Managing Creativity in Science and Hi-Tech

Addressing the issues unique to managers of creative technical staff, this guide reflects not only Ronald Kay’s long experience observing and teaching successful management techniques, but also treats the expanding challenges due to increasingly globally-based projects and staff. As before, Kay’s guide helps readers to prepare themselves, graduate students and others to understand and improve their managerial skills and covers such practical, yet sometimes overlooked, steps such as: individual and team behavior of creative technical staff; managing their own and others’ R&D projects; hiring, evaluating and compensating technical staff; R&D proposals and administrative functions; and presentations, meetings and organizational culture. New to this edition are a chapter on the global impact of high-tech enterprises and sections on the roles of foundations and government funding and task-force participation. Also tackled are the basics of starting, financing and staffing venture-capital-funded enterprises. What’s more, this book also serves to increase the awareness and knowledge base of anyone who needs to meet the challenge of managing people with the creative energies that drive technologically-based economic growth.

Ronald Kay moved on to hold a wide range of management positions in IBM R&D departments. He is also an experienced university teacher in the areas of management, information technology and computing. Most recently, Ronald Kay has been active as an independent consultant to the information technology industry, specializing in the management of R&D, large information systems, and technology assessment. He has also played a leading role in the establishment of the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California at Berkeley.