ABSTRACT
Most organisations will have some sort of Research and Development Department (R&D), though in many cases in small firms it will perhaps be a fairly rudimentary part of the organisation. In larger firms it will be a subsystem with its own departmental organisation but within the span of control of a senior member of staff, perhaps the marketing director or the factory manager. It will have links with most departments, partly because it will usually be engaged to some extent in problem-solving for them; partly because its raw materials are ideas generated within the firm, or introduced from outside, and these may be fed through from any department as they are sparked-off.
