Cette thèse propose une méthode pour coordonner flexiblement des Systèmes Multi-Agents (SMA). Plus en détails, nous étudions comment influencer des agents artificiels afin que, collectivement, ils atteignent des objectifs complexes et/ou dynamiques dans des environnements eux-aussi complexes et dynamiques (ex: un groupe de robots pour secourir les victimes lors d'un désastre, qui peut s'adapter à une grande variété de dangers, conditions climatiques, état des victimes).Dans ce but, nous avons d'abord étudié pourquoi, dans les sociétés humaines, les humains parviennent à coordonner relativement flexiblement mais pas leurs contreparties artificielles (agents des SMA). Cette opposition peut être grandement expliquée à l'aide d'un facteur clef : la culture. Les humains qui partagent un même bagage culturel se coordonnent flexiblement plus facilement, car ils ont une idée commune de ce que "travailler ensemble" veut dire. A contrario, les agents n'ont pas ce bagage et leurs échecs pour travailler ensemble s'apparente souvent à des chocs culturels.Ainsi, notre objectif consiste à répondre à la question suivante: peut-on utiliser une culture semblable à celle des humains comme un outil coordonner les SMA (et si oui, comment) ? Pour répondre à cette question, il nous faut d'abord expliquer : comment intégrer une culture semblable à celle des humains dans un SMA? Cette seconde question en soulève une troisième à étudier en premier : comment est-ce que la culture influence la manière dont la coordination se passe dans les sociétés humaines ?1- Nous montrons que de manière générale, la culture influence les décisions individuelles prises en situation d'interaction (ex: au travers d'attentes, de manière d'agir et de raisonner). Cette influence mène à l'occurrence de schémas d'interaction abstraits, récurrent et cohérents, qui, généralement, améliorent la performance collective. Ensuite, nous spécifions comment les principaux mécanismes l'influence connue de la culture (ex: importance culturelle accordée au pouvoir, aux règles) appliquent spécifiquement en situation de coordination (ex: la culture influence si les dirigeants donnent des ordres vs. des propositions à leurs subordonnés).2-Nous montrons comment répliquer les mécanismes l'influence de la culture sur la coordination dans les SMA. Tout d'abord, puisque la culture est fondée dans les décisions individuelles, nous mettons en avant un mécanisme de décision humain clef qui, à la fois, est sensible à la culture et influence la coordination. Ce mécanisme se trouve dans les valeurs, ce que les gens considèrent comme "bien" ou "important" (ex: honnêteté, discipline, autonomie). Ensuite, nous intégrons ces valeurs dans une architecture agent capable de prendre des décisions en situation de coordination. Enfin, nous illustrons que notre architecture peut en effet reproduire l'influence de la culture sur la coordination à travers de deux simulations qui répliquent des phénomènes culturels en situation de coordination connus.3-Nous étudions comment ces valeurs, inspirées des valeurs humaines, peuvent être utilisées coordonner des SMA. Tout d'abord, nous étudions pour quels problèmes les valeurs offrent un moyen opérationnel pour soutenir la coordination. A l'instar des sociétés humaines, les valeurs sont particulièrement offrent un haut niveau de flexibilité, quand les agents doivent raisonner eux-même pour établir une coordination. Puis, nous étudions les détails techniques à considérer pour utiliser en pratique des valeurs pour coordonner flexiblement des SMA (ex: quelles valeurs choisir ? Comment les représenter ?).En résumé, cette thèse met en évidence que les principaux mécanismes de l'influence de la culture sur la coordination (en particulier, grâce à l'influence de la culture sur les valeurs) peuvent être répliquées au sein des SMA. De plus, nous montrons que ces mécanismes peuvent être manipulés dans le but de coordonner des SMA. / This thesis proposes a method for supporting flexible coordination in multi-agent systems (MASs). In other words, we aim at influencing societies of artificial agents such that they can handle complex or evolving environments and collective goals (e.g. robots providing an emergency support capable of handling various hazards, climatic conditions, status of victims).Towards achieving this goal, we first investigated why in human societies, for which MASs can be seen as an ``artificial" counterpart, humans manage to coordinate relatively flexibly comparatively with artificial agents in MASs. We discovered that culture is a key factor of this relative success. Briefly, when humans share a cultural background, they manage to coordinate more flexibly because they share a common idea about what ``working together'' means. Conversely, artificial agents miss this aspect, leading in turn to coordination failures that can are similar to cultural clashes.The lack raises our goal: we want to better understand how culture can be integrated within and used for coordinating artificial societies. This goal raises the following research question: (how) can human-like culture be used as a tool for supporting coordination in artificial societies? As a preliminary step for answering this question, we need first to answer this question: (how) can the influence human-like cultures be integrated within artificial societies? In turn, this question raises a third one to be answered first: how does culture influence coordination in human societies?As a first step, we expand general theories of culture for conceptualizing its influence in the context of coordination. From a generic perspective, we explain that culture influences individual decisions that support matching expectations and coherent interaction patterns, leading in turn to (generally) better collective performance. From a more specific perspective, we specify how the core acknowledged patterns of the influence of culture (e.g. cultural importance given to power status, to rules) apply in the context of coordination (e.g. culture influences the likeliness that leaders are (made) responsible for making decisions for subordinates vs. proposing alternatives).As a second step, we study how to replicate human-like influences of culture on coordination within artificial societies. First, since culture is grounded within individual decisions, we investigate the core culturally-sensitive decision aspects that impact the most (flexible) coordination in human societies. We discover that values, what people consider as ``good'' or ``important'' (e.g. honesty, obedience, autonomy), constitute such an aspect by deeply supporting a wide range of (interaction-related) decisions. Then, for illustrating how to replicate influence of culture within artificial societies, we build an value-sensitive agent decision architecture that can make coordination-related decisions. Finally, we illustrate that our architecture can replicate the influence of culture on coordination through two simulations that replicate known coordination-related cultural phenomena.As a third step, we study how human-like values can be used for supporting coordination in artificial societies. First, we investigate the range of coordination problems for which values can offer an operational means for supporting coordination. As in human societies, values are particularly adequate for problems with complex and dynamic environments, requiring agents to make coordination-related decisions. Then, towards concretely implementing values, we study the technical details to consider when using values for supporting flexible coordination (e.g. how to concretely design values and integrating them within decision processes).

Bakgrund: Mindre ideella organisationer fyller en central funktion i ekonomin och är en del av den växande ideella sektorn. Därför har en större angelägenhet vuxit fram när det kommer till de mindre ideella sektorns redovisning. Det finns ingen särskild lag som tillämpas för de  mindre ideella organisationerna och de är heller inte tvingade att upprätta en särskild redovisning, vilket medför att det inte heller finns någon fastställd redovisningsprocess för dessa ideella organisationer.   Frågeställning:  Hur ser redovisningsprocessen ut i mindre ideella organisationer och vad påverkas den av?   Syfte: Det finns generellt sett få studier som fokuserar på redovisningsprocessen i ideella organisationer och när det kommer till mindre sådana har inga tidigare studier gjorts. Arbetet syftar därför till att belysa och öppna upp området. Arbetet syftar även till att bidra med kunskap genom att beskriva den process som genomgås vid redovisning av den mindre ideella verksamheten samt undersöka vad som påverkar denna process.   Metod: För att uppfylla arbetets syfte genom att besvara dess frågeställning, har en kvalitativ metod använts. Datainsamlingen består av fyra genomförda semi-strukturerade intervjuer där respondenterna är redovisningsansvariga inom fyra mindre ideella organisationer. Ett strategiskt urval gjordes där nio redovisningsansvariga tillfrågades, men enbart fyra av dem hade möjlighet att medverka.   Resultat & Slutsats: Redovisningsprocessen ser inte likadan ut i alla mindre ideella organisationer men alla förefaller sig genomgå en process och ha utarbetade rutiner. Det ideella syftet medför att involverandet av revisor blir en väsentlig kostnadsfråga och den största skillnaden. En avvägning får göras kring nytta och kostnad. Samtidigt väljer de hellre att anlita en professionellt kunnig person än att riskera att det blir fel. Alla steg i redovisningsprocessen genomförs noggrannt för att upprätta en redovisning av god kvalitet, vilket visar medlemmarna hur pengarna använts och för att uppfylla de normer och värderingar som samhället har. / Background: Small non-profit organisation’s play a central role in the economy and are a part of the growing non-profit sector. Therefore a greater concern has emerged when it comes to the small non-profit organisations accounting. There is no specific law set up for small non-profit organisations and they are not obliged to set up a separate accounting, which means that there is no established accounting-process for these organisations.   Framing of question: What does the accounting-process for smaller non-profit organisations look like and what affects it?   Purpose: There are generally few studies that focuses on accounting in non-profit organisations and when it comes to smaller ones no previous studies has been found. This study therefore aims to highlight the area. The study also aims to contribute with knowledge by describing the process that is being implemented when the accounting is being established and examining what affects this process.   Method: To achieve the purpose of this study a qualitative method has been used. The data was gathered through four semi-structured interviews. The respondents are responsible for the accounting within their respective smaller non-profit organisations. Through a strategic selection, nine respondents were asked but only four of them had the opportunity to participate in our study.   Result & Conclusion: The accounting-process does not look the same within every small non-profit organisation, though they follow a process and have prepared routines for how the work should be performed. The nonprofit purpose entails that the involvement of the auditor becomes a significant cost issue where balance regarding benefit and cost is considered. Though, they rather choose to hire a professionally knowledgeable person than risk making mistakes. Every step is carried out carefully to establish a report of good quality which shows the members how the money has been used and to meet the norms and values of society.

This thesis is an exploratory study of the ‘expression of values’ within development organisations. I consider the value-bases of the economic and humanist paradigms of development, the nature of values and their relation to both organisational and personal positions, and how these impact on non-governmental development organisations (NGDOs). The expression of development values is embedded in theory, in practice modalities, in organisational structure and function, and in personal beliefs, attitudes and behaviours. Development values are also inherent in statements of an organisation’s vision and mission. More often than not these values are implicit, and do not always match with the organisation’s operations. In the course of this exploration I draw on the broad history of development paradigms, the influences of moral philosophy, and the evolution of NGDOs. I acknowledge the complexity of ‘development’, evident in the multiplicity of players and the multi-disciplinary nature of development in practice. A case-study of Oxfam New Zealand illustrates the significance of values and their relevance to operational functioning. My research methodology involved open-ended questionnaire techniques and analysis of secondary resources drawn from Oxfam publications. Analysis of findings reveals an interdependence between words and their meanings and the interpretation of both organisational and personal values. When the results of the case-study are aligned with the literature, my conclusions make a case for stronger articulation of values as an important future role and function of NGDOs, including Oxfam New Zealand. Values represent the why of development that shapes the how of development practice, and thus explicit values can enhance organisational strength and power.

Benchmarking is a well established and respected mechanism that contributes to organisational improvement. Its epistemology demonstrates it to be theoretically underdetermined with literature focusing on pragmatism and praxis. Benchmarking's critics hold it to be a-theoretical; failing to provide its practitioners with a reliable basis for distinguishing between effective and ineffective efforts. The purpose of this thesis is to review Benchmarking's epistemology and identify the necessary or sufficient methodological elements contributing to its effectiveness and to establish them within an acceptable theoretical framework. A causal approach is applied to the objectives of organisational benchmarking's current definitions and implementation frameworks. The resulting theoretical framework is then validated against current exemplary benchmarking praxis to explain its effectiveness and satisfy historical criticisms. Central to the approach is the application of supervenience and entailment relationships between benchmarking parties within the umbrella of Peircean Causation to determine the feasibility of a benchmarking proposition. Benchmarking's a priori effectiveness (sufficiency) can be established from an organisational axiom and five logical conditions. This research establishes a new encompassing definition of benchmarking reduces its typology to a single consistent form and establishes an Effective Benchmarking Process that explains current practices and addresses historical criticisms. These logical conditions also explain the effectiveness of empirical frameworks such as the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and ISO 9000. A theoretical foundation for benchmarking provides a platform for extending the theory of organisational improvement. It also has significant potential to enhance organisational sustainability by reducing wasted effort. This research focuses on the causal linkages between benchmarking and organisational sustainability. The research establishes a new definition of benchmarking, specifies necessary and sufficient conditions for its application and frames practitioner efforts within an Effective Benchmarking Process (EBP).

This study investigated the nexus between multicultural policies and contract management within the Community Health Services in the Northern Metropolitan Region of the Victorian Department of Human Services. Access and equity of services to linguistic minority migrant groups is a central component of this study. The study drew on literature pertaining to social work theory and practice, with a particular focus on structural social work, the evolution of Australia's multicultural policy and the context of contract management. The data collection consisted of two stages. The first stage comprised of twenty-two semi-structured interviews with Chief Executive Officers and managers from the Community Health Services, government personnel from the Department of Human Services and key informants. The second stage of the study, a self administered questionnaire survey for service providers, was developed and designed from the key themes identified from the interviewee data. A total of 119 service providers responded to the questionnaire. Key findings of this study were first, that the Community Health Services have broad policies of inclusion. Secondly, that the multicultural policy may be considered a broader policy then just a policy relating to people of non-English speaking backgrounds or culture relating to ethnicity. Thirdly, funding arrangements appeared limited in their expectations regarding linguistic accessibility. Fourthly, service providers had a different perception of the quality level of service their organisation provided to English speakers and non-English speakers. Implications of this study included, first, having broad inclusive policies would require specific strategies of access. Secondly, multicultural policy as such may need to develop into a policy of 'structural cultural equity'. Thirdly, partnerships between government and Community Health Services can be further utilised to develop more innovative service delivery methods to respond to linguistic minority groups. Lastly, culturally sensitive practice modules may need to be considered as a central component in the health and welfare field of tertiary education. The study concluded that Community Health Services are ideally located to implement services, which not only address the notion of multiculturalism, but also address the issues of equity in the context of a dominant paradigm. In such an environment someone who speaks a language other than English is 'visible' and therefore, 'a woman without a word of English enters the Community Health Service' and receives the same service as an English speaker.

The purpose of this research study is to investigate and identify the impact of conflict on the success of information systems development. While specific hypotheses and research propositions are tested and investigated, the broader objectives of the study are to: explore the nature of conflict in an information system development and the extent to which conflict may be perceived to impact on the successful progress of a project; to determine which type of conflict may pose the most risk to an information systems development; and to determine to what extent conflict can be said to be contributing factor to information systems failure. This study is structured into two different stages: a major case study conducted to explore the nature of conflict in a prematurely terminated information systems development and to probe the extent to which conflict is perceived to pose a risk to information systems projects; and a second stage surveying IT managers to test the wider applicability of the case findings. Findings include a predictive model of conflict showing that the independent variables: Extent of the Conflict; Degree of Perceived Impediment caused by conflict; Assessment and Management of Conflict; and finally, the Type of Conflict, impact on the probability of project success. Some of the primary theories on conflict derived from the study include the finding that conflict involving users has the greatest negative impact on the probability of success of an information systems development. This includes User/User conflict which is at least equal to, and may even exceed the negative impact of Developer/User conflict in an information systems development environment. User/User conflict is the most potentially damaging type of conflict in an information systems development environment as this type of conflict is less frequently detected and resolved than conflict involving developers.

Since its conception, the concept of ‘market orientation’ has been largely regarded as an employee-perceived phenomenon due to its focus on employees as the unit of analysis. The examination of market orientation from customer perspective (‘perceived market orientation’) remains an under-researched topic, particularly within the non-profit sector. The present study seeks to address this research gap through an investigation of the role of ‘perceived market orientation’ in affecting ‘customer participation’ with churches as the research context. The use of churches as a research context has become increasingly common in studies of non-profit and services organisations. Although the implementation of marketing techniques in the church context has been extensive, there has been little examination of the effectiveness of these methods in encouraging church participation. Consequently, previous studies in this area have failed to contribute to a theoretical understanding of how marketing can be used to motivate participation. It is thus apparent that there is a need for more research in this area to examine the potential role of concepts such as ‘perceived market orientation’ and ‘brand image’ in affecting church participation. This research incorporated two stages of research design in the form of qualitative and quantitative techniques. The qualitative phase involved in-depth interviews with Church Goers (CGs) and Non Church Goers (NCGs). Insights gained from the interviews helped the present author to incorporate relevant constructs as predictors of church participation in the conceptual framework. The quantitative phase involved the distribution of self-administered questionnaires using convenience sampling technique. CG respondents were approached through Assemblies of God (AOG) church leaders in Melbourne metropolitan and suburban areas whereas NCG respondents were recruited through newspaper advertisement. A total of 564 usable questionnaires were obtained representing 42% of the total number of respondents approached in both groups. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were employed to establish construct reliability and validity as well as measurement invariance. Subsequently, the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique was employed to analyse the hypothesised relationships between key constructs in the conceptual framework. The results of the study indicate that ‘perceived market orientation’ plays an important role in affecting the church participation of both CG and NCG respondents. An examination of corollary hypotheses reveals that ‘interfunctional coordination’ performs the strongest effect on church participation. Further, ‘customer orientation’ was only found to be significantly associated with church participation in CG group whereas ‘competitor orientation’ was not found to be positively associated with church participation in either group of respondents. The ‘brand image’ construct in the present study was developed to examine the church’s ability in creating a unique brand identity (uniqueness), monitoring brand values (reputation), and managing brand communications (orchestration) from the perspectives of existing (CG) and prospective (NCG) members. The analysis found that ‘brand image’ is a unidimensional construct which is positively associated with ‘perceived market orientation’, ‘perceived benefits’, and ‘church participation’ in both sample groups. The study also examines the significance of ‘perceived benefits’ in affecting church participation. The construct was found to be significantly associated with church participation in both sample groups. Among the three dimensions of ‘perceived benefits’, the construct of ‘social benefits’ was found to perform the strongest effect on church participation in both sample groups. The present study offers significant practical implications for non-profit managers in general and church leaders in particular. Due to the significance of market orientation and brand image in encouraging customer participation, it is recommended that non-profit managers and church leaders embrace market orientation and brand orientation to reach out their target segments more effectively.

The central argument of this thesis is that participative approaches to evaluating voluntary rural community-based organisations are an effective tool for organisational learning and ensuing rural community development. This proposition is explored through the evaluation and strategic planning of the Southern Riverina Rural Advisory Service, a community-based counselling organisation. The Service works with families experiencing financial hardship and associated stress. The thesis is multi-faceted and generic issues included: the importance of commitment by rural communities and organisations to creating frameworks for understanding and acting in integrated ways to the diversity, inter-relatedness and conflict of issues, wishes and needs of members, and to develop the capacity to transform contexts of dependency-oriented crisis situations to ones of self-responsible, interdependent change; the need to view contexts through integration of local, regional, national and global perspectives and to develop networks to integrate understanding and action; and to continue learning how to better enhance organisational and community-based learning. / Master of Science (Hons)

The aim of this study is to understand the importance of public relations activity in non-profit organisations. The study emphasizes the bearing public relations activities can have on non-profit organisations in the contemporary world. This is especially true in an over communicated society where the vast majority of organisations compete to gain access to the scare media resources to put their message across to their potential clients, supporters and customers. Non-profit organisations generally have to depend on the donor agencies and therefore fail to attract a sizeable public relations budget. On the one hand, these organisations lack the resources to launch a successful public relations campaign and on the other the lack of knowledge and interest among general staff members makes it even harder for a public relations campaign to be developed or successfully launched. In this study, I used both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to collect and analyse data. The data were collected from two non-profit organisations based in New Zealand working in the area of child welfare. The primary data were collected through semi-structured interviews and survey questionnaires. A single semi-structured interview was conducted with each team leader of the two selected organisations. However, this was like skimming the surface and in-depth interviews would have helped me to collect richer data. On the other hand the data collected was sufficient for this research and it helped me to create a holistic understanding of the topic. The findings of the research highlight that most non-profit organisations working in the area of child welfare find it hard to market themselves due to a lack of funds and employee involvement. Although the findings from the study are significant; caution is necessary in applying the results to other scenarios and in making generalizations. One of the key findings from this research is that both organisations did not use public relations as a strategy. Most decision related to public relations was made on random basis and no long term strategic plan was made to adopt public relations as a core strategy to build creditability among their stakeholders.

This study adds to the limited empirical research evidence about the use of group facilitation in organisations. It analyses data collected from managers and facilitators to identify the critical contingency factors that influence the use of group facilitation. The data was analysed using an iterative process of grounded content analysis. The findings identify four primary contingency factors that influence the use of group facilitation. Chief among these is the 'outcomes-oriented' worldview that characterises the theories-in-use of both managers and facilitators. Group facilitation is used when managers perceive that it is likely to be an appropriate intervention which will enable the achievement of certain desired organisational goals. A parallel finding is that the relationship between managers and external facilitators is frequently 'instrumental' in nature. These findings have significant implications for both the theory and practice of group facilitation, especially concerning the field's dominant view of facilitation as a 'neutral' intervention. It extends the perspective proffered by a minority of scholars and writers in this field. The other primary contingency factors identified in this study include the complexity of the group's task; the need to challenge or otherwise alter the way a group is thinking in relation to its task; and the need to have open discussions about issues pertaining to the work or life of the group when the expertise to enable such discussions is not otherwise available. In addition to the implications regarding the neutrality of facilitation, the findings of this study have implications for the management of groups within organisations. Facilitation is demonstrably a useful means of building trust and enhancing relationships in numerous situations. It is also clearly perceived to be an appropriate means of enabling groups to structure and manage complex tasks. This includes tasks that are both objectively complex in nature, and those that group members subjectively experience as complex tasks. Given the increasing complexity of business environments, the complexity of many group tasks, and the increasing propensity for organisations to utilise teams and groups to get work done, facilitation is emerging as an important means of assisting organisational effectiveness.