The recent revival of debates concerning livestock development in Africa follows the more widespread acceptance of paradigm shifts within rangeland science, and maintaining pastoral mobility is now recognised as fundamental for the future survival of pastoralism and sustainability of dryland environments. However, in southern Africa communal pastoral drylands continue to be enclosed and dissected by large-scale barrier fences designed to control livestock diseases, thus protecting lucrative livestock export agreements. This interdisciplinary research examines the extent to which these veterinary cordon fences have changed people’s access to, and effective management of, natural resources in northern Botswana and how fence-restricted resource use by livestock, wildlife and people has changed the natural environment. Critical political ecology informed the approach, given its emphasis on socio-political and historical influences on resource access, mobility and user relationships. This enabled the biophysical effects of social changes to be investigated fully, thereby moving beyond a tradition of discipline-based studies often resulting in severely repressive rangeland policies. The research demonstrates how enclosure by veterinary cordon fences restricts patterns of resource access and mobility within pastoral drylands, with serious implications for both social and environmental sustainability. Enclosure increases the vulnerability of people to risks and natural hazards, while resource access constraints and pastoral adaptations to enclosure have favoured the increasing commercialisation of livestock production, thus obstructing pathways into pastoralism. While widespread environmental change in livestock areas cannot be attributed thus far to enclosure, the curtailment of wild migratory herbivores at the wildlife–livestock interface has caused some large-scale structural vegetation changes and there are indications that fence induced sedentarisation could be accentuating existing degradation trends. Given these changes, future rangeland policies in Africa should be aware of the social and environmental impacts associated with export-led disease management infrastructure and consider alternative, less intrusive, approaches to livestock development and disease control in extensive pastoral drylands.

Per molte aziende, ristrutturazione e riduzione dei costi sono al centro dell’agenda strategica. Come sottolinea anche la recente letteratura, la crisi economica scoppiata nel 2008, e tuttora in atto, sta esercitando una forte pressione sulle modalità di funzionamento dei sistemi di controllo in generale e di cost management più in particolare. Il presente lavoro di tesi si pone l’obiettivo di comprendere come si originano e si sviluppano i processi di innovazione nei sistemi di cost management in contesti aziendali caratterizzati da fenomeni di cambiamento e quali sono le condizioni di efficacia nell’implementazione di tali interventi. Per perseguire tale obiettivo, vengono analizzati tre casi, riletti alla luce di un modello neoistituzionalista di cambiamento aziendale. Contrariamente alla tradizionale predilezione della letteratura scientifica per un approccio meramente tecnico al tema dei sistemi di cost management, la tesi dimostra come un’efficace gestione degli stessi richieda la comprensione dell’esito dell’interrelazione di variabili ambientali e istituzionali esterne e dinamiche organizzative e istituzionali interne. / For many organizations, restructuring and cost management are key issues in their strategic agenda. As highlighted by the recent literature on management accounting, the current economic crisis is putting enormous pressure on the functioning of cost management systems in most organizations in the world. The main objective of this research is to analyze the relationship between management accounting change (i.e., cost management initiatives) and organizational change. The thesis relies on qualitative data collected through three longitudinal case studies. The analysis draws on a neo-institutional framework which integrates the insights of recent neo-institutional works in accounting. Our findings show that cost management systems cannot be considered only as technical mechanisms. In fact, an effective implementation of cost management initiatives requires the comprehension of the complex interrelationships between competitive and institutional variables and intraorganizational dynamics.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Freiburg im Breisgau. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 215-235).

Diss. Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2006.

This dissertation presents an intervention-based study that aimed to enable teachers to improve teaching and learning in one school in Ramallah, Palestine. The non-positional approach to teacher leadership was adopted as a means to mobilise all teachers in the drive towards bottom-up, participatory school change processes that increase teacher self-efficacy and collaboration, build professional capacity and social capital, and promote sustainability. The Teachers Leading the Way programme provided a contextually tailored strategy, and set of instruments and tools that through reflective exercises and dialogic activities aimed to support teachers to innovate practice, and impact organisational structures and professional culture. This is significant in the Palestine setting for facilitating the building of locally based and sourced knowledge to inform an authentic Palestinian vision and agenda for policy-making and education reconstruction, with implications for countries of the Middle East and North Africa region. In the process, a grassroots change movement is intended to shift historical and continued reliance on foreign intervention and international assistance, and lay the foundation for democratisation and social transformation. The intervention was investigated using a critical action-based, participatory methodology that emphasised context and researcher reflexivity in one school and amongst a cohort of 12 participants. Data were collected using a range of research-designed and programme-based methods and instruments, analysed deductively and inductively, and narrated critically to maintain coherence, and convey experiential and temporal dimensions. The study outcomes indicate that teachers in Palestine are capable of leading school improvement, and impacting school structures and professional culture for system-wide change, when the proper support is provided. Non-positional teacher leadership is the vehicle and can be developed through Teachers Leading the Way. At the individual level, this is enabled through a transformation in teachers’ perspective towards a self-empowered, agential mindset that leads to action on ways to improve practice. The transition process underscores the role of effective facilitation as an enabling condition for developing non-positional teacher leadership in Palestine and similar settings.

Submitted by Tatiana Lima (tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2015-10-19T21:16:52Z No. of bitstreams: 1 IRENE CARVALHO DE BRITO COTRIM.pdf: 4676892 bytes, checksum: bbc999a5551d4af5c21c50446710eef6 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Tatiana Lima (tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2015-10-19T21:30:23Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 IRENE CARVALHO DE BRITO COTRIM.pdf: 4676892 bytes, checksum: bbc999a5551d4af5c21c50446710eef6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-10-19T21:30:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 IRENE CARVALHO DE BRITO COTRIM.pdf: 4676892 bytes, checksum: bbc999a5551d4af5c21c50446710eef6 (MD5) / This paper aims at analyzing how the organizational culture elements of the State Center for Health and Management Professional Education – CEEP influenced and influence the process of change experienced by the institution. Thereby it is discussed the important role played by the organizational culture in public education institutions, as they also present deep rooted cultural elements of politics and national culture. This study is specially based in Prates and Barros (1996), using the model of investigation and analysis of cultural features found in Brazilian companies and that influence their management, the “Brazilian Style of Managing”. For this purpose, desk research, participant observation and semi-structured interviews with former and present teachers, managers, articulators, and educational coordinator were carried out. Features of national culture were identified in the first managements of CEJDC (Educational Center João Durval Carneiro) as abuse of power, mobilization and affectivity. In its process of change to CEEP (State Center for Health and Management Professional Education – Guanambi-BA) those features were modified, others were produced that influenced the current management and the operation of the whole school community, either complicating or facilitating the change. The research can be used by other Centers of Productive Backland that face problems which generate similar situations, as one more element of analysis, comparison and discussion for the production of new knowledge and strategies of change. / O presente estudo analisa como elementos da cultura organizacional do Centro Estadual de Educação Profissional em Saúde e Gestão – CEEP influenciaram e influenciam no processo da mudança pelo qual passa a instituição. Com isso, discute-se a relevância do papel desempenhado pela cultura organizacional nas instituições públicas de ensino, por estas apresentarem, também, elementos culturais mais arraigados da política e da cultura nacional. Este estudo se fundamenta, especialmente, em Prates e Barros (1996), utilizando o modelo de investigação e análise dos traços culturais encontrados nas organizações brasileiras e que influenciam nas suas gestões, o “Estilo Brasileiro de Administrar”. Para este fim foram realizadas pesquisa documental, observações participantes e entrevistas semi-estruturadas com professores, gestores, articuladores dos eixos tecnológicos e coordenação pedagógica, antigos e atuais. Foram identificados traços da cultura nacional nas primeiras gestões do CEJDC (Centro Educacional João Durval Carneiro), como abuso de poder, mobilização e afetividade. No seu processo de mudança para CEEP (Centro Estadual de Educação Profissional em Saúde e Gestão – Guanambi-BA) estes traços foram modificados, produzindo e criando outros que influenciam a gestão atual e o proceder de toda a comunidade escolar, ora dificultando, ora facilitando a mudança. A pesquisa poderá ser utilizada por outros Centros do Sertão Produtivo, que enfrentam problemas que geram situações análogas, como mais um elemento de análise, comparação e discussão, para produção de novos conhecimentos e estratégias de mudança. / This paper aims at analyzing how the organizational culture elements of the State Center for Health and Management Professional Education – CEEP influenced and influence the process of change experienced by the institution. Thereby it is discussed the important role played by the organizational culture in public education institutions, as they also present deep rooted cultural elements of politics and national culture. This study is specially based in Prates and Barros (1996), using the model of investigation and analysis of cultural features found in Brazilian companies and that influence their management, the “Brazilian Style of Managing”. For this purpose, desk research, participant observation and semi-structured interviews with former and present teachers, managers, articulators, and educational coordinator were carried out. Features of national culture were identified in the first managements of CEJDC (Educational Center João Durval Carneiro) as abuse of power, mobilization and affectivity. In its process of change to CEEP (State Center for Health and Management Professional Education – Guanambi-BA) those features were modified, others were produced that influenced the current management and the operation of the whole school community, either complicating or facilitating the change. The research can be used by other Centers of Productive Backland that face problems which generate similar situations, as one more element of analysis, comparison and discussion for the production of new knowledge and strategies of change.

Budgetary control has been used and researched for years by both Western academics and practitioners. In China, it is re-emerging as a tool to implement management control, but might be used in different ways both in terms of understanding and operation. The research objective of this thesis is to examine the applicability of Western theories of change in management accounting in the context of budgeting in Chinese corporations. Challenges can exist because of the differences between Western assumptions and Chinese reality. The current thesis focuses on difficulties Chinese companies encounter in practical and deeper ideological ways: firstly, Western market-based ideology conflicts with an ideology which has been shaped by central-planning for decades; secondly, difficulties stem from the different cultural context of China which emphasizes hierarchical politeness, kinship ties, trust based on personal relationships, collectivism and social harmony, diligence and individual modesty, and less developed modern legal regulatory systems – these all contribute to China’s own way of doing things. This thesis also focuses on the transition process in China. Based on the assumption that budgetary changes do not happen in isolation from other management accounting changes, this thesis discusses these changes which synchronically took place while the case-study companies were implementing budgetary systems. This thesis adopts a longitudinal and in-depth qualitative case study research design, after adjustments made during the learning experience of the pilot study. It takes an interpretive and constructive philosophical underpinning, which allows the researcher to observe and understand the process of change, as well as the differences between Chinese practices and Western theories. Findings show that certain Western management accounting theories of change and Western theories of budgeting work in the case study Chinese corporations. Management accounting theories using an interpretive approach (for example, Berry et al., 1985; Scapens and Roberts, 1993; Ahrens and Chapman, 2002) lead the researcher to interpret management accounting practices from the practitioner’s points of view, and they have provided a range of terms to explain success or failure of management accounting changes. This approach together with Scapens et al.’s Institutional theory approach in management accounting have been found especially useful, in explaining the differences between Chinese vs. Western context. Furthermore, the contingency theory approach in management accounting gives a ‘platform’ which allows the researcher to assess a wide range of possible factors and their relationships with budgetary systems in studied companies. This approach is found useful in this thesis to present changes in other management accounting perspectives. Last but not least, this thesis finds existing Western literature in technical perspective of budgetary objectives, budgetary evaluation and participation, and budgetary effectiveness useful in a different context of China. By describing the change management process, an aspect which is not addressed frequently in the research literature, this thesis argues that to sufficiently understand Chinese companies’ budgetary changes, one also needs to understand unique cultural, social-economical and religious circumstances, and to adjust literature and methodology to adapt to these circumstances. This thesis provides an empirical experience concerning these issues. This thesis contributes to the understanding of management accounting change in China, and the tension which exists when Chinese companies are moving into Western management accounting practices.

Cette thèse analyse les relations de pouvoir qui se jouent autour des enjeux environnementaux (gestion de l'eau et changement climatique) dans le processus de construction étatique de l'Autorité palestinienne, entité gouvernementale sous régime d'aide et marquée par l'occupation israélienne. Elle mobilise la sociologie de l'action publique, la political ecology et les science and technology studies afin d'étudier les processus multi-échelles de co-construction de l'ordre social et de l'environnement à travers les savoirs, la définition des problèmes et les politiques adoptées pour y répondre. Cette recherche analyse les liens entre l'aide internationale, le développement, l'environnement et la volonté de consolidation du pouvoir de l'Autorité palestinienne. Elle se penche sur la circulation et l'hybridation des savoirs et des solutions d'action publique. En dehors de l'action des décideurs nationaux et internationaux, d'autres acteurs (ONG, organisations humanitaires) interviennent et mobilisent d'autres représentations des problèmes environnementaux et des solutions à apporter en interactions avec leurs représentations du territoire et du conflit. Cette thèse se fonde sur une série d'entretiens et de discussions informelles, la littérature grise sur le sujet et de nombreuses observations participantes. / This thesis analyses the power relations involved in environmental issues (water management and climate change) and the process of state building of the Palestinian Authority, an entity dependent on international aid and under israeli occupation. This thesis mobilises sociology of public action, political ecology and science and technology studies in order to examine the multi-level processes of co-construction of social order and environment through knowledges, problems definition and public policies adopted to tackle them. This research analyses the interactions between international aid, development and environment and the objective of empowerment of the Palestinian Authority. It focuses on the circulation and hybridisation of knowledge and public policy solutions. Beyond national and international decision makers, other actors such as NGOs or humanitarian organisations participate and mobilise other representations of environmental problems and solutions in relation with their representations of the territory and the conflict. This thesis is based on a series of interviews, informal discussions, grey literature dealing with the subject and observational work.

Forests are among the most important repositories of terrestrial biodiversity and provide a broad range of ecosystem services. During millennia, forests have changed, adapted and evolved under changing conditions. However, in the present century, forests are facing environmental changes at rates with no precedents. A major concern is the risk of declining forest genetic diversity, since genetic variation as the raw material underpinning adaptation is key in maintaining the resilience of forest ecosystems against environmental changes. Understanding the different processes responsible for developing and maintaining the genetic diversity of tree species is essential to better predict tree responses under new conditions. Therefore, this thesis aimed to determine how different forces interact to shape and maintain within and among population genetic diversity of Scots pine and what the implications are for conservation and management under forthcoming environmental conditions. From local to continental scales, I followed a multilevel approach, and found that (i) historic climate changes and geographical barriers have played an important role in shaping the extent and spatial distribution of current genetic diversity of Scots pine. Despite contemporary habitat reduction and fragmentation we found that (ii) high levels of neutral genetic diversity remain in the Scottish populations of Scots pine, with gene flow and specifically wind-driven gene flow dominating over genetic drift and preventing differentiation among the Scottish populations. However, (iii) considerable impacts in the spatial distribution of genetic variation have occurred as a consequence of intensive historical forest management practices. Furthermore, we found that (iv) substantial levels of adaptive genetic variation are present in the Scottish populations of Scots pine, likely a result of selective processes resulting from the different environments they live in, with highly heritable traits, although similar capacity for response through phenotypic plasticity to warming. The results of this thesis help to further disentangle the forces maintaining genetic diversity in one of most widespread conifers in the world, and improving predictions of likely range shifts and adaptation of the species in response to contemporary changes. The thesis provides some recommendations to conservation and management practices.

Public institutions, more specifically public universities, require considerable changes in management and administration. For this changes may be implemented, the incorporation of new technology and integrated systems is essential to support the proposed changes. The decision to modernize the processes must be aligned with the desire of the steering committee to provide a Project which facilitates the proposed improvements, besides being prepared to overcome all obstacles that will appear, proposing an unconditional support to face that the necessary changes being implemented, independent of the resistance and obstacles. The methodology proposed by this dissertation is based on the approach to management the organizational changes and in the methodologies of information system implementation. As a result, it s proposed a model to manage the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) in public universities, having as a premise to provide mechanisms to manage the changes resulting from the implementation of ERP projects, which aim to increase the success of these projects and create indicators that can measure the gains obtained by the institution with the adoption of these systems. For each one of the 26 steps proposed in the model, are defined assumptions, resources, outputs and evidences of delivery. / As instituições públicas, mais especificamente as universidades públicas, passam por profundas mudanças na gestão e administração. Para que estas mudanças possam ser realizadas, a incorporação de novas tecnologias e sistemas integrados é essencial para suportar as mudanças propostas. A decisão de modernizar os processos deve estar alinhada com o desejo da alta administração em prover um projeto que viabilize as melhorias propostas, além de estar preparada para superar todos os obstáculos que irão surgir, dando assim, o apoio incondicional para que as mudanças necessárias sejam implementadas, independentes das resistências e entraves. A metodologia proposta por esta dissertação fundamenta-se na abordagem da gestão nas mudanças organizacionais e nas metologias de implantação de sistemas de informação. Como resultado é proposto um modelo para conduzir a implantação de Sistema Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) em universidades públicas, tendo como premissa prover mecanismos para gerir as mudanças decorrentes da implementação de projetos de ERP, na qual objetivam aumentar o sucesso destes projetos e criar indicadores que possam medir os ganhos obtidos pela instituição com a adoção destes sistemas. Para cada uma das 26 etapas propostas no modelo são definidas as premissas, recursos necessários, produtos gerados e evidências de entrega.