Management Control of Professional Operations--- Actuality or Illusion?

Abstract

Whether management has effective control of professional operations such as Research and Development is difficult to judge because the required level of creativity varies from project to project. To eliminate this variable, patent operations, which require specialized creativity of constant intensity, were chosen for study. Results of a questionnaire sent to 100 electronics companies indicate that quantity, quality and cost controls in most corporate patent programs are rudimentary or non-existent. This raises a question as to whether management ccntrol (in the cybernetic sense) is achievable in any area of professional operations.