Engagemang och styrning : Om relationen individ-organisation i preklinisk läkemedelsutveckling

Sammanfattning: This doctoral dissertation deals with organizational commitment and control in preclinical pharmaceutical development. The study is based on interviews with 47 individuals. The purpose of the dissertation is to problemize and analyze the control of highly uncertain, knowledgeintensive, and complex development processes, as related to individuals' organizational commitment. One contribution of the study is its rather extensive study on the concept of organizational commitment, its content, foundations, and focus. The manifestations of commitment are discussed within the framework of the umbrella concept organizational citizenship behavior.The key conclusions on organizational commitment are those that shed light on individuals who are intensely focused on research. Their strong relationship to the content of their work and their deep commitment to their research tasks and to the groups they associate with their research work is crucial. The importance of the intellectual components, the intrinsic stimulation, the feelings, and the self-satisfaction are stressed.Control is discussed using the distinction between the cooperation and the coordination problems The high level of uncertainty and the significant difficulties involved in creating rules and regulations, assessing performance and activities contradict the use of bureaucratic control forms to bring about cooperation. Despite the difficulties, the problem of opportunism appears to be small and there seems to be a widespread orientation toward cooperation. It is also difficult to explain this orientation on the basis of the equity-based clan or the social-integrative clan. The author' s proposal of explaining the inclination toward cooperation with the symbiotic clan. The symbiotic clan is based on the individual's possibilities to realize himself and his values in a scientific environment that is perceived as favorable. The symbiotic clan can also contribute to an explanation of the coordination problem. Further, it is stressed that knowledge is developed in the project in learning cycles, in which the alternation between deep involvement and reflective moments tends to follow a rhythm characteristic of the project. lnstead of triggering this alternation by specific events or a strict deadline, as in eventbased or time-based pacing we are faced with knowledge-based pacing.