Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Organizational and managerial structure'

Estimated worldwide losses due to cybercrime are approximately $375-575 billion annually, affecting governments, business organizations, economies, and society. With globalization on the rise, even small businesses conduct transactions worldwide through the use of information technology (IT), leaving these small businesses vulnerable to the intrusion of their networks. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the managerial strategies of small manufacturing business owners to protect their financial assets, data, and intellectual property from cybercrime. The conceptual framework was systems thinking and action theory. Participants included 4 small manufacturing business owners in the midwestern region of the United States. Data were collected via face-to-face interviews with owners, company documentation, and observations. Member checking was used to help ensure data reliability and validity. Four themes emerged from the data analysis: organizational policies, IT structure, managerial strategies, and assessment and action. Through effective IT security and protocols, proactive managerial strategies, and continuous evaluation of the organization's system, the small business owner can sustain the business and protect it against potential cyberattacks on the organization's network. The findings of the study have implications for positive social change by informing managers regarding (a) the elimination or reduction of cybercrimes, (b) the protection of customers' information, and (c) the prevention of future breaches by implementing effective managerial strategies to protect individuals in society.

Abstract Background Occupational Burnout is one of the greatest challenges affecting the labour markets today. It is mainly caused by prolonged stress exposure due to the psychosocial work environment and is nowadays the fastest growing cause of long-term sick leave in Sweden. It therefor affects both the society, organisation and individual. It is thus a managerial concern to manage and structure the organisations in a sustainable way that maximises the use of human resources, rather than burning them out.    Purpose The aim of the thesis is to investigate the high level of sick-leave or burnout due to organisational and managerial factors in the Swedish educational sector, by focusing on the role leadership, organisational and psychosocial work environment plays in preventing/causing employees’ burnout. The authors attempt to contribute knowledge on why theory may not match reality in this case, as statistics of sickleave due to stressrelated illness remains high. Methods In this qualitative study principals, administrators, and teachers of four public compulsory schools in Jönköping and Öckerö are interviewed. Using semi-structured interviews, data is gathered, coded and analysed in relation to modern research literature on the topic of burnout as well as Swedish Work Environment Authority guidelines, to spot key elements of positive and negative factors which have affected the stress situations of the schools’ employees. Several factors from organizational and leadership perspective are examined to assist organizations to avoid or prevent burnout.   Results Prevalence of high burnout rates in schools in the cases studied, was associated with recent large reorganization of employees and administration; weak and inefficient leadership which did not strive to build relationships and open communication with teachers; low integration between sectors and working groups; lack of support and monitoring of stressed employees; low ability of employees to contribute to their workplace environments; the shortage of budgets issued by municipality.   Conclusions 1.The reason sick leave related to stress and burnout is high in the cases studied, is that implementation of research and policy guidelines is lacking behind in schools which suffer from employee stress related issues. As well as the current management model of the public sector may not benefit to prevent employee burnout.   2. It is possible to avoid employee burnout through adjusting the management and organizational structure, as adaptations toward dealing with employees’ stress are showing a positive sign on preventing the development of burnout.

This thesis deals with a proposal of changes in the organizational structure of the company VELUX Czech Republic Ltd., with respect to changes in its industry sector. Changes in this sphere are the opportunities and threats coming from the external environment of the company which the company management must be able to respond to. The proposed changes in the organizational structure should contribute to the achievement of company strategic goals.

The purpose of this dissertation is to understand the managerial â actionâ of public administrators in the management of their organizations within the brazilian context. It seeks to understand the relationships between managers and formal management mechanisms by exploring the complementary nature of the effective managerial action in the face of structural deficiencies and flaws, considering the possibility of overcoming the structuralism-subjectivism dichotomy present in the construction of the Theory of Organizations. Initially, the study provides a review of the literature on organizational design. It highlights the â goodness of fitâ proposition on strategic choice issues concerning the main organizational variables design and organizational goal attainment. It also calls special attention to the emerging interest of designing theorists on interpretivist aproachs to the matter, such that of Karl Weick. A review of the the administrative reforms in Brazil is made from the perspective of the main stream organizational design conceptual framework. It highlights the complex dynamics of a constant search for differenciation and flexibilization subject to patherns of advances and reversals, due to the centrality, streng and pervasiveness of the bureaucratic model. It is concluded that in no single given moment, a public manager and his team, may count on a formal organizational design wich attends the â congruencyâ criteria, devised by organizational design conceptual frameworks, to explain organizational results in different environmental sets. Although this conclusion may explain failure at the public sector, it can not provide understanding on the many instances of significative success attained by government operations in spite of inadequate formal administrative structures. This point calls for a better understanding from the interpretivist aproach, on how public administrators, strongly associated with good organizational results, engage into transformative action, in order to superate administrative structures flaws and disfuncional cultural patherns of conduct, structurally present and constantly reproduced, in vigorous develloping countries, such as Brazil. The dissertation transcribes the testimony of four outstanding public administrators, doing a deep incursion in the managerial real world of public administration, as subjectivelly defined by them and transformed by their engagement into action.Through the thematic version of the Oral History methodology, full segments of the complete enterviews are cathegorized into the thirty two managerial strategies captured wich are presented on a recathegorized manner under eight main strategies: (1) Interchanging Frames of Reference; (2) Exploring the Formal Limits; (3) Playing the Bureaucracy Game; (4) Inducing the Inclusion of Others (5)Promoting Internal Cohesion; (6) Creating Shields against Transgressions; (7) Overcoming Internal Restrictions; (8) Letting the Structures Blossom. Each one of these eight blocks of strategies presented, deserves further reflexive interpretation by the author, on the light of the interpretivist aproach to organizational design. A final effort is made, now on theory building, for improuving understanding on the matter. In order to find a significant meaning underlining all the strategies extracted from the â practical constiounessâ of the enterviweers as revealed in their report, the author resort to a methafor. This methafor helps to: (1) better describe and understand a not adequately treated phenomenon, namely, good results under inadequate structural social and organizational conditions; (2) reveal the logic and the meaning underlining all the strategies adopted to generate results under these unfaithfull conditions; (3) name, accordingly to the nature of the managerial transformative social action envolved, an open ended class of managerial interventions of a pragmatic sort driven by an ethics of results much common to good managers, that is, the concept of â managerial equalizationâ ; and (4) give back to public administrators, represented by the enterviwees, to be incorporated in their â discursive counciousnessâ , something the most effective and experienced public managers already have as tacit knowledge built in their â practical counsciousnessâ , and so, help the education and development of new talents.
Ph. D.

Aim: There is a growing body of literature that recognizes the importance of Social Enterprises (SE) to improve the welfare of society. Few empirical studies have attempted to investigate what are the challenges SEs face and how they manage them. A number of researchers have reported that SEs often have a negative connotation. The aim of this study is to investigate challenges social enterprises face in Sweden.Method: The study adopted a Qualitative approach. Primary data is gathered by interviewing 10 managers of social enterprise from 5 different SEs in Sweden. The interview was made in three different locations, Gävle, Uppsala and Tierp. De-coding the qualitative research data through content analysis, an interpretive analysis was used classifying the data concerning responses by highlighting important messages.Findings and Conclusion: SEs face diverse challenges: Funding, Public Image, Sales, Network and Cooperation, Governance/Structure, Leadership and Management. One of the more significant finding to emerge from this study is that, the foundations-access to finance is one of the critical challenges on which the fate of each SE depends. Most of the times, societies do not acknowledge the role of social enterprises and the values they bring to the society. From this, SEs cannot attract support of any kind. SEs lack the understanding and significance of marketing. Making people understanding SEs’s role, would provide them with a positive public image and thereafter support.Suggestions for future research: The study has a small sample size and results cannot be generalizable. A natural progression of this work is to analyse: Challenges on SEs with focus on Society, The impact of Society on SEs, Public identity of SEs and importance of Society.Contribution of the thesis: Dependency on fundraising, grants and donations are heavily connected with widespread lack of understanding the impact of SEs on society. SEs managers should apply different marketing tactics to communicate their role in welfare of the community.

This qualitative research study examined managerial perceptions of employee motivation. A widely studied yet complex topic, motivation continues to allude managers, leading to managerial assumptions about what is motivating to employees. The purpose of this study was to explore employee motivation through the co-participation of managers and subordinates in a job crafting intervention. A 1-hour version of the Job Crafting Exercise was conducted for eight managers and eight subordinates for a total of 16 research participants. Three weeks following the job crafting intervention, an open-ended survey was distributed separately to managers and subordinates. Findings indicated changes in the task, relational, and cognitive boundaries of subordinate?s jobs, and an increase in motivation as a result of co-participation in a job crafting intervention. Managers also gained greater insight about subordinates through participating in the Job Crafting Exercise and made actionable next steps with employees at the conclusion of the intervention.

Thesis (M.S. in Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2000.
Thesis advisors: Haga, William J. ; Evered, Roger. "June 2000." Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-181). Also Available online.

Context: Software industry is looking for new methods and opportunities to reduce the project management problems and operational costs. Cloud Computing concept is providing answers to these problems. Cloud Computing is made possible with the availability of high internet bandwidth. Cloud Computing is providing wide range of various services to varied customer base. Cloud Computing has some key elements such as on-demand services, large pool of configurable computing resources and minimal management effort to the users. The software organizations are looking for cloud benefits to address the project management problems. Objectives: The study is to identify various cloud benefits for addressing project management problems faced by software industry. The study is also investigates various challenges or problems faced by the organizations while using cloud computing environment. The solutions or suggestions to overcome these identified cloud challenges are also produced in this study. Cloud benefits across different cloud types also found during this study. Methods: Systematic literature review is conducted across eight databases to find different cloud benefits and challenges for the organizations to address the project management problems. Interview study is conducted across industrial experts working in cloud computing environment. Interview study is to check the status of cloud benefits and challenges found through systematic literature review and find new additions. The solutions and suggestions are also found to address the cloud challenges through both methodologies. Results: A total of 21 cloud benefits and 12 challenges found across 43 primary studies through systematic literature review. 26 cloud benefits and 14 cloud challenges found through interview study among 7 cloud computing industry experts. 6 cloud benefits and 2 cloud challenges found through this study are not available in existing literature. Cloud benefits across different types are also discussed in this study. Conclusion: This study identifies various cloud benefits and cloud challenges for organizations to address project management problems. Cloud utilizing organization has to differentiate its project management problems for identifying cloud type. Cloud utilizing organization has to take care of the challenges at the time of writing Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with the help of third party organization.

Дисертація на здобуття наукового ступеня доктора філософії за спеціальністю 073 – Менеджмент (07 – Управління та адміністрування). – Національний технічний університет "Харківський політехнічний інститут" Міністерства освіти і науки України, м. Харків, 2019. Роботу виконано на кафедрі Менеджменту інноваційного підприємництва та міжнародних економічних відносин Національного технічного університету "Харківський політехнічний інститут" Міністерства освіти і науки України. З дисертацією можна ознайомитись у бібліотеці Національного технічного університету "Харківський політехнічний інститут" за адресою: 61002, м. Харків, вул. Кирпичова, 2. Об'єктом дослідження є новітні процеси формування інноваційного потенціалу на промислових підприємствах галузі промислової автоматики України на основі підвищення інноваційної сприйнятливості персоналу. Предметом дослідження є сукупність теоретичних, методичних і практичних положень і розробок, що впливають на інноваційну сприйнятливість персоналу промислового підприємства галузі промислової автоматики. Дисертаційне дослідження присвячене застосуванню інновацій в структурі управління персоналом на ринку промислової автоматики і переймання європейського досвіду управління. Розглянуто передовий світовий досвід щодо формування комерційної структури на ринку промислової автоматики. Проаналізовано тенденції розвитку комерційного відділу, відділу навчання персоналу, основні напрямки та методи управління кадрами. Інтегральним результатом дисертаційного дослідження є розроблення та наукове обґрунтування концептуальних положень, теоретичних засад, методичних та практичних рекомендацій щодо формування підходів до підвищення інноваційної сприйнятливості персоналу на промислових підприємствах, зокрема на ринку промислової автоматики. На підставі цього інноваційні впровадження мають позитивний результат та призводять до підвищення прибутку підприємства. При вирішенні завдань наукового дослідження застосовано: методи аналізу, системного підходу, логічного, експертних оцінок, порівняльного та графічного аналізу, індексний, сценарний підхід, графоаналітичний, економіко-математичного та параметрично-індексного моделювання. У вступі обґрунтовано актуальність задач дослідження, показано зв'язок роботи з науковими програмами, планами, темами, наведена наукова новизна та сформульоване практичне значення отриманих результатів. В першому розділі здійснено огляд світових тенденції інноваційного розвитку. Представлено та обґрунтовано понятійний апарат формування організаційно-економічних засобів щодо розвитку інноваційної сприйнятливості персоналу. Комплексна система взаємодії факторів організаційно-управлінської системи яка має синергетичний ефект від забезпечення інноваційної сприйнятливості персоналу на основі цільової розробки інтерактивних заходів даного підвищення. Сформована концептуальна схема забезпечення інноваційної сприйнятливості орієнтації підприємства на інноваційних ринках. У другому розділі представлено аналіз тенденцій і стратегій розвитку передових зарубіжних і українських компаній, на зарубіжному і українському ринку промислової автоматики. Аналіз системи управління персоналом українських компаній галузі промислової автоматики. Запропоновано його форми, методи збору, аналізу та узагальнення результатів за поданням об'єктивних значень впливу підсистем системи управління персоналом підприємств на рівень інноваційної сприйнятливості персоналу. Обґрунтовано необхідність розвитку інноваційно-інформаційного забезпечення підсистем системи управління персоналом на основі розвитку корпоративних систем інтерактивної орієнтації за вектором інноваційної сприйнятливості. Представлені перспективи щодо підвищення інтеграції конструкторсько-технологічних і комерційно-збутових рішень щодо вдосконалення орієнтації організаційно-управлінської структури на підвищення інноваційної сприйнятливості персоналу. В третьому розділі обґрунтовано захід з інноваційно-інформаційного забезпечення розвитку і орієнтації організаційно-управлінської структури та системи управління персоналом за вектором інноваційної сприйнятливості персоналу. Запропоновані індекси інформаційності. Запропоновано алгоритм методичного підходу щодо орієнтації організаційно-економічних умов підвищення інноваційної сприйнятливості потенціалу системи управління персоналу в рамках організаційно-управлінської системи на основі інноваційної орієнтації персоналу. Вдосконалено формат підсистем і функцій системи управління персоналу в ТОВ "ВО ОВЕН". Проведено порівняльний аналіз підвищення рівня інноваційної сприйнятливості персоналу для українських підприємств зокрема по компанії ТОВ "ВО ОВЕН". Обґрунтовано і представлені типові корисні ефекти від підвищення інноваційної сприйнятливості потенціалу системи управління персоналу. Сформована комплексна індекс параметричну модель. Запропоновані індекси-вимірювачі. Результати досліджень дозволили отримати низку наукових результатів: - вперше запропоновано підхід до формування організаційно-економічних засобів управління інноваційною активністю персоналу на основі вектору впровадження заходів цільового комплексу інноваційної сприйнятливості системи управління персоналом, який на відміну від існуючих дозволяє системно та безперервно формувати потенціал системи управління персоналу на підставі односпрямованих цільових заходів, підвищувати інноваційну сприйнятливість персоналу промислових підприємств в умовах забезпечення їх ефективності на інноваційних ринках; - підхід до обґрунтування та систематизації комплексу факторів, які впливають на підвищення інноваційної сприйнятливості персоналу, з урахуванням специфіки галузі промислової автоматики, що дозволяє на відміну від попередніх узагальнень врахувати синергетичний ефект від забезпечення організаційно-управлінської складової роботи персоналу на основі цільової розробки інтерактивних заходів даного підвищення; - методичний підхід до аналізу системи управління персоналом підприємства, який дає можливість здійснювати системну орієнтацію її підсистем і функцій на основі вектору інноваційної сприйнятливості, що на відміну від існуючих містить систему вимірників їх впливу на інноваційну активність персоналу, що дозволяє розробляти цільові організаційно-управлінські заходи з діагностики стану і підвищення ефективності індивідуальної участі персоналу в інноваційній діяльності підприємства з урахуванням специфіки галузі промислової автоматики; - систему цільового формування інформаційно-комунікативних корпоративних мереж з точки зору розвитку їх рівня інноваційної сприйнятливості персоналу, яка на відміну від існуючих стимулює і посилює цільову орієнтацію комунікативних функцій систем управління персоналом та забезпечує підвищення ефективності використання інноваційно-інформаційної складової їх підсистем, що сприяє підвищенню конкурентоздатності підприємства галузі промислової автоматики; дістали подальшого розвитку: - підхід до підвищення інноваційної сприйнятливості персоналу комерційної служби підприємства галузі промислової автоматики, який на відміну від існуючого дозволяє забезпечити стратегію підвищення ефективності продажів за рахунок готових рішень по типу "finished solution" без використання системних інтеграторів в умовах розвитку інноваційних ринків, що дає можливість підвищити прибуток підприємства; - модель взаємодії організаційно-економічних і управлінських засобів підвищення інноваційної сприйнятливості персоналу підприємства галузі промислової автоматики на інтерактивній основі, яка дозволяє форматувати склад підсистем системи управління персоналом з урахуванням специфіки інноваційної стратегії підприємства, що на відміну від існуючих моделей дозволяє системно орієнтувати дані засоби на підвищення інноваційної сприйнятливості персоналу і розвитку інноваційних ринків промислової автоматики. Зв'язок роботи з науковими програмами, планами, темами: дисертаційну роботу виконано на кафедрі Менеджменту інноваційного підприємництва та міжнародних економічних відносин НТУ "ХПІ" МОН у межах господарсько-договірної науково-дослідної роботи К6705 "Дослідження організаційно-економічних проблем з підвищення інноваційної сприйнятливості підприємств до нових технологій" (№ДР 0118U002012). Практичне значення одержаних результатів полягає в тому, що теоретичні, методологічні та методичні положення, висновки і рекомендації дисертаційної роботи доведені до рівня практичних розробок та впроваджені в діяльність підприємств Харківської області: ТОВ "ВО ОВЕН" (АКТ № 23/04-18 від 23.04.2018 р.), ТОВ "ЕВЕРЕСТ КОМПАНІ" (АКТ № 2/11-01 від 02.11.2018 р.), ТОВ "ШВЕЙЦАРСЬКИЙ БІЗНЕС СЕРВІС ІНСТИТУТ"/ТОВ "БРИТАНСЬКИЙ МОВНИЙ ТАБІР "АВС САМР" (Довідка №09/12-1 від 09.12.2018 р.), ТОВ "КАПІТАН" (Довідка №14/01-1 від 14.01.2019 р.), КНП ХОР "ОГВВ" (Довідка № 93 від 28.01.2019 р.), ТОВ "ПРОМАГРОІНЖИНІРІНГ" (АКТ №30/01-19-1 від 30.01.2019 р.), ТОВ "ТАЛМІКС" (Довідка №4/2-1 від 04.02.2019 р.), НТУ "ХПІ" (АКТ від 25.03.2019 р.), ТОВ НПП "НАФТАЕНЕРГОПРОМ" (Довідка №303 від 18.09.2019 р.).
The thesis is submitted to obtain a scientific degree of Doctor of Philosophy, specialty 073 – Management (07 – Management and administration). – National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute", Kharkiv, 2019. The work was carried out at the Department of Management of Innovative Entrepreneurship and International Economic Relations of the National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute" of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. The dissertation is available at the Library of the National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute" at 61002, Kharkiv, st. Kirpichova str., 2. The object of the research is the latest processes of the formation of innovative potential at industrial enterprises in the field of industrial automation of Ukraine based on increasing the innovative susceptibility of personnel. The subject of the study is a set of theoretical, methodological and practical provisions and developments that affect the innovative susceptibility of the personnel of an industrial enterprise in the field of industrial automation. The dissertation research is devoted to the application of innovations in the structure of personnel management in the industrial automation market and the borrowing of European management experience. The international best practices in the formation of a commercial structure in the industrial automation market are considered. The development trends of the commercial department, the personnel training department, the main areas and methods of personnel management are analyzed. When solving the problems of scientific research, the following methods were applied: analysis methods, a systematic approach, logical, expert assessments, comparative and graphical analysis, an index, scenario approach, graphoanalytic, economic-mathematical and parametric-index modeling. In the introduction, the relevance of the research objectives is substantiated, the relationship of work with scientific programs, plans, topics is shown, the scientific novelty is given, and the practical significance of the results is formulated. The first chapter provides an overview of global trends in innovative development. Submitted and justifiably conceptual apparatus for the formation of organizational and economic means for the development of innovative staff susceptibility. An integrated system of interaction of factors of the organizational and managerial system which has a synergistic effect from ensuring innovative staff receptivity based on the targeted development of interactive measures for this increase. The prevailing conceptual scheme for ensuring the innovative susceptibility of enterprise orientation in innovative markets. The second section presents an analysis of trends and development strategies of advanced foreign and Ukrainian companies in the foreign and Ukrainian industrial automation markets. Analysis of the personnel management system of Ukrainian companies in the field of industrial automation. Its forms, methods for collecting, analyzing and summarizing the results on the presentation of objective values of the influence of subsystems of the personnel management system of enterprises on the level of innovative susceptibility of personnel are proposed. The necessity of the development of innovative information support for the subsystems of the personnel management system based on the development of corporate systems of interactive orientation along the vector of innovative susceptibility is substantiated.The presented prospects for increasing the integration of design, technological and commercial marketing solutions to improve the orientation of the organizational and managerial structure to increase the innovative susceptibility of staff. In the third section, the event on innovation and information support for the development and orientation of the organizational and managerial structure and personnel management system by the vector of innovative susceptibility of personnel is justified. Suggested indices of informativeness. An algorithm of a methodological approach to the orientation of organizational and economic conditions is proposed to increase the innovative susceptibility of the potential of the personnel management system within the framework of the organizational and management system based on the innovative orientation of personnel. The format of the subsystems and functions of the personnel management system at LLC "ME OVEN" has been improved. A comparative analysis of the increase in the level of innovative susceptibility of personnel for Ukrainian enterprises, in particular for the company LLC “ME OVEN”, was carried out. Justified and presented are typical beneficial effects of increasing the innovative susceptibility of the potential of the personnel management system. The prevailing complex index is a parametric model. Proposed indexes meters.The research results allowed to obtain a number of scientific results: - for the first time, an approach to the formation of organizational and economic tools for managing innovative activity of personnel on the basis of the implementation vector of the target complex of the innovative susceptibility of the personnel management system, in contrast to the existing ones, allows systematically and continuously building the potential of the personnel management system based on unidirectional targeted measures, increasing the innovative sensitivity of personnel industrial enterprises in the conditions of ensuring their effectiveness on innovation markets; - a methodological approach to the analysis of the personnel management system, which makes it possible to carry out a system orientation of its subsystems and functions on the basis of the vector of innovative susceptibility, which, unlike the existing ones, contains a system of measuring instruments for their impact on the innovative activity of personnel, and allows developing targeted organizational and managerial measures for diagnosing the condition and increase the efficiency of individual participation of personnel in the innovative activities of the enterprise, taking into account the specifics of the industry automation; - a system for the targeted formation of information and communication corporate networks from the point of view of developing their level of innovative personnel susceptibility, which, unlike the existing ones, stimulates and strengthens the target orientation of the communicative functions of personnel management systems and improves the efficiency of using the innovative information component of their subsystems, helps to increase the competitiveness of the enterprise areas of industrial automation; - the approach to substantiating and systematizing a set of factors affecting the increase in the innovative susceptibility of personnel, taking into account the specifics of the field of industrial automation, allows, in contrast to previous generalizations, to take into account the synergistic effect of ensuring the organizational and managerial component of the personnel’s work based on the targeted development of interactive measures for this increase. received further development: - an approach to increasing the innovative susceptibility of the personnel of the commercial service of an enterprise in the field of industrial automation, which, unlike the existing one, provides a strategy to increase sales efficiency through ready-made solutions of the “finished solution” type without the use of system integrators in the development of innovative markets makes it possible to increase the profit of the enterprise; - a model of interaction of organizational, economic and managerial means of increasing the innovative susceptibility of enterprise personnel in the field of industrial automation on an interactive basis, which allows you to format the composition of the subsystems of the personnel management system taking into account the specifics of the innovative strategy of the enterprise, unlike existing models, it allows you to systematically orient these funds to increase innovative susceptibility personnel and the development of innovative markets for industrial automation.

The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship of managerial leadership and organizational culture based on the integration of the two culture theories of Grid and Group Competing Values Framework (Hierarchy, Market, Adhocracy and Clan Culture types), and the managerial leadership theory Full Range Leadership model (Transformational and Transactional Leadership behaviors). The study methods were comprised of a quantitative web based survey research with a convenience sample of an organization. The data was analyzed with Canonical Correlation as well as exploratory data analysis. The findings supported the relationship of Group and Clan cultures and Transformational leadership behaviors. More specifically, there was a relationship of Clan culture and Transformational leadership behaviors of Intellectual Stimulation, Idealized Influence, and Individualized Consideration. There was also support for Grid and Market culture and Transactional leadership behaviors. Market culture was specifically associated with Transformational Leadership behavior of Management by Exception. The unexpected findings were the relationship of Contingent Reward Transactional behavior and Market culture and the relationship of Group culture to Adhocracy culture. Overall, the finding of the research supported the relationship and integration of the culture theories of Grid and Group and Competing Values Framework and Transactional and Transformational Managerial Leadership behaviors of the Full Range Leadership Model.

Managers spend 75-80% of their time communicating interpersonally. Ironically, communication skills are consistently listed as a major weakness of today's managers. Furthermore, management theorists contend that management students have been mis-educated for the job of managing. This study focuses on the relationship between attitudes toward communication and managerial success. Communication attitude was measured by Hart, Carlson and Eadie's RHETSEN Scale. Success was measured as promotions in relation to years worked and salary in relation to age. The hypothesis was that the Rhetorically Sensitive manager will be most successful. Two three-way analyses of variance were performed to assess this relationship. The results indicated no significant difference in success level for the Rhetorically Sensitive manager. The exploratory research suggested several directions for future research. Implications of these findings and recommendations for future research are noted.

This study begins with the clinical observation that psychopathic patients distort and disrupt the organisation containing and caring for them on one hand, and that organisational leaders manage to galvanise followers into realising his vision on the other; the two seeming to be phenomenologically similar; the former is organisationally effective antisocially, and the latter, pro-socially; one destructive and one creative. The study explores the implications of this observation through the sociological, psychological and leadership literatures, having focussed on the question of how managers are effective within organisations and to what extent is the personality or psychopathy of a manager a critical variable. Examining Hitler as a crucial case study, who as a leader combined effectiveness, charisma and a personality cult with a violent and psychopathic regime, the study uses a hermeneutic phenomenology methodology. Having looked at the case through the triangulated lenses of personality, historical context (structure) and managerial case history (agent), the study concludes that charisma rather than psychopathy may the critical success factor, and it proposes and describes a concept of "managerial agency" as a capability that combines charismatic with transactional and more coercive leadership. It argues that the sociological dualism of structure and agency ontologically are the same, such that social structures are collectively held (structurated) ideas. In an organisational (managerial) context they are divided by a relationship between the owner of the structure and the agent. The managerial agent, charismatically uses inspiration of and care for the individual subordinate, to modify (structurate) their psychology and attitudes, establishing energetic adherence to the manager’s task, which influence can be strengthened with more hierarchical transactional factors.

Workforce parity among cultural groups in America has been an unobtainable goal for years. The present diversity in our society dictates a new mandate for majority managers in their approach toward working beside and supervising these cultural groups. In order to achieve full inclusion and reach their fullest potential many employees, minorities and women, in these cultural groups, along with managers, are attending or participating in diversity training classes. Although diversity has several definitions, the goal of most training is to change corporate and organizational culture so everyone is allowed to contribute equitably to achieve his/her fullest potential, ultimately achieving parity in every area of the workplace. The purpose of this grounded theory study was to investigate the perceptions of behavioral outcomes as observed and experienced by minority employees concerning their Caucasian managers who have attended a diversity training program at a government facility. A case effects matrix was used to display the data obtained through eight open-ended interviews, observations and content analysis. Data was analyzed to elicit themes or patterns that addressed three research questions: 1. To what extent did the training program meet its stated objectives? 2. What kinds of behavioral changes occurred in Caucasian managers after attending a diversity training program? 3. To what extent was the training program an effective organizational intervention? The presentation of the data was in descriptive narrative case study profiles. Two categories of major themes were identified as common among the managers and employees: (a) Changes and (b) constraints. Results revealed that the training objectives were met, that behavioral outcomes indicated no significant change in managerial behaviors and that the training was not an effective intervention. Although some improvements were made, the training was not found to have transformed the organization. Recommendations for future diversity training programs were addressed.
Ed. D.

The Health Managerial Appraisal (HMA) is a competency-based assessment that measures a test-taker?s ability to evaluate interpersonal effectiveness and decision-making capabilities in others. The instrument was developed for assessing managers in Health, Human, and Community Service (HHCS) organizations for skills that are essential to managing staff as they provide person-centered care. This study evaluated the construct validity of the HMA through a correlational method. HMA scores were correlated with the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, California Psychological Inventory, and Behavioral Observations. The sample included 77 managerial job applicants in the HHCS industry. The results yielded convergent and discriminant evidence that the HMA as a valid measure of these necessary constructs for managing in the HHCS industry. The HMA has potential to be used to inform selection of HHCS managerial applicants as well as help current HHCS managers identify areas for professional development.

The initial development and content validation of the Health Managerial Appraisal (HMA) is outlined in this study. The content of the HMA was developed based on a Health, Human, and Community Service (HHCS) Managerial Competency Model that was created by subject matter experts. In today?s HHCS organizations, managerial roles now include empowering direct support professionals. Empowerment requires that managers accurately evaluate staff?s interpersonal effectiveness and decision-making capability. The HMA measures a test-taker?s ability to evaluate these two skill sets. The HMA was first administered to initial job applicants across all job levels (N = 2,072). Based on these test-taker responses, the HMA was revised from six scenarios to four. The revised form was then administered to final candidates for managerial and executive level jobs (N = 77). These executive and managerial candidates performed better on the HMA than initial stage job applicants, suggesting that more qualified managerial candidates were more likely to perform well on the HMA. Additionally, internal consistency reliability of the HMA test scores was .735, suggesting that the HMA produced reliable test scores. The HMA has the potential to inform selection of HHCS managerial candidates as well as help current HHCS managers identify areas for professional development.

This dissertation provides a contribution to the understanding of the interactions between the firm's financial structure and its operating decisions. The main idea is that financial structure impacts the payoff to the firm's decision-maker and that this impact on the managerial payoff will in turn affect his optimal response when confronted with different possible operating decisions. A particular focus is on the case where the manager's optimisation problem arises in a strategic environment in which the firm competes with rival firms in a product market. The first main chapter reconsiders the strategic effect of debt, as first analysed by Brander and Lewis (1986), under the novel assumption that quantity choices are made by managers whose objective is to avoid bankruptcy. The basic result is that quantity choices, which are strategic substitutes under profit maximisation, may turn into strategic complements when the quantity choice is made by managers. This reversal in the nature of competition arises under reasonable assumptions on the firm's profit function. It allows debt to be used to sustain more collusive product market outcomes than in the benchmark case where firms maximise profits, thereby avoiding, and indeed reversing, the pro-competitive limited liability effect of debt, as described by Brander and Lewis (1986). Delegation of the quantity choice to a bankruptcy-averse manager is shown to occur in a dominant strategy equilibrium. The next chapter analyses the effect of asymmetric information between a firm and its outside investors on the firm's competitive position in a model where first-period competition is followed by a financing stage a la Myers and Majluf (1984). Interim profit generated by the competition stage takes the role of financial slack and determines the extent to which external equity finance is required for a new investment opportunity. The full set of equilibria of the financing game is characterised and financial slack is formally analysed as a comparative statics variable. Using this the firm's first period objective is derived from first principles. In contrast to models of predatory behaviour, one finds that in the presence of an adverse selection problem the need to finance externally may provide a strategic benefit rather than a strategic disadvantage. The reason is that the adverse selection problem may induce speculative behaviour, which will make the firm more aggressive vis a vis its rival. The last main chapter analyses a model where the firm's manager is asked to make an informed investment decision after evaluating the prospects of an investment project. In this model, which exhibits both moral hazard and hidden information on the part of the manager, different remuneration schemes are discussed and the optimal contract between financial investor and manager is derived. Assuming the manager is risk-neutral and protected by limited liability, a benefit from diversification is shown to exist, in that the right incentives can be provided more cheaply when the manager is supervising more than one project. This occurs even though the projects are technologically unrelated and choices made on one project do not constrain the choices on any other project.

Class of 2006 Abstract
Every organization strives towards excellence. Excellence is often achieved through sound management practices. In this analysis, a local Tucson business was assessed to determine its organizational efficiency. Interviews were conducted in order to assess a broad range of managerial issues including cultural and ethical issues, communication issues, staffing issues and leadership and motivation. Recommendations were provided for potential improvements. Cultural and ethical issues included indifference, a lack of discipline, and unethical behavior. Communication issues included a lack of upward communication, lack of appraisals, proper training and teamwork. Staffing issues included an informal selection process, high turnover and a lack of external sales support. Leadership and motivational issues included no incentives to work harder, lack of upward mobility, no recognition to boost moral, poor attitude and constant tardiness. Recommendations for cultural and ethical issues included standardized meetings, strict discipline and proper enforcement. Recommendations for communication issues included an appropriate training manual, an officially recognized party, one-on-one status checks and an opinion box. Recommendations for staffing issues included a formal hiring process and performance rewards. Recommendations for leadership and motivational issues included creating a team leader, best customer service employee awards, a Stuart Smalley annual ‘feel-good’ meeting and strict tardiness policies. Implementing these recommendations is one possible step in the direction of solving the problems identified.

This poststructuralist research into managerial subjectivity follows ten senior managers’ experience, during significant organizational restructuring in the National Health Service. Located in the North of England the managers were interviewed three times during an eighteen-month period. An autoethnographic component is integral to the study; this recognises the researcher was a practising manager undergoing the same organizational change, whilst researching the field. Judith Butler’s theories provide the principle theoretical framework for the study. Whilst the managers narrated a fantasy of having a ‘true’ and coherent self, the research illustrated how fragile, fleeting and temporary each managerial self is and how passionately attached to their managerial subjectivity (despite how painful) they were. Emotion is presented as inextricably tied up with gender performativity and managerial subjectivity; despite best efforts the emotional ‘dirt’ of organizations cannot be ordered away; there is a constant seepage and spillage of emotion – as illustrated in the vignettes and profiled in the Butlerian deconstruction. During organizational change there was a fear of a social (organizational) death and even the most senior of managers were profoundly vulnerable. This fear and vulnerability heightened in contact with others perceived as more powerful (in critical conversations and interviews). Failure to receive the desired recognition and the risk of being organizationally unintelligible compounded this vulnerability and triggered recurrent, unpredictable patterns of loss, ek-stasis and unravelling of the managerial self. This acute vulnerability during restructuring anticipates and therefore (re) enacts a Machiavellian discourse, one that excuses unethical behaviour and relations as a ‘necessary evil’.

This poststructuralist research into managerial subjectivity follows ten senior managers’ experience, during significant organizational restructuring in the National Health Service. Located in the North of England the managers were interviewed three times during an eighteen-month period. An autoethnographic component is integral to the study; this recognises the researcher was a practising manager undergoing the same organizational change, whilst researching the field. Judith Butler’s theories provide the principle theoretical framework for the study. Whilst the managers narrated a fantasy of having a ‘true’ and coherent self, the research illustrated how fragile, fleeting and temporary each managerial self is and how passionately attached to their managerial subjectivity (despite how painful) they were. Emotion is presented as inextricably tied up with gender performativity and managerial subjectivity; despite best efforts the emotional ‘dirt’ of organizations cannot be ordered away; there is a constant seepage and spillage of emotion – as illustrated in the vignettes and profiled in the Butlerian deconstruction. During organizational change there was a fear of a social (organizational) death and even the most senior of managers were profoundly vulnerable. This fear and vulnerability heightened in contact with others perceived as more powerful (in critical conversations and interviews). Failure to receive the desired recognition and the risk of being organizationally unintelligible compounded this vulnerability and triggered recurrent, unpredictable patterns of loss, ek-stasis and unravelling of the managerial self. This acute vulnerability during restructuring anticipates and therefore (re) enacts a Machiavellian discourse, one that excuses unethical behaviour and relations as a ‘necessary evil’.

Prompted by the observation that some Australian universities state that they wish to be entrepreneurial, and appear to be only mildly successful at it, whilst others are entrepreneurial by any measure and yet do not state that aim, this study explores what it means to be an entrepreneurial university in the complex and challenging Australian context. It asks the key question �What does it take?� in seeking to identify the organisational and managerial capabilities that underpin successful entrepreneurial outcomes with a view to developing a model that can assist senior university executives in their managerial and leadership practice. The study is undertaken in an interpretive, qualitative research framework where an initial model based on a literature synthesis, using the work of Clark as a starting point, is presented to a group of participants. All are either present or recent vice-chancellors, higher education industry experts and bureaucrats, or are senior technology transfer managers concerned with direct entrepreneurial efforts in larger universities. In two iterations, the participants are engaged in dialogue about the model, refining and commenting on it until their views are incorporated and it more closely approximates their own mental models for the practice of entrepreneurship in the university. Their comments about related issues of government policy, current national and international trends, their respective university strategies and concerns are also incorporated to add rich meaning to their views on the model itself. The study concludes that there are five clusters of capabilities involved in building an entrepreneurial university in the Australian setting. They are labelled Context, Strategy, People, Enabling Mechanisms and Culture and Internal Politics in this study. There is some overlap with those elements Clark originally identified but also some notable additional emphasis and detail added. In this study, the capability clusters related to relationship with environment and Context and that relating to Strategy and strategic leadership in general are found to be more important than Clark indicated, more crucial in the present Australian context and generally more underdeveloped in Australia than the current circumstances would indicate is necessary. It is concluded that where entrepreneurship is handled as a marginal, optional, or half-hearted pursuit, and the concept not fully embraced, it is likely to result in haphazard outcomes, not always enhancing or progressing the institution in its desired direction. In contrast, successful entrepreneurship in and by Australian universities essentially requires greater emphasis on the capabilities of strategic management and plans that place entrepreneurship centrally in an integrated strategic entrepreneurship framework.

In this comparative case study between Handelsbanken and Nordea, the homogeneous industry of banking is investigated together with the phenomena of management consulting. The two banks are scrutinized under the same laws and regulations, offering the same products and services and tend to recruit similar people. Hence, they are under the same isomorphic pressures. At the same time, it has been acknowledged in the media that the two big banks clearly have different opinions towards management consulting, which additionally is a business area that has increased dramatically over the past years. With this in mind it is interesting to examine why the two actors take such different stands towards the usage of management consultants? In order to answer the research question, theories within management consulting, isomorphism, organizational identity and culture are presented. Semi-structured interviews are used as a primary method and the result of our study is twofold. First, the banks have different ideas about what a management consultant contributes with. Second, the result emphasizes the importance of organizational culture to a greater extent than expected. Hence the cultural palette and the existing understanding of management consulting in these two banks are crucial in order to understand the differences within a homogeneous industry.

This thesis consists of three chapters on financial structure, managerial compensation, and product markets. The unifying theme of these chapters is to examine how the financial decisions of firms are affected by market imperfections. Chapter 1 places emphasis on the impact of internal imperfections arising from asymmetric beliefs (or behavioral biases) and agency conflicts by examining how these internal imperfections affect managerial compensation and corporate financial structure. On the other hand, Chapters 2 and 3 incorporate external market imperfections especially arising from imperfect product market competition. More specifically, these two chapters develop market equilibrium frameworks to examine how the matching market for CEOs and firms interacts with the product market to affect the distributions of CEO compensation and firm size. In Chapter 1, we develop a dynamic model to examine the effects of asymmetric beliefs of a firm's manager and blockholders regarding the profitability of the firm's projects, and differing attitudes towards their risk, on its capital structure. The firm's capital structure reflects the tradeoff between the positive incentive effects of managerial optimism that increases the manager's output and blockholders' private benefits against the negative effects of risk-sharing costs. We provide several testable implications for the effects of the degree of managerial optimism as well as permanent and transitory components of the firm's risk on different components of capital structure. In our calibration of the model, performed separately for different industries, we show that while optimism and risk have qualitatively similar effects on capital structure in different industries, their quantitative effects are significantly different. The interactive effects of asymmetric beliefs and agency conflicts could potentially explain a significant portion of the substantial inter-industry variation in capital structure. Chapter 2 studies how the distributions of CEO talent and compensation vary across industries, and how product market characteristics affect these distributions. We develop a market equilibrium model that incorporates the competitive assignment of CEOs to firms in a framework in which firms engage in imperfect product market---specifically, monopolistic---competition. Using the distributions of CEO pay and firm value in each of twelve Fama-French industries, we calibrate the parameters of our structural model, and indirectly infer the unobserved distributions of CEO talent and firm quality that together determine firm output. We then conduct several counterfactual experiments using the calibrated models corresponding to each of the industries. We find that the distribution of CEO talent does, indeed, vary dramatically across industries. More importantly, contrary to the conclusions of earlier studies that abstract away from the effects of the product market (Tervio, 2008 and Gabaix and Landier, 2008), the impact of CEO talent on firm value appears to be quite significant. Our estimates of the effect of CEO talent on firm value for the industries in our sample are two orders of magnitude higher than those obtained by the aforementioned studies. Further, our estimates suggest that the compensation of CEOs is quantitatively in line with their contributions to firms. Broadly, our study shows that it is important to incorporate the product market environment in which firms operate when assessing the contributions of CEOs to firms. Chapter 3 builds a market equilibrium framework in which the CEO-firm matching process is affected by the product market. We show that under reasonable assumptions there is a unique equilibrium in which only managers with ability above a unique cutoff level are matched to firms. This very simple screening process endogenizes the distribution of active managers who match with firms. Our calibration of the model using a parametric approach, which is in contrast with the empirical analysis performed in Chapter 2, strongly supports the principle arguments on the importance of CEO talent and appropriate CEO talent levels (on average) in Chapter 2. In addition, due to the law of demand and supply, which is a key feature of the extended model, we obtain somewhat different influence of some of product market characteristics on CEO pay. Furthermore, our parametric approach allows us to draw some implications for the effects of CEO talent distribution on the market equilibrium.

This dissertation comprises three essays. In the first essay, I develop a contingent-claims model to investigate the impact of managerial entrenchment on corporate policies and security valuation. The model emphasizes the role that managerial agency issues play in determining both a firm's dividend payout and capital structure. I show quantitatively that self-interested managers' leverage choices deviate from those ex ante maximize firm values. The results suggest that dividend yields are negatively affected by both leverage ratios and managerial entrenchment. They provide implications for empirical research attempting to relate dividend policy to capital structure. In addition, the model offers a new framework to measure managerial entrenchment using observed leverage and dividend payout.
In the second essay, we use a set of structural models to evaluate the price of default protection for a sample of US corporations. In contrast to previous evidence from corporate bond data, CDS premia are not systematically underestimated. In fact, one of our studied models has little difficulty on average in predicting their level. For robustness, we perform the same exercise for bond spreads by the same issuers on the same trading date. As expected, bond spreads relative to the Treasury curve are systematically underestimated, consistent with their being driven by significant non-default components. This is not the case when the swap curve is used as a benchmark, suggesting that previously documented underestimation results may be sensitive to the choice of risk free rate.
In the third essay, we develop a valuation model that simultaneously captures credit risk and interest rate risk, and apply it to study the valuation of putable corporate bonds. We ask what risks put features provide insurance against in practice - credit risk, liquidity risk or interest rate risk - and to what degree? We find that they reduce the components of all three risks in bond spreads. The most important, perhaps surprisingly is default or spread risk, followed by term structure risk. The reduction in the liquidity component is present but rather small.

Organizational ambidexterity is a widely researched and known phenomenon amongst academics; however there are still research gaps. Most of the studies are in private sector; however, lately researchers have called for more studies in the public sector. The purpose of this dissertation is to explain casual relationships between different leadership styles and their influence on organizational ambidexterity in public sector organization. The dissertation use a positivistic philosophy and a deductive approach; hence, a cross sectional design is used. The quantitative method chosen was a web based survey, distributed by e-mail to 171 managers operating in waste management and water and sewerage industries in the Swedish public sector. The findings of the study are that are that it is not possible to differentiate a higher level of organizational ambidexterity in any public organizational form. Another finding is that organizational ambidexterity can be positively influenced by managerial leadership in the local government administration The limitations of this dissertation are that only two industries are included and that the results cannot be generalized for other populations due to a small sample. The implications of this study are that organizational ambidexterity is a concept that is present in the public sector and can be influenced by managerial leadership under certain circumstances

Managerial behavior often differs between individuals and situations. To understand this variation the manager’s own interpretation of the role, context and role behavior is especially important. In this thesis several managers’ subjective views and understandings of their role during an organizational change period were investigated in great detail. The organizational changes were assumed to put pressure on the managerial role, exposing adaptive and dynamic role aspect and thereby shed light on differences in behavior. The general purpose was to thoroughly investigate the concept of ‘subjective managerial role’ by two contrasting approaches. One was influenced by concepts and methods used in social constructivism and constructionism (Study 1-3), and the other was a rational/cognitive approach influenced by theories and methods used in cognitive psychology (Study 4-5). Multiple case studies with subjective reports from five managers during a period of sixteen months were chosen as the empirical base. In the constructivist approach three judges were used to interpret the managers’ verbal reports during the beginning of the change period, focusing on indications of ‘subjective role projects’. ‘Subjective role projects’ involved reflections on situations, actors, purposes/goals and action strategies, all within a time frame of the past, present and future. This qualitative content of the role was investigated, and support for the existence of subjective role projects was tested (Study 1). The variation between the managers’ subjective role projects and their general project strategies were explored (Study 2). The judgment and construction process pursued by the three judges was analyzed (Study 3). In the rational/cognitive approach the focus was on role problems. A control model was used to represent subjective role conflicts, on both group and individual levels. Difficult situations described by the managers were complemented with goals and actions strategies, and the managers rated conflicts between these role components, while thinking-aloud (Study 4). Role conflict patterns and dimensions were further analyzed using two quantitative data models (Study 5). Finally, the subjective role construct was compared with a contextual interpretation of the role, based on information from the organizational and social role context (Study 6). The results supported the basic components in both the project model and the control model of the subjective role, but the latter approach would benefit from a more elaborated stimulus sampling. In both approaches the differences between the managers were assessed, but in the constructivist approach it was difficult to separate variation stemming from managers from variation between judges. In the rational/cognitive approach the variation was restricted to conflicting aspects in a specific model. The control model features and the quantitative conflict data made it easier to estimate variance. A major conclusion was that the two approaches complemented each-other in their descriptions of the subjective role. The project model was adequate for investigating the first sense-making phases in the organizational change process, while the control model approach could describe role conflicts and problems, especially on individual levels. However, they both could fit within a framework of a subjective role process model. Using these two approaches in role analysis can provide more information on the subjective role processes of the role incumbent.

The research objective was to develop, through two phases involving development and validation, a measure of the psychological work contract for managerial level employees. The psychological contract is the unwritten implicit contract that forms in the minds of employees and contains the obligations and expectations that they believe exists between themselves and the organization. In the first and qualitative phase of the study, a structured interview procedure resulted in the collection of 651 responses from a convenience sample of 35 managers from seven New Zealand organizations. Responses related to what these managers believed they were obligated to provide the organization (perceived organizational expectations), and what they believed the organization was obligated to provide them (their expectations). Content analysis of these 651 statements resulted in the development of two initial measures of the psychological contract (employee obligations, organization obligations). The employee obligations measure (perceived organizational expectations of the employee) contained 16 items, and the organization obligations measure (employee expectations of the organization) contained 23 items. In the second and quantitative phase of the study, and using the same criteria for participation as for phase one, a convenience sample of 124 managers from 13 New Zealand organizations completed questionnaires. The questionnaires included the measures of psychological contract content developed in phase one of the study, and 8 organizational psychology variables to be included in a nomological network. The nomological network included intention to quit, perceived organizational support, work and job involvement, job satisfaction, career plateau, organizational commitment, person-organization fit, and 2 performance measures. A separate questionnaire covering job performance and organizational citizenship behaviour was completed by 94 of the participants' managers. Of the 54 relationships predicted in the nomological network, 41 were significant. Of the 13 non-significant relationships, 10 involved relationships with the two performance measures. The measures of the psychological contract were subjected to a construct validation process involving two steps. The first step involved item and factor analysis. Factor analysis of the two measures of the psychological contract revealed two factors in each. One factor, termed relational obligations and reflecting a collective interest between the employee and the organization, included the items that were believed to influence more directly the relationship between managers and the organization. This factor included items such as be committed to the job (an employee obligation) and provide a physically and socially safe environment (an organizational obligation). The other factor, termed transactional obligations and reflecting a self/other interest on the part of the employee, included the items that were believed to be of a more direct employment transactions nature. This factor included items such as stay true to your own values and beliefs (an employee obligation) and provide professional and personal support (an organizational obligation). In the second step of the validation process, the measures of the psychological contract were embedded into the nomological network and their relationships with the ten variables in that network were tested. Of the ten hypothesised relationships, only one emerged as significant, that being the relationship between the organization obligations component of the psychological contract and person-organization fit. Minimal support for construct validity of the measures of the psychological contract was provided confirming that further effort will be required before complete construct validity may be claimed for the measured. Although the contribution the research makes to the field of knowledge may be limited, it does provide some validation of existing measures of the psychological contract, developed in other studies using different samples. The present findings increase our knowledge of the content of the psychological contract for managers. Additionally, a methodological framework has been established for continuing research into the content of psychological contracts, including an exploration of the relationship between content and fulfilment, along with a structure for comparing the psychological contract of disparate occupational groups. The most likely explanation for the hypotheses not being fully supported is that it is fulfilment (or conversely breach or violation) of the psychological contract, rather than the content of the contract per se, that is related to the variables in the nomological network. Whilst the hypotheses were based on research that considered fulfilment of the contract, this study focussed on the content of psychological contracts. The reasons for basing the hypotheses on research that considered fulfilment, the influence of this decision on hypothesis testing, and other possible explanations for the hypotheses not finding greater support, are explored. The limitations of the study, and possible directions for future research, are discussed.

Thesis (MA) -- University of Stellenbosch, 2001.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Current time pressures, complexity, rapid change, global competition, and the merging of computer and communication technology are facilitating a trend toward the virtual workplace. As the growth in the virtual workplace accelerates, organisations face new challenges to cope with new organisational structures and managerial leadership roles. Of particular relevance to this study is that the new organisational forms necessitate new management structures, which might be different from mechanistic structures. It also implies that the prevalence of managerial leadership in different organisational structures might be different. Using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) of Bass & Avolio (1994) and Organisational Structure Questionnaire of Miller & Droge (1986), this research attempted to investigate the prevalence of leadership in mechanistic, organic and virtual structures. Hypotheses were tested to determine the relationship between leadership and structure; leadership and environment; and environment and structure. The data was collected through a field experiment. The study was aimed at middle, senior and top level management. Of the 165 questionnaires sent out, 80 middle level managers, 20 senior level managers and two top level managers completed questionnaires. The results reflect that both transformational and transactional leadership occur in organic organisations. The results also reflect that both transformational and transactional leadership occur in virtual organisations. The results of the survey also show that only some of the organic-mechanistic dimensions predicted the prevalence of leadership in these structures. A positive relationship was found between organic and virtual structures. Environment served as a poor predictor for the prevalence of transformational and transactional leadership in a dynamic or stable environment. The results also confirmed that virtual organisations do occur in dynamic environments. However, no relationship was found between environment uncertainty and either mechanistic or organic structure. Conclusions are drawn from the results obtained and recommendations are made for future research.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: 'N EKSPLORATIEWE STUDIE VAN BESTUURSLEIERSKAP BINNE MEGANISTIESE, ORGANIESE EN VIRTUELE ORGANISASIES. Huidige tydsdruk, kompleksiteit, snelle verandering, globale kompetisie en die samesmelting van rekenaar- en kommunikasietegnologie fasiliteer 'n tendens tot die onstaan van die virtuele werkplek. Met die versnelling van die groei van die virtuele werkplek kom organisasies voor nuwe uitdagings te staan om nuwe organisatoriese strukture en leierskaprolle te hanteer. Veral relevant met betrekking tot hie~die studie, is die feit dat nuwe organisatoriese vorms nuwe bestuurstrukture wat van meganistiese strukture sou kon verskil, noodsaaklik maak. Dit impliseer ook dat die voorkoms van bestuursleierskap binne verskillende organisatoriese strukture verskillend sou kon wees. Hierdie studie poog om die Multifaktor Leierskap-vraelys (Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ)) van Bass en Avolio (1994) en die Organisatoriese Struktuur-vraelys (Organisational Structure Questionnaire) van Miller en Droge (1986) te gebruik om die voorkoms van leierskap binne meganistiese, organiese en virtuele strukture te ondersoek. Hipoteses is getoets om vas te stel wat die verband tussen leierskap, struktuur en omgewing is. Die inligting is deur middel van'n veldeksperiment ingesamel. Dit was gemik op bestuurders op middel-, senior en topbestuurdersvlak. Een honderd vyf-en-sestig vraelyste is uitgestuur en 80 middelvlakbestuurders, 20 senior bestuurders en twee topbestuurders het vrealyste voltooi. Die resultate toon dat beide transformasionale en transaksionele leierskap wei binne organiese organisasies voorkom. Die resultate reftekteer ook dat beide transformasionale en transaksionele leierskap binne virtuele organisasies voorkom. Daarbenewens toon die resultate van die opname dat slegs sommige van die organies-meganistiese dimensies die voorkoms van leierskap binne hierdie strukture voorspel het. 'n Positieve verband is tussen organiese en virtuele strukture gevind. Omgewing het as In swak voorspeller vir die voorkoms van transformasionele en transaksionele leierskap gedien. Die resultate het ook bevestig dat virtuele organisasies wei' binne dinamiese omgewings voorkom. Geen verband kon egter tussen omgewing-onsekerheid en meganistiese of organiese struktuur gevind word nie. Alfeidings is uit die verkree resultate gemaak en voorstelle ten opsigte van toekomstige navorsing word aan die hand gedoen.

La question de la performance des entreprises à l'exportation est une composante importante de l’ensemble des questions de recherche possibles tenant à l’exportation. Les facteurs associés au succès à l'exportation sont nombreux et complexes, comme ceux du pays, de l'entreprise, de la gestion, du niveau culturel, etc. ; ils gravitent autour de trois grands axes que sont les facteurs organisationnels, environnementaux et de gestion (Leonidou et al. 2002). La présente recherche vise à déterminer comment les performances à l'exportation sont affectées par les facteurs environnementaux, organisationnels et managériaux, en particulier la distance psychique et culturelle, la gestion des relations, les voyages d'affaires internationaux, les capacités financières des entreprises et les capacités complémentaires. Car la manière dont les entreprises peuvent exporter avec succès vers des pays lointains n'est encore pas totalement comprise (Lages et al., 2009). Le fonctionnement des relations avec les pays lointains reste étonnamment sous-examiné (Griffith & Dimitrova, 2014), en particulier la distance psychique - la mesure dans laquelle les normes et les valeurs de deux pays diffèrent en raison de leurs caractéristiques nationales distinctes (Ford,1984, p. 102), lorsqu'il s'agit de l'interaction potentielle entre la distance commerciale et culturelle et les facteurs managériaux. L'autre observation est que le commerce international dépend progressivement de la transmission d'informations complexes par le biais de la communication (Cristea, 2011). Les performances des entreprises varient parce qu'elles utilisent leurs ressources de différentes manières (Shuleska et al. (2016). Les voyages d'affaires internationaux jouent un rôle très important dans les affaires d'exportation, en particulier pour le commerce du vin, car les responsables des exportations pratiquent des voyages d'affaires internationaux rituels pour rencontrer les clients potentiels à l'étranger, organiser des dégustations de vin, participer à des foires internationales du vin. Néanmoins, jusqu'à présent, nous savons très peu de choses sur l'impact de ces voyages sur les performances à l'exportation. La thèse est donc organisée comme suit: nous avons d'abord réalisé une étude bibliométrique en analysant 1344 publications de 1900 à 2019. Deuxièmement, nous avons fait un travail empirique en étudiant l'effet d'interaction de deux formes de distance psychique (commerciale et culturelle) sur la gestion des relations à l'exportation. Plus précisément, cette recherche examine le rôle modérateur de la distance culturelle dans l'effet de la distance commerciale sur différentes dimensions de la gestion des relations et des performances financières à l'exportation. Cette recherche s'appuie sur un échantillon de 174 cadres français à l'exportation à qui il a été demandé de donner leur avis sur leur relation avec leur homologue chinois dans le commerce du vin, et sur leurs performances en la matière. Troisièmement, un autre travail empirique examine l'impact des voyages d'affaires internationaux sur les performances à l'exportation en se fondant sur la théorie resource-based view (RBV) et en intégrant les facteurs organisationnels (chiffre d'affaires annuel) et le management stratégique (capacité complémentaire) dans l'analyse des exportations françaises de vin. L'étude bibliométrique et deux études empiriques révèlent des résultats significatifs et apportent de nouvelles et importantes implications théoriques et managériales
Export performance is an important research part of export study. Extensive empirical research has been carried out to identify and study the determinant factors of successful export performance. The factors associated with the three major axes of organizational, environmental, and managerial factors in the work of (Leonidou et al. 2002). The research aims to find how export performance is affected by environmental, organizational, managerial factors, especially, the psychic business distance and cultural distance, relationship management, international business travel, firms’ financial capabilities and complementary capabilities, specially, psychic distance – the extent to which the norms and values of two countries differ (Ford,1984, p. 102), when it comes to the potential interplay between business distance and cultural distance with managerial factors. The other observation is that international business depends gradually on transmitting complex information through vis-à-vis communication (Cristea, 2011). Companies vary in their performance because they use their resources in different ways (Shuleska et al. 2016). International business travel plays very important role in export business, especially for wine business, as the export managers practice ritual international business travel to meet the overseas prospective customers, organize wine tasting, participate in international wine fairs. Nevertheless, up to now, we have known very little about the impact of such travel on export performance.Hence, the thesis is organized as follows.First, we present a bibliometric study by analyzing 1344 publications from 1900 to 2019. Second, we examine the interacting effect of the two forms of psychic distance (business and cultural) on export relationship management. Specifically, this research examines the moderating role of cultural distance in the effect of business distance on different dimensions of relationship management and financial export performance. This research builds on a sample of 174 French export executives who were asked to rate their views of their relationship with their Chinese business counterpart in the wine trade,and their related performance. Third, we examine the impact of international business travel on export performance by integrating organizational factors (annual turnover) and strategic management (complementary capability) into the analysis with equally 174 French wine exporting firms.The systematic bibliometric study and two empirical studies reveal meaningful results which shed light on the export literature study and provides numerous contributions on the theoretical, methodological, and managerial levels related to export performance

Much of the previous research on organizational performance deals with the larger businesses. As such, the owner/managers of small firms and researchers interested in small businesses have had to work with planning models which were not formulated with small businesses in mind. Therefore, the general purpose of this study is to help correct this deficiency and add to the body of knowledge concerning the contributions specific factors make toward increasing the performance of small firms. Specifically, selected managerial personality traits, managerial perceived environmental uncertainty, managerial scanning habits, and managerial goal setting activities are utilized to develop three models. The three models are used to determine the relationship the factors have to each other and the contribution the variables make toward the performance of the firm. The firms included in this study are located in a South Central metropolitan area. The firms have between 2 and 100 employees, sales of less than 3 million dollars, and have been in operation 2 years or longer. This study utilizes regression analysis and path analysis to determine the effects the factors have on each other and their contribution to the firm's performance. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSSx) is utilized to run the regression analysis. An Analysis of Linear Structural Relationships by the Method of Maximum Likelihood (LISREL) is utilized for the path analysis. Using path analysis, the third model demonstrates a total coefficient of determination for structural equations of 0.09. However, only two of the four factors have a t value of 2.0 or greater. The study also indicates the personality trait of dogmatism is inversely related to managerial scanning -.349 p <.01. Perceived environmental uncertainty is negatively correlated to performance at -.215 p <.05. None of the remaining factors demonstrated significant relationship to the firm's performance.