Cybernetic Approach for Controlling Technology Management Activities

Abstract The growing complexity, relevance and speed of technological developments present significant challenges for technology-oriented organizations and the necessity to focus intensified on their technology management activities to react and deal more effectively with performance issues. Therefore, a well-structured and comprehensible technology management process is crucial for a company's success in terms of e.g. ensuring a sustainable and efficient allocation of resources with the purpose to persist in the competitive arena. On this account it is essential and important for an organization to be aware of the performance and the cause-effect-relations of technology management activities and to keeping up with technological progress and its influences in order to evaluate and design a company's technology management efficiently. A further challenge results in the often multifunctional and cross-sectional organization of technology management which demands an integrated consideration within the cybernetic framework for controlling technology management activities. In spite of the recognition of its strategic relevance only fragmented and insufficient concepts as well no accurately definition regarding controlling of technology management activities exists. However it is essential to know the performance of the technology management for designing a result-oriented (effective & efficient) technology management for an organization to be able for acting successful and sustainable. Companies lack of an adequate tool and/or approach to bridge the gap between determine the right strategic aims and their realization as well as simultaneous control of technology management activities. This deficit prevents the development of a cybernetic framework including e.g. measuring instruments or maybe a set of different controlling tools to assess, monitor and to affect activities within the technology management. This paper illustrates an academic research development in progress and pursues to investigate the challenging interplays in research and praxis with regard to control technology management activities. It exemplifies an approach to link technology management activities with a controlling system on basis of cybernetic elements. The long-term aim is to develop an adequate framework for controlling mainly intangible and interactive components of technology management activities.