Rozprawy doktorskie na temat „Labour process theory”

The view that large-scale, long-range social theories cannot be predictive other than "in principle" is sufficiently widespread as to be considered the orthodox view. It is widely held that, lacking this predictive quality, social theories are cut off from a crucial form of vindication enjoyed by the experimental sciences. Thus many would agree with Ryan's assessment that while with regard to large-scale social changes "long-range prediction is not in principle impossible," nonetheless as a matter of practical methodology such a goal is of "dubious value." The reason commonly proffered as to why social theories cannot be predictive is the causal complexity of social life. Because of this feature, it is held, while we may be able to unearth interesting social generalizations, we will not be able to predict the many initial conditions together with which they predict. Alternately, due to this complexity we are able to achieve no better than tendency laws which do not permit predictions of sufficient precision to allow for predictive testing. This has been held to be true for other causally complex fields as well. Thus, Scriven has argued that Darwin was "the paradigm of the explanatory but non-predictive scientist" due to the constraints imposed on his methodology by the causal complexity of the biosphere. As a result of both an uncritical acceptance of the orthodox view and an inadequate analysis of Marx's methodology, Daniel Little has argued that Marxian theory is non-predictive. However, a thorough analysis of Marx's labour process theory shows it to be both clearly predictive and subject to justification by predictive assessment. Moreover, a formalization of the theory indicates that available data confirm it as regards both its central hypothesis and the matrix of social causation it exhibits. Little's position in regard to Marxian theory is strongly similar to Scriven's in regard to Darwinian theory. In both cases, faulty theoretical presuppositions combine with inadequate analysis to buttress false conclusions as to the asymmetry of explanation and prediction. Adequate analysis dispels Little's and Scriven's conclusions and exhibits important methodological parallels between Marx and Darwin.
Arts, Faculty of
Philosophy, Department of
Graduate

The main argument of the thesis is that the dominant form of economics and correlative form of economy - despite its apparently secular character - contains an inherently cryptotheological dimension. A theological analysis exposes the dominant economics/economy as an instance of ‘law’ understood (after saint Paul Franz Kafka and Walter Benjamin) as a process engaging the subject into an infinite endeavour of justifying oneself by one’s own works. Within the framework of the dominant economics/economy, all labour is formalised as steaming from lack and unrest and the final end of action is formalised as non-action. Therefore peace can only be conceptualised as a perfect lack of action (viz. death). As a consequence death itself becomes the final end, that cannot be achieved as long as the subject lives. The analysis is based on a close-reading of the works prominent economists, focusing on the exponents of the Austrian School - Mises and Hayek - who as I try to prove, express the theological prejudgements of the dominant economics/economy in the most radical and philosophically stimulating manner. The thesis is also a polemic with these critics of the dominant economics/economy who state that it could be effectively criticised for being simply anti-natural, atemporal and value-free science/practice. My point is that a viable critique of the dominant mode of economic acting and thinking cannot be constructed, unless the fact that the hegemonic economic model actually makes use of the concepts of time, judgement and nature is taken into consideration. Only when the way the dominant economics/economy uses the concepts of economy as natural environment, economics as an art of allocation of time and as a value-saturated theory - elaboration of alternatives (including an alternative formalisation of productive labour) might become possible.

This thesis set out to examine how teachers understand, experience and respond to mandated curriculum reforms in English in years 11 and 12 at a Senior High School in Western Australia over the period 2004 – 2005. The time period is significant as it is a halfway point between the commencement of the new policy driving reform of senior secondary education and the partial settlement of the policy and curriculum reform. The research is conceptualised using labour process theory as a means of analysing how teachers are being separated from their intellectual work throughout this curriculum reform process. The methodology chosen to inform this research is a dual approach using critical ethnography of lived individual experiences and critical policy ethnography to analyse the changing landscape of education policy in Australia. This dual approach offers a system level of understanding of mandated curriculum reform with an emphasis on the individual experience of expert teachers implementing the contested curriculum reform. Several central themes emerged over the course of the research: growing deprofessionalisation of teachers’ work; intensification of workload and curriculum creation; technocratisation of teacher roles; diminishing autonomy, increased accountability and responsibility; and heightened external surveillance and control. Significantly, the data also captured and analysed in this research demonstrates how teachers are continually experiencing the processes of reprofessionalisation as a consequence of sustained critical reflective practice and the imposition of mandated curriculum reform. The data also relates the need for an authentic consultation between teachers and policy makers/government authorities in order for curriculum reform to be successfully established and taken up in secondary State schools. The processes of reprofessionalisation are a source of continued professional renewal and reinvigoration for the teachers involved.

In Sweden, the labour movement historically had influenced both society and politics. In recent times, it is considered a change in society with a stronger employer party while the unions weakened by reduced unionisation. This study aims to highlight the presence of individualistic and collectivistic approaches to the labour market in relation to union density. The different approaches are investigated in the labour market by means of a quantitative survey. The study's survey items are workers in the timber industry. The study results indicate that the study's workers union level corresponding national average. The decline in union membership also includes the study workers. The study results also show that younger workers are less susceptible to join unions. The results do not reject the existence of individualistic approach, but demonstrates predominantly collectivistic approach among the study's workers. The study results can be understood from the trade organization's historically strong position in the industry. The employees' strong collective approach emphasizes the union's continued relevance to the labour market.

Drawing on labour process theory and Bourdieu’s field theory, this study explores the challenges that newspapers face in maintaining their relevance to readers in an age where news has been de-commoditised and made readily available on the web. Empirically the study is based on four case studies of incidents where different newspapers were reported to the Press Ombudsman for inaccurate reporting in recent years. In-depth interviews were conducted with key informants from the selected cases. In addition to that, a key informant from the office of the Press Ombudsman was also interviewed to provide further insight into the effectiveness of the Press Code in regulating accuracy in news reporting as well as the challenges that newspapers are faced with in that regard. It is argued that the digitalisation of media increases the tension between the production of news as a public good vs. its delivery as a commodity that has to ensure profit. Media is an essential pillar of democratic South Africa as it provides news to ensure that citizens are informed about issues that concern them and have the ability to make decisions on matters of concern – i.e. a public good. It is therefore crucial that news be reported in an accurate and professional manner adhering to the standards set by the Press Code. Newspapers are faced with the challenge of ensuring a balance between producing news that is accurate and adheres to the set standards outlined in the Press Code while also ensuring that they remain profitable – i.e. news as a commodity. The findings from this study illustrate that all errors are not due to commercial pressure and that newspapers therefore still have room to manoeuvre, put differently, there is room for agency. This implies that newspapers have to come up with strategies to continue to produce news effectively and attempt to avoid errors in news reporting. As is shown, in some instances quality of news can be compromised in the long run, as in the case of sensationalising news stories and headlines. When news is sensationalised, it is reported in an exaggerated manner and this may result in the accuracy of the news story or headline being lost. Pressures existent in the process of news production in addition to inadequate training and inadequately verifying information from news sources were found as some of the challenges in journalists’ and/or editors failures to appropriately apply the Press Code in news reporting. Failure to adhere to and appropriately apply the Press Code results in inaccurate news reporting by newspapers.
Dissertation (MSocSci)--University of Pretoria, 2013.
gm2014
Sociology
unrestricted

This thesis takes as its starting point the dramaturgical metaphor of the world as a stage, which is used in sociological role theories. These theories often presume what stage acting is about in order to use it as a simile for every day acting. My intention is to investigate how stage actors actually work with their roles, in particular how they work with emotions, and how it affects their private emotions. The thesis draws on participant observation and interviews with actors during the rehearsal phase of two productions at a large theatre in Sweden. The results show that the inhabiting of a role for the stage is more difficult and painstaking than has been assumed in role theories so far. Shame and insecurity are common, particularly in the start up phase of the rehearsals. Interestingly, these emotions do not disappear with growing experience, but instead become recognized and accepted as part of the work process. The primary focus is the interplay between the actors' experience and expression of emotions, often described in terms of surface and deep acting, concepts which are elaborated and put into a process perspective. Analysis of the rehearsal process revealed that actors gradually decouple the privately derived emotional experiences that they use to find their way into their characters from the emotions that they express on the stage. Thus private experiences are converted to professional emotional experiences and expressions, triggered by situational cues. When the experience has been expressed the physical manifestation can be repeated with a weaker base in a simultaneous experience, since the body remembers the expression. It is important though, that the emotional expression is not completely decoupled from a concomitant experience; then the expression looses its vitality. The ability to professionalize emotions makes the transitions in and out of emotions less strenuous but can infiltrate and cause problems in the actors' intimate relations.

Ecological disruptions such as climate change, pollution, waste build-up and rapid biodiversity loss are generally seen as the result of human activity; economically, socially and culturally determined. When it comes to the economy, heterodox macroeconomic tools and models are becoming prominent. They provide assessments and scenarios which focus on the complex interactions between the economy and carbon emissions as well as the potential impact of climate policies on both the economy and climate change itself. At the same time, we witness the increasing recognition of the incompatibility between capitalism as a socio-economic system and ecological restoration among non-economic scholars. But the specific theories that criticize the ecological consequences of capitalism from a Marxist vantage point have yet to formally manifest themselves in the field of Economics, all whilst the opportunity to do so is fairly imaginable. This dissertation provides an introduction to the modern synthesis between Marx and Ecology. It discusses its historical on-set in the second half of the nineteenth century and highlights its key-theoretical concepts: the metabolic rift theory and the ecological surplus. One of the reasons behind the absence of the metabolic rift theory Ecological Economics is related to the asserted incompatibility between Marx and Ecology in the 1980s. By providing some insights that counter these accusations the dissertation sheds light on the conceivable benefit of these considerations in the realm of Ecological Economics. The main result of this dissertation is the formalization of the metabolic rift theory such as to provide the field of Ecological Economics with a more complete approach to the representation of economy-ecology configurations. Before laying out an alternative, the status-quo of current mathematical formalization practices in the field of Ecological Economics is discussed and reinterpreted by means of Marx’s labour process theory and the distinction between appropriated and capitalized contributions to production processes. The proposed alternative to the formal representation of economy-ecology configurations draws on methods belonging to social metabolism studies (MuSIASEM) and the neo-Ricardian surplus approach.

La population - en son sens originel de processus de peuplement - est un sujet étonnamment absent de l'énorme volume d’études sur Adam Smith. Ce thème était au centre de la philosophie morale et de l'économie politique du 18e siècle, les deux domaines auxquels les contributions de Smith sont les plus connues. Son importance dans l’œuvre de Smith a été obscurcie au 20e siècle par une focalisation étroite sur les questions économiques dans la littérature secondaire. Pour une analyse intégrale de son œuvre, il est essentiel que la place centrale du peuplement soit révélée. Trois thèmes aujourd'hui considérés comme essentiels au projet de Smith sont ainsi intimement liés à la population : le lien entre division du travail et étendue du marché ; la théorie des quatre stades du progrès de la société ; et le lien entre développement rural et urbain, lui-même au centre du plaidoyer de Smith pour la liberté du commerce. Le marché est un concept aujourd'hui assimilé au fonctionnement du système économique capitaliste ; pour Smith, il décrivait la faculté de commercer, aux vecteurs essentiellement démographiques et géographiques. Le progrès de la société est à la fois cause et effet de la croissance de la population. En son sein se trouve l'interrelation symbiotique entre le développement rural et urbain que Smith appelait le «progrès naturel de l'opulence». Adopter l’optique smithienne plutôt que néo-malthusienne dans l'examen des dynamiques de population et de développement - y compris l'analyse de la transition démographique - conduit alors à une reconsidération fondamentale des interactions causales entre mortalité, fécondité, richesse et variables institutionnelles
Population - in its original sense of the process of peopling - is a topic surprisingly absent from the huge volume of scholarship on Adam Smith. This topic was central to 18th century moral philosophy and political economy, the two fields Smith most famously contributed to. Its importance in Smith’s work was obscured in the 20th century by a narrow focus on economic matters in the secondary literature. For an undivided analysis of Smith’s oeuvre it is crucial that the central position of the peopling process be brought to light. Three topics that are today recognised as essential to Smith’s project are thus intimately connected to population: the relation between the division of labour and the extent of the market; the stadial theory of progress; and the link between the development of town and country, itself central to Smith’s advocacy of the freedom of trade. The market is a concept read today through an institutional lens linking it to the functioning of the capitalist economic system; Smith conceived of it as facility for trade, with essentially demographic and geographic vectors. The progress of society is both cause and effect of the growth of population. At its core is the symbiotic interrelationship between rural and urban development that Smith called the “natural progress of opulence”. In turn, looking at dynamics of population and development - including the analysis of the demographic transition - through a Smithian rather than a neo-Malthusian lens leads to a fundamental reconsideration of causal interactions between mortality, fertility, wealth and institutional variables

Despite their continuing importance to the UK economy and their employment of significant numbers of workers from a range of professions, the utilities have received scant attention from critical scholars of work. This neglect represents a missed opportunity to examine the impact of nearly twenty years of privatisation and marketisation on workers, their jobs and their unions. This thesis aims to make a contribution to knowledge here by investigating, contextualising and explaining changes in the labour processes of a privatised utility in the United Kingdom. The research is informed by oral history methods and techniques, rarely adopted in industrial sociology, and here used alongside labour process theory to reconstruct past experiences of work. Drawing on qualitative data sets, from in-depth interviews with a cohort of employees who worked continuously over three decades at the research site, British Gas’s Granton House, and on extensive company and trade union documentary evidence the research demonstrates how British Gas responded to restrictive regulation and the need to deliver shareholder value by transforming pre-existing forms of work organisation through introducing call centres. The call centre provided the opportunity for management to regain control over the labour process, intensify work and reduce costs. In doing so, the study identifies the principal drivers of organisational change, documents the process of change evaluates the impact on workers’ experience. Thus, as a corrective to much recent labour process theory the research offers both an ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ account of change over an extended time. The contrast between workers’ experience of working in the clerical departments and in the call centre could not be starker. Almost every element of work from which workers derived satisfaction and purpose was abruptly dismantled. In their place workers had to endure the restrictive and controlling nature of call centre work. The relative absence of resistance to such a transformation is shown to be a consequence of failures in collective organisation, rather than the totalisation of managerial control, as the postmodernists and Foucauldians would have it.

From the begiining of the 20th century producer co-operative bacon factories were established in the south of Sweden. In his thesis Lars Hansson studies how class relations were shaped and transformed within this rural industry. The producer co-operative slaughter associations consisted of a large number of members from smallholders to large scale agrarian producers. The power of the associations was concentrated in the hands of the big producers, but the manangers also had a considerable power, due to their expert knowledge of the buisness and the bacon markets in U.K. The workers of the producer co-operative slaughter houses were mostly unskilled workers, with little or no knowledge of butchering. From the 1910’s the workers unionized but their organisation was not accepted by the employers and harsh labour disputes took place during the 1920’s. From the 1930’s the farmers producer co-operative movement grew all over Sweden and they formed a political alliance with the Social democratic Party. The Swedish labour market became more peaceful as the employers and the unions began to co-operate to a greater extent. The Food Workers Union was more and more integrated in the Swedish society and thereby lost its earlier antisystemic character and were more and more transformed into a systemic movement. The slaughter house workers union had a distinct patriarchal characters from its start and its attitude towards women workers was ambivalent. During WWII, however, the attitude changed and more women were active in class practice in order to improve their situation.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are used to respond to and deflect criticism regarding unfair labour standards in Global South production sites. This study, focusing on Sri Lankan apparel industry, reveals that Global South apparel suppliers deploy CSR initiatives as a political strategy to diffuse female workers’ consciousness of their exploitation, and as a lived shopfloor practice to co-opt workers in managerial agendas. Adopting theories of intersectionality, hegemony, and labour process, and deploying an interpretive, qualitative methodology, this thesis exposes the implicit and explicit exclusion and suppression of female worker voice in the CSR agenda of global production sites.

The New Labor Procedure Act has generated many changes in the structure of the labor process itself: It has turned from being written and unfocused to become now an oral and concentrated one. As a consequence, there's only once chance for convincing the Judge.This article covers the strategy to be followed in this new process, from the strategy itself to the allegations, in order to generate certainty in the judge whom will solve the case.
La Nueva Ley Procesal del Trabajo ha generado cambios muy amplios en la estructura delproceso mismo: Ha pasado de ser un proceso escrito y desconcentrado a convertirse en uno oral y concentrado. Como consecuencia de ello, existe una única oportunidad de convencer al Juez.El presente artículo abarca la estrategia que debe seguirse en este nuevo proceso, desde la formulación de la estrategia misma hasta los alegatos, a efectos de generar convicción en el juzgador que resolverá el caso.

The broad objective of this thesis is to develop an understanding of factors affecting outsourcing in the hotel industry and also the role played by management accounting in hotel outsourcing. The thesis draws on transaction cost economics (TCE), agency, contingency, and labour process theories in the context of appraising factors motivating outsourcing. Two empirical phases have been undertaken in the study. The first phase involved a series of interviews with general managers and financial controllers in large South East Queensland hotels. The second phase involved two distinct questionnaire surveys of large Australian hotels. The first was administered to hotel general managers, and the second was administered to hotel financial controllers. Significant findings arising from the study include: 1. In light of the substantial international literature describing hotel outsourcing, it appears that outsourcing in Australian hotels is relatively limited. This appears to be particularly the case with respect to food and beverage related activities. 2. Mixed support is offered for the TCE model. Both the survey and interview data provide some support for TCE's prescription that frequently conducted activities will not tend to be outsourced. Two specific extensions are offered to this aspect of the model, however. Firstly, where activities are conducted to a minimal extent, it can be uneconomic to outsource. Secondly, where large activities are undertaken by a group of organisations, their enhanced purchasing power can result in inexpensive outsourcing arrangements. With respect to TCE's uncertainty proposition, support is offered for the view that the propensity to outsource will be greater where behavioural uncertainty is lower. No support has been offered with respect to environmental uncertainty. The interview data provides some support for TCE's asset specificity proposition, however, minimal support was found in the survey phase. Despite this, the many dimensions of asset specificity (eg. site specificity, human asset specificity, etc) provided a useful checklist of issues to be considered in relation to the outsourcing decision. 3. Negligible support was found for labour process theory (LPT) in the interview phase of the study. In light of this, and the need to narrow the study’s focus in the survey phase, LPT was not pursued further. LPT is a difficult construct to operationalise, given the social desirability error that may result. This may partially account for the absence of significant LPT findings in the interview phase. 4. The survey data provides some support for the agency theory view that risky activities will tend to be outsourced. 5. Considerable cross-hotel variation exists in management of, and accounting's involvement in, outsourcing decision making and control systems. Accounting appraisal of outsourcing proposals rarely includes long term oriented, sophisticated techniques such as "net present value". It appears this may be because outsourcing decisions are not conducted in the context of the formal capital budgeting process. 6. High performing hotels and hotels that conduct their outsourcing decisions in the context of a long term outsourcing strategic agenda have more sophisticated outsourcing management systems.

The broad objective of this thesis is to develop an understanding of factors affecting outsourcing in the hotel industry and also the role played by management accounting in hotel outsourcing. The thesis draws on transaction cost economics (TCE), agency, contingency, and labour process theories in the context of appraising factors motivating outsourcing. Two empirical phases have been undertaken in the study. The first phase involved a series of interviews with general managers and financial controllers in large South East Queensland hotels. The second phase involved two distinct questionnaire surveys of large Australian hotels. The first was administered to hotel general managers, and the second was administered to hotel financial controllers. Significant findings arising from the study include: 1. In light of the substantial international literature describing hotel outsourcing, it appears that outsourcing in Australian hotels is relatively limited. This appears to be particularly the case with respect to food and beverage related activities. 2. Mixed support is offered for the TCE model. Both the survey and interview data provide some support for TCE's prescription that frequently conducted activities will not tend to be outsourced. Two specific extensions are offered to this aspect of the model, however. Firstly, where activities are conducted to a minimal extent, it can be uneconomic to outsource. Secondly, where large activities are undertaken by a group of organisations, their enhanced purchasing power can result in inexpensive outsourcing arrangements. With respect to TCE's uncertainty proposition, support is offered for the view that the propensity to outsource will be greater where behavioural uncertainty is lower. No support has been offered with respect to environmental uncertainty. The interview data provides some support for TCE's asset specificity proposition, however, minimal support was found in the survey phase. Despite this, the many dimensions of asset specificity (eg. site specificity, human asset specificity, etc) provided a useful checklist of issues to be considered in relation to the outsourcing decision. 3. Negligible support was found for labour process theory (LPT) in the interview phase of the study. In light of this, and the need to narrow the study’s focus in the survey phase, LPT was not pursued further. LPT is a difficult construct to operationalise, given the social desirability error that may result. This may partially account for the absence of significant LPT findings in the interview phase. 4. The survey data provides some support for the agency theory view that risky activities will tend to be outsourced. 5. Considerable cross-hotel variation exists in management of, and accounting's involvement in, outsourcing decision making and control systems. Accounting appraisal of outsourcing proposals rarely includes long term oriented, sophisticated techniques such as "net present value". It appears this may be because outsourcing decisions are not conducted in the context of the formal capital budgeting process. 6. High performing hotels and hotels that conduct their outsourcing decisions in the context of a long term outsourcing strategic agenda have more sophisticated outsourcing management systems.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Accounting and Finance
Faculty of Commerce and Management
Full Text

Workplace misbehaviour is seen to be a neglected feature of organizational study (Ackroyd and Thompson; Vardi and Weitz, 2004). Where research has been undertaken into misbehaviour the emphasis tends fall into two broad categories. First of all, organizational behaviour theorists use the term misbehaviour as a means to highlight how the ‘negative’ behaviour of employees gets in the way of formal organizational goals. Secondly, radical sociologists tend to use the term misbehaviour as a means to critique Foucauldian labour process theory. Here an argument is made that suggests the disciplinary affects of new management practices associated with human resource management and total quality management have been overstated. Furthermore, radical sociologists also use the term misbehaviour as means to critique organizational behaviour accounts, which are believed to paint overly optimistic accounts of organizational life. However, on further examination it was discovered that neither a radical sociological approach, nor a traditional organizational behaviour approach, sufficiently addresses the current deficit in our understandings and explanations for workplace misbehaviour. Hence, one of the main themes of this thesis was to design a theoretical and methodological framework to address the deficit in our understandings and explanations. As such, a view was taken of how a radical sociological approach (orthodox labour process analysis) combined with an emerging social psychological perspective (a social identity approach (Haslam, 2001)) could help overcome previous theoretical problems associated with researching misbehaviour. Empirical support for this approach is provided by the detailed examination of the objective and subjective working conditions of four different sets of low status workers. The findings are based on longitudinal covert participant observations, as well as covert interviews and the covert gathering of company documents. The findings depart from previous insights into workplace misbehaviour in stressing the importance of acknowledging and investigating both the organizational and sub-group social identities of low status workers, in relation to such activities. As such, a great deal of the misbehaviour noted in the findings can be attributed to the poor treatment of low status workers by management, yet misbehaviour is equally if not more attributable to the empowering or inhibitive qualities of the many psychological groups that worker can associate with or disassociate themselves from. Recommendations are made about the direction of future research into workplace misbehaviour. There are many suggestions made and include examining misbehaviour in a wider range of settings, sectors and levels of organizations.

Рассмотрены основные элементы технологического процесса. Показана их взаимосвязь между собой в ходе движения предмета труда по технологическому маршруту. Детально рассмотрено техническое содержание задачи управления параметрами технологического процесса через сверхурочные работы. Представлена модель управления параметрами технологического процесса, основанная на статистических балансовых уравнениях для макропараметров технологического процесса. Поставлена задача программного управления параметрами технологического процесса.

The need for IS Strategies to be optimally aligned with business strategies in order to maximize both value for the business and usability of technology has lead to an understandable emphases on strategic IS alignment for both academics and practitioners (Henderson and Venkatraman, 1999; Galliers and Newell, 2003). However, on review of both the IS strategy and alignment literatures, important limits in current understanding were identified. Although there has been an increasing acceptance of IS strategy as more likely to have an emergent (Avgerou, Ciborra and Land, 2004) rather than a planned rational nature (apropos the seminal work of Mintzberg and Waters (1985)), descriptive and theoretical understanding of this emergent nature was lacking. Further gaps in the IS alignment literature were identified. The predominant emphases of alignment research were on the outcomes and causes of alignment with insufficient consideration given to the ongoing processes of alignment. Very strikingly, the roles of the informal organisation in alignment had been hitherto underexplored and although process (and indeed strategic process) theory had attained a level of maturity; application in alignment process research was conspicuously absent. In essence, literature evaluation had identified that there was an insufficient understanding of IS alignment as an emerging strategic process, from both theory and practitioner perspectives. The following research question could therefore be derived: What process theory motors and relationships characterise SIS alignment process? The most apposite perspective on process for this research was to frame alignment as a developing sequence of events, rather than the alternative approach of a set of concepts of categories (VanDeVen, 2007) necessitating a longitudinal approach to data collection. The principal motivation of the research question was a nascent attempt to explore and understand rather than measure alignment, so a subjective qualitative approach was most appropriate. Alignment process data was collected at multiple organisational levels and from both primary (i.e. semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in the alignment process) and second sources (i.e. formal strategy documents and planning schedules). The process of alignment was presented in the form of a case narrative. SIS alignment process events were identified and their progression visually expressed by applying techniques from process research literature (Langley, 1999; Pentland, 1999). Applying the well-established relationship between even progression, generative mechanisms and motors (Pettigrew, 1990; VanDeVen and Poole, 1995) enabled Strategic IS alignment process to be conceptualised in the form of high-level process theory motors. The contributions of this research are as follows. A process theory perspective on Strategic IS alignment process is offered which addresses the identified literature gap. Methodological contributions also arise due to the structured and explicit application of process research analyses techniques, still relatively rare in IS research. Recommendations for managerial practice also arise from the detailed explication of the alignment process and the causes and outcomes of key process events and their progression.

Purpose of this diploma thesis is proposal of fit stimulative tools. First company Moravia IT, a.s. is introduced along with objectives set for next five years period. Then is high fluctuation in the company chosen as the main problem. The aim is to propose stimuli, which decrease fluctuation. There is an analysis done in the next part, which is focused in negative and positive factors, which influence motivation of employees. The most significant motivation theories are described in theoretical part and their results are also mentioned. Final proposal of stimuli is divided into several parts – employees’ needs identification, definition of new stimuli and selection of suitable stimulative tools. There is made provision for time frame of satisfying employee’s needs in “evaluation” chapter. Also changes in corporate strategy according to the new proposals are demonstrated. At the end of the diploma thesis are suggested particular steps for management, which should have been done to decrease high fluctuation and finally achieve the main objectives of the company.

Submitted by Edileide Reis (leyde-landy@hotmail.com) on 2013-04-16T18:23:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucas Oliveira.pdf: 365301 bytes, checksum: d1e2ec1453276f564fcbb9f188c6744f (MD5)
Approved for entry into archive by Rodrigo Meirelles(rodrigomei@ufba.br) on 2013-05-09T17:31:58Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucas Oliveira.pdf: 365301 bytes, checksum: d1e2ec1453276f564fcbb9f188c6744f (MD5)
Made available in DSpace on 2013-05-09T17:31:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucas Oliveira.pdf: 365301 bytes, checksum: d1e2ec1453276f564fcbb9f188c6744f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011
Esta dissertação tem como objetivo principal examinar os reflexos, no Direito Processual do Trabalho, das mudanças pelas quais tem passado o ordenamento jurídico brasileiro, no que concerne ao princípio do duplo grau de jurisdição. Para tanto, será feito uma explanação sobre os componentes epistemológicos do direito processual, com influxos metodológicos, ideológicos e constitucionais. Em seguida, estuda-se sobre a teoria do Processo do Trabalho, observando-se sua autonomia e os princípios processuais. Ato contínuo, investiga-se o princípio do duplo grau de jurisdição de maneira geral, trabalhando-se suas características em sentido amplo. Na seqüência, serão feitas considerações com enfoque dogmático sobre o objetivo de conhecimento pelo tribunal, para tanto serão necessários compreender os conceitos de causa de pedir, pedidos questões, efeito devolutivo e juízo de admissibilidade aplicados a demanda e aos recursos. O ponto nuclear, todavia, está ao final, consubstanciando-se no estudo do princípio do duplo grau de jurisdição no Processo do Trabalho com respectivas conseqüências como o julgamento imediato do mérito pelo tribunal e os reflexos deste nos ritos sumário e sumaríssimo.
Salvador

La Teoría del comportamiento indica que la toma de decisiones es el motor que da vida a la organización, en donde para la Alta Gerencia una correcta toma de decisiones debe ser respaldada por confiables fuentes de información, ya que al consolidarse esta como un recurso fundamental en este proceso, permitirá elegir y tomar decisiones rápidas y certeras en las organizaciones. Esta información se ha obtenido muchas veces a partir de la transferencia de conocimientos adquiridos de los diferentes procesos de aprendizaje, con el fin de que ayude en tomar la mejor decisión, para lograr buenos resultados y para que la empresa sea sostenible en el tiempo. En esta investigación se analizaron diferentes métodos con el fin de demostrar el riesgo en el proceso de tomar alguna decisión por parte de la Alta Gerencia, ya que ante una decisión todos los grupos de personas que conforman la organización se verán afectados. De modo que, muchas veces las organizaciones se encuentran en una incertidumbre en no saber qué alternativa escoger y qué riesgo puedan correr. Lo que significa que la Alta Gerencia deberá de concentrarse al usar sus experiencias y conocimientos para poder escoger la mejor decisión en base al futuro de su organización. Finalmente, esta investigación pasará a analizar el proceso de toma de decisiones y su efecto para los intereses de una organización de servicio con el objetivo de ser sostenible en el tiempo.
The Theory of behavior indicates that decision-making is the engine that gives life to the organization, where for senior management proper decision-making must be supported by reliable sources of information, since by consolidating this as a fundamental resource in This process will allow to choose and make quick and accurate decisions in organizations. This information has been obtained many times from the transfer of knowledge acquired from the different learning processes, in order to help in making the best decision, to achieve good results and for the company to be sustainable over time. In this investigation different methods were analyzed in order to demonstrate the risk in the process of taking some decision by the Top Management, since before a decision all the groups of people that make up the organization will be affected. So, many times organizations are in an uncertainty in not knowing what alternative to choose and what risk they can run. This means that Senior Management should concentrate on using their experiences and knowledge in order to choose the best decision based on the future of their organization. Finally, this research will analyse the decision-making process and its effect for the interests of a service organization with the aim of being sustainable over time.
Trabajo de Suficiencia Profesional

The right of freedom of association, nowadays, is considered a fundamental right of workers. However, and though it has been internationallyrecognized in several   Covenants of the International Labor Organization, it has been a tendency among Latin American governments to limit the exercise of this freedom.In the present article, the author criticizes what he considers to be an excessive regulation of the exercise of the right of freedom of association by workers, present in almost every country in the region. These limitations are manifested through constitutional or legal restrictions to the formation of labor unions, union unity regimes and difficulties for the constitution of labor unions. In that way, he calls for the guarantee of the right of freedom of association for workers in Latin America.
El derecho a la libertad sindical es considerado, hoy en día, como un derecho fundamental del trabajador. Sin embargo, y a pesar de estar reconocido internacionalmente en diversos Convenios de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo, ha sido una tendencia de los gobiernos latinoamericanos la limitación del ejercicio de la libertad sindical.En el presente artículo, el autor hace una crítica a lo que él considera una excesiva regulación del ejercicio de la libertad sindical presente en casi todos los ordenamientos jurídicos de la región. Estas limitaciones se manifestarían a través de restricciones constitucionales o legales a la formación de sindicatos, regímenes de unicidad sindical y trabas a la constitución de los mismos. De ese modo, hace un necesario llamado a la garantía del derecho a la libertad sindical en Latinoamérica.

The evolution of technology brings with it the evolution of business processes. Without a doubt, technology changes how work is performed. At first glance, workplace technology appears to be a great boon to society. However, research presents opposing views on how workplace technologies impact the individual. One perspective argues that organizations utilize technology to redesign work processes, such that the worker requires less skill, autonomy, and compensation. The opposing perspective argues that organizations utilize technology to empower employees to improve efficiency and profits. This dissertation consists of three interrelated studies examining workplace technology's impact on decision makers. The first study examines the capability of an enterprise system to increase the application of scientific management techniques to middle management and, consequently, to degrade middle management's work by limiting their autonomy. The second study investigates the capability of an enterprise system to facilitate the empowerment of managers via mutual monitoring and social identification. The third study builds upon the first study by examining how limiting autonomy through technology impacts the intrinsic motivation of decision makers and, as a result, affects the decision making process. Study one applies labor process theory to explain how enterprise systems can degrade the work of middle management via scientific management techniques. The purpose of this study is to test if the expectations of labor process theory can be applied to enterprise systems. In order to test this assertion, a field survey utilizing 189 middle managers is employed and the data is analyzed using component based structural equation modeling. The results indicate that enterprise system integration increases two scientific management techniques, formalization and performance measurement, but do not reveal a significant relationship between enterprise system integration and routinization. Interestingly, the results also indicate that routinization is the only scientific management technique, of the three studied, that directly limits the autonomy of the middle managers. Although performance measurement does not reduce autonomy directly, performance measurement interacts with routinization to reduce autonomy. This study contributes to the enterprise system literature by demonstrating enterprise systems' ability to increase the degree of scientific management applied to middle management. It also contributes to labor process theory by revealing that routinization may be the scientific management technique that determines whether other control techniques are utilized in a manner consistent with labor process theory. The ability of an enterprise system to facilitate the application of Mary Parker Follett's managerial control concepts are investigated in the second study. Specifically, Follett theorizes that information sharing facilitates the internalization of group goals and empowers individuals to have more influence and be more effective. This study employs a survey of 206 managers to test the theoretical relationships. The results indicate that enterprise system integration increases information sharing in the form of mutual monitoring, consequently, leading to social identification among peer managers. Additionally, social identification among peer managers empowers managers to have more influence over the organization. The study contributes to empowerment research by acknowledging and verifying the role that social identification plays in translating an empowering work climate into empowered managers. The study's conclusion that enterprise system integration facilitates the application of Follett's managerial control concepts extends both enterprise system and managerial control literature. The third study builds upon study one by examining the affect that autonomy has upon the decision maker. This study marries self-determination theory and technology dominance theory to understand the role that self-determination, intrinsic motivation, and engagement have upon technology dominance. Self-determination theory asserts that higher degrees of self-determination increase intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, self-determination research finds that intrinsic motivation increases engagement, while technology dominance research indicates that lack of engagement is an antecedent of technology dominance. Thus, applying self-determination theory as a predictor of technology dominance suggests that autonomy and relatedness associated with a task increase the intrinsic motivation to complete that task and consequently increase engagement in the task. Task engagement, in turn, reduces the likelihood of technology dominance. The proposed theoretical model is tested experimentally with 83 junior level business students. The results do not support the theoretical model, however the findings reveal that intrinsic motivation does reduce the likelihood of technology dominance. This indicates that intrinsic motivation as a predictor of technology dominance should be further investigated. Additionally, the study contributes to technology dominance literature by exhibiting a more appropriate operationalization of the inappropriate reliance aspect of technology dominance. This dissertation reveals that various theories concerning workplace technology and management control techniques have both validity and limitations. Labor process theorists cannot assume that all technologies and management control techniques are utilized to undermine the employee's value to the organization, as Study 2 reveals that enterprise systems and mutual monitoring lead to empowered managers. Likewise, proponents of enterprise systems cannot assume that the integrated nature of enterprise systems is always utilized in an empowering manner, as Study 1 reveals the increased performance measurement through enterprise systems can be utilized to limit managers in a routinized job environment. While the third study was unable to determine that the control features in technology affect the intrinsic motivation to complete a task, the findings do reveal that intrinsic motivation is directly related to technology dominance. The findings and theoretical refinements demonstrate that workplace technology and management control have a complicated relationship with the employee and that the various theories concerning them cannot be applied universally.
Ph.D.
Doctorate
Dean's Office, Business Administration
Business Administration
Business Administration; Accounting

This thesis is organized into two parts, one for my main area of research in the field of stochastic games, and the other for my contributions in the area of service systems. We first provide an abstract for my work in stochastic games. The field of stochastic games has been actively pursued over the last seven decades because of several of its important applications in oligopolistic economics. In the past, zero-sum stochastic games have been modelled and solved for Nash equilibria using the standard techniques of Markov decision processes. General-sum stochastic games on the contrary have posed difficulty as they cannot be reduced to Markov decision processes. Over the past few decades the quest for algorithms to compute Nash equilibria in general-sum stochastic games has intensified and several important algorithms such as stochastic tracing procedure [Herings and Peeters, 2004], NashQ [Hu and Wellman, 2003], FFQ [Littman, 2001], etc., and their generalised representations such as the optimization problem formulations for various reward structures [Filar and Vrieze, 1997] have been proposed. However, they suffer from either lack of generality or are intractable for even medium sized problems or both. In our venture towards algorithms for stochastic games, we start with a non-linear optimization problem and then design a simple gradient descent procedure for the same. Though this procedure gives the Nash equilibrium for a sample problem of terrain exploration, we observe that, in general, it need not be true. We characterize the necessary conditions and define KKT-N point. KKT-N points are those Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) points which corresponding to Nash equilibria. Thus, for a simple gradient based algorithm to guarantee convergence to Nash equilibrium, all KKT points of the optimization problem need to be KKT-N points, which restricts the applicability of such algorithms. We then take a step back and start looking at better characterization of those points of the optimization problem which correspond to Nash equilibria of the underlying game. As a result of this exploration, we derive two sets of necessary and sufficient conditions. The first set, KKT-SP conditions, is inspired from KKT conditions itself and is obtained by breaking down the main optimization problem into several sub-problems and then applying KKT conditions to each one of those sub-problems. The second set, SG-SP conditions, is a simplified set of conditions which characterize those Nash points more compactly. Using both KKT-SP and SG-SP conditions, we propose three algorithms, OFF-SGSP, ON-SGSP and DON-SGSP, respectively, which we show provide Nash equilibrium strategies for general-sum discounted stochastic games. Here OFF-SGSP is an off-line algorithm while ONSGSP and DON-SGSP are on-line algorithms. In particular, we believe that DON-SGSP is the first decentralized on-line algorithm for general-sum discounted stochastic games. We show that both our on-line algorithms are computationally efficient. In fact, we show that DON-SGSP is not only applicable for multi-agent scenarios but is also directly applicable for the single-agent case, i.e., MDPs (Markov Decision Processes). The second part of the thesis focuses on formulating and solving the problem of minimizing the labour-cost in service systems. We define the setting of service systems and then model the labour-cost problem as a constrained discrete parameter Markov-cost process. This Markov process is parametrized by the number of workers in various shifts and with various skill levels. With the number of workers as optimization variables, we provide a detailed formulation of a constrained optimization problem where the objective is the expected long-run averages of the single-stage labour-costs, and the main set of constraints are the expected long-run average of aggregate SLAs (Service Level Agreements). For this constrained optimization problem, we provide two stochastic optimization algorithms, SASOC-SF-N and SASOC-SF-C, which use smoothed functional approaches to estimate gradient and perform gradient descent in the aforementioned constrained optimization problem. SASOC-SF-N uses Gaussian distribution for smoothing while SASOC-SF-C uses Cauchy distribution for the same. SASOC-SF-C is the first Cauchy based smoothing algorithm which requires a fixed number (two) of simulations independent of the number of optimization variables. We show that these algorithms provide an order of magnitude better performance than existing industrial standard tool, OptQuest. We also show that SASOC-SF-C gives overall better performance.

This paper outlines the concept of labour in socialist Czechoslovakia of the 1960s. It examines on discourses of social and economic reforms and that of the post-Stalin era. The focus lays on main social, economic and ideological categories on which those projects based, on extent of their construction as well as on shifting the emphasis between their particular elements. The paper concerns above all conceivable relation of the newly shaped discourse to effort to reconstitute social differentiation and to overcome the social leveling of the previous Stalin era. An attempt will be made to connect Honnet's theory of recognition with G. Cohen's concept of egalitarian justice. From that perspective, the paper will examine historical tranformations of conceptions of justice, division of labour, a social ethos of different social groups (particullary the educated intelligentsia), legitimacy of given forms of redistribution etc.

This study explores how freelancers in the creative and cultural industries (CCI) create, utilise and maintain social capital in the context of highly flexibilised, deregulated and digitalised labour markets. CCI freelancers organise their own workplace, working schedule and social security. Regardless of widespread precarity, they commonly perceive their working conditions as an autonomous choice to enjoy the privilege of working creatively. In relational, project-based working environments, their main way to find employment opportunities and reduce risk are social relationships. Their networking practices potentially lead to an intertwinement of private and professional spheres as well as digital and physical connections, and therefore to specific forms of sociality. This project has a qualitative approach, focusing on freelance creatives in Rome, Italy, and Berlin, Germany. Interviews were conducted with 31 creative freelancers living or working in the neighbourhoods of San Lorenzo and Pigneto in Rome as well as Kreuzberg and Neukölln in Berlin. These data were analysed with a grounded theory approach. Additionally, creative freelancers’ urban surroundings, networks and social media content were analysed with a network-ethnographic perspective to networking practices in digital and urban spaces. Findings imply that within the sample, the creation, utilisation and maintenance of social capital constitute continuous tasks throughout the careers of creative freelancers. Berlin’s urban space as a networking environment is more professionalised and adapted to the needs of the “creative class” compared to Rome’s more improvised yet more tight-knit creative scene. The relationship of social capital and the digital sphere appears to be shifting, with social media platforms increasingly serving the purpose of bonding on a more personal level with audiences through curated displays of intimacy. Constant networking as an integral part of the entrepreneurial ethos of creative professions overall leads to a profound blurring of personal and private spheres for creative freelancers.

As empresas familiares desempenham um papel vital no desenvolvimento da economia nacional e global, promovendo a criação de novos empregos, o crescimento de novos negócios e o aumento das atividades empresariais, sendo o processo de planeamento da sucessão, em empresas familiares, considerado como uma das fases mais importantes no ciclo de vida das mesmas (Zahrani et al. 2014). A presente dissertação envolve a participação de um grupo empresarial familiar português com o propósito de se compreender se o mesmo está consciente da necessidade do desenvolvimento de um plano de sucessão, assim como fornecer informação relevante para a elaboração eficaz do mesmo. Por outro lado, pretende-se ajudar o grupo em estudo a adotar uma gestão mais profissionalizada. Estas problemáticas irão ser exploradas, nesta dissertação, sob a perspetiva da resource-based view (RBV) e capacidades dinâmicas. As conclusões da dissertação permitirão contribuir para uma melhor clarificação sobre a gestão profissionalizada, e, ainda, o modo como o grupo empresarial em estudo poderá desenvolver o seu plano de sucessão de forma a procurar garantir a sua sobrevivência no longo prazo. Este estudo ambiciona igualmente trazer benefícios a outras empresas familiares que estejam a passar pelas mesmas dificuldades de forma a facilitar a sua permanência no mercado.
Family enterprises play a vital role in the development of the national and global economy, promoting the creation of new jobs, the growth of new businesses and the increase of business activities, being the succession planning process in family enterprises considered one of the most important stages of the family life cycle. This dissertation involves the participation of a portuguese family business group, in order to understand if it is aware of the need to develop a succession plan, as well as to provide relevant information for the effective elaboration of the same. On the other hand, it is intended to help the group under study to adopt a more professional management. These issues will be explored, in this dissertation, from the perspective of resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities. The conclusions of the dissertation will contribute to a better clarification about the professional management, as well as the way in which the business group under study can develop its succession plan to ensure its survival in the long term. This study also aims to bring benefits to other family businesses that are experiencing the same difficulties to facilitate their stay in the market.