Abstract
M.Phil. (Engineering Management)
Today research is no longer being done in the same manner it was done 30 years ago. With the advances of technology and with all types of knowledge available on the internet, research can now be done in almost any place on earth.
Many universities have started transforming from traditional teaching universities into research universities to be able to keep up with these rapid advances in technology. But knowledge and research can no longer be left unmanaged. Universities require higher research outputs on top of all other work duties a staff member has. Researchers must be able to not only manage themselves but also manage the way they do their work, the way they do research, and how to balance all of these work aspects along with their busy home lives. There are factors that influence research in either a negative or positive manner. The better acquainted a staff member is with these factors, the easier this management can take place.
Discovering the factors that influence research and finding ways to manage these factors can lead to an increases in research output which is at the heart of this study.
This research sets out to explore the factors that influence research output, the support structures as well as the managerial approaches that must be put into place to be able to manage these factors at the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment to increase research output of staff members.
To find the factors, support structures and managerial approaches an in-depth literature study was done to generate a survey that was distributed to permanent staff members that have published some form of research in the last five years. The data gathered from the survey was the analysed using descriptive analysis and inferential analysis to indicate which factors, support systems and managerial approaches would have a positive effect on research output. Managing these factors can then lead to an increase in research output, which in turn can lead to more research being done by staff members.
Identifying the top four factors that influence research output, staff members acknowledged that having top quality colleagues to work with as well as having mentors for developing researchers might increase research output. They also highlighted that having monetary and non-monetary incentives to do research as well as workshops on time management could also have a positive effect on their research output. If these factors are managed and planned for in advance then an increase in research output of staff members is possible.