No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The objective of the research is to create new understanding of how family businesses utilise their network relationships to survive and grow their business. The focus rests on how family business participants are interlocked within relationships both within the business itself and with external stakeholders. Analysis of the research reviews the concept of 'Systems of Exchange' (as proposed by Biggart and Delbridge 2004), which is revised for application to the family business. A critical review of the theoretical literature in the areas of networking and family business theory highlight the gaps in our knowledge of how networks are composed and how exchanges are conducted in family firms. A synopsis of the viticulture industry provides a contextual background in which the study took place. The methodology of the research is grounded in a critical realist approach in which a mixture of participant observation and in-depth interviewing were conducted. A total of three case studies were undertaken, compromising over six months in the field. The cases were based in similar sized viticulture businesses in three different countries the UK the USA and Australia. The findings indicate that, due to the strong organisational identification that derives from being a family firm in the agricultural industry, particularistic relationships dominate as the basis for orientation to a network. A high level of substantively rational exchanges was also observed with exchanges with the local community and internal actors in these organisations. It is concluded that the 'agricultural heart' forms a substantial moral basis for many exchanges formed with external network partners, suggesting that a larger proportion of moral exchanges are found within the agricultural industry. Further, the level of involvement of the family in the daily activities of the business was seen to highly affect the portfolio of exchanges that were observed. These findings are represented within the revised Systems of Exchange framework. The study makes a number of contributions to organisation and family business theory. Firstly, the study develops the Systems of Exchange framework, demonstrating that understanding of exchanges can be improved by elaborating the framework to reflect the dynamic nature of ties and potentially asymmetrical nature of relationships. Secondly, the framework needs to be located within the local context of exchange and it is therefore extended to reflect a number of mediators of exchange relations. Thirdly, the data leads to the development of a new model which links the concepts of social capital, dynamics of trust and situated logics. By presenting these revised and new frameworks, clear contributions to knowledge are identified.

It has been widely argued that employee motivation is critical for successful Lean implementation, yet scant research has investigated the individual-level influences on employee motivation for Lean. The primary purpose of the present research is to explore employee beliefs about adopting Lean behaviours (LBs) such as suggestion-making and problem-solving and the efficacy of a well-established psychological model of behaviour, the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB, Ajzen, 1991), to explain employees' intentions to adopt, and their future engagement in, LBs. The impact of a number of individual-level constructs external to the TPB is also considered, including job-related factors (job satisfaction, organisational commitment, Lean self-efficacy, past behaviour, union membership, organisational tenure, employee level) and person-related factors (personality, gender, age). Data (54 face-to-face structured interviews, 3 focus groups with 23 employees, 1030 questionnaires) was collected from employees in four organisations initiating Lean change. Employees generally held positive beliefs about adopting LBs and could see the benefits both for themselves and for their organisation. An average 57.4% of the variance in intentions was explained by attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control (PBC). PBC was a significant predictor of intentions with all four samples attitude and subjective norm were also significant predictors with the larger samples. Consistently, the non-TPB variables did not predict intentions independently of the TPB variables. Intentions and PBC explained on average 9.6% of the variance in behaviour. Past behaviour, employee level, Lean self-efficacy, job satisfaction, organisational commitment, union membership and neuroticism emerged as significant predictors of behaviour independently of the TPB variables with some of the samples. Personality did not moderate the intentions-behaviour relation and openness was consistently the only personality trait with a significant independent effect on Lean self-efficacy. The thesis discusses the practical implications of the findings for organisations implementing Lean in terms of designing work environments, communication, training and the use of personality inventories for recruitment. Limitations of the study and appropriate directions for future research are explored.

Work demands and family responsibilities are often seen to be incompatible and, in the light of increasing female participation in paid employment, there is a growing concern about work-family conflict for women worldwide. Western literature suggests that both work and family-related factors give rise to women's work-family conflict. Also, the persistence of a gendered division of domestic labour - mainly arising from the role of women as the principle child-rearers and carers - have provided explanations for the continued disadvantage that women experience in the workplace. This study examines the extent to which these Western experiences prevail in modern China and considers the full range of factors within the Chinese context in order to develop an understanding of how work and family conflict for Chinese women. The empirical evidence reported was collected from case studies conducted in three Chinese airlines. Through the use of a multi-method approach - including questionnaires, qualitative interviews and documentary analysis - rich data has enabled insights to be gained into the issue of work-family conflict in the Chinese airline industry in particular and the Chinese context more broadly. The research shows that Western findings are not wholly applicable in the Chinese context because of a unique mix of traditional Chinese values alongside contemporary social, political and economic changes which enable women to participate more freely in the labour market. While it is found that family to work conflict is diminishing, significant work to family conflict is experienced mainly as a consequence of negative gendered organisational attitudes. This research builds upon Venter's (2002) three-level model of women's work-family experiences by developing a six-factor analytical model which enables a fuller understanding of women's work-family conflict and other relevant issues. The six-factor model also provides a framework for enhancing current knowledge about the lives of Chinese working women more generally.

This thesis examines a group of Chinese seafarer-partners' participation in a discussion website called Home of Chinese Seafarers. Specifically, it investigates the ways and extent to which participation in the site serves to ameliorate problems associated with separation and loneliness for seafarers-partners caused by the seafarers work patterns. The study utilised qualitative research methods. Online participant observation was conducted for a period in excess of two years and face to face and email interviews were carried out with seafarer-partner participants and the website managers. Web-based content from the site was also recorded and analysed. In analysing the data three central themes were developed: forms of participation, the production of friendship and the potential effect of participation upon the self. The findings suggest that participation in this particular website enables seafarer-partners to pool their available resources to provide each other with informational help, emotional support, and differing degrees of friendship. With these resources it appears that they are better equipped to combat the loneliness and isolation experienced as a result of their partners repeated prolonged absences. Their participation in the site also helps them to make sense of and validate their experiences and to gain a sense of security and certainty. As a result, seafarer-partners become more positive towards their lives and future, and make claims for improved well-being. The analysis of the data further reveals that seafarer-partners produce and reproduce a set of group norms and values within the website which promote understanding, supportive and self-sacrificing seafarers' wives/partners. This raises the issue of whether participating in the website is repressive or can be regarded as empowering.

The main purpose of the study is to advance the organisational citizenship literature in the non-Westernised service context. An extant literature review revealed several gaps in the current understanding of the phenomenon including: (1) lack of studies looking at service-specific organisational citizenship behaviours, (2) limited research that has examined the effect of job satisfaction and three components of organisational commitment on citizenship behaviours in a simultaneous manner and (3) lack of studies attempting to identify 'new drivers' of citizenship behaviours. As a result, the present study develops a social structure explanation of service-specific citizenship behaviour (i.e. service employee citizenship behaviour), emphasising the importance of job satisfaction, three components of organisational commitment, co-worker support and passenger cooperation. In addition, the current study explores the moderating role of cultural orientation (i.e. individualism/collectivism). Using a survey approach, questionnaires were distributed to employees in an airline company based in Thailand. An effective response rate of 53.60% resulted in 335 questionnaires being collected for analysis. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) procedures were followed using AMOS 6.0 to analyse the data. The findings reveal significant contributions of job satisfaction, affective commitment and normative commitment in predicting service employee citizenship behaviour. The examination of individual differences in terms of individualism/collectivism values highlights the different tendencies of employees to engage in different forms of service employee citizenship behaviour. Additionally, the conceptualisation along with empirical results not only emphasise the significant contribution of co-worker support and passenger cooperation on service employee citizenship behaviour, but also illustrate the importance of identifying job attitudes as a key mediator of the support-performance relationship. By this, this study extends the current understanding on determinants of service-specific organisational citizenship behaviours as well as the influence of individual difference with regards to individual/collectivism on such citizenship behaviours.

No description available.