The study has aimed to investigate how Human Resources (HR) and management are working to mediate and anchor values in organizations. I have chosen to apply a socio-cultural perspective with the help of artifacts and mediating tools. The issues researched are; (i) “How do organizations mediate and anchor common values, and how does this affect the work with values?”, and (ii) “How can mediation and anchoring in organizations be understood from a socio-cultural perspective, focusing on artifacts and mediating tools?”.I have via e-mail interviewed four people working with HR in four different organizations. When analyzing the empirical data, I have been inspired by phenomenographic analysis selecting and focusing on important concepts, similarities, and differences in the responses from the informants. Within the socio-cultural perspective, the key aspects are communication and, above all, language. Artifacts and mediating tools may be considered intellectual or physical tools that we develop together with others through our thoughts and language. Values in organizations can be regarded as one such artifact or tool. The informants in the study consider work on values being a successful way to control and guide its organizations, particularly noting the importance of participation and commitment of all employees. Further, an important factor for the work on values to be overall successful, the work needs to be established and secured at all stages and in all processes. For a clear and interpretive leadership to build trust among the employees, decisions need to be based on a designed value system. With the socio-cultural perspective and artifacts and mediating tools, communication and knowledge appeared to be of great importance, which strengthens the thesis that mediating and anchoring is a prerequisite for the work on values to be meaningful. The intellectual tools provide a way to manage and control through language, and relating to values is a prerequisite to be part of an organization.

Much recent discussion has highlighted the challenges posed by what have variously been called “disruptive”, “discontinuous”, “breakthrough” and “radical” innovations. Although the labelling may vary, the underlying themes appear to be consistent. In particular it is clear that under conditions in which the dominant “rules of the game” change as a result of emergent or shifting markets, major movements at the technological frontier, dislocations in the regulatory environment etc, even organizations with well-developed innovation capabilities get into difficulties. This is less a matter of particular technological, market or political stimuli than of the limitations of the repertoire of organizational responses available to the firm. This resurfaces a long-running concern with managing innovation in two different modes, namely “exploitation” and “exploration”. This thesis reports the results of exploratory research into specific aspects of the organizational culture within the Research and Development (R&D) setting of a small mature UK based company, Cerulean. In doing so it also identifies and discusses key management interventions for developing an innovation culture that facilitates radical product innovation. Cerulean designs and manufactures quality control instrumentation and has in the past been very successful with radically new products. In recent years this propensity for “radicalness” has declined and the company now wishes to regain this capability. A grounded research methodology and a participative action research approach was utilised to surface issues that clearly illustrated both the presence and intensity of aspects of organisation culture that enabled and inhibited radical product innovation. Participative analysis of the data identified nine emerging themes and key constructs of an innovation culture that was found to influence “radicalness” in new product development ventures. The interrelationships between the themes were discussed in the context of current theoretical perspectives in the field of innovation management. This led to the development of a conceptual model that incorporates two “ideal” archetypal forms of innovation culture. A composite instrument was developed based on existing evaluation tools and used to assess the innovation culture. First use of the instrument indicated areas of opportunity in developing a radical innovation culture. Further participative analysis of the emergent themes and the assessment and evaluations of the extant innovation culture, resulted in a series of management interventions to stimulate the development of a culture to facilitate radical product innovation. The design of the interventions was also informed by the literature and other organizations, part of a national Discontinuous Innovation Forum (DIF) undergoing similar ambitions. The proposed interventions comprise a series of linked management actions in the form of a plan to shift the innovation culture of the company closer to a desired radical innovation culture.

Rising global competition, the influence of advances in information technology and the financial status of companies are some of the imperatives that force organisations to restructure. In South Africa, the situation is even more compelling, with the recent economic situation of the country that requires companies to implement certain restructuring programmes designed to encourage sustainability organisation. These changes, however, do affect organisations and employees. It becomes critical that organisations implement it carefully, if they are to survive. This research has attempted to explore the relationship between organisational restructuring and the organisational culture at MES. A qualitative research approach was used for this study; a non-probability sampling namely purposive sampling was used for the purpose of this study. The main findings have presented that the organisational restructuring processes at MES have influenced positive organisational culture within the organisa-tion. Communication, interactions and relationships have increased amongst the employees since the organisational restructuring at MES. The research study hopes to influence the policy making processes regarding change and restructuring within MES. The study would contribute towards Occupational Social Work literature on organisational restructuring, organisational culture and Change Management.

This quantitative, non-experimental study was conducted to investigate the relationship among the behavioral agility of school leadership teams, school culture, and school performance. Additionally, the study sought to determine whether the influence of these variables and/or their relationships are modified by alterable and unalterable characteristics of the school. The study utilized Pisapia’s (2009) Strategic Leader Questionnaire (SLQ) to measure school leadership team’s behavioral agility in using five leadership influence actions (managing, transforming, bridging, bonding, and bartering). Cameron and Quinn’s (2005) Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) was used to determine if the school’s dominant organizational culture type (adhocracy, clan, hierarchy, or market) mediated the behavioral agility of school leadership teams and school performance. The study included 65 schools and approximately 1,500 classroom teachers from a very large urban school district located in the Southeast United States. The results indicate that behavioral agility, unidimensional and multidimensional factors, were significantly correlated to each organizational culture type, with the exception of the managing behavior subfactor in clan and adhocracy cultures. Student suspension moderated the relationship between behavioral agility and school culture. There was no relationship found between school culture and school performance; however, it was found that minority percentage negatively correlated market culture and school performance and student attendance negatively correlated both hierarchy and market cultures and school performance. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

An international program in a public K to 12 school district in British Columbia is responsible for international students, their education, and life in BC. An international program leader (IPL) is employed by the school district to lead these programs. The IPL has an influence on the lives of students, parents, school district staff, home-stay families, and study-abroad agents. International program leadership is an emerging area of study in educational leadership, with limited research. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of leadership in public K to 12 international programs in BC and to reflect on theoretical foundations that may influence practice. In-depth interviews with six IPLs using a multiple-case-study approach (Stake, 2006) uncovered perspectives on leading international programs in a BC context. In the cross-case analysis, three themes emerged: (a) the phenomenon of international program leadership is contextual, (b) professional (human) relationships and networks are key elements of international program leadership, and (c) managing and resolving conflicts over values and culture are key elements of international program leadership. The implications of these findings include: (a) the background of the IPL influences leadership, (b) the context of an international program in a BC school district influences IPL leadership practice, (c) human relationships with five key stakeholders are important for leaders, and (d) the role of the IPL as a mediator of conflicts in three key areas: philosophical disagreements regarding international programs from colleagues in a school district, the management of mental health issues for students, and inappropriate living conditions for students. / Graduate

<p>Kreativitet har blivit allt viktigare inom dagens organisationer och forskningen har börjat intressera sig för hur kreativiteten påverkas av nominala eller riktiga grupper, samt hur dessa grupper är sammansatta. Syftet med undersökningen var att se hur kreativiteten i arbetsteam påverkas av mängden yrkesgrupper som ingår, samt att se hur externa faktorer som ledarskap och organisationskultur påverkar. I denna studie intervjuades 14 anställda inom olika branscher om deras syn på kreativitet och det visade sig finnas skillnader mellan grupperna. Arbete i grupp kan ge kreativiteten en annan kvalité och heterogenitet förknippades med mer dynamik och kreativa strategier. Samtliga respondenter i den heterogena gruppen var överens om att arbete i en blandad grupp var en styrka för kreativiteten.</p>

Humor is usually associated with trivial or non-serious banter; it is however a significant factor in the construction of organizational culture. This work provides an experience based organizational account of how organizations are produced and reproduced, as well as how organizational interaction is coupled with structure. This dissertation is based on two ethnographic studies: the first, a year-long study of a hotel kitchen, and the second, a three-year study of a private boarding school. This long term examination of an organization??s interaction is used to illustrate how organizational interaction produces the duality of organizational structuration overtime. An ethnographic communication-focused approach provides methods for recognizing multiple sites and levels of the Structuration process. As a result, this approach provides a major contribution to understanding the process of Structuration through agents?? actions in the context of their organizational culture.

Kreativitet har blivit allt viktigare inom dagens organisationer och forskningen har börjat intressera sig för hur kreativiteten påverkas av nominala eller riktiga grupper, samt hur dessa grupper är sammansatta. Syftet med undersökningen var att se hur kreativiteten i arbetsteam påverkas av mängden yrkesgrupper som ingår, samt att se hur externa faktorer som ledarskap och organisationskultur påverkar. I denna studie intervjuades 14 anställda inom olika branscher om deras syn på kreativitet och det visade sig finnas skillnader mellan grupperna. Arbete i grupp kan ge kreativiteten en annan kvalité och heterogenitet förknippades med mer dynamik och kreativa strategier. Samtliga respondenter i den heterogena gruppen var överens om att arbete i en blandad grupp var en styrka för kreativiteten.

For this qualitative research a single case study was conducted of a faith-based non-profit organization, Health Education and Literacy Providers (H.E.L.P.), which operates simultaneously in the United States and Nigeria. The purpose of this study was to explore the cross-cultural leadership phenomena occurring within H.E.L.P. and to provide evaluation services and research data to the American members of H.E.L.P. Participants included a sample of the American board members, Nigerian board members, and Nigerian employees. Three data collection methods were used to achieve triangulation including participant observations, interviews, and analysis of documents. The first research objective was to investigate the cross-cultural leadership context by analyzing the organizational culture of H.E.L.P. in Nigeria. Results revealed H.E.L.P. was designed by American board members to operate as a bureaucratic culture with an emphasis on a business-like structure, centralized authority, compartmentalization, and efficiency. The Nigerian board members and employees, however, expressed a desire for a supportive culture that focused on love and harmony uncovering a discrepancy between American and Nigerian preferences in organizational culture typology. The results from the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) study were referenced to provide a cultural explanation for variations in organizational culture preferences. According to GLOBE study findings, the United States ranked higher on performance orientation meaning Americans are more likely to value results above people, ambition, and competitiveness, and explains the American?s desire for a bureaucratic organizational culture. Nigeria ranked behind the United States as a lower performance oriented society meaning individuals place high value on relationships and harmony, explaining their desire for a supportive culture. The second and third research objectives were to determine how H.E.L.P.'s Nigerian members perceive effective leadership within their culture, and determine how the Nigerians? definition of effective leadership supports or refutes the literature on prevalent Westernized leadership theories. Results indicated the overarching leadership theme perceived to be effective by the Nigerian members of H.E.L.P. was love. Several aspects of a loving leader were evident in the data and divided into five categories each with one subcategory. These findings supported both Transformational and Authentic leadership theories.

The significance of local and international non-governmental organizations in society has beenincreasing quite rapidly. Nevertheless, the research concerning international NGOs internalactivities has not evolved in phase with the growing roles of NGOs’. The internal communicationand organizational culture have significant role on how NGOs works externally. The aim of thisstudy is to gain knowledge on WWF’s (World Wide Fund for Nature) internal communication andorganizational culture. This is achieved by researching the communicational processes aroundWWF’s global “Engaging hundreds of millions” -objective and reflecting the findings on theapproaches and theories among organizational culture and sensemaking. WWF is one of the world’slargest environmental international NGO with over 5,000 employees worldwide. The study bases onthe experiences of WWF’s managing communicators, and it reveals that a majority of them feel thatthe internal communication in the Network does not work as effectively as they hope. According tothe results, many people feel that the internal communication and participation to differentprocesses is unsatisfactory mainly because clear practices and opportunities to participate arelacking. However, the study also reveals that there is a substantial enthusiasm and will to improvethe practices together within the WWF Network.