The ability to implement strategies successfully is important to any organisation. Despite the importance of the implementation process within strategic management, this is an area of study often overshadowed by a focus on the strategy formulation process. This thesis concentrates on the strategy implementation process, investigating barriers to strategy implementation. A research framework called the Organisational Minefield was developed to represent the importance of the implementation process to organisations. In contrary to most studies available in strategic management, this research included participants from all levels of the organisation.To identify barriers to strategy implementation, a case study of Air New Zealand was conducted. This involved focussed interviews with 28 participants from the Network and Revenue Management Department of Air New Zealand. Other sources of data such as research articles and secondary company data sources were also used. The findings revealed that: participants from different levels of the organisation have unique perceptions of the implementation process; implementation variables could become roadblocks that undermine the implementation process; these barriers can be overcome if managers are perceptive to the organisation's current situation; and the Organisational Minefield framework presented verified the significance of the role of barriers in the implementation process. The findings add two additional barriers to implementation, namely leadership and power. It was also discovered that the participants acknowledged that these two barriers will impede or enhance the success of Air New Zealand. This was backed by the level of commitment and loyalty shown by the participants, which brought Air New Zealand one step closer to unravelling the mysteries of the implementation process.

Presented here is a case study of the problem-solving behaviors of upper-division undergraduate physics majors. This study explores the role of visual representations in students' problem solving and provides a foundation for investigating how students' use of visualization changes in the upper-division physics major. Three independent studies were conducted on similar samples of students. At the time of these studies, all of the subjects were junior physics majors participating in the Paradigms in Physics curriculum at Oregon State University. In the first study, we found that while all students had high scores on the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test, the correlation between test scores and their grades in physics was not statistically significant. In the second study (N=5) and the third study (N=15), we conducted think-aloud interviews in which students solved electrostatics problems. Based on the interviews in the third study, we develop a model that describes the process by which students construct knowledge while solving the interview problems. We then use this model as a framework to propose hypotheses about students' problem-solving behavior. In addition, we identify several difficulties students have with the concepts of electric field and flux. In particular, we describe student difficulties that arise from confusing the vector and field line representations of electric field. Finally, we suggest some teaching strategies that may help to assuage the student difficulties we observed. / Graduation date: 2002

To understand what makes organizations alike, neo-institutional scholars explore institutional demands and argue that organizations become isomorphic because specific legitimacy demands in their institutional environments require organizations to comply with given rules and norms. But, what if the institutional demands in the given environment conflict with one another? In response to this question, extant literature recognizes the existence of conflicting institutional demands and studies organizational responses to such demands. However, prior studies on conflicting demands tend to explore organizations with a single identity in a specific field. In extension, this study pays attention to organizations that possess conflicting identities across different sectors. Applying an ethnographic approach, this study takes an in-depth look at government-run non-governmental organization (GONGO) and addresses three research questions: first, how does an organization with conflicting identities come into being? Second, what conflicting demands does such organization encounter? Third, how does such an organization respond to those demands? This study collects data through three months of fieldwork in two GONGOs located in Beijing and Guiyang. The findings illustrate three types of institutional contexts where conflicting demands can arise. This classification is based on two variables, which are the complexity of an organization’s identities, and the multiplicity of fields where dominant actors occur. The S-S, M-S and M-M types are therefore identified in this framework. Beyond this, the nature and features of conflicting demands faced by GONGOs are also explored in these types. Additionally, this study introduces inter-organizational power dynamics between dominant actors into its analysis of organizational responses. Given the inter-organizational politics, GONGOs develop four strategies to cope with conflicting demands. These strategies include dilatoriness, negotiation, replacement, and exploitation. The conditions under which particular strategy is more likely to be adopted are also discussed. In sum, this study hopes to shed light on conflicting institutional demands encountered by organizations with conflicting identities and draw attention to inter-organizational politics in institutional environments. Empirically, this study hopes to better understand the special organization creature—GONGOs—and its implications on globalization in China. / published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy

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published_or_final_version / abstract / Urban Planning and Environmental Management / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Geography and Geology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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