Thèse (M. Sc.)--Université Laval, 1996. / Bibliogr.: f. [225]-239. Publié aussi en version électronique.

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1 Legal and property situation of a state enterprise Abstract This thesis focuses on the evaluation of the current legislation of a state-owned enterprise in the Czech Republic, especially in the light of the last amendment of the State-owned Enterprise Act, which is effective from 1st January 2017. The aim of this diploma thesis is to describe the valid legislation and also to evaluate the context with other legal regulations and finally to consider the need to preserve the unique legal form of the state-owned enterprise for the future. This diploma thesis is divided into the five chapters. The first chapter contains the brief characteristics of a state-owned enterprise and the definition of the basic concepts. The second chapter describes the historical development of the legal regulations of enterprises managing the state property from the establishment of Czechoslovakia until the year 1997, since when is effective the current State-owned enterprise Act. The third chapter, in four subchapters, analyzes the valid and effective legal regulations of the state-owned enterprise. The first subchapter is devoted to the company bodies of state-owned enterprises, the second to the subject of business and a purpose for which are the state-owned enterprises formed. The third subchapter is devoted to the...

What triggers political unrest under International Monetary Fund (IMF) programmes? Why do we see unrest - protests, strikes, and riots - in some countries under IMF programmes and not in others? This thesis argues that IMF labour conditionality in an immobile labour market compounded by intrusive fiscal conditionality and blocked democratic channels result in unrest. Where labour is immobile in the borrowing country, IMF labour conditionality decentralising the market creates large-scale grievances among the labour groups. Immobile labour groups substantially lose income and benefits under those measures due to high wage differentials and varied labour protection measures across sectors. Moreover, uncertainty and risks increase, while the opportunities to return back to employment or to maintain the existing income and benefits diminish. When the political authority is unable to address the rising grievances due to tight fiscal conditionality and blocked democratic channels, we observe political unrest under IMF programmes. Where labour is mobile, on the other hand, it is easier for workers to switch between sectors and jobs when the economic crisis hits their sector. The labour groups respond to the internal crisis and the external impact by increasing mobility and switching to the sectors that are still growing despite the crisis. Labour conditions do not give rise to a similar degree of uncertainty and risks compared to immobile markets. Hence, programmes are implemented without large-scale unrest. The study tests this theory in a global sample of 117 countries between 1970 and 2013 and investigates the impact of mobility and IMF conditionality on unrest with a data set originally compiled and coded for this study. It then delves into two extreme cases, Greece, 2010 and Turkey, 2001. While Greece had extreme immobility and received intrusive labour and fiscal conditionality in 2010, Turkey is located on the opposite end of the spectrum, with very high levels of mobility, the limited number of labour conditions, and greater fiscal space. We see that while Greece witnessed large-scale unrest in 2010, Turkey implemented the programme smoothly. Finally, the study applies the theory into three shadow cases, Ireland, 2010, Latvia, 2008, and Portugal, 2011 and demonstrates that the varied degrees of mobility and conditionality and fiscal conditionality result in different degrees of unrest.

Due to dynamic and rapid changing markets, technology has helped companies adapt to the market conditions and forced them to undergo a transition from permanent structures to more adaptable ones. Researchers have stressed that by implementing more adaptable structures, companies have a better chance to utilize both personnel and business resources. By implementing flexibility in working hours and place, firms increase their chances of better coping with dynamic changes in the business environment and better meet the individual needs of the employees. This leads to the subjective constructed concept timeplace flexibility. One neglected aspect in previous research, is the link between timeplace flexibility and the role of the leader when employees get increased control and responsibility over their schedules and tasks. Hence, the purpose of this study is to discuss what role the leader plays in a highly timeplace flexible organisation. By using an inductive approach together with a qualitative research method, three theoretical concepts- Leadership styles in flexible organisations, organisational communication and self-management- have been identified to support the understanding of the empirical findings. The empirical data is collected from two companies, which have implemented timeplace flexibility in different ways. The outcome of this study suggests the leader in highly timeplace flexible organisations to act as a visionary and communicate organisational goals. Emphasis is also on acting supportive and to coach the employees when they are faced with challenges. Although, individuals in a highly timeplace flexible organisation have a lot of responsibility and can somewhat be viewed to practising self-management, having a leader is considered to be significant. The direct control of the leader has decreased but instead, it can be interpreted as the control manifests itself via the internal business culture in forms of social values and norms. Consequently, the study can serve meaningful to leaders in highly timeplace flexible organisations or companies who wish to implement more adaptable structures.

Since the early 1990s, the rapid growth of international hotel chains and its effects on managerial work have drawn the attention of researchers (Gilbert & Guerrier, 1997 and Ladkin & Juwaheer 2000). There is a current need to investigate how management in hotels is adapting to the significant change in the last decade (McKenney, 2016). The contemporary Hotel General Manager’s (HGM’s) role, responsibility, and ultimately autonomy, are seen to be largely influenced by the owners, management companies or the franchise the hotel is operating under. “Understanding the scope and limits of HGMs decision autonomy is an understudied yet important topic for hospitality research” Hodari & Sturman, 2014 p.434 How management is practiced at the highest level in the hotel is the research problem to be investigated. Kotter (2010), Whitley (1989) and Hales (1986) emphasised how the nature of managerial work is closely linked to its organisational context. Accepting that managerial work is shaped and exercised in context (Dierdorff et al, 2009; Akrivos, Ladkin and Reklitis 2007), the aim of this research is to explore and understand the way in which contemporary HGMs manage and what influences how they manage. This work aims to shed light on hotel general management across three contemporary business models in the operating environment of Aberdeen city and Aberdeenshire. The research strategy will be interpretivist, with a qualitative approach taken to elicit HGMs’ experiences about their working life and chosen activity to understand the influences on their management practice. Dann (1990), credits Hales (1987) with providing a methodology, which allows the conduct of managerial work to be placed within the context of the management process. On account of this Hale’s five broad questions are built into the interview schedule. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews are held with HGMs who were members of the Aberdeen City and Shire Hotel Association. This Association has a membership of thirty-eight hotels operating through private, chain and franchise models. In total 21 HGMs are interviewed. From this data a profile of the HGM is provided, as found in each of the three ownership/business models (private, chain and franchise). The data were analysed by the constant comparison method. This study contributes to the body of research through looking at what HGM’s actually do, and how these individuals practice management. This work provides new knowledge in the form of a model, which maps out the identified management context (characteristics) that influence HGM behaviour/activity and the consequences for management across business models surveyed. The business model under which the HGM manages is found to be the primary influence on HGM activity and behaviour. The work sheds light on the meaning of work, and why it is the way it is. At the first level of analysis management context across three business models is identified. These then map onto the second level of analysis, which explains how these influences shape management behaviour and activity. The model identifies consequences for management across the business models. The proposition in the study is that HGMs have not been de-skilled; they have instead prioritised skills and activity in line with the demands of the business model and the ownership style under which they manage. In effect new skills have been learnt, and behaviour and activity tailored to meet the contemporary demands in context of the business model. This research has found that although HGMs have the same title, they are found to be very different managers that are managing different things. Not only do the HGMs manage differently the priorities of management are also quite different. The contribution to knowledge is considered at theoretical and practical levels. At the theoretical level a modern take on Taylorism shows that specialisation is relevant to contemporary hotel management. Silos are created on account of the business models, with markedly different ways of hotel services being delivered. The priorities of HGMs, dictated by the business model, are different. The extreme cases being the people centric, long term focus of the private sector manager juxtaposed with the short financial term focus by the chain HGMs. At the practical level, accepting that hotel general management is not homogeneous, and driven by the business model, hotel organisations need to develop their own organisationspecific competency framework for their HGMs. Success across the business models is measured differently; for chain and franchise HGMs there is a need to generate higher gross profits and for results to reported frequently, and for the private sector HGMs success is linked to long term sustainability, serving the community and providing a personal service. A challenge for each HGM in each of the models is managing stakeholders. These stakeholders vary with the model; managing the owners and operating company superiors are vital in chains, while the customers and staff are more important to HGMs in private model. For HGMs in both chain and franchise business models activity and behaviour is influenced by the need to ensure brand compliance through standard operating procedures.

La thèse traite l'éthique organisationnelle à partir de différentes perspectives afin de fournir des analyses complémentaires sur l'organisation de la prise de décision éthique de managers et les évaluations morales de ces dernières. À travers trois articles, cette thèse vise à explorer les facteurs sous-jacents qui façonnent l'éthique managériale et organisationnelle ainsi que les évaluations morales de cette dernière en mettant l'accent sur le rôle des conséquences des actions éthiques comme facteur majeur de comportement moral et d'évaluation. / Recent research demonstrates that, in ethically relevant tasks, individuals base intentionality judgments on action outcomes, rather than mental states only. In a first place, the current thesis extends those findings to responsibility judgments and examines affective and attitudinal characteristics moderating the relationship between outcomes and moral judgment. At a second place, the current thesis discusses ethical organizational activity with a focus on intensified ethical behavior enacted following involvement in heavy unethical activity. In so doing, the current thesis intends to problematize the extent to which motivation behind such organizational attitudes is genuinely trying to compensate for the negative effects of organizational wrong-doing. At the same time, the current thesis examines human perception of the above mentioned organizational efforts to compensate for corporate malfeasance. We discuss the implications of our findings for understanding ethical decision making and ethical judgments, offering theoretical directions for future research and managerial implications.

The thesis follows the development of charity, both as a theological concept and as the activity of increasing number of social institutions, over two centuries. The main narrative of the thesis follows these two themes, but it also identifies other background factors, particularly developments in social history. It uses insights from anthropological gift theory, reflected in part in the concept of noblesse oblige, a standpoint which both demands support from the rich to the poor and legitimates social divisions: points frequently made in charity sermons. The thesis explores the development of theologies of charity, in particular in the writings of Butler, Wesley, Sumner, Chalmers, Maurice, and Westcott, and also considers the philosophy of J S Mill and T H Green. From these, it is argued that the key development in theoretical analyses of charity is a shift in discourse from an emphasis on the duty of the rich to behave charitably (as in Butler's concept of benevolence) to a concern with the outcome of such giving on the recipients of charity. This is first seen in the writings and practice of the early leaders of the evangelical revival who saw the poor as children of God, but also as being in need of moral reformation. With the advent of a Christian approach to economics based on the thinking of Malthus and Sumner, a harsher approach developed which saw charity as undermining a divinely ordered social economy and was expressed in the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. The reaction against this led to a split in thinking about charity: on the one side a mix of economic theory, Comtean altruism and Greenian Idealism resulted in the growth of an autonomous, secular and professional approach to charity exemplified by C S Loch, and on the other a changing Christian approach to the position of the poor in society, going back to Maurice which was expressed in a call for justice rather than charity by the Christian Socialists of the late nineteenth century. Meanwhile, other political developments were resulting in a greater state involvement in what had hitherto been an independent field of charitable work, and resulted in very different patterns of welfare, in which charity took second place to state provision. The thesis ends by revisiting the split in discourse between givers and receivers of charity, and argues that both sides need to be considered in any theological discussion, including the need for recipients to be allowed to reciprocate to others.

In light of the growing criticism of multicultural policies of integration, there has been an increased interest in the questions surrounding political integration of immigrant-origin minorities. In particular, public and policy debates have focused on the importance of a shared sense of Britishness, the incompatibility of certain cultural values and practices, as well as the role of grievances and discrimination in determining the successful integration of the growing population of ethnic minorities. The work presented in this thesis consists of three separate studies that look at different aspects of political integration. The first study examines determinants of the strength of attachment to Britain among immigrant-origin individuals. Specifically, it looks at the role of: (1) indicators of integration and assimilation, (2) immigrants' conservative ideological beliefs, (3) the 'desirable' characteristics of immigrants, and (4) immigrants' placement on the individualism-collectivism scale. Empirical analyses are conducted using three datasets: Understanding Society, Citizenship Survey and Ethnic Minority British Election Study. The findings from individual and multi-level regression models show that collectivist orientation, determined by both individual differences as well as cultural differences of immigrants' countries of origin, is an important predictor of self-reported strength of British identity. In consequence, it is argued that the subjective importance of Britishness among immigrants is perhaps associated with integration/assimilation outcomes to a lesser extent than it is commonly believed. The second study presented in the thesis examines the applicability of the arguments derived from group consciousness and assimilation theories for explaining the patterns of political participation among British ethnic minorities. The chosen indicators of assimilation and group consciousness include: (1) measures of attachment to national and ethnic community, (2) perceptions of ethnic grievances, and (3) embeddedness in national versus ethnic civic community. The statistical analysis based on EMBES data shows that group consciousness indicators have a mobilising effect on non-electoral activities, and influence political party as well as ethnic-specific policy preferences. On the other hand, greater embeddedness in the national rather than ethnic community has a positive effect on electoral participation. Therefore, it is argued that both theoretical approaches are relevant for understanding political involvement. However, the effects of group consciousness and assimilation indicators operate in more nuanced ways than the classical formulations of these theories would predict. The final study examines the role of ethnic organisations for political mobilisation of two distinct communities: Bangladeshis and Caribbeans based on the data from forty qualitative interviews with community activists located in Birmingham and Oldham. The comparative qualitative enquiry aimed to (a) explore whether the existing differences of political integration outcomes between the selected communities can be partially attributed to the character of their co-ethnic organisational networks; and (b) to explore how and why co-ethnic associations might affect the political mobilisation of local communities. The findings from the interview data indicate that activists from these two communities have very different attitudes towards political agency and the role of co-ethnic organisations. In general, most of Bangladeshi organisations can be described as having instrumental goals and pro-mainstream orientation, whereas most Caribbean organisations could be characterised as having expressive goals and anti-mainstream orientation. In consequence, it is argued that the different character of ethnic civic organisations has an important impact on the ways these communities engage in politics, both as individuals and as groups.

no abstract available / Jurisprudence / M.A. (Spesialisering in Arbeidsreg)