<strong>Nature and Scope of the Study</strong><br /> Constant organisational change can be attributed to many factors, including competition among peers in the same markets, globalisation, privatisation of public sector organisations, technological advances, and operational requirements. These factors almost always lead to organisations reducing headcount. One such organisation is Telkom, which bi-annually embarks on large-scale retrenchments. Service organisations within the company were chosen at random to participate in this study. Telkom&rsquo / s Human Resource Management, Legal Services, Employee Relations, and the organisation&rsquo / s recognised unions participated in this study.<br /> <br /> <strong>Purpose and Objectives of the Study</strong><br /> Through an evaluation of Telkom&rsquo / s staff reduction process, the study seeks to:<br /> 1. Find out what measures Telkom has in place to ease the necessity of retrenchment within the organisation.<br /> 2. Review whether Telkom has looked at other alternatives before planning staff reductions.<br /> 3. Investigate whether a social plan within Telkom exists to help incorporate retrenched employees back into the economy.<br /> 4. Investigate and examine Telkom&rsquo / s compliance with labour legislation, specifically the Labour Relations Act and the Basic Conditions of Employment Act.

Flexibility is a term that is presumed to be meaningful across different levels of analysis in an organisation. It has been suggested that flexibility is required by organisations, groups, and individuals to deal with an increasingly complex and dynamic organisation and global environment. Authors have proposed that organisational flexibility enables a firm to achieve a better 'fit' with their environment and create a sustainable competitive advantage. The group level literature promotes flexibility at this level of analysis as important for group effectiveness and successful project completion. The individual flexibility literature suggests that people who are flexible are more likely to be satisfied and effective than individuals who are inflexible. Despite the importance placed on the construct of flexibility, it is a relatively under explored construct, both theoretically and empirically. This is due in part to the lack of definitional precision and inconsistency in the operationalisation of flexibility at each level of analysis. Consequently, little is known about the meaning of flexibility and the relationship of this construct with contextual and performance variables. This research addresses the limitations of the current literature on flexibility by developing a testable multi-level framework of flexibility. Flexibility is defined in this research as an organisation's, group's, and individual's ability to be proactive, adaptable, and resilient. Three primary research questions were addressed in this thesis. The first question addressed what are the characteristics of flexibility at the organisation, group, and individual level of analysis. The second overarching research question of interest in this thesis examines how flexibility at each level of analysis is related to performance. The third overarching research question examined what factors impact flexibility at each level of analysis. To address these three research questions at each level of analysis, a theoretical review and an empirical study were conducted. The first empirical study, focused on flexibility at the organisational level of analysis. This study involved the exploration of seven specific research questions that were developed from the theoretical review. This study used cross-sectional secondary data of private sector Australian organisations. Flexibility was defined as proactivity, adaptability, and resilience. This research examined the relationships between each of the flexibility components and improvements in several organisational level outcomes. Also, the impact of the contextual variables level of organisational control, degree of structure, and competition changes on the flexibility-performance relationship was investigated. Analysis techniques included moderated regression analysis. Results showed support for the positive association between flexibility and performance. Flexibility interacted with competition and structure to influence performance, but control was found to have no moderating effect on the flexibility-performance relationship. The second empirical study investigated group flexibility. This study took a sequential, mixed method research approach, using qualitative data to explore group flexibility and quantitative analysis to explore the broad relationships found among variables from the qualitative research. Using this approach, this study addressed five specific research questions that were developed from a theoretical review, including defining group flexibility, the nature of group flexibility conceptualisation, the relationship between flexibility and group performance, factors that may enhance group flexibility, and factors that may reduce group flexibility. Findings showed group flexibility was described consistently between participants and the existing literature, proposing group flexibility is a group's ability to search and consider alternatives, be adaptable, and resilient. Results also suggested a positive relationship between group flexibility and several outcomes, including stakeholder satisfaction, personal development and satisfaction, group morale, and group confidence. The final study examined individual level flexibility. Based on the theoretical exploration of individual flexibility, in this study, individual flexibility was defined as the ability to be proactive, adaptable, and resilient. This empirical research focused specifically on managerial level flexibility. Due to the similarities in descriptions of individual flexibility and managerial flexibility in the literature, the definition of individual flexibility was applied to the managerial level. The study investigated changes in flexibility levels over time using executive coaching as the literature promotes executive coaching as an individual flexibility developmental tool. This study examined eleven leaders undertaking executive coaching with individual flexibility being measured at three points in time, pre coaching, the middle of coaching, and post coaching. Findings were consistent with the proposition of the positive impact of executive coaching on flexibility as the data showed leaders' individual flexibility levels increased from pre coaching to post coaching, with a significant linear trend over time. The results of these three studies are integrated to inform the multi-level framework of flexibility which was developed in this thesis. This framework provides a systematic, comprehensive, and tangible definition of flexibility at each level of analysis, providing a rich description of the characteristics of each flexibility component. This research advances our understanding of flexibility, which I hope will encourage further research on the construct. For managers and practitioners, this research provides a clear description of flexibility at each level of analysis and offers indicators of flexibility at each level to encourage the measurement and development of organisational, group, and individual flexibility. Also, this research provides empirical evidence of the benefits of flexibility, helping to provide legitimacy for the inclusion of flexibility into the organisation, in areas including strategic planning, organisational design, group design, recruitment and selection, and training and development. Furthermore, this multi-level model allows practitioners to be more focused in developmental efforts for organisation, group, and individual flexibility. This research provides several interesting areas for future research.

Studies of expatriate adjustment have traditionally focused on corporate expatriate assignments where foreign employees are often the only expatriate, or one of a handful in a host organisation. Multicultural not-for-profit organisations such as United Nations organisations have largely been ignored. It was hypothesised that classic predictors of expatriate adjustment – Spousal Adjustment, Culture Novelty and Acculturation Style, and novel variables of Economic Adjustment and Stage in Assignment would predict Expatriate Adjustment and subsequent Cognitions to Withdraw prematurely from the assignment. 181 expatriates representing 38 countries from all economic levels completed an online survey investigating their experiences on assignment to a United Nations Organisation in Rome, Italy. Black & Stephens (1989) classic scales of Expatriate Adjustment, Spousal Adjustment, Culture Novelty and Cognitions to Withdraw were employed along with Acculturation Style, Economic Adjustment and Stage in Assignment measures designed for this study. Qualitative data was also collected around expatriates’ cognitions to withdraw from their assignment and reasons to stay in order to gain a richer understanding of the expatriate experience. The best predictors of Expatriate Adjustment and subsequent Cognitions to Withdraw for United Nations expatriate employees in Rome were classic predictor Culture Novelty and novel predictors Economic Adjustment and Stage in Assignment. Structural Equation Modelling indicated the best fitting model of Expatriate Adjustment and subsequent Cognitions to Withdraw demonstrated moderate fit (!2 = 1045.19, df = 486, p =.000, TLI = .80, CFI = .82, RMSEA = .08) with Culture Novelty predicting General and Interaction Adjustment; Economic Adjustment predicting General Adjustment; and Adjustment Stage predicting General, Interaction and Work Adjustment. General Adjustment was the only significant predictor of Cognitions to Withdraw. Qualitative analysis suggested that the classic adjustment measures used did not adequately capture the experiences of these expatriates and that caution should be taken in generalising the literature to not-for-profit populations. Furthermore the outcomes of this study suggest that the inclusion of novel variables of Economic Adjustment and Stage in Assignment as predictors of expatriate adjustment could be warranted for future research. Sample size and adequacy of measures both limited the extent to which analysis could be conducted and results generalised. More research into the expatriate experience in the not-for-profit sector is desperately needed.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis investigates the situated knowing-in-practice of locally-based community organisations, and studies how this practice knowledge is translated and contested in inter-organisational relations in the community services field of practices. Despite participation in government-led consultation processes, community organisations express frustration that the resulting policies and plans inadequately take account of the contributions from their practice knowledge. The funding of locally-based community organisations is gradually diminishing in real terms and in the competitive tendering environment, large nationally-based organisations often attract the new funding sources. The concern of locally-based community organisations is that the apparent lack of understanding of their distinctive practice knowing is threatening their capacity to improve the well-being of local people and their communities. In this study, I work with practitioners, service participants and management committee members to present an account of their knowing-in-practice, its character and conditions of efficacy; and then investigate what happens when this local practice knowledge is translated into results-based accountability (RBA) planning with diverse organisations and institutions. This thesis analyses three points of observation: knowing in a community of practitioners; knowing in a community organisation and knowing in the community services field of practices. In choosing these points of observation, the inquiry explores some of the relations and intra-actions from the single organisation to the institutional at a time when state government bureaucracy has mandated that community organisations implement RBA to articulate outcomes that can be measured by performance indicators. A feminist, performative, relational practice-based approach employs participatory action research to achieve an enabling research experience for the participants. It aims to intervene strategically to enhance recognition of the distinctive contributions of community organisations’ practice knowledge. This thesis reconfigures understandings of the roles, contributions and accountabilities of locally-based community organisations. Observations of situated practices together with the accounts of workers and service participants demonstrate how community organisations facilitate service participants’ struggles over social justice. A new topology for rethinking social justice as processual and practice-based is developed. It demonstrates how these struggles are a dynamic complex of iteratively-enfolded practices of respect and recognition, redistribution and distributive justice, representation and participation, belonging and inclusion. The focus on the practising of social justice in this thesis offers an alternative to the neo-liberal discourse that positions community organisations as sub-contractors accountable to government for delivering measurable outputs, outcomes and efficiencies in specified service provision contracts. The study shows how knowing-in-practice in locally-based community organisations contests the representational conception of knowledge inextricably entangled with accountability and performance measurement apparatus such as RBA. Further, it suggests that practitioner and service participant contributions are marginalised and diminished in RBA through the privileging of knowledge that takes an ‘expert’, quantifiable and calculative form. Thus crucially, harnessing local practice knowing requires re-imagining and enacting knowledge spaces that assemble and take seriously all relevant stakeholder perspectives, diverse knowledges and methods.

This thesis examines the history of the University of Queensland Women Graduates’ Association (UQWGA) from 1920 to 1979. The association was established by a small group of women graduates in Brisbane in 1920, and from that time they maintained links with graduate women throughout Australia and internationally. These links were formalised in 1922 when the Australian Federation of University Women was formed and immediately affiliated with the International Federation of University Women. The UQWGA aimed to connect and support graduate women locally as well as promote the values of the IFUW which included international friendship and peace. The history of women’s organisations in Australia has attracted little scholarly attention. This thesis contributes to the growing body of research on the women’s movement from the end of World War I to the emergence of women’s liberation in the 1970s. The members of the UQWGA believed that through their university education they had developed the skills and knowledge to contribute to the betterment of society. University education had also instilled in them a sense of privileged that was a motivating factor in their mobilisation. The UQWGA provided a supportive and stimulating space for graduate women that encouraged their endeavours in professional and public life. The actions and approach of the UQWGA reflect those of other mainstream women’s organisation up to the mid-1960s. The organisation promoted its agenda through ‘polite lobbying,’ utilising methods that were respectful of established systems and processes. The UQWGA established and maintained supportive relationships with other organisations, both men’s and women’s, and with the University of Queensland. The association was primarily concerned with issues of the status and position of graduate women, but members felt that their contribution would also be valued in the wider community. This thesis aims to locate the work of the UQWGA in the context of the women’s movement in Australia, including how it reacted to the altering women’s movement of the 1970s when it changed its name to the Australian Federation of University Women – Queensland.

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 thesis is centrally concerned with the question of how non-government organisations (NGOs) can support marginalised young people and the role the state plays in facilitating this. It utilises a comparative case study methodology and examines the circumstances of two NGOs, Twenty10: Gay and Lesbian Youth Support, located in Sydney, Australia and the Albert Kennedy Trust (AKT) which is located in both London and Manchester in the United Kingdom. Twenty10 and AKT share a similar client base: both work with gay, lesbian, bisexual and/or transgendered (GLBT) young people experiencing homelessness or in a housing crisis. Both also engage in advocacy and service provision. At the time of my fieldwork Twenty10 and AKT differed in two key respects. First, AKT operated in a political context that was significantly more open to NGO advocacy than was the case for Twenty10. Second, AKT was supported almost entirely by the work of volunteers and through philanthropic support, whereas Twenty10 received the bulk of its funding from government. These differing factors allow a consideration of how the varying nature of an NGO???s relationship with the state impacts upon their activities within varying political contexts. The theoretical frameworks drawn upon in this thesis are those of citizenship theory and queer theory. Citizenship theory is particularly useful in analysing the objectives of Twenty10 and AKT, which focus on redressing the distributive and recognition based needs of their young people. The strategies employed by these organisations are also both subsumed within the normative framework of citizenship theory ??? while nonetheless being dependent upon how closely each engages with the state. These case studies are situated against the queer critique of citizenship discourses, which emphasise its normalising and de-politicising consequences. As such, this thesis evaluates critiques of forms of activism that involve citizenship-focused issues and engagement with the state, and hence examines the effect a relationship with the state can have upon an NGO???s work.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis investigates the situated knowing-in-practice of locally-based community organisations, and studies how this practice knowledge is translated and contested in inter-organisational relations in the community services field of practices. Despite participation in government-led consultation processes, community organisations express frustration that the resulting policies and plans inadequately take account of the contributions from their practice knowledge. The funding of locally-based community organisations is gradually diminishing in real terms and in the competitive tendering environment, large nationally-based organisations often attract the new funding sources. The concern of locally-based community organisations is that the apparent lack of understanding of their distinctive practice knowing is threatening their capacity to improve the well-being of local people and their communities. In this study, I work with practitioners, service participants and management committee members to present an account of their knowing-in-practice, its character and conditions of efficacy; and then investigate what happens when this local practice knowledge is translated into results-based accountability (RBA) planning with diverse organisations and institutions. This thesis analyses three points of observation: knowing in a community of practitioners; knowing in a community organisation and knowing in the community services field of practices. In choosing these points of observation, the inquiry explores some of the relations and intra-actions from the single organisation to the institutional at a time when state government bureaucracy has mandated that community organisations implement RBA to articulate outcomes that can be measured by performance indicators. A feminist, performative, relational practice-based approach employs participatory action research to achieve an enabling research experience for the participants. It aims to intervene strategically to enhance recognition of the distinctive contributions of community organisations’ practice knowledge. This thesis reconfigures understandings of the roles, contributions and accountabilities of locally-based community organisations. Observations of situated practices together with the accounts of workers and service participants demonstrate how community organisations facilitate service participants’ struggles over social justice. A new topology for rethinking social justice as processual and practice-based is developed. It demonstrates how these struggles are a dynamic complex of iteratively-enfolded practices of respect and recognition, redistribution and distributive justice, representation and participation, belonging and inclusion. The focus on the practising of social justice in this thesis offers an alternative to the neo-liberal discourse that positions community organisations as sub-contractors accountable to government for delivering measurable outputs, outcomes and efficiencies in specified service provision contracts. The study shows how knowing-in-practice in locally-based community organisations contests the representational conception of knowledge inextricably entangled with accountability and performance measurement apparatus such as RBA. Further, it suggests that practitioner and service participant contributions are marginalised and diminished in RBA through the privileging of knowledge that takes an ‘expert’, quantifiable and calculative form. Thus crucially, harnessing local practice knowing requires re-imagining and enacting knowledge spaces that assemble and take seriously all relevant stakeholder perspectives, diverse knowledges and methods.

Thèse (M.A.) -- Université Laval, 2007. / Bibliogr.: f. 101-104. Publié aussi en version électronique dans la Collection Mémoires et thèses électroniques.

Thèse (M.A.)--Université Laval, 2007. / Bibliogr.: f. 135-141. Publié aussi en version électronique dans la Collection Mémoires et thèses électroniques.