"Learning organization" is one of the famous organizational theories and approaches to organizational development. Many empirical researches have been done on its implementation and application in various sectors and cultural settings. Following the interest in applying the concept in all types of organizations, this study seeks to explore what the similarities and dissimilarities between Islamic principles and practices are, as applied to corporate life, compared with the same from the idea of the learning organization, and how compatible are they. To achieve the purpose, a case study method mainly using Vin's (1999) case study approach was conducted, involving two established Islamic organizations in Malaysia. The first, Victorious, is a pilgrimage institution and the second, Radiant, is an educational institution. The source of data was largely obtained from semi-structured interviews supported by other types of documentation. The findings showed that there were elements in Islamic management principles practiced in the organizations that were in-congruent with the concept of a learning organization. Apart from that, comparisons of learning organization principles vs. Islamic organization principles and practices were also presented. A model of a learning organization for Islamic organization is proposed at the end, alongside some core concepts in Islam that seem to have integrating possibilities with the learning organization

Helping behaviours at work have significant associations with the organisations' long term performance. however it is difficultly to make formal agreements with employees describing when and how they should help because effective helping behaviours are dynamic and what is helpful in one situation may not be helpful in another. However, if employees become intrinsically motivated to help others they may respond efficiently in situations where help is beneficial. Social identity theory (SIT) and self-categorisation theory (SCT) (Tajfel & Turner. 1986) describe when the group becomes self and influences behaviours.

This thesis is based on an ethnographic case study of a London building site. The social organisation of building work and building workers was framed by the city, and cross-cut by class, race and gender, the structures and processes of which are explored throughout. The fieldwork site was characterised by racial divides between subcontracted trade groups, which were organised around informal networks within ethnic communities. Those communities, in their turn, were bounded by patterns of gift-exchange, reciprocity and ensuing loyalties. Networked contacts, which were predominately ascribed by social, ethnic and regional origins, formed an aspect of the perpetuation of race and class structures. Strong notions of trust and loyalty fostered illegitimate activities because information concerning rule-breaking was kept within the communities and went undetected by agencies representing the formal law. Informal networks were also contrived and engineered by entrepreneurial subcontractors whose relationships with building contractors and consultants were characterised by gift-giving. This process shielded competition from rivals and closed down the competitiveness of the construction market. 'Embedded' economic relations excluded recent migrant groups and their subcontracted representatives by blocking access to jobs and contracts, despite the groups' ability to offer cheaper and harder-working labour. Contractual arrangements were informal and sometimes illicit, and this erected barriers to legal and regulatory power. Coupled with short-term and ephemeral working practices, a social order partly supported by the threat of violence was established. The masculinity expressed by builders was, in part, a consequence of this display of violence. The building industry was virtually a 'non-modern ' organisation whose social relations were marked by network morality, nepotism, reciprocity, gift relations and the threat of violence. Yet, violence underpinned forms of social power, which manufactured the imbalance of false reciprocities.

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Groupware Calendar Systems (GCS), asynchronous on-line meeting schedulers are designed to fulfil the increased need for coordination of work, by supporting time management of temporally and geographically dispersed individuals and groups. From a study of the literature on GCS adoption, a premise was constructed that temporal coordination of GCS requires a marriage of conflicting private and public perspectives. This is based on the fact that firstly, the system has to support both individual and group work, and secondly, generally considered `private' information has to be publicized by individuals. However, there is a lack of understanding of the dynamism of these perspectives especially in relation to the process of temporal coordination in GCS. The aim of this thesis is to understand and conceptualize temporal coordination of GCS. The research strategy of this thesis adopts a `grounded approach' together with a `progressive research approach' to investigate the GCS phenomenon. The actions and processes of GCS-in-use are examined using the case study method. The research design progressively refines and reflects upon the findings in two stages: stage-one, two pilot studies and stage-two, two case studies. A selection of data collection techniques were used in order to obtain a rich data set via semi-structured in-depth interviews, observations, questionnaires, documentation and photographs. The analysis employed a pattern-matching technique and the `SCOT' framework, modified to examine the process of temporal coordination and the dynamic relationships produced in GCS which led to the construction of a new conceptual model. This model of 'reflective temporal equilibrium' presents the state of temporal coordination, formed by the phenomenon of continuous conflict between the private and public perspectives. The outcomes of this thesis provide a clearer theoretical picture of GCS, consequently leading to implications for its future design and adoption for better coordination and collaboration of work.

In the face of increasingly dynamic market environments, firms are being urged to develop learning and innovation capabilities if they wish to secure competitive advantage and long-term growth. A bank of work written from numerous theoretical perspectives has converged on the view that knowledge underpins the formation of such capabilities. While much of this literature emphasises the importance of cognitive knowledge, a new approach grounded in techniques from social anthropology suggests that learning is a non-cognitive practice, drawing on embodied exploration, everyday sociality, and a communitarian infrastructure of human and non-human actants. This thesis aims to consolidate the current literature on 'possessed' knowledge by clarifying the relationship between cognition and learning, and to advance understanding of innovation practices within firms by examining the role of non-cognitive mechanisms in the development of organisational capabilities. Drawing on a nine-month period of ethnographic research, this thesis describes the on-the-ground processes of learning and innovation within the marketing department of a large UK organisation. This evidence is used to investigate critically the theoretical claims regarding the role of both cognitive and non-cognitive forms of knowledge. Based on the empirical findings, three interrelated arguments are proposed: the design and governance of strategic learning devices involve non-cognitive practices; informal mechanisms of learning underpin the formation of new capabilities; and communitarian theories of learning overemphasise the social construction of knowledge, while neglecting the agency of the materiality of context.

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The author designs a comprehensive model to characterise and optimise sustainable performance of small and medium sized enterprises SMEs - in the overall context of physical environment, society, economy and business. This model embraces issues of morality, management system, and environment and uses a corresponding measurement tool to discuss the interplay of these issues with the intention of leading SMEs to continuous improvement. For the design, issues of system thinking have been applied to cope with the complexity of the interplay of the elements. The model and the measurement tool are tested by a longitudinal survey of 27 SMEs in Switzerland and Germany. An outstanding issue of this survey is the interviewing of people from different hierarchical levels and departments of the companies (total: 212 individuals); it provides a comprehensive view of companies' attitudes and behaviours. The survey illustrates that a standardised management system is not decisive for the implementation of an increasingly dynamic and circular system with intensive integration of people. The implementation merely depends on the (moral) attitudes and behaviours of owners or top managers and employees. But SMEs with standardised (especially environmental) management systems generally demonstrate more outcomes towards embedded morality, circularity and integration as well as effectiveness and sustainable performance. Through the design and development of a comprehensive SME model and measuring tool, the author broadens the gap of narrowing SME research concerning optimised performance on individual issues and positions of individual companies to an overall context of society, economy, business and physical environment.