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This thesis aims to explore a rather simple question in relation to the process of how knowledge is generated within the organisational group. The question posed and pursued using an inductive methodological approach is "how do groups learn?" This deceptively simple and almost child-like question has helped me to engage with a wide range of philosophical and methodological approaches to group learning and knowledge generation. By using such a straightforward notion I have been able to construct a sophisticated research project which posits a range of conclusions and responses to my original question and demonstrates the complexity of organisational learning in general. The conclusions I generated reveal a series of discrete interconnections between the individual, the group and an enmeshed series of psychological processes which both assist and prevent groups from generating knowledge and learning. Along with generating a number of new insights into how groups learn, this simple question has enabled me to construct and propose a new theoretical framework for group learning and knowledge generation. The framework itself sets out to explore some of the most basic taken-for-granted notions of our Western world-view, ideas which form the bedrock of our epistemological certainty and which are hardly ever held up to critical scrutiny.

This study concerns the application of a model of effective interpersonal relationships to problems arising from staff assessment at I.C.I. Ltd. Corporate Laboratory between 1972 and 1974. In collaboration with academic and industrial supervision, the study commenced with a survey of management and supervisor opinions about the effectiveness of current staff (work) relationships, with particular reference to the problem of recognising and developing creative potential. This survey emphasised a need to improve the relationships between staff in the staff assessment context. A survey of research into creativity emphasised the importance of the interpersonal environment for obtaining creative behaviour in an organisation context. A further survey of theories of how inter­personal behaviour related to personal creativity (therapeutic psychology) provided a model of effective interpersonal behaviour (Carkhuff, 1969) that could be applied to the organisation context of staff assessment. The objective of the project was redefined as a need to improve the conditions of interpersonal behaviour in relation to certain (career development) problems arising from staff assessment practices. In order to demonstrate the application of the model of effective interpersonal behaviour, the research student recorded interviews between himself and members of staff designed to develop and operate the dimensions of the model. Different samples of staff were used to develop the 'facilitative' and the 'action oriented' dimensions of bahaviour, and then for the operation of a helping programme (based on vocational guidance tests). These interactions have been analysed, according to the scales of measurement in the model ana the results are presented in case study form in this thesis. At each stage of the project, results and conclusions were presented to the sponsoring organisation (e.g. industrial supervisor) in order to assess their (subjective) opinion of relevance to the organ­ isation. Finally, recommendations on further actions towards general improvement of the work relationships in the laboratory were presented in a brief report to the sponsor.

This thesis aims to provide a critical realist account of diversity managers' agency, incorporating a critique of the existing diversity management research. A multilevel and relational analytical framework is offered in order to understand diversity managers' agency. The framework interpreted and operationalised Bourdieu's key concepts, `field', `habitus', `capitals' and `strategies' in the organisational context, for exploring and explaining macro, meso and micro level influences on the agency of diversity managers. The macro-social field of diversity management is mapped out by analysing data from an online national survey completed by diversity managers in the UK, and in-depth interviews with diversity managers of large public and private sector organisations. Then, findings of an extensive case study of Ford Motor Company, which includes company documentation and interviews with the company's diversity managers, are introduced to examine meso-organisational and micro-individual dynamics of diversity managers' agency. The analysis of the findings revealed that the agency of diversity managers is multilayered and complex. Whilst the boundaries of this agency are drawn by the deeply seated structures and mechanisms which are embedded in the fabric of social and organisational lives, diversity managers own varying degrees of social, cultural and symbolic capitals which are potential sources of power and influence, and they utilise strategies in order to activate this potential and widen the scope of their agency. The thesis addresses the limitations in diversity management literature, which are associated with dualisms of agency and structure, and qualitative and quantitative methods. It makes theoretical and methodological contribution by offering original empirical evidence generated through a multi-method strategy and analysing diversity managers' agency at the interplay of agentic and structural dynamics. It also offers policy makers at organisational and national levels a realistic understanding of diversity management processes that may inform design of more effective and progressive policies and initiatives.