9300723 Cohen This is an award under the Grants for Improving Doctoral Dissertation Research program. This questionnaire study of 100 product development teams, uses an open systems framework to examine the effects of organizational structure and team processes on team effectiveness. Hypotheses to be tested concern the dependence of the teams on the organizations, uncertainty characterizing work of the teams, differences between teams and organizations with respect to institutional environments, problems at the team-organization interface, and mechanisms that facilitate relations between team and organization. This study will test a number of hypotheses about teams of workers within larger organizations, thus contributing both to scientific knowledge in the fields of small group relations and formal organizations and to the productivity of American industry. In addition to the scientific gains to be achieved by the research, this award will materially assist a highly promising student in completing research for the Ph.D. dissertation. Thus it contributes to the future scientific manpower of the nation and the thorough training of the next generation of sociologists. ***
