The political and economic history of New Zealand since the turn of the nineteenth century has been characterised by the colonisation of the indigenous Maori people by settlers mainly from Britain. In 1840 the British Crown and representative Maori Rangatira signed the Maori language version of the Treaty of Waitangi, which guaranteed to Maori continuing ownership of their land and natural resources, and self determination under the protection of the Crown, What Maori did not know in signing the Treaty was that already thousands of new settlers were being recruited in Britain on the promise of a paradise, where vacant land could be purchased cheaply and every man was the equal of his master. While the Maori population was in decline following the introduction of disease and the musket, the immigrant European population exploded. It established a Westminster styled Government which in its early years included no Maori, and passed laws which over the next 50 years alienated Maori from 95% of their land, prevented Maori from accumulating capital and participating in the most rewarding industries, and imposed alien social institutions on a previously well organised and successful people. For many Maori in the twenty-first century, the legacy of colonisation has been either marginalisation in rural communities on land frozen by legal structures which run counter to traditional values and procedures, or migration to towns and cities where employment opportunities are mainly in less skilled work and subject to variation in the economy. This thesis examines the extent of the displacement of the institutions of Maori society and its impact on the development of Maori land and other assets. It proposes an approach which could assist shareholders in Maori land to reassert traditional values and tikanga and promote collective decision making, while gaining understanding of the concepts and language of business and organisations and a skill base for greater participation in the organisations which own and manage their assets. The research results are promising, with participants in a research project accepting an approach to governance and organisation which bridges tikanga and modem business structures. There is evidence from an extended case study that the approach engenders a confidence which has positive social and cultural outcomes while encouraging the development of Maori land

This thesis is a historical case study tracing the establishment and evolution of Regional Tourism Organisations (RTOs) in New Zealand. It describes their role, structure and functions and the political processes that have influenced how they have operated and changed from 1980 to 2005. RTOs are examined in the context of government policies, local and national politics and tourism private and public sector relationships. RTOs were central to many of the key recommendations of the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2010 (NZTS 2010) released in 2001. The NZTS 2010 attempted to address a range of tourism policy gaps created by a policy vacuum in the 1990s whereby the public and private tourism sectors focused mainly on international marketing. This strategy shaped government policy during this decade. The research findings show that although public and private sector institutional arrangements impacting on RTOs have changed, there remains, as in the past, no uniformity in their role, structure, functions and their future financial and political viability remains insecure. The NZTS 2010 raised destination management and its alignment with destination marketing as a major policy issue that needed to be addressed in the decade leading up to 2010 with RTOs having a pivotal role. A generic regional destination management model is presented. Structures and processes incorporated into this model include: a national destination management tourism policy; support for tourism by local government at the national level; a well defined destination management team; community collaboration; and tourism being integrated into the wider planning processes of local government. The model identified requisite building blocks to support regional destination management such as: the provision of staff and financial resources for regional tourism; the building of a high tourism profile in the community; the availability of statistics and research data at the regional level; local government planners acknowledging the impacts of tourism; and the existence of a legal mandate for tourism at the regional and/or local government level. When applying this model to the New Zealand context, it was found that a number of the structures and processes required for effective regional destination management were lacking, such as regional statistics and research data, staffing and financial resources for both RTOs and local government, the ability of council planners to understand and integrate tourism into the wider planning processes and a legislative mandate for tourism. The thesis concluded that a vacuum remains in the alignment of destination marketing and management. The historical and political processes of RTO change were also examined in the context of chaos and complexity theory. Chaos and complexity theory provided a complementary and different means to view change. This thesis also presented the opportunity to reflect upon the research process which led to the adoption of a multi-paradigmatic and bricoleur research methodology. Further reflexivity and reflection towards the end of the research process articulated ontological and epistemological philosophical investigations that underlay the multi-paradigmatic approach. A model is presented emphasising that a multi-paradigmatic research approach rests on ultimate reality (metaphysics) which informs the ontology. The model then highlights that ontology precedes and directs epistemology and that both inform the multi-paradigmatic research framework.

Tourism has come to be recognised as a major contributor to national economies. In a knowledge-based economy (that emphasises the benefits of industry/government and academic research), a strong research base must underpin management of a tourist destination if it is to realise its full potential. The establishment of collaborative networks between industry, academia, and government in the strategic planning and management of cities and towns is becoming increasingly popular. However, the way in which the processes underlying these settings facilitate or inhibit eventual outcomes is poorly understood. If knowledge is to drive innovation and economic growth optimally, it is important not just to develop an understanding of the processes underlying the creation, diffusion and utilisation of knowledge in cooperative research settings, but also the relationships among them. Accordingly, the aim of this investigation is to examine the relationships among knowledge creation, diffusion and utilisation occurring in the Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Program, specifically, the Gold Coast Visioning Project, with a view to identifying the most efficient means for formulating and disseminating research designed for industry and/or government application. Knowledge is defined as information that is imbued with meaning or relevance. However, this definition says little of the ways that individuals, groups and organisations acquire knowledge. While cognitive psychologists have produced several theories suggesting the structure and mechanisms of individual cognitive processes underlying the acquisition and use of knowledge, social scientists have sought to describe and explain the process by investigating the influence of social factors. Recent contributions to group learning have examined group composition, group size, familiarity among group members, and communication processes in an attempt to understand the ways in which groups acquire knowledge. Research shows that knowledge utilisation in organisations results from the interdependent influences of organisational processes and the control opportunities and control problems that arise through organisational structure. These frameworks provide accounts of how knowledge is utilised within an organisation, but not of how organisations learn. Recent research suggests that organisations learn through knowledge networks where organisational focus moves from the consideration and protection of boundaries to the management of (and care for) relationships. Therefore, organisations contain static (rules, norms and procedures) and dynamic (social relationships) elements that mutually influence the degree to which organisations learn. A synthesis of the available literature resulted in the development of a series of models that served not only to inform, but also be informed by the analysis of this investigation. A single case study, namely the Gold Coast Visioning Project, was used to examine the ways in which knowledge was created, disseminated and utilised in a CRC setting. This ethnographic investigation considered the process of knowledge creation through to utilisation at individual, group, organisational, and inter-organisational levels, while simultaneously examining the interrelated influences of social, cognitive, affective and communication factors. Throughout the project, data were collected through stakeholder interviews, various documents and participant observation of stakeholder meetings and workshops. Data were analysed using a grounded theory approach and methods of thick description. The results show that researchers and industry stakeholders bring different frames of reference, different expectations, and different knowledge bases to the exercise. This inhibited communication, and gave the appearance of dissension when, in fact, what was being sought was a common frame for understanding and communication. Additionally, the gap between industry and researcher worldviews generated the sense that industry was resisting or failing to understand what the research was seeking to achieve. Consequently, in order to manage the relationship, research plans and findings were communicated to industry in a teacher-to-student fashion, which fostered single-loop learning, and reduced industry stakeholders' sense of ownership in the process and findings. During the project, industry stakeholders frequently sought to have research come pre-packaged with "meaning", but researchers lacked the contextual knowledge necessary to specify the relevance of their research. The results also show that research findings need to be integrated and diffused to industry over time, and specific applications need to be formulated (and reformulated) in response to particular and changing needs of industry. As a result of this investigation, a model of 'best practice' has been developed with detailed recommendations for the design, implementation, and reporting of CRC-sponsored research to optimise its utility for end-users of such research. From a theoretical perspective, the findings of this study challenge the ways that current theories account for the ways in which knowledge is acquired and utilised since the results show that knowledge is constructed both socially and emotionally. Any investigation that seeks to understand how knowledge is acquired and utilised must consider social and affective influences. To ignore the role of emotion and values in the process of knowledge acquisition is to ignore a key component of an individual's reasoning capacity.

A significant risk area for project sponsors is managing unplanned change. Theorists of organisational behaviour have attempted to understand the circumstances of how activity change occurs on projects and have identified the significant impact that time has on activity. This current research takes the study of cognition into the real world setting of project management at a level of analysis that is viable across diverse projects and industries to study project manager regulation of unplanned change. The project managers' cognitive representation of meaningful aspects of a project (their 'cognitive schemata'), which guides activity change during the project, was investigated and the effect of feedback evaluated in order to address the central research question of what triggers change on group projects. In the present research, leading edge projects from six major Australian industries (telecommunications, banking and insurance, information technology, railway signalling, inorganic chemistry and construction) were monitored at three key points through their lifecycle to understand how feedback impacts on project activity through the project manager’s cognition leading to change. Six key categories of feedback were identified, which potentially represented the foci of project-related schemata, within a project management mental model. These were validated as important indicators for project management performance by a panel of Australia's leading experts in project management. Sixteen project managers participated in the field study, with their verbal reports being collected through structured interviews (incorporating a 'laddered' interview technique), which were developed and piloted across diverse projects for this purpose. Interview data were coded for analysis in terms of sensitivity to each of the six feedback foci and one control category, for five types of feedback and five types of change. Reliability of the content coding was checked through independent coding and found to be high. The research investigation was conducted within a schematic information processing conceptual framework developed for application within the domain of project management. Strong evidence was found that linked key schemata to the hypothesized effects of feedback. Overall, the effects were found to be general across all industries, individuals and projects. A contrasting effect was observed for one type of feedback where schemata were poorly developed in inexpert project managers, which raised the issue of measurable differences in behaviour arising from project management competency. The findings of strong relationships between the variables led to the proposed model of project manager cognition, which reveals an underlying structure in the schemata between key areas of sensitivity to feedback and unplanned change. The model is proposed as underpinning observed behaviour in this and prior research and suggests a relationship between competency and change regulation.

Organisations can create a competitive advantage through the way they design their human resource systems. High involvement work systems are considered to be a way to increase organisational performance and decrease employee turnover. However, the components involved are difficult and complex to define, and the synergy amongst the different components hard to evaluate. The literature suggests that the research is not uniform in its approach, and most research does not clearly define the variables involved or agree on the expected results of such systems. This research looks at high involvement work systems in the New Zealand organisational context, and relating these systems to employee turnover and organisational performance. The results of the study suggest that there does not appear to be a relationship between high involvement work systems, and employee turnover and organisational performance; but high involvement systems may contribute to increased labour productivity in New Zealand organisations.

Ce travail présente une méthode de distribution dynamique et adaptative, pour des applications distribuées constituées de multiples entités en interaction, dans un environnement de calcul versatile. L'équilibrage de charge ainsi que la minimisation des coûts de communication sont pris en compte. La méthode proposée repose sur la détection d'organisations au sein de l'application afin de mieux la distribuer. Les organisations sont identifiées comme des groupes d'entités en très forte communication. Les organisations évoluent, apparaissent, se renforcent, s'affaiblissent et disparaissent. Les ressources disponibles de calcul sur lesquelles l'application s'exécutent varient également. Ces contraintes imposent à la distribution de s'adapter dynamiquement. La méthode est basée sur des colonies de fourmis numériques qui tentent de recruter les entités de l'application. Les fourmis coopèrent au sein d'une même colonie et sont en compétition lorsqu'elles n'appartiennent pas à une même colonie. Elles tentent de s'approprier les organisations au sein de l'application, chaque colonie travaillant pour une ressource de calcul distincte. La compétition inter-colonies permet la répartition de la charge. La collaboration au sein de chaque colonie permet la détection des organisations, en plaçant les très fortes communications ensembles sur la même ressource de calcul. Enfin la gestion de la population permet de prendre en compte l'hétérogénéité des ressources de calcul.

A partir d'une étude comparée d'organisations non-gouvernementales de défense des droits de l'Homme au Kenya et au Cameroun, notre travail montre que les droits de l'Homme, en tant que discours de revendication et de protestation, ne sont pas universellement efficaces. Les usages, par des groupes non étatiques, de ces principes reconnus par tous sont redevables des conditions de déploiement d'une action collective dans des contextes de récente libéralisation. L'émergence et les tentatives de pérennisation de ces nouveaux groupes politiques mettent en évidence les tensions entre contraintes historiques et marges d'invention encadrant tout type d'action collective. Alors que la forme inédite ou mimétique des organisations traduit les possibilités d'innovation face aux contraintes de l'environnement politique, le vivier de militants susceptibles d'user des droits de l'homme comme discours de revendication apparaît dépendant de l'histoire des oppositions dans ces pays. De plus, bien que la relative flexibilité des répertoires d'action concourt à sa diffusion à partir de supports divers, la disponibilité de discours et de symboles partagés et construits historiquement demeure déterminante pour énoncer les droits de l'Homme et asseoir leur légitimité. Enfin, si la participation des organisations de défense des droits de l'Homme à l'action publique se transforme au gré de leurs interactions avec les autorités, elle est tributaire des modes historiques de ces relations, et son efficacité est contrainte par les limites internes aux discours des droits de l'Homme et aux réformes menées en leur nom. Finalement, à la question de départ : "à quoi servent les droits de l'Homme?", ce travail répond qu'en tant qu'objet d'étude, les usages des droits de l'Homme permettent d'explorer les cultures du politique et certains mécanismes institutionnels des régimes étudiés ; il démontre, qu'en tant qu'objet de revendication et de protestation, les droits de l'Homme ne sont pas en eux-mêmes un vecteur puissant et suffisant du changement politique.

Cette thèse présente le résultat de notre travail sur l'étude des structures organisationnelles dans les systèmes multi-agents. L'approche proposée met l'accent sur la primauté de l'organisation multi-agents sur les architectures individuelles pour répondre aux besoins d'hétérogénéité,d'adaptation et de contrôle dans les systèmes de taille importante. Le coeur de ce travail est donc un modèle générique de description d'organisation, basé sur les notions de groupe, agent et rôle. Il est montré comment cette description structurelle et fonctionnelle permet de fédérer des systèmes multi-agents ayant des architectures de contrôle, des buts ou des modèles d'interactions différents. Nous dégageons alors plusieurs conséquences de ce modèle, selon les points de vue de la formalisation, de l'implémentation, de la conception ou des applications. Nous présentons en particulier une expression dans une variante du pi-calcul, que nous illustrons par l'étude du meta-niveau dans cette formalisation. L'aspect opératoire a été abordé par la réalisation une plate-forme générique de développement et exécution de systèmes multi-agents, basée sur le modèle d'organisation proposé et conçue pour permettre l'accueil de systèmes ayant des architectures fortement hétérogènes. Nous montrons alors comment un lien peut être fait avec d'autres approches en conception multi-agent, et proposons quelques pistes pour l'utilisation dans le cadre des langages de modélisation. La validation expérimentale de ce travail est finalement abordée par des expérimentations ciblées sur le modèle et la plate-forme proposée ainsi que par des applications à visée plus générique.

Les clubs politiques "informels", premières organisations indépendantes du PCUS apparues pendant la perestroïka, sont des acteurs originaux, importants mais mal connus de la décomposition du régime soviétique.<br />Ces clubs, dont l'émergence est favorisée par le desserrement du système en 1987, effectuent un travail de sape de l'intérieur: s'appuyant sur le milieu académique, utilisant le droit et les institutions, soutenant les réformateurs du PCUS, ils pénètrent dans l'espace du Parti, investissent la rue.<br />L'analyse fait apparaître deux cohortes d'entrée dans les clubs, dont les logiques d'engagement différentes sont retracées à partir des trajectoires de leurs leaders sur trois générations.<br />L'arrivée de la seconde cohorte est l'un des ressorts du passage du mouvement à l'opposition frontale en 1989. L'espace politique est alors marqué par une grande fluidité. Le Parti se délite. L'identité "informelle" se dissout au sein du "mouvement démocratique", opposition beaucoup plus classique.

Cette thèse comporte quatre essais en finance d'entreprise. Le premier chapitre porte sur le lien entre comportement de l'entreprise et structure de son actionnariat et de son management. L'attention est plus particulièrement portée sur les différents styles de management qu'implique la présence de la famille du fondateur de l'entreprise dans l'actionnariat ou dans l'équipe dirigeante. Nous montrons ensuite comment des mécanismes de gouvernance interne peuvent supplanter les dispositifs traditionnels de gouvernement de l'entreprise pour exercer une discipline efficace sur les dirigeants de l'entreprise. Cette étude empirique, menée sur un large panel d'entreprises américaines, est soutenue par une analyse théorique qui s'intéresse plus généralement au rôle de l' indépendance des préférences au sein des organisations. Le dernier chapitre de cette thèse vise a comprendre empiriquement les liens entre valeur du collatéral détenu par les entreprises et politique d'investissement. L'analyse se concentre particulièrement sur les actifs immobiliers que possèdent les grandes entreprises américaines.