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Burger, Kenneth Kehr Jonathan Wobensmith Brian. "Contingency contracting." Monterey, Calif. : Springfield, Va. : Naval Postgraduate School ; Available from National Technical Information Service, 2003. http://library.nps.navy.mil/uhtbin/hyperion-image/03Dec%5FBurger%5FKehr%5FWobensmith%5fManual.pdf.
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[Thesis (M.B.A.)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2003.][MBA professional report] [Thesis advisor(s): R. Marshall Engelbeck, Rob B. Tudor.] [Authors: Kenneth Burger, Jonathan Kehr, Brian Wobensmith.] Also available online.
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Jeandrée, Philipp. "Experiencing contingency : towards a political theory of images." Thesis, Goldsmiths College (University of London), 2016. http://research.gold.ac.uk/19192/.
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The aim of this thesis is to explore the relationship between modern political thinking and aesthetic image-making through the conceptual framework of contingency. The focus on contingency takes account of the ambiguity and indeterminacy of visual perception and offers a language to describe the political potency of visual images in various historical contexts. The political potency of images is understood in terms of their affective intensities and material presence rather than ideological suspicion or propagandist seduction. In so doing, a case is made for reconsidering the traditional image scepticism (or indifference) in political theory and for recognising visual aesthetic practices as distinct modes of political thinking. I interpret political images as gestures towards the complexity and vulnerability of our social arrangements, indicating that the way we see the world, and show it to each other, could always be otherwise. Drawing on rulers’ portraits, war photography and essay films, from the French Revolution to the present time, I show how visual aesthetic practices can reflect, complement and challenge the way we think about political concepts such as sovereignty, accountability or collective agency in different historical moments. Instead of following a modernist belief in the power of art to induce profound social change, this thesis describes the potency of the visual as micropolitical intensities that potentially modify habitual ways of thinking (and acting), provided that aesthetic experiences can connect to already existing moods or dispositions. This micropolitical potency of visual images does not necessarily constitute a particularly strong or reliable politics, but it is exactly its indeterminacy, as well as its constant risk of failure, that harbours the potential to generate new sensibilities towards the world. Taking visual images seriously, not only as worthwhile objects of political research but just as much as distinct modes of thinking, can therefore help us to stronger acknowledge the vital role affective, imaginative and speculative elements have always played for the understanding and justification of our social arrangements.
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Linton, Gabriel. "Entrepreneurial orientation : reflections from a contingency perspective." Doctoral thesis, Örebro universitet, Handelshögskolan vid Örebro Universitet, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-46894.
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Entrepreneurship has been argued to be a key driver of the economy by creating jobs, turning inventions to innovations, and also improving the overall standard of life. A firm’s entrepreneurial orientation (EO) indicates the degree to which a firm is entrepreneurial. However, there are several different approaches to conceptualizing the EO concept and its sub-dimensions, frequently described as innovativeness, risk taking, and proactiveness. The role of the sub-dimensions is not quite clear in the EO literature. Furthermore, many studies claim that firms can increase their performance simply by increasing their EO, while this thesis draws upon contingency theory to argue that EO needs to be aligned with—‘fit’ the internal and external context, if the firm is to perform well. Thus, this thesis aims to advance the conceptualization of EO by problematizing the core construct and also discussing how EO can fit with context. The thesis consists of four papers in which the EO concept is elaborated on and contingency theory is applied to construct conceptual models of the interaction between EO and different contexts, which are also empirically investigated. Furthermore, the sub-dimensions of EO are discussed in terms of their meanings and measurement to point out their individual impact on the EO. The overall findings indicate that EO is not as simple a concept as often portrayed in the EO literature. Rather, EO is more complex in the ways that it can fit with internal and external context and, on these bases, it is suggested that ideal types of EO and context is a way forward for research in the area. Additionally, it is argued that EO as a theoretical construct may not only be conceptualized as an overall entrepreneurial attribute (which is common in the extant literature), but also as a complex and granular attribute.
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Bochner, Gregory. "Naming and contingency : towards an internalist theory of direct reference." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/209797.
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This work is an essay on the reference of names in language and thought. According to the Theory of Direct Reference, nowadays dominant in philosophy of language, the semantic content of a proper name is directly its referent (Chapter 1).Nevertheless, despite its current fame, this theory must face two major difficulties, familiar since Frege and Russell: the Co-Reference and the No-Reference Problems. The traditional response to these problems consisted precisely in abandoning Referentialism in favour of a version of Descriptivism according to which the semantic content of a proper name would be, not its referent, but a descriptive condition (Chapter 2).
However, it is also this traditional version of Descriptivism that the arguments offered by the pioneers of modern Referentialism—including Kripke, Putnam, and Kaplan—have largely discredited (Chapter 3).
The theoretical tools developed within the framework of possible worlds semantics enable to restate the problems generated by Referentialism in terms of the opacity of linguistic intensions and Modal Illusions (Chapter 4).
At this stage, our semantic theory of names seems to have reached a dead end: on the one hand, modern Referentialism recreates the problems which classical Descriptivism was meant to solve, but, on the other hand, this kind of Descriptivism appears to be refuted by the argumentation of new Referentialists. A common reaction, then, has been to devise more complex semantic theories purporting to combine Referentialism with crucial features from Descriptivism. However, a careful examination reveals that the various versions of this strategy fail (Chapter 5).
Another type of reaction, also ecumenical, has been to draw a distinction between two kinds of contents which would be associated with names and the sentences in which these occur: while the first kind of content would be descriptive, the second would be referential. The Two-Dimensionalist framework has received several interpretations (pragmatic, semantic, metasemantic); but a new construal, metasyntactic, is defended in this work (Chapter 6).
The metasyntactic interpretation of Two-Dimensionalism allows for a radical gap between language and thought: while the thoughts of their users can remain descriptive, names are supposed to achieve direct reference by themselves, and independently of the mental states of their users. Hence, names must be regarded as objects living in the external world, on a par with other ordinary objects like trees or chairs, and not as mental objects. An Externalist metaphysics of names is then submitted, as well as a corresponding epistemology, according to which external names are described in the mind through a description of their reference (Chapter 7).
The general strategy pursued in this work amounts to combining a Theory of Direct Reference in language with a Descriptivist (hence, Internalist) account of thought. Also, certain influential arguments — notably devised by Burge — intended to support Mental Referentialism (hence, Externalism) beyond Linguistic Referentialism, are rejected; it is moreover argued that a Non-Descriptivist conception of the mental is incapable of securing the introspective transparency of thoughts, which, however, seems indispensable, among other things in order to solve and even pose the Co-Reference and the No-Reference Problems (Chapter 8).
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Ce travail est un essai sur la référence des noms dans le langage et la pensée. Selon la Théorie de la Référence Directe, aujourd'hui dominante en philosophie du langage, le contenu sémantique d'un nom propre est directement son référent (Chapitre 1).
Or, malgré son succès récent, cette théorie Référentialiste se heurte à deux obstacles majeurs, reconnus depuis Frege et Russell : les Problèmes de la Co-référence et de la Non-Référence. La réponse traditionnelle à ces problèmes consistait précisément à abandonner la conception Référentialiste en faveur d'un Descriptivisme selon lequel le contenu sémantique d'un nom propre serait, non pas son référent, mais une condition descriptive (Chapitre 2).
Toutefois, c'est aussi ce Descriptivisme traditionnel que les arguments formulés par les hérauts du Référentialisme moderne—dont Kripke, Putnam, et Kaplan—ont largement discrédité (Chapitre 3).
Les outils théoriques développés dans le cadre de la sémantique des mondes possibles permettent de reformuler les problèmes générés par le Référentialisme en termes d'opacité des intensions linguistiques et d'Illusions Modales (Chapitre 4).
A ce stade, la théorie sémantique des noms semble dans une impasse : d'une part, le Référentialisme moderne recrée des problèmes que le Descriptivisme classique devait résoudre, mais d'autre part, ce Descriptivisme paraît bel et bien réfuté par l'argumentation des Référentialistes. Aussi, une réaction commune a été de chercher à concilier le Référentialisme et une forme de Descriptivisme au sein d'une même théorie sémantique. Cependant, un examen approfondi révèle que les différentes versions de cette stratégie échouent (Chapitre 5).
Une autre réaction, elle aussi œcuménique, a été d'opérér une distinction entre deux types de contenus qui seraient associés avec les noms et les phrases dans lesquels ceux-ci figurent : le premier contenu serait descriptif, tandis que le second serait référentiel. Le cadre offert par un tel Bi-Dimensionnalisme a reçu plusieurs interprétations très différentes (pragmatique, sémantique, métasémantique) ; mais c'est une nouvelle version, métasyntaxique, qui est défendue dans ce travail (Chapitre 6).
Le Bi-Dimensionalisme métasyntaxique autorise une séparation radicale entre langage et pensée : tandis que les pensées de leurs utilisateurs peuvent rester descriptives, les noms sont censés référer directement par eux-mêmes, indépendamment des états mentaux de leurs utilisateurs. Dès lors, les noms doivent être considérés comme des objets appartenant au monde extérieur, au même titre que des objets ordinaires tels que les arbres ou les chaises, et non comme des objets mentaux. Une métaphysique externaliste des noms est proposée, ainsi qu'une épistémologie assortie, selon laquelle les noms externes sont décrits dans l'esprit à travers une description de leur référence (Chapitre 7).
La stratégie générale qui est défendue dans ce travail revient à combiner une Théorie de la Référence Directe dans le langage avec une conception Descriptiviste (et donc, Internaliste) de la pensée. Aussi, certains arguments influents — émis par notamment Burge — censés établir un Référentialisme non seulement linguistique mais aussi mental (et donc, un Externalisme) sont rejetés ; il est en outre défendu qu'une vision Non-Descriptiviste du mental apparaît incapable de garantir la transparence introspective des pensées, cependant indispensable, notamment pour résoudre et même poser les Problèmes de Co-Référence et de Non-Référence (Chapitre 8).
Doctorat en Langues et lettres
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished
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Haustein, E. "Management control systems in innovation companies : a contingency theory study." Thesis, University of the West of England, Bristol, 2014. http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/23122/.
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Past research has traditionally argued that management control systems (MCS) may present a hindrance to corporate flexibility and creativity. The study’s overall research aim is to explore the contingency factors that influence the intensity of use of MCS in innovation companies. This thesis builds upon existing management control theory, mostly focused on R&D, product development and innovation settings, extended by field observations to identify factors that may influence the intensity of use of MCS categories in innovation companies. The objects of control paradigm, distinguishing between direct and indirect categories of control, is mobilized to test the consequent theoretical model of the impact of external, organisational and innovation related contingency factors on MCS. The model predicts mixed influences on two direct control categories, results control and action control, but stresses the importance of two indirect categories, personnel control and cultural control. Empirical evidence was then collected from a cross-sectional survey of 578 German enterprises in innovation clusters. Statistical analyses, applying partial least squares structural equation modeling using SmartPLS, identify several variables as influential factors for the use of MCS in innovation companies. The most important factors are environmental uncertainty and business strategy which were shown to have an impact on all of the control types. Additionally, decentralisation, ownership dispersion and firm size are responsible for a change in three of four MCS types. Other interesting findings are that an increase in innovation capability is not associated with a reduction in results and action control intensity, and is positively related to the application of personnel and cultural control. Furthermore, important sources of finance, venture capital and public funding, are both shown to be positively associated with the application of action control; whereas, contrary to expectation, venture capital is found to be negatively correlated with personnel control. Overall, the results indicate that direct control is as important as indirect control given specific contingency factors. This study synthesises the fragmented literature of MCS contingency research in innovative settings by developing an original contingency model. The thesis adds value by inferring particular forms of management control which may be appropriate in innovative company settings. Thereby, the study contributes to both contingency research and to the knowledge and understanding of management control in innovative settings. It can assist managers by identifying MCS categories that are typically associated with particular influential factors. Further, the study is valuable from a methodological perspective by developing and testing novel constructs for three MCS categories. Beyond the relevance of the results to management control researchers, innovation company managers and policy makers, they also imply avenues for further related investigation.
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Aloini, Sabrina. "Una indagine esplorativa sul reporting behaviours dei comuni italiani : tra legitmacy theory e contingency theory." Thesis, Università degli Studi di Catania, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10761/289.
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l'obiettivo principale del presente lavoro non e' definire le caratteristiche del fenomeno del social and enviromental reporting quanto individuare se esistono e quali siano i fattori che influenzano e determinano il contenuto dei report negli enti locali italiani e se il fenomeno del social and enviromental reporting possa essere legato a determinati fattori di performance dimensionali o di contesto. L' indagine ha valenza esplorativa (gli scopi principali di questo tipo di ricerca nella formulazione ipotesi generali riguardo la relazione fra piu' variabili) e comprende lo studio di una regressione stepwise; i risultati delle analisi da un punto di vista generale ci inducono ad affermare che non e' possibile individuare un unico set di fattori o un'unica teoria di riferimento, e' vero, pero', che la contingency theory riesce a spiegare maggiormente i reporting behaviours degli enti locali, si puo' quindi affermare che le due teorie non possono essere utilizzate in maniera esclusiva ma come due approcci complementari allo studio di uno stesso fenomeno.
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Patel, Urvashi B. "Physician Chief Executive Officers and Hospital Performance: A Contingency Theory Perspective." VCU Scholars Compass, 2006. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd_retro/4.
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Years ago it was typical for a physician to serve as a hospital's Chief Executive Officer (CEO). However, with the development of Master of Health Administration, Master of Public Health, and Master of Business Administration programs, hospitals began to move away from this model. Today however, as hospitals search for innovative ideas to reduce healthcare costs and improve the quality of care, the idea of the physician hospital CEO has returned. Little empirical research is available in the health services literature on the physician hospital CEO. The study aims to examine the relationship between organizational and environmental factors and physician CEOs, and whether or not physician CEOs are associated with improved hospital performance.The conceptual framework is adapted from Donabedian's structure, process, and outcome perspective, which when applied to the organizational level becomes context design-performance. The theoretical perspective applied to the conceptual framework to guide the development of hypotheses is contingency theory, which suggests that organizations are most successful when they can adapt their structures to fit their environment.Data for this study were obtained from multiple sources: American Hospital Association Annual Survey, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Hospital Cost Reports, SK&A, Area Resource File, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Hospital Quality Alliance.Besides descriptive analyses, logistic regression was used in this study to evaluate the relationship between the organizational and environmental hospital characteristics. Ordinary least squares regression was used to explore the relationship between physician CEOs and hospital performance.Results indicate that hospitals in markets with greater physician competition are more likely to have physician CEOs. Hospitals that are affiliated with a system are also more likely to have physician CEOs. The study found that while teaching hospitals and specialty hospitals were associated with placement of physician CEOs, it was in the opposite direction of what was hypothesized. This may be a result of the small sample size of both teaching and specialty hospitals in the study sample. The study concludedthat having a physician CEOs is associated with hospital financial outcomes but not associated with its quality of care outcomes.
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Ross, Andrew David. "A model of contingency factors affecting contractors' economic organisation of projects." Thesis, University of Salford, 2005. http://usir.salford.ac.uk/2169/.
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The identification of factors that affect the performance of temporary multi disciplinary organisational teams has been a central aim of management research in the construction industry for over 40 years. This study contributes to what is known about the formation of a construction project organisation by identifying the contingent factors that affect contractor's gathering and analysis of price information from supply chain organisations during the ex ante processes to contract formation. The research methodology adopted a combined approach to data collection and analysis, and used a theoretical framework adapted from transaction economics to identify and explicate a model of contingency factors. The research method for data collection in the dominant quantitative first phase used a postal survey of 760 estimators working for contracting organisations in the United Kingdom in December 2003. The resultant data set was analysed using descriptive statistics. A multi variable general linear model and principal component analysis defined the parameters of a model that informed the second phase of data collection and analysis. This model was explicated using a multiple case study approach that gathered and analysed interview data from estimators working for organisations that had been purposively selected. The findings of this research identified the contingency factors that affect contractors', seeking, gathering, analysing and synthesising of supply chain price data, that can be grouped into four categories, which are; external environment, project environment, task environment and inter-organisational relations. The research also found that the existence and strength of effect of the contingency factors was differentiated by organisational size, and identified the factors that may be influenced by the intervention of the client procurement system, (or the organisation) in the ex ante process of supply chain organisation team development.
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Tingbani, Ishmael. "Working capital management and profitability of UK firms : a contingency theory approach." Thesis, Bournemouth University, 2015. http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/21785/.
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While the direct impact of working capital management (WCM) and its components (accounts receivable in days (AR), accounts payable in days (AP) and inventory holding period (INV)) on firms’ profitability has been examined in the previous literature, the underlying channels of influence have remained largely unexplored. This study adopts a contingency theory approach to investigate the relationship between WCM and profitability controlling for selected corporate governance and company characteristics. The study has three main objectives. The first objective is to determine the relationship between working capital management and its components (AR, AP and INV) and profitability as per extant research. The second objective of the research is to determine whether the effect of working capital management on profitability of UK firms is contingent on the interaction of environmental (E), resource (R) and management (M) variables. The final objective is to determine whether the effect of the components of working capital management (AR, AP and INV) on profitability of UK firms is contingent on the interaction of ERM variables. These three objectives were met by the use of a panel data methodology on a series of interactive models. The data for the study is based on the annual financial reports of 225 London Stock Exchange listed firms for the period 2001-2011. In terms of the first objective, the study found a significant relationship between WCM and two of its components (AR and AP) and profitability. However, no relationship was found between WCM component (INV) and profitability. In terms of the second objective, the results indicate that the effect of WCM on profitability is significantly moderated by the interaction with ERM variables of the firm. Finally, the results of the third objective indicate that the effect of WCM components (AR, AP and INV) on profitability is significantly moderated by the interaction with ERM of the firm. In terms of the control variables, the study found a statistically significant relationship between the corporate governance factors (Chief Executive Officer (CEO) tenure and board size) and profitability. On the other hand, company specific characteristics variables (company size, financial leverage, assets tangibility liquidity ratio, cash flow and sales growth) were also found to have statistically significant effect on the profitability of firms. On the basis of this, the study concludes that firms can maximise the benefits and minimise the cost of investment in working capital by aligning their working capital management policies with their environment and also arrange their resources internally to support such alignment as postulated in the contingency framework as any misalignment could significantly affect the firms’ performance. As a result, the study suggests the need for policy makers to match organisational resources with opportunities and threats in the general business environment in order to improve their financial performance.
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Ojra, Jafar. "Strategic management accounting practices in Palestinian companies : application of contingency theory perspective." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2014. https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/49725/.
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This study uses a quantitative methodology to explore the impact of contingency factors on use of strategic management accounting techniques (SMA), and combined impact of SMA Usage and contingency factors on organisational performance in a less developed country (LDC) context. The exploratory framework included two main dependent variables, namely SMA Usage and organisational performance. For the former, this study gauged the impact of perceived environmental uncertainty (competitive intensity and market turbulence), business strategy (prospector /defender), organisational structure (formalisation and decentralisation), organisational size and organisational technology on SMA Usage. For the latter, this study explored two dimensions of organisational performance (financial and non-financial) and how the conceptualised dimension(s) of organisational structure, SMA Usage, perceived environmental uncertainty and organisational strategy impact on performance. Data were collected from Palestinian large companies (cross sectors); was used to test the conceptualised framework. The analysis was based on 175 responses, representing a response rate of 43.75%. The SPSS package was used to confirm the reliability and validity of factors and also statistically estimated the association coefficients of the conceptualised relationships in the framework. The findings from this study suggest that the usage of SMA techniques is influenced by a number of factors. These are perceived environmental uncertainty (Market Turbulence) and organisational technology. Also, larger organisations tend to use more SMA techniques than smaller.
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Welker, David Wayne. "POLICE PROGRAMS, CANINES, AND CONTINGENCY THEORY: AN EXPLANATION OF CANINE NUMBERS AMONG LARGE POLICE DEPARTMENTS." OpenSIUC, 2011. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/775.
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AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF DAVID WELKER, for the Master of Arts degree in CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE, presented on OCTOBER 18, 2011, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: POLICE PROGRAMS, CANINES, AND CONTINGENCY THEORY: AN EXPLANATION OF CANINE NUMBERS AMONG LARGE POLICE DEPARTMENTS MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Joseph Schafer Canines have provided services for humans over many centuries. More recently, they have been used for police work. Canines are used to apprehend suspects, track people, and find drugs. They are also seen as a less-than-lethal weapon and can be used in a number of different programs such as D.A.R.E./crime prevention education, S.W.A.T., and drug task forces. But research on canine use and effectiveness is lacking. This study tries to fill that gap using secondary data from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey of police agencies. In this study, adoption of canines was predicted by contingency theory based on contingencies such as tasks and structural programs in the various departments. Contingency theory was also used to test the canine's role in enhancing the effectiveness of the police organizations. This study tries to explain the variation of canine use across departments by using contingency theory and the effectiveness of canines by assessing monetary values from drug forfeitures.
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Jacome, Madariaga Laura. "Design and evaluation of an IS flexibility enabler framework : a contingency theory approach." Thesis, Evry, Institut national des télécommunications, 2009. http://www.theses.fr/2009TELE0024/document.
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L’objectif central de cette recherche est d’étudier les caractéristiques de la flexibilité des SI, dans la perspective d’apporter une aide à la construction de SI plus flexibles, pouvant s’adapter rapidement aux changements, notamment en cas d’évolution stratégique. La question posée est donc : comment atteindre la flexibilité dans les SI ? Cette recherche s’appuie sur les recherches antérieures décrivant les caractéristiques de la flexibilité d’un SI et les enrichit en prenant en compte les différentes dimensions d’un système d’information. Elle inclut ensuite dans son analyse les caractéristiques contextuelles du système d’information dont on recherche la flexibilité, avec l’idée sous-jacente d’une flexibilité polymorphe, c’est-à-dire pouvant prendre des formes différentes selon le contexte. Le but est donc d’identifier ce que représente la flexibilité d’un SI et quels sont les moyens pour l’atteindre. Les résultats de deux études de cas montrent que les éléments qui favorisent la flexibilité ne sont pas toujours les mêmes, ils dépendent des caractéristiques spécifiques du SI. Ceci montre que le caractère de polymorphisme, mis en évidence dans les études sur la flexibilité stratégique, s’applique également à la flexibilité des SI. La conclusion générale de cette recherche est que les facilitateurs de flexibilité nécessaires pour un système d’information donné dépendent de la place qu’occupe le SI dans la mise en œuvre de la stratégie, notamment leur orientation (interne ou externe) et le moment où la flexibilité est requise (en relation à la formulation de la stratégie). La réponse à notre question de recherche (comment atteindre la flexibilité des SI ?) est apportée par l’identification des facilitateurs de flexibilité nécessaires à un SI spécifique. D’un point de vue pratique, cette conclusion se traduit par la nécessité, pour les managers qui interviennent dans la prise de décisions concernant la flexibilité, de comprendre qu’il existe des facilitateurs que l’entreprise peut développer ou acquérir. Cependant, pour doter un SI particulier des facilitateurs pertinents, il est important que ceux-ci soient sélectionnés par rapport aux caractéristiques du SI, notamment sa situation par rapport aux évolutions stratégiques. Le cadre conceptuel de la flexibilité d’un SI développé dans cette recherche et les résultats des deux études de cas menées sur deux systèmes d’information flexibles, étroitement liés aux stratégies de changement, constituent un guide pour les managers qui souhaitent déployer des SI pouvant s’adapter rapidement à des changements fréquents de stratégieThe focus of this research is to study the characteristics of flexibility in order to help building more flexible IS. The objective is to achieve flexibility in the IS in order to adapt them swiftly for facing changes, and be able to adjust for new strategies. The main questioned posed is: How can IS flexibility be achieved?. This constitutes the research question. This research extends previous studies related to flexibility by focusing on the various dimensions of Information Systems. To cover all the aspects of an IS the problem of enabling an IS with flexibility will be approached, in this research, by analyzing the relevant elements in an Information System. This research will try to identify what IS flexibility is in the people, process, IT, and data dimensions; and how IS flexibility can be achieved. The conclusion that can be drawn is that the flexibility enablers needed for an Information System are contingent upon its unique characteristics. The findings of both case studies show that the elements that sustain flexibility are not the same for every IS; they depend on certain characteristics of the specific IS. The fact that the elements or enablers needed to sustain flexibility are different can be explained by the polymorphic property of flexibility: for an IS, flexibility displays the same polymorphism characteristic found in strategic flexibility. The answer to the research question of how IS flexibility can be achieved, lies in the flexibility enablers needed for a specific IS. From a practical point of view this means that the managers involved in flexibility decisions or initiatives should understand that there are flexibility enablers in the resources of a firm that can be deployed or acquire. Then, they should become familiar and understand them. But in order to really enable a particular IS with the correct set of flexibility enablers (or the correct form of flexibility needed) it is very important that these enablers be selected according to the unique characteristics of the IS in hand. The conceptual IS flexibility framework developed in this research and the findings presented as a result of two case studies (of two different flexible Information systems tightly linked to changing strategies) conducted, constitutes a valuable guide for managers to deploy flexible IS to rapidly adapt them when faced to changes needed for strategies implementation in a continuous manner
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Sager, Tore. "Communicate or calculate planning theory and social science concepts in a contingency perspective /." Stockholm : Nordplan, 1990. http://books.google.com/books?id=CAxPAAAAMAAJ.
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Myers, Barry L. "Information systems assessment: development of a comprehensive framework and contingency theory to assess the effectiveness of the information systems function." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2003. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4302/.
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The purpose of this research is to develop a comprehensive, IS assessment framework using existing IS assessment theory as a base and incorporating suggestions from other disciplines. To validate the framework and to begin the investigation of current IS assessment practice, a survey instrument was developed. A small group of subject matter experts evaluated and improved the instrument. The instrument was further evaluated using a small sample of IS representatives. Results of this research include a reexamination of the IS function measurement problem using new frameworks of analyses yielding (a) guidance for the IS manager or executive on which IS measures might best fit their organization, (b) a further verification of the important measures most widely used by IS executives, (c) a comprehensive, theoretically-derived, IS assessment framework, and by (d) the enhancement of IS assessment theory by incorporating ideas from actual practice. The body of knowledge gains a comprehensive, IS assessment framework that can be further tested for usefulness and applicability. Future research is recommended to substantiate and improve on these findings. Chapter 2 is a complete survey of prior research, subdivided by relevant literature divisions, such as organizational effectiveness, quality management, and IS assessment. Chapter 3 includes development of and support for the research questions, IS assessment framework, and the research model. Chapter 4 describes how the research was conducted. It includes a brief justification for the research approach, a description of how the framework was evaluated, a description of how the survey instrument was developed and evaluated, a description of the participants and how they were selected, a synopsis of the data collection procedures, a brief description of follow-up procedures, and a summary. Chapter 5 presents the results of the research. Chapter 6 is a summary and conclusion of the research. Finally, included in the appendices are definitions of terms, and copies of the original and improved survey instruments.
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Hwang, Sungwook. "The estimation of a corporate crisis communication based on perceived CEO's leadership, perceived severity of threats, and preceived opposing public's size." Diss., Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/5594.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008.The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on June 8, 2009) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.
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Chowdhury, Sanjib Kumar. "Customer Induced Uncertainty and Its Impact on Organizational Design." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1999. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2214/.
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How firms facing environmental uncertainty should organize their activities remains an important and challenging question for today's managers and organizational researchers. Proponents of contingency theory have argued that organizations must adjust their activities to fit the level of environmental uncertainty to ensure long-term survival. Although much work has been done on contingency theory, it is clear that our understanding of uncertainty is far from complete. One important aspect of today's organizations is their focus on service, mass customization, and continuous innovation. This focus often results in the customer being brought either into the organization or at least into closer contact with it. Even though the literature provides numerous evidences of the increasing customer focus, it is yet to empirically explain how the complications of customer-organizational interactions might create uncertainty for contemporary organizations. The traditional measure of uncertainty still considers customers as an environmental factor causing demand uncertainty while ignoring the complex nature of customer and organizational encounters. Seeking to further refine the concept of uncertainty and focusing on the contemporary business phenomena, this study develops measures aspects of customer induced uncertainty and examines their relationships with three organizational design variables. Specifically, this study explains the complicated nature of customer - organizational encounters that creates organizational uncertainty. Also, this study develops three operational measurement instruments for the three aspects of customer induced uncertainty. Finally, this study shows specific relationships between aspects of customer induced uncertainty and specific organizational design variables. This study conducted a mail survey of middle level managers. With a sample size of 118 the measurement instruments were shown to have validity and reliability using factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha. Regression analyses indicate the presence of specific rather than general relationship between customer induced uncertainty variables and organizational design variables. Regression results suggested that the relationships between customer induced uncertainty variable and design variables were depended on the specific combination. For example, Customer acquisitiveness was negatively related to formalization where as Customer importance was positively related to professionalism. Results also suggested a possible positive relationship between decentralization and customer induced ambiguity. Although not without limitations, this study improves our understanding of contemporary environmental uncertainty. Moreover, it provides preliminary measurement instruments of customer induced uncertainty variables for numerous future studies. Overall, this study is a preliminary step toward further understanding of the uncertainty-design contingencies of contemporary and future organizations.
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Chanurai, Arreeya. "A contingency theory of diversification : the case of diversification into the Thai telecommunications industry." Thesis, City University London, 2002. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/7597/.
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During the past two decades, the trend towards diversification by large corporations in the advanced industrialised nations has been a transition from diversification to specialisation. However, there is little evidence of these same trends being duplicated in the emerging-market countries. Are large business enterprises in the emerging market countries slow in responding to the new strategic logic or is there some justification for such discrepancy'? The study provides the rationale to support a contingency theory of diversification. Diversification strategy is an outcome of not only a firm's resource base and the characteristics of industries, but also depends upon the level of development and transactional efficiency of resource markets within the country and the role of inter-firm collaboration. The study follows a resource-based approach to corporate strategy. The study is based on a qualitative case study approach. The empirical analysis is based on two levels. First, I examined the overall diversification strategies of the 20 largest Thai business groups. Second, I conducted detailed case studies of the diversification decisions of three Thai business groups focusing specifically upon diversification into the telecommunications sector. The case studies are constructed around three companies that diversified into the telecommunications industry in Thailand during the same period. Data from another 13 diversifying companies and five public organisations also provide additional sources of empirical evidence. The empirical evidence shows that diversification into a business which may not be operationally related to the core business -a concept which has lost favour in many of the Anglo-Saxon countries - makes strategic sense in the business environment of the emerging market countries. Essentially, the 'general' theory of diversification holds true in many cases. The key is a) to recognise the different characteristics of markets for resources and the strategic resources in different parts of the world, and b) to understand that strategic resources do not depend on just availability of resources in the market and internal resources within the firm, but also the role of inter-firm collaboration. Differences in business environment raises the question of whether a single diversification strategy is universally applicable.
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Leweling, Tara A. "Extending organizational contingency theory to team performance : an information processing and knowledge flows perspective /." Monterey, Calif. : Naval Postgraduate School, 2007. http://bosun.nps.edu/uhtbin/hyperion-image.exe/07Sep%5FLeweling%5FPhD.pdf.
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Thesis (Ph.D. in Information Sciences)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2007.Dissertation Advisor(s): Nissen, Mark ; Arquilla, John "September 2007." Description based on title screen as viewed on October 22, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 239-277). Also available in print.
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Vitelli, Emil, and Johan Ljunglund. "En storbanks anpassning till en ny miljö : En undersökning av Nordea med Contingency Theory." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-316603.
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Denna uppsats menar att den svenska bankbranschen genomgår ett miljöskifte. I enighet med Contingency Theory finns då ett behov av anpassning för de bankerna som äntrar den nya miljön. Den svenska storbanken Nordea används i denna studie som ett exempel på en bank i den nya miljön. Genom att intervjua sex medarbetare och sex kunder till banken antas ett dubbelt perspektiv för att diskutera hur Nordeas organisationstyp och strategi förhåller sig till den nya miljön. Kundintervjuerna har påvisat att personliga relationer värderas högt. Samtidigt visar medarbetarintervjuerna och en analys av Nordeas arbetssätt att den antagna organisationstypen och strategi ser ut att minska på de personliga relationerna. Diskussionen hävdar att en Flexibel, Organisk och Kundorienterad strategi som skapar Relational Benefits passar i den nya miljön; en strategi Nordea endast delvis antagit. Slutsatsen uppmärksammar en risk i att inte tillvara ta kundernas önskan om en personlig bankrelation i den nya digitala miljön.
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Silguero, Russell V. "Do contingency-conflicting elements drop out of equivalence classes? Re-testing Sidman's (2000) theory." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2015. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc848078/.
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Sidman's (2000) theory of stimulus equivalence states that all positive elements in a reinforcement contingency enter an equivalence class. The theory also states that if an element from an equivalence class conflicts with a programmed reinforcement contingency, the conflicting element will drop out of the equivalence class. Minster et al. (2006) found evidence suggesting that a conflicting element does not drop out of an equivalence class. In an effort to explain maintained accuracy on programmed reinforcement contingencies, the authors seem to suggest that participants will behave in accordance with a particular partitioning of the equivalence class which continues to include the conflicting element. This hypothesis seems to explain their data well, but their particular procedures are not a good test of the notion of "dropping out" due to the pre-establishment of equivalence classes before the conflicting member entered the class. The current experiment first developed unpartitioned equivalence classes and only later exposed participants to reinforcement contingencies that conflicted with pre-established equivalence classes. The results are consistent with the notion that a partition developed such that the conflicting element had dropped out of certain subclasses of the original equivalence class. The notion of a partitioning of an equivalence class seems to provide a fuller description of the phenomenon Sidman (1994, 2000) described as "dropping out" of an equivalence class.
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Lindberg, Claes. "Ekonomistyrning i småföretag : En fallstudie av ett israeliskt och ett svenskt småföretag." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Ekonomihögskolan, ELNU, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-30963.
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Sammanfattning Kandidatuppsats i företagsekonomi inom ekonomistyrning. Ekonomihögskolan Linneuniversitetet Vårterminen 2012. Författare: Claes Lindberg Handledare: Jan Alpenberg Titel: Ekonomistyrning i småföretag Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är: Att bidra till ökad förståelse för användningen av ekonomistyrsystemen i ett tillverkande småföretag i Israel och jämföra med dito i Sverige. Att beskriva användandet av ekonomistyrsystemen samt analysera olikheter och likheter emellan dem. Metod: Jag har i den här undersökningen valt att göra en fallstudie med två företag, ett israeliskt och ett svenskt. Den metod som jag använt definierar jag som en fallstudieteknik med en kvalitativ metod som enligt Yins dimensioner faller under multipel fallstudie med ett holistiskt tillvägagångssätt. Själva analysen har utförts med hjälp av ”contingency theory”. Slutsats: I studien har framkommit att det är stor skillnad i hur de två företagen har använt sina ekonomistyrsystem. Det är stor skillnad i hur man ser på ekonomistyrsystemen och vilket mervärde de tillför organisationen. Det svenska företaget har ett ekonomistyrningssystem som är väldigt traditionellt uppbyggt och där det anses viktigt för att leda företaget på effektivt sätt. Dessa skillnader har troligtvis uppkommit både på grund av skillnader i omgivningen men också av skillnader i företagens affärsidé, koncept och också pga. skillnader i VD/ägares personlighet. Vi kan dock konstatera att båda dessa företag har verkat under längre tid med god lönsamhet trots sina olika sätt att använda de traditionella ekonomistyrsystemen.Abstract Title Management Control Systems in Small Businesses Author Claes Lindberg Supervisor Jan Alpenberg Course Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration 15 ECts Purpose The purpose of the thesis is to: Add understanding to the use of management control systems in a small producing business in Israel and compare it to a similar business in Sweden. Describe the use of the management control systems and analyze the differences and differences between them. Methodology The methodology used in this thesis is a qualitative multiple case study that according to Yins dimensions would be characterized as a holistic case study. The relevant theory for analyzing the result is contingency theory. Conclusions The study has found that there is a big difference in how the two companies are using their management control systems and a big difference in how management see the added value to the organization from these control systems. The Swedish company has a control system that is very traditional in the type of segment where they operate and they consider the system as an important tool to lead the company in the right direction. The Israeli company on the other hand has a system that gives a more general picture and is less complicated and exact compared to the Swedish one. These differences are probably due to differences in the surroundings but also in business concept, customer demands and also difference in character and leader style of company owners. We can conclude that both these companies have been successful for 25 plus years with a profit level way above their competitors despite their different ways of using the traditional management control systems.
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Trifunovska, Kristina, Robin Trifunovski, and Christer Ekelund. "Franchisor-franchisee relationships : an interaction approach." Thesis, Högskolan Kristianstad, Sektionen för hälsa och samhälle, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-8483.
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Purpose- The purpose of this paper is to examine franchise relationships by using an interaction approach which involves several exchanges or actor bonds between a franchisor and franchisee, such as information, social, and cooperative exchanges, which create a long-term relationship. The objective is to provide a conceptual framework to investigate the relationship from the franchisee’s point of view since little research has been conducted from this perspective. Design/methodology/approach- This study is based on a web survey directed towards franchisees in Sweden. A total of 191 survey responses were obtained from a wide range of industries, representing a 16.2% response rate. A Pearson Correlation test was performed for the hypotheses. Findings- The findings supported all five hypotheses. The results show that 160 firms exchange information with the franchisor through an IT system. It is also evident that the majority who use IT systems are small businesses, however, this is due to the fact that the largest sample of this study consists of small firms (n=180). Research limitations/implications- Limitations of this study involve the somewhat difficulty to obtain access to a large sample of franchisees because of franchisors´ unwillingness to provide contact and email information (in some cases due to confidentiality). The majority of firms participating in the study are categorized as small organizations, a desired comparison of results from larger firms is, consequently, limited. Originality/value- The paper contributes to filling the gap within franchise relationship literature by applying an interaction approach in contrast to prior economic theories in this field of study.
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Caldas, Amanda Rodrigues. "The employee policy manual." Master's thesis, NSBE - UNL, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10362/11832.
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A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and EconomicsThe purpose of this Work Project was to develop the Employee Policy Manual for the Canadian company Jones DesLauriers Insurance Management Inc. (JDIMI), in the context of an internship. I was assigned to do this project under the supervision of the HR Generalist. To create the handbook, I had to not only research and understand company policies and procedures, but also corporate culture and major strategic goals. I also used theoretical frameworks, such as contingency theory and human capital theory, to support my propositions. The Employee Policy Manual is provided in the Appendix on a CD, since it is quite an extensive and comprehensive document. In the main text of the Work Project, a literature review and a brief description of the main components of the Employee Policy Manual are provided.
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Berglund, Angela, and Tina Holtz. "Ledarskap för ökad effektivitet i byggproduktion." Thesis, Tekniska Högskolan, Högskolan i Jönköping, JTH, Byggnadsteknik, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-40447.
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Purpose: The population of Sweden is steadily increasing, which raises the need for new infrastructure and new buildings. To meet these demands the construction industry must become more efficient. According to several researchers, better leadership can be a part of accomplishing this. Discussions regarding leadership are mostly from the leaders’ perspective and usually the decisions about what kind of leadership is needed is made by the leaders themselves. Not very often do the followers get a chance to share their thoughts on what they need to become more efficient. Earlier research shows a correlation between motivation and efficiency. Therefore, this study attempt to find out what motivates construction workers. This study intended to examine what type of leadership construction workers think they need to become more efficient. The study’s aim was to contribute knowledge about how leadership can increase the efficiency on the construction site. Method: Two methods for data collection were used. A literary review based on effective leadership and interviews with construction workers about their thoughts on what type of leadership would increase their motivation and efficiency. Findings: This study has, by answering the research questions, contributed knowledge about how leadership can increase the efficiency on the construction site. The construction workers are of the opinion that their leaders have a big impact on their efficiency. The leaders’ knowledge and experience of the production phase as well as their ability to communicate and plan ahead were all seen as factor that affect their efficiency. The literary review for this study found 23 effective leadership traits. According to the construction workers the leadership skills that contribute the most to their motivation and efficiency are humility, relationship-management, and self-awareness. Connecting the construction workers responses to the efficient leadership theories showed that the most relevant theories for increasing the workers motivation and efficiency are Transformational and Servant Theory. The theory of Servant is the most relevant since it focuses on the followers. Implications: To increase the efficiency one must focus on the people in the industry. By changing the leadership based on the construction workers' opinions their efficiency can be increased. Therefore, it is recommended that leaders on the construction site work with the leadership theories Transformational and Servant and that they develop the effective leadership traits, especially the traits the construction workers find most important. Limitations: This study was limited to the leadership from the site supervisor to the construction workers. The focus was on what type of leadership the construction workers wanted to become more motivated and efficient. Furthermore, the study was limited to four leadership theories and effective leadership traits. Keywords: Efficiency, motivation, effective leadership traits, Contingency Theory, Transformational Theory, Transactional Theory, and Servant Theory.Syfte: Sveriges befolkning växer stadigt vilket medför en ökad efterfrågan på nya bostäder och ny infrastruktur. För att tillgodose denna ökade efterfrågan behöver byggbranschen bli effektivare. Enligt flera forskare kan effektiviteten delvis ökas genom bättre ledarskap. Diskussioner om ledarskap utgår nästan enbart från ledarnas perspektiv och det är vanligt att ledarna bestämmer vilken typ av ledare som behövs. Det är sällan följarna får chansen att framföra åsikter sina om vad de behöver för att bli mer effektiva. Tidigare forskning har också visat att det finns ett samband mellan motivation och effektivitet. Därför undersöktes även vad som motiverar yrkesarbetarna. Denna undersökning avsåg att ta reda på vad yrkesarbetarna anser sig behöva för ledarskap för att bli mer motiverade och effektivare. Målet med undersökningen var att bidra med kunskap kring hur ledarskap kan öka effektiviteten i byggproduktionen. Metod: I undersökningen användes två metoder för datainsamling. En litteraturstudie med utgångspunkt i effektivt ledarskap samt intervjuer med yrkesarbetare om deras syn på vilket ledarskap som skulle öka deras motivation och effektivitet. Resultat: Genom att svara på frågeställningarna har undersökningen bidragit med kunskap kring hur ledarskap kan öka effektiviteten i byggproduktionen. Yrkesarbetarna anser att produktionsledaren har stor inverkan på deras effektiviteten. Det som påverkar är produktionsledarens kunskap och erfarenhet om produktionen samt deras förmåga att kommunicera och planera arbetet. Under litteraturstudien påträffades 23 effektiva ledaregenskaper. Enligt yrkesarbetarna är det egenskaperna ödmjukhet, relationshantering och självkännedom som bidrar mest till att öka deras motivation och effektivitet. Genom att koppla yrkesarbetarnas svar till de effektiva ledarskapsteorierna har det visat sig att Transformational och Servant Theory är de mest relevanta teorierna för att öka yrkesarbetarnas motivation och effektivitet. Eftersom Servant Theory fokuserar på följarna anses den mest relevant. Konsekvenser: För ökad effektivitet ska fokus läggas på de människor som branschen består av. Genom att anpassa ledarskapet efter yrkesarbetarnas åsikter kan deras effektivitet öka. Med anledning av detta rekommenderas det att ledare i byggproduktion arbetar med ledarskapsteorierna Transformational och Servant, samt att ledaren utvecklar de effektiva ledaregenskaperna, framförallt de egenskaperna som yrkesarbetarna efterfrågade. Begränsningar: Undersökningen behandlade endast ledarskapet mellan produktionsledaren och yrkesarbetarna. Fokus låg på vilket ledarskap yrkesarbetarna ville ha för att bli motiverade och effektiva. Vidare begränsningar var att enbart undersöka fyra ledarskapsteorier samt de effektiva ledaregenskaperna. Nyckelord: Effektivitet, motivation, effektiva ledaregenskaper, Contingency Theory, Transformational Theory, Transactional Theory, och Servant Theory.
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Albritton, Frankie. "A CULTURAL CONTINGENCY LEADERSHIP MODEL FOR A MULTINATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION JOINT VENTURE." Doctoral diss., University of Central Florida, 2007. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/2333.
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This dissertation addressed the need for empirical research on the leadership of multinational virtual teams (Davis & Bryant, 2003; Early & Gibson, 2002; Ilgen, Lepine, and Hollenbeck, 1997; Prieto & Arias, 1997), particularly in the field of educational leadership (Cheng, 1995). This was accomplished through the development of a model based upon the cultural values discovered through the use of Hofstede's (1980, 2001) Values Survey Module 94 (VSM 94). As workers will bring values from their own cultures to the multinational workplace (Bochner & Hesketh, 1994), research was conducted to determine the cultural values of economics professors in the United States and Germany in order to formulate a cultural contingent leadership model based on Triandis' (1993) adaptation of Fiedler's (1967) contingency theory. Given a total response from 194 U.S. and German economics professors, it was discovered that faculty in both the United States and Germany had values that differed significantly from those that Hofstede discovered for his IBM employee samples in four out of five dimensions. However, it was found that the values for the U.S. and German faculties were a close replication of Hoppe's (1990) findings which were based on a sample that was similar to the economics faculties in both occupation and education. These findings add a cautionary note to the recommendation by Hofstede and Peterson (2000) that existing cultural values can be used by cultural researchers: Previous cultural value data can be used if the samples are closely matched to the previous samples in both nationality as well as educational and occupational background. The research thus indicated that differences in national culture, as measured by Hofstede's (1980, 2001) cultural dimensions, still exist. In addition, a direct comparison of the cultural values between the two faculties indicated that the U.S. and German economics faculties differed significantly in two of Hofstede's cultural dimensions, individualism and collectivism and masculinity and femininity. The two samples were not significantly different in the cultural dimensions of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and long term orientation. Using the Triandis (1993) approach, application of the research results to Fiedler's (1967) LPC model indicated that a relationship oriented leader would be an in-match leader for a group of U.S. and German higher education economics faculty. This result was contingent upon the cultural values discovered for the U.S. and German faculties who would be involved in an endeavor with situational variables similar to that which would be found in an international joint venture to offer online distance economics education to students in a developing country.Ed.D.
Department of Educational Research, Technology and Leadership
Education
Educational Leadership
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Barthold, Lauren Swayne. "Contingency, truth, and tradition Alasdair MacIntyre's and Richard Rorty's view of narrative /." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1993. http://www.tren.com.
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Lennartsson, Rasmus, Oliver Carlsson, and Mattias Brandt. "Belöningssystem ur olika perspektiv : En studie om belöningssystem i försäljningsföretag inom den privata tjänstesektorn." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för ekonomistyrning och logistik (ELO), 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-65676.
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Kandidatuppsats, Civilekonomprogrammet, Ekonomihögskolan vid Linnéuniversitetet i Växjö, 2FE24E Titel: Belöningssystem ur olika perspektiv Författare: Mattias Brandt, Oliver Carlsson och Rasmus Lennartsson Examinator: Elin Funck Handledare: Anders Jerreling Bakgrund och problemdiskussion: Den privata tjänstesektorn står för över halva Sveriges BNP och med en nedåtgående rörelsemarginal för denna bransch utgör ekonomistyrning en viktig funktion. Inom ekonomistyrning ingår flertalet olika styrmedel där belöningssystem utgör en del av företagens styrmix. Belöningssystem finns till för att styra och påverka anställda mot företagets övergripande mål och strategi. För att företag ska kunna styra i rätt riktning krävs det att de vet hur deras anställda motiveras vilket i sin tur leder till att de måste förstå hur deras medarbetare påverkas av olika slags incitament. Syfte: Uppsatsens syfte är att beskriva och förklara hur säljare inom den privata tjänstesektorn styrs genom belöningssystem och hur detta uppfattas av de operativa säljarna. Detta för att utreda om det finns en överensstämmelse med vad som motiverar säljarna och vad dem belönas för. Vidare skall detta bidra med hur säljare motiveras genom sammansättning av monetära och icke-monetära belöningar. Metod: Uppsatsen är strukturerad kring en kvalitativ metod. En komparativ studie med fallstudieinslag har genomförts där insamling av data skett genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Intervjuerna genomfördes på två försäljningsföretag inom den privata tjänstesektor som tillhandahåller finansiella tjänster. Slutsats: Försäljningsföretagen har syften som baseras i att styra säljare till ökat värde av organisationen genom försäljning. Grunderna utgår ifrån finansiella mål och mätningar sker i form av antal försäljningar och volym på premien eller lånet. Det existerar i vissa fall även icke-finansiella mål till viss grad hos företagen. Formen av belöningar kommer främst i monetär form men är även till viss del kombinerat med icke-monetära belöningar. Det visar sig att de icke-monetära belöningarna såsom tävlingar, erkännande och beröm anses mer värdefulla av de anställda vid förändring av företagets storlek och miljö. Det visar sig att den personliga styrningen försvinner samtidigt med den icke-monetära delen av det formella belöningssystemet. Mottagarna upplever belöningarna på olika sätt beroende på om de drivs av yttre eller inre motivation. Det existerar många risker inom belöningssystem varav ett stort är att kombinationen av finansiella mål och icke-monetära belöningar inte alltid motsvarar den prestation som krävs för belöning. Nyckelord: Belöningssystem, contingency theory, tjänstesektor, motivation, belöningarBachelor thesis, Program of Master of Science in Business and Economics, School of Business and Economics at Linnaeus University in Växjö, 2FE24E Title: Reward system from different perspectives Authors: Mattias Brandt, Oliver Carlsson och Rasmus Lennartsson Examiner: Elin Funck Advisor: Anders Jerreling Background and problem discussion: The private sales area are accountable for more than half of Sweden's GDP, and with a downward operating margin this industry constitutes financial control an important function. Within financial management, a number of different instruments are included in which reward systems form part of the corporate governance mix. Reward systems exist to control and influence employees towards the company's overall goals and strategy. In order for companies to manage in the right direction, they need to know how their employees are motivated, which in turn leads them to understand how their employees are influenced by different incentives. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe and explain how salesmen in the private sales area are controlled by reward systems and how these are perceived by the operating salesmen. The study is made to see if there is conformity between what motivates salesmen and what they are rewarded for. This shall further on contribute to how salesmen are motivated through financial and non-financial rewards. Method: This bachelor thesis is structured around a qualitative method. A comparative case study where data has been collected through semi structured interviews. These interviews were made on two sales companies in the private service area who offer financial services. Conclusion: The sales companies have objectives based on directing salesmen to increased value of the organization through sales. Fundamentals are based on financial targets and measurements are made on number of sales and volume of the premium or loan. In some cases, non-financial targets also exist to a certain extent among the companies. The form of rewards comes primarily in financial terms but is also partly combined with non-financial rewards. It turns out that the non-financial rewards such as competitions, recognition and praise are considered more valuable by the employees when changing the size and the environment of the company. It turns out that personal governance disappears simultaneously with the non-financial part of the formal reward system. The recipients experience the rewards in different ways depending on whether they are driven by external or internal motivation. There are many risks in reward systems, one of which is that the combination of financial goals and non-financial rewards doesn’t always correspond to the performance required for reward. Keywords: Reward system, contingency theory, private service sector, motivation, rewards
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Etab, Menan. "The internal and external contingent factors that affect the determination of profitability in Islamic banks in comparison to conventional banks in Egypt." Thesis, De Montfort University, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2086/13111.
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Islamic banking system is one of the fastest growing segments of the international financial industry. This system has been receiving a growing attention nowadays especially after the global financial crisis which gave Islamic banks an opportunity to prove their resilience and contribution to financial and economic stability. The beginning of the Islamic banking in its contemporary mode was in the sixties of the past century by the first modern Islamic banking experiment which was undertaken in Egypt in 1963 by Ahmad Al-Najjar. Islamic financial institutions are established to operate commercial banking activities within an Islamic teaching perspective which depends on the elimination of any prohibited element in Islamic Shariah jurisprudence such as interest, gambling, speculation, dealing in pork or alcohol. The very distinct nature of Islamic banking led to a growing interest in determining the success factors of such type of banks especially that in most of the cases they operate with conventional banks vis a vis within the same market and sometimes under the same regulatory framework. The aim of this research is to make a comparative study between the performance of Islamic banks and conventional banks in the Egyptian financial market. The study is an attempt to determine the internal and external contingent factors that affect the profitability of Islamic banks in Egypt in comparison to conventional banks while taking into consideration the fact that both types of banks operate under the same rules and regulations. The goal is to discover whether the different nature of operations between the two types of banks is likely to affect their determinants of performance. The main motivation for undertaking this research is to fill the gap in literature and provide some information that might benefit both academics and practitioners in this field. A thorough revision of the literature suggested contingency perspective as the most suitable and appropriate theoretical framework for this type of research (Thomas, 1991; Schweikart, 1985; Otley, 1980). Data were gathered in this research through the collection of annual financial reports for the two Islamic banks working in Egypt and a sample of eleven conventional banks registered in the stock market. The study covered the period from 2002 to 2010. The findings indicate that in general, the performance of conventional banks in Egypt outweighed that of their Islamic counterparts. Moreover, it can be concluded from the results of the study that there are differences between the profitability determinants of Islamic banks and conventional banks. And eventually, it can be inferred that the nature of operations has an effect on the determination of profitability in Islamic banks and conventional banks.
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Mignot, Helen Rosemary 1966. "Impact of output management within management control systems on performance in Victorian government departments." Monash University, Dept. of Accounting and Finance, 2002. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/7903.
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Berg, Anton, and Fredric Karlsson. "Why the annual budget is not dead : Contingencies affecting the relevance of the budget critique." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-226677.
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The aim of this study is to investigate how companies within different industries that use budgets perceive the critique that has been raised against it. As such, this study explores whether the companies find the critique valid and if so, whether and how they have managed to cope with the problems that the budget has been argued to entail. Additionally, this study explores the potential impact that the external and internal context of the budget may have on these perceptions. Utilizing on a qualitative case study research design, our findings indicate that the relevance of the critique is contextually contingent with regards to both the external and the internal environment of a company. Consequently, the likelihood for the alleged problems of the budget to appear is greater when the alignment between a company’s external and internal environment and the employed budget purpose is poor, and/or when the budget’s cohesiveness with other management control systems within a certain management control system-package is deficient. Thus, in contrast to the critics, we argue that budgets should not be seen as a static and stand-alone practice as it evidently constitute a multifaceted and contingent practice.
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Amhalhal, Abdallah Mohammed A. "A contingency-based investigation of the effectiveness of the use of multiple performance measures in a Libyan context." Thesis, University of Huddersfield, 2013. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/19031/.
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Lack of knowledge of the effective use of measurement diversity-based systems, especially in developing countries (e.g. Libya), was the core rationale and motivation for this research. Therefore, the key focus of this study is the investigation of the effectiveness of a performance measurement alignment approach which claims that multiple performance measures (MPMs) should be aligned with environmental and organisational contingencies (i.e. business strategy, environmental uncertainty, market competition, decentralisation, formalisation, information technology, company size), in order to improve organisational performance (OP). To capture these relationships in sufficient depth, the theoretical framework of this research was developed based on contingency theory and a wide review of the relevant literature. This framework adopts both selection and mediation-based interaction approaches to contingency fit in order to investigate these contingency relationships. The current study aims to provide an empirical investigation of the effectiveness of MPMs in light of the contingency perspective in a Libyan context. The results of this study were based on cross-sectional questionnaire survey data from 132 Libyan companies (response rate of 61%) and data from face-to-face interviews with financial managers in 10 companies. The research used descriptive statistics, regression analysis, mediation regression analysis via Preacher & Hayes’ (2004) macro, and content analysis. The descriptive analysis indicated that MPMs are commonly used by many Libyan companies, whether manufacturing or non-manufacturing. However, these companies still rely heavily on financial performance measures. The statistical findings revealed that the relationship between FPMs and OP was positive but not significant, whilst relationships between NFPMs and OP, and MPMs and OP were positive and highly significant. They found that, except for “formalisation and market competition”, the remaining contextual factors studied have a significant positive impact on the extent of MPMs usage. The results also reported that MPMs have a core mediating/intervening role in most relationships between the identified contingencies and performance (except for formalisation, market competition and company size). By contrast, the interview-based qualitative results were consistent with most questionnaire-based quantitative results, and they also suggested other reasons for using or non-using MPMs. Overall, both qualitative and quantitative findings are mostly in line with the logic and importance of the context-structure fit, which is regarded as the central proposition of contingency theory. This implies that those contingency factors (e.g. strategy, PEU) are considered as important antecedents of MPMs’ usage, and MPMs’ information is considered as an important antecedent of organisational performance. This thesis introduces a better understanding and explanation of how to use MPMs effectively. It also contributes to the current body of knowledge by providing empirical evidence from an emerging context (i.e. Libya) to support the central proposition of contingency theory claiming that, in this case, enhanced organisational performance requires alignment of the structure with the context. The research concludes that Libyan companies should pay greater attention to environmental and organisational characteristics when adopting and designing measurement diversity-based systems.
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Svärdgren, Amanda, and Fanny Axelsson. "Ett mindre företags användning av mekanistisk och organisk styrning : En Fallstudie På JS Maskin." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-355819.
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Enligt teorin kan ett väl implementerat styrsystem anses vara en självklarhet för företag som verkar på dagens allt mer konkurrensutsatta marknad. Vidare har det samtidigt visat sig att styrsystem i många mindre företag sällan är till större nytta och att dessa företag således inte har ett formellt implementerat styrsystem. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur mindre företag på grund av deras förutsättningar, använder mekanistisk och organisk styrning. Vidare syftar även studien att klargöra i vilken utsträckning som styrsystemet stämmer överens med deras förutsättningar. Den teoretiska referensramen består av två huvudsakliga teorier, contingency theory samt mekanistisk och organisk styrning. Genom att göra en fallstudie på ett mindre plåtföretag i tillverkningsindustrin, syftar denna studie att få en djupare förståelse för ett företags styrning och hur styrningen påverkas av företagets förutsättningar. De slutsatser som kan dras utifrån studien är att ett mindre företags förhållanden kan anses påverka företages styrning samt att situationsvariablerna speglar vilket styrsystem de använder. Fortsättningsvis kan däremot andra faktorer än de som undersökts i denna studie haft en påverkan på styrningen. Tilläggningsvis kan även de situationsvariabler som undersökts haft olika stor påverkan på styrningen. Ytterligare slutsatser är att mindre företag sällan är medvetna om att de format deras styrning efter deras förhållanden och att deras styrsystem snarare vuxit fram i takt med att deras förutsättningar har förändrats.According to the theory, a well-implemented control system can be regarded as mandatory for companies that operate in today's increasingly competitive market. At the same time, it has also been found that smaller companies rarely benefit from management control systems (MCS), thus these companies do not have a formally implemented MCS. The purpose of this study is to investigate how smaller companies, due to their prerequisites, use mechanistic and organic MCS. Furthermore, the study aims to clarify the extent to which the MCS is in line with the contingencies. The theoretical framework consists of two main theories, contingency theory and mechanistic and organic MCS. By doing a case study on a small industrial company with support of interviews, this study aims at gaining a deeper understanding of a company's MCS and how it is affected by the contingencies of the company. The conclusions that can be drawn from the study are that the circumstances of a smaller company can be regarded as influencing companies' MCS. Additionally, the contingencies are also considered to reflect the MCS they use, although these contingencies might not be exhaustive and there might be other factors that can affect the MCS. Further conclusions are that smaller companies rarely consciously form their MCS according to their circumstances and it is more likely that they grow in line with the changes of the conditions.
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Amiri, Saeid. "On the Application of the Bootstrap : Coefficient of Variation, Contingency Table, Information Theory and Ranked Set Sampling." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala universitet, Matematiska institutionen, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-159206.
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This thesis deals with the bootstrap method. Three decades after the seminal paper by Bradly Efron, still the horizons of this method need more exploration. The research presented herein has stepped into different fields of statistics where the bootstrap method can be utilized as a fundamental statistical tool in almost any application. The thesis considers various statistical problems, which is explained briefly below. Bootstrap method: A comparison of the parametric and the nonparametric bootstrap of variance is presented. The bootstrap of ranked set sampling is dealt with, as well as the wealth of theories and applications on the RSS bootstrap that exist nowadays. Moreover, the performance of RSS in resampling is explored. Furthermore, the application of the bootstrap method in the inference of contingency table test is studied. Coefficient of variation: This part shows the capacity of the bootstrap for inferring the coefficient of variation, a task which the asymptotic method does not perform very well. Information theory: There are few works on the study of information theory, especially on the inference of entropy. The papers included in this thesis try to achieve the inference of entropy using the bootstrap method.
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Albergley, M. H. "Balanced scorecard implementation and financial effect from the perspective of the contingency theory : multiple-case study in Libya." Thesis, University of Salford, 2018. http://usir.salford.ac.uk/47016/.
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This study investigates how Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is implemented in practice and how affects an organisational financial performance. Drawing on the contingency theory, the study investigates the role of two main contingent variables (environmental uncertainty and business strategy) in shaping BSC implementation and financial effect. The study adopts a case study research with data collected from three Libyan for-profit manufacturing companies (CRM, NIF, and ISC). A total of 63 semi-structured interviews were conducted along with a documentary review and direct observation methods. The qualitative data was analysed using the descriptive analytic strategy, the theory-based pattern matching technique, and the cross-case analysis. The findings indicate that, in practice BSC is implemented in different ways respecting both the adoption and the implementation of its components. The study found that there are differences between BSC organisations in terms of what components are adopted into BSC implementation. Some BSC organisations implement BSC partially by adopting certain BSC components in the way that represents BSC as a multidimensional performance measurement system (PMS), which consists exclusively of financial and non-financial measures grouped into different perspectives. By contrast, other BSC organisations implement BSC fully by adopting all BSC conceptual components in the way that represents BSC as a strategic management system (SMS), which consists of BSC perspectives, BSC strategic objectives and measures, BSC cause and effect relationship, BSC targets, BSC processes of organisational alignment and learning. On the other hand, the study found that, although some BSC organisations can have similarities on the components adopted into BSC implementations, they have different ways for developing and using each of the adopted components. Some of these ways are consistent with those defined by BSC inventors, while the majority are significantly different. In respect of the financial effect of BSC; the findings show that BSC implementation has different effects on an organisational financial performance - non-existent and a positively high - while the positively high financial effect is associated with implementing BSC as a fully developed concept (BSC as SMS). Moreover, the study found that there is no role of the environmental uncertainty and business strategy in shaping the differences between BSC organisations in terms of what components are adopted into BSC implementation. Instead, the implementation of BSC that encompasses all the conceptual components of BSC (BSC as SMS) seems to fit the different values of each of those contingent variables. However, the two contingent variables appear to have an important role in determining the ways BSC components are developed and used, and hence, shaping the implementation of BSC and its financial effectiveness. The study contributes to filling a knowledge gap in BSC literature concerning BSC practical implementation and financial effect. It also contributes to the contingency theory by extending its application from focusing on investigating the adoption rate of BSC to investigating the implementation of BSC and its financial effect. Moreover, the study provides practitioners with guides that assist them with implementing BSC in the way fits their organisation’s level of environmental uncertainty and type of business strategy, therefore enhancing their organisation’s financial effectiveness.
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McMullen, Mac Jackson. "Contingency Theory| United States Small Business Predictive Performance with Project Management Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling." Thesis, Northcentral University, 2016. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10042193.
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Small business entrepreneurs (SBEs) within the United States in 2014 produced 47% of the national $17.5 trillion GDP and employed 48.5% of the national labor force. Detailed business planning was a theorized predictor of SBE performance and project, program, and portfolio management (P3M) as detailed managerial planning processes influenced by organizational theories. The specific problem was the failure of SBEs due to a lack of business management planning and the unknown generalizable U.S. SBE use of P3M as detailed managerial planning processes to enhance SBE performance. The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional study was to statistically model U.S. SBE predictive P3M application to SBE Performance within a contingency theory framework using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), hierarchical component modeling (HCM), and multi-group analysis (MGA-PLS) of subpopulations (growth orientation, number of employees, business age, business location, industry sector, legal form of organization, and P3M maturity). Random anonymous sampling among small business owners and chief managers was used to attain a representative sample by U.S. state using a web-based survey instrument. A sample of 179 was planned (R2 sensitivity of 0.1) and n =150 was attained (R2 sensitivity of 0.107). Sample size was representative of 93.1% of 28.9 million small business enterprises by U.S. state and the District of Columbia. Findings included an average performance efficiency of 59% among U.S. SMEs with room for improvement of 41%. P3M was identified as detailed planning and management processes with a 0.308 total effect on national SBE performance. A 1% improved adaptation of P3M managerial knowledge area processes predicted 18.17% SBE performance improvement. Limitations of the study included data collection barriers from internet service providers (ISPs) and email service providers (ESPs) in censoring and filtering emailed survey invitations contributing to a decreased response rate. Future research recommendations include expanding population ecology theory to identify predictive environmental factors that effect the 59% performance mean resulting in a population of SBEs failing or improving at various S-curve lifecycle stages.
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Gustafsson, Alexandra, Minda Langmoen, and Amanda Tamme. "Morotens väg till motivation : En flerfallsstudie om belöningssystem i IT-företag." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för ekonomistyrning och logistik (ELO), 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-65576.
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Titel: Morotens väg till motivation – En flerfallsstudie om belöningssystem i IT-företag Författare: Alexandra Gustafsson, Minda Langmoen & Amanda Tamme Examinator: Elin Funck Handledare: Anders Jerreling Bakgrund & Problem: IT-branschen är en ung bransch som präglas av snabb förändring och utveckling. Utifrån Contingency-teorin kommer företags ekonomistyrning att skilja sig beroende på aspekter gällande storlek, strategi och miljö. Belöningssystem som en del av ekonomistyrningen, kan vid rätt utformning användas som ett effektivt styrmedel, men problemet ligger i att hitta lämplig utformning som sedan skapar motivation hos anställda. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att beskriva, förklara samt jämföra hur belöningssystem är utformade inom tre olika IT-företag. Vidare syftar arbetet till att utreda hur denna del av ekonomisystemet motiverar företagets medarbetare. Metod: Studien är av kvalitativ karaktär och vid insamling av empiriskt material har semistrukturerade intervjuer på IBM, NAB Solutions och Atea genomförts. Utifrån uppsatsens syfte valdes flerfallsstudie som forskningsstrategi. Det insamlade materialet presenteras först på företagsnivå sedan görs en jämförelse mellan de tre företagen. Slutsats: Samtliga företag har ett belöningssystem bestående av både monetära och icke- monetära belöningar, där de intervjuade har uppgett att det generellt sett är de icke-monetära belöningarna som bidrar till att skapa motivation. De avgörande faktorerna för företagens utformning av belöningsssystem antas vara storleken, strategin och dess ålder. Att IT- branschen är så pass ung kan leda till att företagen snabbt kan bli tvungna att göra om sina belöningssystem. Beroende på contingency-aspekterna storlek, strategi och miljö förväntas utformningen mellan företagen att skilja åt.
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Goss, Thomas J. "Building a contingency menu : using capabilities-based planning for Homeland Defense and Homeland Security /." Thesis, Monterey, Calif. : Springfield, Va. : Naval Postgraduate School ; Available from National Technical Information Service, 2005. http://library.nps.navy.mil/uhtbin/hyperion/05Mar%5FGoss.pdf.
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Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Homeland Security and Defense))--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2005.Thesis Advisor(s): Paul Stockton. Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-72). Also available online.
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Andreasson, Henric Lars, and Andreas Sjöberg. "Corporate rebranding inom dynamiska marknader : En komparativ studie i telekombranschen." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-79186.
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Bakgrund: Corporate rebranding är ett relativt nytt fenomen som innebär att ett företag väljer att omdefiniera sitt varumärke på grund av förändringar inom företaget eller omgivningen. Men det är fortfarande relativt ostuderat och ingen studie behandlar den eventuella kopplingen med en dynamisk marknad. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att skapa en förståelse för hur fenomenet corporate rebranding fungerar inom en dynamisk marknad, där vi valt att utgå från telekombranschen som exempelmarknad. Metod: Studien har en hermeneutisk ansats med ett deduktivt angreppssätt för kopplingen mellan teori och empiri. Studien har vidare använt sig av en komparativ design med fallstudieinslag utifrån en kvalitativ strategi. Referensram: Referensramen består av teorier om dynamiska marknader som leder in till globalisering, lokalisering samt glokalisering. Därefter definieras varumärke med respektive underliggande teorier och avslutningsvis corporate rebranding. Slutsats: Den dynamiska marknaden har gett upphov till ett stort antal rebranding-processer inom branschen, där tre strategier för att hantera ett nytt globalt varumärke har identifierats. Slutligen har varumärkets roll inom branschen blivit av en mer dynamisk karaktär där syftet är att ha ett varumärke som är mest lämpat för de förändringar som skett inom såväl den interna som externa miljön.Background: Corporate Rebranding is relatively new phenomenon where a firm decides to redefine their brand due to changes within the company or the environment. But the amount of literature on the subject is lacking, and so far no one has studied the potential connection to a high-velocity environment. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to create an understanding of how Corporate Rebranding interacts with a high-velocity market by using the telecommunications industry. Methodology: The study was a hermeneutic endeavour with a deductive approach in linking theory and empirical evidence. In addition, a comparative case study using qualitative methods was performed. Theory: This chapter consists of theories on dynamic markets as well as glocalization, localization and globalization. This is followed by a definition of branding and finally Corporate Rebranding. Conclusion: The high-velocity market has been the root of numerous cases of rebranding and we have identified three different strategies for handling the adaptation to a new global brand. Finally, the role of the brand within the market has taken on a more dynamic role, where the purpose is to create a brand better suited for the changes in the internal as well as the external environment.
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Bhana, Kamal. "Evaluating the impact of whole-class self-management and interdependent group contingency approaches on pupil engagement and disruptive behaviour." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2017. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44943/.
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This study investigates the efficacy of two whole-class approaches to classroom management, self-management and interdependent group contingency, in a sample of 8-9 year olds in the UK. Phase A investigates which approach is most effective in reducing off-task and disruptive behaviours in target lessons, and in improving behaviour in general. Phase B investigates whether combining the approaches further reduces off-task and disruptive behaviour, and improves general behaviour. The research employed a quasi-experimental design. In Phase A, pupils were allocated to one of four conditions: self-management (n=30), interdependent group contingency (n=29), waitlist control receiving daily rule reminders (n=28), or a waitlist control who continued as usual (n=26). The approaches were delivered by class teachers over four-weeks. In Phase B, the class receiving self-management in Phase A, received interdependent group contingency as well, for a further four weeks. The waitlist control group continued as per Phase A. Pre- and post-test measures for both phases were obtained through structured observations of whole-class on-task, off-task and disruptive behaviours. Teachers also completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for each pupil. Findings indicated that self-management and interdependent group contingency reduced off-task behaviour, however only interdependent group contingency reduced disruptive behaviour. Combining the approaches led to no further reductions in these behaviours. SDQ data suggested that self-management, either alone or combined with interdependent group contingency, had no significant impact on general behaviour. However, interdependent group contingency alone, appeared to lead to greater general behaviour concerns. The findings are reviewed in light of the literature with limitations acknowledged. Avenues for future research are also identified. In conclusion, this research presents tentative evidence supporting the efficacy of these individual approaches for off-task and/or disruptive behaviour. Findings that the combined approach is not efficacious and that neither approach improves general behaviour, should be interpreted cautiously given the study’s limitations.
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Chang, Huei-Chun, and huei-chun chang@rmit edu au. "Environmental Management Accounting within Universities: Current State and Future Potential." RMIT University. Accounting and Law, 2008. http://adt.lib.rmit.edu.au/adt/public/adt-VIT20080424.122823.
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Environmental management accounting (EMA) is attracting increased recognition as a management tool that assists in improving financial and environmental performance through enhanced environmental accountability. Various industries have been included in EMA-related research and study, but universities have typically failed to be the focus of the attention. This research studied the experiences of key managers from five universities to explore potential factors influencing the decision to adopt, or not to adopt, EMA within the higher education sector. For the purpose of this study, EMA is defined as the generation, analysis, and use of monetary (or financial) and physical (or non-financial) environment-related information in order to improve organisational financial and environmental performance. The two objectives of this study were to understand current accounting practices for managing major environmental costs, and to identify factors influencing EMA adoption within universities. For the purpose of this study, the major environmental costs referred to are limited to the costs pertaining to the consumption of electricity, water and paper, and the generation of wastes. A case study methodology was followed using semi-structured interviews of key personnel with four different management functions (i.e. environmental management, management accounting, senior management, and heads of academic schools) within each university, and performing content analysis on the transcribed interview data. Specifically for achieving the second research objective, a theoretical framework that considers four theories was embraced to guide the data collection and focus the study. The four theories are contingency theory, institutional theory, legitimacy theory, and stakeholder theory. The findings of the first research objective revealed that there was a general lack of EMA utilisation within the case universities. This was in part due to a perceived lack of appreciation by key personnel of the extent of environmental costs being incurred, but arguably mainly because of the absence of relevant environmental cost information being brought to the attention of senior management. Although environmental sustainability was promoted as important from an environmental management perspective, efforts to improve internal environmental accountability, in particular from an accounting perspective, were still absent. In relation to the second research objective, it was found that five key barriers contributed to this lack of EMA utilisation within the five case universities, and they were attitudinal, financial, informational, institutional, and management barriers. Among the factors that provide further explanations about how each barrier influences EMA adoption, resistance to change, resource constraints, (a lack of) legitimacy considerations, and a lack of environmental responsibility & accountability were found to be strong factors, as they were supported in all of the five cases. Apart from the theoretical extension to this area of research, the results and findings of this study supported the uses and applications of EMA by the higher education sector. Much more can, and should, be done by universities in relation to how they account for the environment. This can provide benefits not only for the sector itself, but also for the environment in which we live.
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Hadid, Wael. "The relationship between lean service, activity-based costing and business strategy and their impact on performance." Thesis, Brunel University, 2014. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/8998.
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Lean system has drawn the attention of researchers and practitioners since its emergence in 1950s. This has been reflected by the increasing number of companies attempting to implement its practices and the large number of researchers investigating its effectiveness and identifying important contextual factors which affect its implementation. The rising level of interest in lean system has led to the emergence of three distinctive streams of literature. The first stream of literature has focused on the effectiveness of lean system. However, this literature was limited as it mainly examined the additive impact of lean practices on operational performance in the manufacturing context. The second stream of literature has focused on the role the accounting system in the lean context. In this body of literature, there was an agreement among researchers on the superiority of activity-based costing system (ABC) over the traditional accounting system in supporting the implementation of lean practices. However, most studies in this strand of literature were either conceptual or case-based studies. The third stream of literature has focused on the fit between business strategy and lean system. However, inconclusive results were reported in relation to the suitability of lean system to firms adopting the differentiation strategy and others adopting the cost leadership strategy. The aim of this study is to develop and empirically test a conceptual model which integrates the three distinctive streams of literature to extend their focus and overcome their limitations. More specifically, the model developed in the current study highlights not only the additive impact of lean practices but also the possible synergy among those practices in improving both operational and financial performance of service firms. In addition, the model brings to light the potential intervening role of ABC in the strategy-lean association. After identifying and reviewing the relevant literature, the socio-technical system theory and contingency theory were used to develop the conceptual model and associated hypotheses. A questionnaire instrument was designed to collect empirical data which was supplemented by objective data from the Financial Analysis Made Easy database in order to empirically test the conceptual model using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings of this study indicated that while the technical practices of lean service improved only the operational performance of service firms, the social practices enhanced both operational and financial performance. In addition, the two sets of practices positively interacted to improve firm performance over and above the improvement achieved from each set separately. Moreover, ABC was found to have a positive association with lean practice, and consequently an indirect positive relation with firm operational performance. Finally, both the differentiation and cost leadership strategy had a direct positive relationship with lean practices. However, while ABC was found to partially mediate the differentiation-lean association, it suppressed the cost leadership-lean association leading to a case of inconsistent mediation. The current study contributes to the current literature at different levels. First, at the theoretical level, this study develops a conceptual framework which crosses different streams of literatures mainly, lean system literature, management accounting literature (with focus on ABC), and business strategy literature. Unlike previous studies, by integrating the perspective of socio-technical system theory and contingency theory, the model (i) highlights not only the additive but also the synergistic effect of lean service practices on firm performance, (ii) brings to light the direct impact of ABC and business strategy on lean service practices and the intervening role of ABC due to which the business strategy is assumed to have also an indirect influence on lean practices, and (iii) offers an alternative view on how ABC can improve firm performance by enhancing other organisational capabilities (lean practices) which are expected to improve performance . Second, at the methodological level, unlike previous studies, this study includes a large number of lean service practices and contextual variables to report more precisely on the lean-performance association. In addition, the inclusion of the financial performance dimension-measured by secondary data- in the model besides the operational performance is critical to understand the full capability of lean service in improving firm performance. Further, employing a powerful statistical technique (PLS-SEM) provides more credibility to the results reported in this study. Third, at the empirical level, this study is conducted in the UK service sector. As such, this study is one of the very few studies that have reported on lean service and examined how the adoption of ABC and a specific type of business strategy can affect its implementation using empirical survey data from this context.
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Lordh, Philip, and Erik Krantz. "Intern Kontroll : En kvantitativ studie om hur medelstora företag utformar sin interna kontroll och vad som ligger till grund för utformningen." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för ekonomistyrning och logistik (ELO), 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-85699.
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Bakgrund: Nya utmaningar i samhällets näringsliv har ökat kontrollbehovet och därmed bidragit till den interna kontrollens aktualitet samt att COSO:s ramverk fått en allt större betydelse. Medelstora företag har kopplats ihop med svaga förutsättningar i arbetet mot en väl utformad och använd intern kontroll. Avsaknaden av en god intern kontroll har därmed inneburit svårigheter att undvika negativa konsekvenser. Samtidigt är företagens situation avgörande, men hur situationsanpassa har visat sig problematiskt. Syfte: Genom att undersöka användandet av COSO:s ramverk till hög respektive låg grad ämnar studien förklara hur medelstora företag i Sverige utformar sin interna kontroll. Vidare syftar studien till att kartlägga och förklara om organisatoriska faktorer kan medföra skillnad i den interna kontrollens utformning. Metod: Studien utgår ifrån en kvantitativ forskningsstrategi med en tvärsnittsdesign. En survey har genomförts av respondenter i ledande positioner på medelstora företag i fem olika branscher. Den insamlade datan har sedan genomgått ett antal statistiska analyser för att få en tydligare bild om hur och varför medelstora företag utformar sin interna kontroll på olika sätt. En del i de statistiska analyserna utgör hypotesprövning. Slutsats: Det som COSO:s ramverk ämnar att förmedla är till hög grad omedvetet använt av medelstora företag. Bristfälliga komponenter i kombination med bristfällig samverkan kan förklara varför nämnda företag antas ha svårigheter i arbetet mot en väl utformad och använd intern kontroll. Ett antal organisatoriska faktorer påverkar användandet av den interna kontrollens komponenter. Mer avgörande är däremot kunskap och medvetenhet till den nuvarande goda interna kontrollen som faktiskt finns.Background: Challenges in business environment have increased the need and relevance of internal control, the framework created by COSO has also got attention. Medium-sized companies have been connected to weak conditions in their work towards a well designed and used internal control. Without a well designed and used internal control it is hard to avoid negative consequences. At the same time the companies situation is crucial, adaption to the specific situation has been problematic. Purpose: By investigating if COSO's framework is used to a high respectively low degree the thesis intends to explain how medium-sized companies in Sweden design their internal control. Furthermore, the thesis aims to explain whether organizational factors can cause differences in the design of internal control. Method: The thesis is based on a quantitative research strategy with a cross-sectional design. Individuals in leading positions in medium-sized companies in five different industries have participated in a survey. The data has been used in statistical analyzes to understand how and why medium-sized companies design their internal control in different ways. Some of the statistical analyzes was used to prove hypothesis. Conclusion: The information COSO's framework aims to communicate is higly unconsciously used by medium-sized companies. Defective components and their collaboration can explain why medium-sized companies have been connected with difficulties in their work towards a well designed and used internal control. Some organizational factors affects the use of the components in internal control. However, more decisive is knowledge and awareness of the internal control that actually exists.
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Matos, Emanuel Rodrigues Junqueira de. "Perfil do sistema de controle gerencial sob a perspectiva da teoria da contingência." Universidade de São Paulo, 2010. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/12/12136/tde-10052010-143511/.
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Este estudo investiga, sob a ótica da teoria da contingência, os efeitos dos fatores contingenciais sobre o perfil do sistema de controle gerencial (SCG) das empresas brasileiras tendo como objetivo compreender as características do SCG, em função dos fatores contingenciais. São examinados os efeitos diretos e interativos dos fatores contingenciais internos estratégia, estrutura, tecnologia da informação e estágio do ciclo de vida organizacional e do ambiente no perfil do SCG. Avalia-se também o efeito do SCG no desempenho organizacional. Esta pesquisa defende a tese de que os fatores contingenciais internos e externos influenciam o perfil do SCG que possui associação com o desempenho, sendo possível estabelecer arranjos (fit) entre fatores contingenciais, características do SCG e desempenho organizacional. As hipóteses relativas aos efeitos dos fatores contingenciais no SCG preveem que o ambiente, fator contingencial externo, possui associação com os fatores contingenciais internos i) estratégia, ii) estrutura, iii) estágio do CVO e iv) tecnologia da informação; que o ambiente e os fatores contingenciais internos possuem associação com o perfil do SCG e que o SCG possui associação com o desempenho. A amostra envolveu 120 empresas brasileiras de grande porte e os dados para obtenção de informações sobre as mesmas foram coletados através de uma survey (levantamento). Para o tratamento dos dados, foram utilizadas as técnicas estatísticas de análise fatorial, análise de clusters e modelagem de equações estruturais. Os resultados indicaram que quando analisadas em um único grupo de empresas, não foi possível identificar associação entre os fatores contingenciais e o SCG e deste com o desempenho organizacional, rejeitando-se as hipóteses estabelecidas. Entretanto, ao separar as empresas em dois grupos distintos, i) indústria e ii) comércio e serviços, a hipótese de associação entre o fator contingencial ambiente e o SCG foi aceita. Também foram aceitas as hipóteses de: i) associação do ambiente com os fatores contingenciais internos da organização, ii) de associação dos fatores contingenciais internos com o SCG e, finalmente, iii) do SCG com o desempenho organizacional. A validação das hipóteses da pesquisa indica que a escolha e a utilização dos artefatos do SCG sofrem influência dos fatores contingenciais vivenciados pela empresa. Os resultados da pesquisa estão sujeitos a algumas limitações: i) as respostas refletem a percepção dos profissionais de controladoria das empresas, ii) a amostra não é probabilística e, portanto, todas as inferências não podem ser generalizadas para a população. Entretanto, considerando o atual estágio da pesquisa em contabilidade gerencial no Brasil, a pesquisa fornece uma visão importante de um grupo de empresas classificadas entre as maiores do País. Esta análise pode ser o ponto de partida para futuras pesquisas que utilizem a teoria da contingência.This study investigates, from the perspective of contingency theory, the effects of contingency factors on the profile of the management control system (SCG) of Brazilian companies. The study examines the direct and interactive effects of internal contingency factors - strategy, structure, information technology and stage of organizational life cycle - and the environment in the profile of the SCG. It also evaluates the effect of SCG on organizational performance. This research supports the view that the contingent factors internal and external influence the profile of the SCG that has membership to the performance, it is possible to make arrangements (fit) between contingency factors, characteristics of the SCG and organizational performance. The assumptions of the effects of contingency factors in the SCG predict that the environment, external contingency factor, has association with membership to the internal contingency factors i) strategy, ii) structure, iii) stage of the CVO and iv) information technology, the environment and the internal contingency factors are associated with the profile of the SCG and the SCG has association with the performance. The sample involved 120 Brazilian companies large and the data to obtain information about them was collected through a survey (survey). For the treatment of data, we used the statistical techniques of factor analysis, cluster analysis and structural equation modeling. The results showed that when analyzed in a single group of companies, we could not identify an association between contingency factors and the SCG and this organizational performance, rejecting the hypotheses. However, the separate companies in two distinct groups: i) industry and ii) trade and services, the hypothesis of association between the environment and contingency factor SCG was accepted. We also accept the following hypotheses: i) linking the environment with the contingency factors internal to the organization, ii) the association of contingency factors internal to the SCG and, finally, iii) the SCG with organizational performance. The validation of the hypotheses of research indicates that the choice and use of artifacts from the SCG are influenced by the contingent factors experienced by the company. The survey results are subject to some limitations: i) the responses reflect the perceptions of professionals controlling companies, ii) the sample is not probabilistic and, therefore, all inferences can not be generalized to the population. However, considering the current state of research in management accounting in Brazil, the study provides important insight into a group of companies ranked among the highest in Brazil. This analysis can be the starting point for future studies using the contingency theory.
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Hörndahl, Johansson Rebecka, and Calle Lidström. "Styrning i konsultbolag : En studie om kombinerade styrmekanismer i konsultbolag." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-433997.
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Ekonomistyrning innefattar många olika styrmekanismer men likväl saknas i tidigare forskning ett holistiskt perspektiv på organisationers styrsystem. Enskilda mekanismer har istället undersökts separat. Syftet med denna studie är därför att studera hur ett företags olika styrmekanismer samverkar och huruvida de är kongruenta med företagets omgivning. Det teoretiska ramverket baseras på contingencyteorin samt Burns och Stalkers (1961) distinktion mellan mekanistiska och organiska styrsystem. Dessa teorier utgjorde utgångspunkten för en kvalitativ fallstudie på konsultföretaget AffärsConcept. Med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer, interna dokument och data från SCB inhämtades information för att uppnå studiens syfte och besvara forskningsfrågorna. Med hänsyn till den insamlade empirin sätts i analysen AffärsConcepts omgivningsvariabler i relation till dess styrsystem. Resultatet visar att styrningen i AffärsConcept består av en kombination av mekanistiska och organiska aspekter, och att detta delvis är i linje med företagets omgivning.
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Ran, Huan Duffy Margaret. "Examining communication patterns of multinational corporations during the 2008 summer Olympic games in Beijing." Diss., Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri-Columbia, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/6720.
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The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on March 24, 2010). Thesis advisor: Dr. Margaret Duffy. Includes bibliographical references.
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Xu, Zhibin. "Factors which affect the dynamics of privately-owned Chinese firms : an interdisciplinary empirical evaluation." Thesis, St Andrews, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/372.
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Hyvönen, J. (Johanna). "Linking management accounting and control systems, strategy, information technology, manufacturing technology and organizational performance of the firm in contingency framework." Doctoral thesis, University of Oulu, 2008. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9789514287091.
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Abstract
This dissertation aims to provide an extensive picture of management accounting systems and explore the relationships between management accounting systems, strategy, information technology, manufacturing technology and organizational performance. The dissertation consists of four essays. The first essay focuses on the adoption and benefits of management accounting practices, whereas the second essay studies the relations between customer-focused strategy, performance measurement techniques, information technology and their link to customer performance. The third essay studies the relations between manufacturing technology, information technology, strategy and organizational performance. The fourth essay, in turn, studies the management accounting systems and their relations to strategy and information technology. The first three essays employ the survey method while the last essay employs the case method. The framework used in this dissertation is the contingency theory.
The results indicate that financial performance measures will be important in the future and that greater emphasis will be placed on contemporary management accounting practices such as customer satisfaction surveys and employee attitudes. Also, the relative benefits from the previous three years and the future emphasis in the next three years are generally greater when the size of the firm increases. The results show that there is a significant association between customer performance and the three-way interaction involving customer-focused strategy, contemporary performance measures and advanced information technology. The proposed three-way interaction between financial performance measures, customer-focused strategy and advanced information technology is not supported at conventional levels of statistical significance indicating that financial measures are not important in the model. The results also indicate that contemporary performance measures do not help highly customer-focused firms to achieve customer performance. For firms with a low customer-focus, emphasizing contemporary performance measures and advanced information technology assists in enhancing customer performance. The results also suggest that manufacturing technology and information technology together help firms to improve their organizational performance regardless of their emphasis on differentiation strategy.
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Marchildon, Philippe. "The strategic alignment of interorganizational information systems the case of Quebec manufacturing firms." Mémoire, Université de Sherbrooke, 2008. http://savoirs.usherbrooke.ca/handle/11143/315.
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This study had two main objectives. First, to identify and operationalize the key variables required to assess the strategic alignment of Inter-Organizational Information Systems (IOISs) in the context of dyadic relationships between manufacturers and suppliers. Second, to use a subset of these variables to test two alignment perspectives: fit as moderation and fit as gestalt. More precisely, four key dimensions tied to the study of IOISs alignment in the context of interorganizational relationship (relationship structure, antecedents, outcomes and IOISs usage) and the twenty-five variables that characterize them were identified. Results, from the gestalt and moderation alignment perspective's test show that when aligned together, joint actions (relationship structure), idiosyncratic investments (antecedents), diversity (IOISs usage) and internal integration (IOISs usage) become adequate predictors of the manufacturers' operational performance (outcomes). Thus, demonstrating the primordial role of IOISs alignment in manufacturer-supplier relationship and supporting the contingency theory and its underlying concept of fit.
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Werner, Amanda. "The development of best practice guidelines for the contingency management of health-related absenteeism in the motor manufacturing industry." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/160.
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The research problem in this study was to identify best practices for the contingency management of health-related absenteeism. To achieve this goal, the following actions were taken: A literature study was conducted to identify the scope and impact of health-related absenteeism on organisations and the legal parameters within which health-related absenteeism should be managed. A literature study was also conducted to identify strategies to prevent and reduce health-related absenteeism and strategies to ensure the continuous provision of products and services in periods of high absenteeism. The theoretical study focused on the management of absenteeism, wellness, ill-health/mental problems and HIV/AIDS, as well as contingency strategies aimed at maintaining production and service provision. iii The findings from the literature study were integrated into a model of best practices for the contingency management of health-related absenteeism. This model was used as a basis for the development of a survey questionnaire to determine whether senior human resources practitioners, occupational health practitioners or line managers, who were responsible for the management of health-related absenteeism in organisations, agreed with the best practice guidelines developed in the study. The survey was conducted in the motor and motor component industry in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality and Buffalo City Metropole. The empirical results from the study showed a strong concurrence with the best practices guidelines developed in the study, with the exception of the strategies aimed at maintaining undisrupted production and service provision during periods of high absenteeism. In particular, disagreement was shown with regard to alternative work arrangements such as flexible work-hours, a compressed workweek, telecommuting and job-sharing. Absenteeism, in general, is an issue that organisations are challenged with on a daily basis. The proliferation of various diseases, specifically HIV/AIDS, is contributing to this problem. An integrated and strategic approach is required to deal effectively and constructively with the immediate and expected future impact of health-related issues on absenteeism. Organisations could use the best practices guidelines, identified in this study, as a mechanism to benchmark how well they manage health-related absenteeism
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Hulthén, Hana. "A model of contextual factors and inter-organizational integration : A Ground Theory study of two supply chains." Licentiate thesis, Lund University, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-64922.
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The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to understanding of the effect of organizational context on supply chain integration. One result is a context- based model that can provide support for practitioners regarding what level of integration to establish with suppliers and customers. Given the notion that most organizations are dependent on other organizations, it leads to a need for not only cross-functional integration but also for integration across organizational boundaries. However, in many organizations the level of integration with suppliers and customers is often inappropriate, inefficient and limited mainly to dyadic integration of order processing and operational scheduling. The existing literature provides only a limited insight concerning the essential circumstances for the integration and the slow growth of the implementation of inter-organizational integration has been attributed primarily to lack of guidelines for creating business relationships with supply chain partners. In the literature, “the more integration the better performance” solutions have often been presented without consideration of very complex internal and external organizational environments of involved companies. During recent years, questions have been raised regarding the nature of integration with suppliers and customers and the extent to which it can be accomplished. Instead of all-encompassing integration, selectivity has been suggested in terms of what level of integration should be applied to each link of the supply chain. The problem for an organization is not to find “one best way”; rather it is to search for solutions that advance integration and differentiation simultaneously. Preferable level of integration depends on many contextual factors associated with e.g. focal company, industry, competitive environment, and nature and type of products. However, in the previous research the focus has primarily been on studying single or limited sets of contextual factors and their impact on integration. These results are often fragmented, leading to multiple frameworks and models. A unifying model providing recommendations in terms of what level of integration to establish with suppliers and customers considering organization’s specific circumstances is desirable. In this study, a large number of contextual factors of integration with suppliers and customers were identified and structured. Additionally, the relationship between these factors and level of the integration was clarified. The study is based on the Grounded Theory methodology. To understand the effect of context on level of integration, two supply chains (triads) from two different industries - medical devices and fast moving consumer goods - have been selected as core samples. Findings are based on in-depth analysis of qualitative data obtained from fourteen interviews with practitioners such as CEOs, SC managers, sales managers, purchasing managers, and logisticians. Following the Grounded Theory methodology, the analysis of the collected data was conducted in three major rounds divided into six steps. The results were compared with a theoretical frame of reference. The main result of this study is a model that describes the relationship between contextual factors and integration activities with suppliers and customers. The findings suggest that the assumption of a fit between context and integration of the Structural Contingency Theory is applicable also from an inter-organizational perspective. The model can be applied to contextual factors both external and internal to an organization. It is supplemented by structured lists of identified contextual factors and integration activities. Recalling the notion of fit between value of contextual factors and level of integration with suppliers and customers, it can be stated that even low levels of integration can be appropriate as long as they are consistent with the values of certain factors representing organizational context. Furthermore, the model adds to existing models and frameworks as it can be used as a diagnostic tool. Applying this model, an organization can evaluate if current levels of integration fit with the corresponding values of contextual factors. Furthermore, the model support identification of misfits between values of contextual factors and present level of integration and it provides an opportunity to adjust or reevaluate the current levels of integration. The model, in combination with the lists of contextual factors and integration activities, can then be used to develop corrective actions in order to regain the desired fit. Intention of this study was to identify and analyze integration of triads in the studied supply chains, commonly known as Supply chain integration. However, this scope of integration has not been found, which is in line with previous research indicating that triadic integration is rare. To reflect the actual situation in more accurate way it is suggested to use the term Inter-organizational integration, implying dyadic scope of integration, rather than Supply chain integration.