Organizing Science at the
Southern Research Station

Structure and roles

An Assistant Director will be assigned to each of the five Science Areas described above. Each Assistant Director is responsible for coordinating the research program in the assigned Science Area, for communicating with internal and external research partners and clients, and for coordinating research plans across Science Areas within the Station.

Assistant Directors will supervise Project Leaders within their Science Area. Project Leaders will be strategically located in Forestry Sciences Laboratories and have administrative and facilities responsibilities, with appropriate levels of support personnel. They will supervise scientists, either individually or in teams. The number of RWUs and Project Leaders in each Science Area will shrink through consolidation to achieve desired economies of scale in operations. The realignment team felt that the number of RWUs could shrink by up to 50 percent (from 28 to about 14). The feasibility of specific mergers will depend on a number of variables and will be evaluated by the Leadership Team as a part of implementing the new organization.

We anticipate that the increased administrative burden of larger work units will justify enhanced fieldlevel administrative support for RWUs. Each field location will continue to be overseen by a Director’s Representative (either a Project Leader or Team Leader) with appropriate administrative support for maintenance and day-to-day operations of these facilities. Specific guidance regarding titles and grades of administrative positions is another implementation task.

The Management Team would be comprised of the Leadership Team and Project Leaders working together on research and budget planning and meeting more often than the current Management Team.

The reorganization shrinks the research component of the Management Team by about 40 percent, from 31 (28 Project Leaders and 3 Assistant Directors) to 19 (14 Project Leaders and 5 Assistant Directors).

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