Managing the Flow of Technology: Technology Transfer and the Dissemination of Technological Information Within the R&D Organization (Book Review)

The original edition of this book summarized more than a decade of work on communications flow in science and engineering organizations, showing how human and organizational systems could be restructured to bring about improved productivity and better person-to-person contact. While many studies have been done since then, few of them invalidate the general conclusions and recommendations Allen offers. In a new preface he points out new developments, noting areas that need some modification, elaboration, or extension, and directing readers to the appropriate journal articles where the findings, are reported. The first three chapters provide an overview of the communication system in technology, present the author's research methods, and describe differences in the career paths and goals of engineers and scientists that cause special problems for organizations. The book then discusses how technological information is acquired by the R & D organization, shows how critical technical communication within the laboratory is for R & D performance, and originates the idea of the "gatekeeper," the person who links his or her organization to the world at large. Concluding chapters take up the influence of formal and informal organization and of architecture and office layouts on communication. Many of these ideas have been successfully incorporated by architects and managers in the design of new R & D facilities and complexes. Suggested Citation Handle: RePEc:mtp:titles:0262510278 Download reference as HTML Thomas J. Allen, 1984. "Managing the Flow of Technology: Technology Transfer and the Dissemination of Technological Information Within the R&D Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262510278, November. More services and features MyIDEAS Follow serials, authors, keywords & more New papers by email Subscribe to new additions to RePEc Author registration Public profiles for Economics researchers MPRA Upload your paper to be listed on RePEc and IDEAS EconAcademics Blog aggregator for economics research Plagiarism Cases of plagiarism in Economics Rankings Various rankings of research in Economics & related fields RePEc Genealogy Who was a student of whom, using RePEc RePEc Biblio Curated articles & papers on various economics topics Job market papers RePEc working paper series dedicated to the job market Fantasy league Pretend you are at the helm of an economics department Services from the StL Fed Data, research, apps & more from the St. Louis Fed IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.