported in several areas and disciplines relevant to the core mission of the program. Potential research problems may include, but are not limited to:

(1)  organizational processes by which science and technically-oriented activities are integrated into organizations. An example is the integration of research, development, and engineering tasks necessary to carry out effective innovation in basic and applied research in national laboratories, multi-disciplinary university centers, and industrial research;

(2)  impacts of new technologies on organizational forms;

(3)  processes through which organizations learn to improve their performance;

(4)  structures and processes through which knowledge is most effectively transferred within and between organizations;

(5)  formal public/nonprofit and private partnerships;

(6)  interactive activities and relationships among and between a variety of organizations, public, private, and nonprofit. Examples include organizations involved in health care, energy, transportation, education, pollution, global trade, and disasters;

(7)  how public policy affects the distribution of individuals across organizations (e.g., schools, hospitals);

(8)  emerging and continuing challenges such as quality improvement, strategic alliances, new technology implementation, organizational restructuring, and governance;

(9)  impact of social networks and relationships on organizational and institutional outcomes;

(10)  research in emerging domains, such as those created by globalization of the economy, changes in public policy, and improvements in technology;

(11)  furthering our understanding of the management process particularly as it relates to the research, development, and engineering tasks necessary to carry out effective innovation; and

(12)  fundamental research in organizational issues associated with design, manufacturing and industrial engineering.

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list. NSF welcomes proposals that address new and exciting research questions regarding innovation and change in organizations.