This thesis attempts to place a halt sign before the glib generalisations which so frequently are employed to describe what are termed "traditionally militant" workforces. It focuses on the mines and communities of the South Wales coalfield during the period 1937 to 1957 and examines the way in which issues at the coalface combined regularly with an inherited and often unique set of local circumstances to confound the directives and analyses of the central executives of the political parties and of the trade unions. It concerns itself primarily with the symbiotic relationship which existed between the politics of the pit and those of the miners' elected leaders. The work is divided into four chronological parts. The first sets out to construct an image of the coalmining industry in South Wales as it attempted to recover from the enormous setbacks which it suffered during the market depression of the early l930s. The second deals with the war years and their immediate aftermath; the third with the onset of nationalisation, and the fourth with the years of Conservative government from 1951 until the sharp downturn in the demand for coal in 1957/58. The records of the South Wales miners' lodges and those of the union's area and national executives provided my main sources of information. These were greatly supplemented by the detailed reports of the Ministry of Labour's Industrial Relations Officers as well as by the political and industrial columns of local and national newspapers and trade journals. Much valuable material was found amongst the mass of information published by the National Coal Board after l97 and, wherever possible, I have made extensive use of the large and growing collection of tape-recorded oral testimony housed at the South Wales Miners' Library in Swansea.

This thesis sets out to explore the much overlooked phenomenon of non-union employee representation (NERs). The work is concerned with both the utility of these structures from a workforce perspective and the managerial motivation underpinning the presence of these bodies. Further to the exploration of the above themes case study research was carried out in three organisations possessing relatively mature non-union representative structures. In terms of managerial goals it is suggested that that the extant literature affords a partial account; commentators characteristically depict a manifestly defensive intent, with goals evinced in terms of trade union exclusion. This study advances knowledge in this area by providing a more discriminating analysis exploring the contingent factors differentially shaping the managerial response to employee representation. Over and above union avoidance, evidence is presented of certain managerial actors pursuing a more proactive set of goals aimed at securing the cooperation of employees via the legitimacy imbued though the process of consultation. The necessity for such a response is tracked to factors relating to demands in and around the nature of the production regime/mode of service delivery. With regard to the theme of employee empowerment the thesis broadly supports the extant literature in demonstrating that the institutions under review represent largely unavailing vehicles for the furtherance of employee interests. A distinct feature, however, is that in contrast to these predominantly descriptive studies the theme of `voice' is ensconced within a theoretically informed analysis, allowing the study to move beyond this somewhat bland conclusion. The shortcomings are tracked to the key areas of power, autonomy and competence - ultimately manifest in a marked legitimacy gap. In the final analysis it is argued that there are inherent tensions unleashed by this mode of intervention precluding beneficial outcomes for both parties. Specifically, topics relating to the irreconcilability of the pursuit of both corporate and workforce goals through a managerially derived format are considered. Similarly, the rationality and coherence of a managerial agenda pursuant of `rival logics' of action, relating to both issues of workplace control and employee empowerment, is afforded critical scrutiny.

This thesis examines the evolution of antecedents, dimensions and initial screening models which discriminate between new product success and failure. It advances on previous empirical new product success/failure comparative studies by developing a discrete simulation procedure in which participating new product managers supply judgements retrospectively on new product strategies and orientations for two distinct time periods in the new product program: (1) the initial screening stage and (2) a period approximately 1 year after market entry. Unique linear regression functions are derived for each event and offer different, but complimentary, temporally appropriate sets of determining factors. Model predictive accuracy ascends over time and conditional process moderators alter success factors at both time periods. Whilst the work validates and synthesises much from the new product development literature, is exposes probable measurement timing error when single retrospective models assess success dimension rank at the initial screen. Six of seven hypotheses are accepted and demonstrate that: 1. Many antecedents of success and measures of objective attainment are perceived by NPD (new product development) managers to differ significantly over time. 2. Reactive strategy, NPD multigenerational history and a superior product are the most important dimensions of success through one year post launch. 3. Current linear screening models constructed using retrospective methods produce average prescriptive dimensions which exhibit measurement timing error when used at the initial screen. 4. Success dimensions evolve from somewhat deterministic to more stochastic over time with model forecasting accuracy rising as launch approaches based on better data availability. 5. Product market PiLC (the life expectancy of an introduction before modification is necessary calculated in years and months) and its order of entry and level of innovation alter aggregate success model accuracy and dimension rank. 6. Proper initial dimensional alignment and intra-process realignment based on changing environments is critical to a successful project through one year post launch. The work cautions practitioners not to wait for better models to be developed but immediately: (1) benchmark reasons for their current product market success, failure and kill historical "batting average"; (2) enhance and/or replace contributing/offending processes and systems based on these history lessons; (3) choose or reject aggregate or conditional success/failure models based on team forecasting ability; (4) concentrate on the selected model's time specific dimensions of success and (5) provide/reserve adequate resources to adapt strategically over time to both internal and external antecedent changes in the NPD environment. Finally, it recommends new research into temporal, conditional and strategic tradeoffs in internal and external antecedents/dimensions of success. Best results should come from using both linear and curvilinear methods to validate more complex yet statistically elegant NPD simulations.

The UK house-building industry is increasingly criticised for the quality of its products. Its business drivers are less focused on the needs of customers compared with much of the manufacturing sector. Recent surveys have revealed considerable dissatisfaction among buyers of newly built homes, particularly with the finished product and after-sales service quality. However, this cannot be viewed in isolation from the general business culture that prevails. In light of increasing calls for industry-wide changes, this research uses Westbury Homes as a typical example to examine existing practices in the industry that act as barriers to a change in culture. In determining a way forward, a review of extant change management models including Total Quality Management, Business Process Re-engineering, Balanced Scorecard and Hoshin Kanri provides new insight into the relative strengths of each and the role they can play in the formation of a holistic approach to successful customer-focused culture change. A four stage Strategy Deployment Maturity Journey for culture change is proffered that guides the deployment of policy through the introduction of i) a balanced set of headline performance measures, ii) operational performance indicators as drivers for change, iii) a participative programme for change, and iv) mechanisms for development, feedback and review of strategy. Early results indicate that implementation will lead to successful deployment of long-term objectives; specifically, a customer-focused culture that views service and product quality as contributing to future sales and profitability, instead of simply in terms of costs.

This thesis has adopted a qualitative approach to research into executive remuneration, to look inside the 'black box' of process. Executives, nonexecutives and others involved in the remuneration-setting process were interviewed in order to establish how executive remuneration is determined. In all, 40 interviews were conducted, covering 12 FTSE 350 companies plus other stakeholder bodies. The interviews yielded rich data illuminating the processes followed by the companies, and highlighting their similarities and differences. These data were considered in the light of existing economic, social-psychological and organisational theory approaches,n one of which proved sufficient, either alone or in combination, to explain what was happening. Companies determine the level of their executive pay based on their interpretation of 'the market', but the research shows that such a market is a construct that does not exist independently. They determine the structure of their executive pay based mainly on structures successfully adopted by other companies, and those considered acceptable to the investing institutions and regulators. Institutional theory explanations and the need for legitimacy are clearly seen in the data. A further finding of the research was that all of the companies had made changes to their remuneration schemes, some major. The various reasons for these changes included changes (actual or desired) to the corporate environment, changes to key personnel, and, notably, the need to increase pay packages that were 'below-market'. Incentive schemes that did not pay out were also changed. Finally, as regards process, it was clear that each of the case companies followed 'good governance' practices. It was also clear that each did this in a different way. For some, the process was managed by the non-executives; in others the executives had a leading role. The relationships between the protagonists had an important impact on the resultant governance processes.

My thesis aims to demystify the form of the Korean state by unveiling the theoretical shortcomings of developmental state theories and re-examining the historical development of the Korean state in the context of the formation and reproduction of capital relations in Korea. The first part develops a Marxist critique of theories of the developmental state. Through a close reading of Marxist theories of the state and Marx's own theory of value and commodity fetishism, I derive an understanding of the state as a differentiated moment of the reproduction of capital relations. Accordingly, I define the most serious theoretical shortcoming of the statist approach as its understanding of the state as a set of institutions and of capital as a set of businessmen. This approach enabled statist to define the state in East Asia as a state 'autonomous' from capital by deriving the form of the state from the nature of the seriously narrowed-down state-society relations as relations between state officials and a group of businessmen. On the basis of an understanding of capital as a social relation through which social labour is organised toward commodity production to make profits, and of the state as a social form through which unequal class relations are inverted into class-neutral relations between citizens, I argue that the developmental autonomy of the state, which underlies developmental state theory, results from a mystified form of the capitalist state and contributes to mystifying the state further. In the second half of this thesis, I present the Asian 'developmental state' as resulting from a particular mystification of the state in the historical development of the highly politicised formation and reproduction of capitalist social relations, in which the state's complementary role to capitalist development was maximised in suppressing labour, on the one hand, but also at the same time its differentiation from individual capitals in strictly regulating financial flows and selectively promoting industries developed to a great extent, on the other. An extensive investigation into the state's involvement in forming and reproducing capital relations in the 1960s and 1970s shows the real process of building-up the mystified state. Furthermore, I will show the demise of this mystified state through analysing crises of the politicised reproduction of capital relations, by a massive politicisation of domestic class conflicts, on the one hand, and the weakening of state control over individual capitals, particularly over the chaebol (Korean conglomerates) as capitalist development deepened in a growing involvement in the global economy from the 1980s, on the other. On the basis of this historical exposition, I also attempt to grasp the nature of the restructuring of capital relations in Korea in the aftermath of the Asian crisis in 1997, which is understood as an ultimate expression of the amalgamation of the crisis of the early configuration of capitalist social relations with the growing involvement of Korean capitals into the crisis-ridden development of global capitalism. Looking closely at the development of the increasing marketisation of the reproduction of capital relations, I argue that, although the form of the state has undergbne a significant transition, it is still subjected to the further development of new forms and subjectivity of class struggle, through which the unresolved contradiction of the newly created basis of capital accumulation manifested itself by putting the market-based reformulation of capital relations into an increasingly difficult condition.

This research contributes to the literature on subsidiary evolution by exploring the developments of subsidiary technological capabilities. It has been widely acknowledged that subsidiaries have unique in-house capabilities that are embedded in two contexts: 1) the internal technology sources including the headquarter ("HQ") and affiliated-units, such as the research and development ("R&D") centres; 2) the external technology sources comprised of local, regional or global entities, such as local universities. This study examines the relationship between subsidiary capability and autonomy and the mediating effects of communication systems, by linking internal and external networks through which the subsidiary both exploits and creates particular technological capabilities, and through which the parent company HQ, exercises its control. Through a synthesis of the international business and innovation management literature review, a set of measures of technological capability, autonomy and communication have been drawn. A capability taxonomy configured for the semiconductor industry by Ernst et al. (1998) was adapted to specifically examine integrated circuit ("IC") design, production and marketing capabilities amongst five different Taiwan-based foreign wholly-owned subsidiaries in the electronics industry (particular in the integrated circuits sector). These are compared using quantitative and qualitative measures on factors such as the types and levels of technological capabilities, the degree of autonomy and the intensity of communication they have developed. The findings demonstrated that the heart of subsidiary technological-capability creating lies in exploiting the parent company's core- competitive assets and capabilities and creating its capability development using local knowledge systems, and regional and global cooperative partners. The extent to which such developments of subsidiary technological capabilities are dispersed throughout and leveraged on the multinational enterprise ("MNE")'s differentiated network, depends on the intensity of internal and external communication systems for assimilating information or knowledge. Moreover, single subsidiaries have different degrees of decision-making autonomy, which influence both the nature of the internal NINE network, and the extent of influence of the internal and external network linkages on the developments of subsidiary technological capabilities. Overall, this research concludes that subsidiary autonomy is a cyclical process between the parent company and subsidiary, which is affected by the development of a subsidiary's technological capability. The capability- creating of a subsidiary is driven by the interactions between internal and external leverages which broaden the level and types of technological capabilities (namely, marketing-, design-and production-related) in terms of the scope of responsibility, in-house capability and the capacity for assimilation and creation of 4new' technology.

A review of modern business literature demonstrates that despite a proliferation of best practice models for managing change, none leads to consistent and sustainable success. In this work, action research within three separate projects leads to a model that facilitates change at a project level. Three main arguments for success are made: individuals and their relationships are more critical to success than technology and structure; an ability to look at problems from a systems point of view provides the key to identify excellent solutions; and making room for individuals to use their uniqueness leads to sustainable change. The final model developed is an innovative, content free support framework for change that guides the change team in creating options and making choices throughout the change process. Its role is to support the application of existing tools and techniques. The framework can lead to consistent and sustainable success because its use ensures congruence with the needs of the individuals and the business.

This thesis is divided into three sections. The first surveys the relationship of landlord and tenant in its legal, economic and political aspects. It shows how inadequate powers of eviction combined with rising rates provided a continuing impulse towards organisation on the part of nineteenth century property owners. It also seeks to account for the failure of organised landlords either to broaden the bases of local taxation so as to embrace non-residential forms of property, or to gain a more summary means of redress against contumacious tenants. The second part shows that attempts at organisation, on the part of working class tenants were more frequent than has hitherto been suspected. It examines the causes of unrest amongst tenants and shows how the unresolved tensions between landlord and tenant in Edwardian Britain influenced the genesis of rent control. The final section is concerned to examine the-wartime rents agitation in relation to the adoption of socialised housing in Britain. It shows how the continued-unrest amongst working class tenants, following the passage of the Rent Act, 1915, frustrated the re-establishment of housing upon an economic footing and thereby brought about a widening of the limited degree of state intervention in housing than had originally been contemplated by the proponents of Reconstruction.

The research work illustrates the setup of a new and unique cross-functional unit called "The Customer Responsiveness Center" or "the CRC". The objective of this center is to improve total service quality management through individual employees and teamwork. The ultimate objectives are employee satisfaction and customer loyalty. Forming the CRC in this way is an innovative approach for a traditionally technology focused organization where the fundamental objective is Total Customer Satisfaction. Before, not much work has been done in the organization to understand total service quality, to explore the power of people, and to demonstrate results from real teamwork. The author accepts this challenge. The Customer Responsiveness Center is a vehicle for promoting Total Service Quality and people involvement. It is crucial to making the company's Total Customer Satisfaction objective possible. The concept that employee satisfaction precedes customer satisfaction is expanded through this literature research. This is a different belief from the common saying: The customer always comes first. There is no doubt in the author's mind that when employees come first, they will develop happy customers. The author proves his belief correct with his own Total Service Quality Management (TSQM) model in the CRC. The Quality and Speed Team (QuST) process initiated by the author creates a positive environment for the CRC team to promote total service quality concepts. "QuST" is an innovative culture development process focusing on Total Quality, Speed of Execution and Teamwork. "QuST" is also a unique process derived from the Total Quality Management concept. The CRC team also attempts to break the traditional business cycle barriers to re-engineer for better results. This includes: making possible the shipment of China manufactured semiconductors to Taiwan; reducing the total logistics and distribution cycle time; and closing down the customer service department in Hong Kong (headquarters) for better synergy and productivity. While promoting the total service quality concept, the CRC team enhanced employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. The team has started the total service quality drive for the Asia Pacific semiconductor products group in Motorola. However, these are the areas that also need additional attention and require further study. Times have changed. We no longer live in a manufacturing environment. Total service quality is critical to all service providers. Customers today demand a total-service- quality package and consider that the service quality component is as critical as if not more important than the physical product. We are literally customer-driven. We are moving into the 21st century. Organizations that fail to master the skill of total service quality management will face difficult times. The CRC TSQM is a change model that can be applied to other industries to benchmark and to master the skills and resources that give an organization competitive advantage in the 21st century.