Antecedents and Consequences of Research Planning in a University Setting

This paper reports on some of the results of a study on research administration at the University of Missouri, Columbia. The subjects were 248 professors with research grants. The paper first examines some characteristics that are likely to lead to research planning. Some of the characteristics examined include size of research grant, number of subordinates in the research project, and preferences for type of research problems investigated.

The consequences of planning, the satisfaction of the research professor, his rewards and productivity are also examined. In general, planning did not lead to greater researcher satisfaction, but it did lead to greater productivity for the researcher.