This case study describes the learning capability of a hospital after patient incidents. The theoretical framework is based on Carroll, Rudolph and Hatakenaka’s model of four stages of organisational learning. Ten managers were interviewed and documents such as incident management policy, quality plans and incident reports were examined. The ten participants include five clinical managers who are responsible for investigating incidents and five unit managers who are responsible for signing off incident reports. This study found that incident investigations generated valuable learning for the participants. Being the learning agent, they also appeared to influence and lead team learning and, to some extent, organisational learning. Most of the participants appeared to be practising between the constrained stage and the open stage of learning. This study uncovers the concepts of preparedness, perception and persistence. The application of these exemplary concepts has strengthened the learning capability of some participants and distinguishes them as practising at the open stage of learning. By employing these concepts, The Hospital can also gain leverage to progress from the constrained stage to the open stage of learning that supports a systems approach, advocates double-loop learning and facilitates the culture of safety. This case study has found that The Hospital assumes a controlling-orientation to ensure staff’s compliance with policies and procedures to prevent patient incidents. However, it also advocates a safety culture and attempts to promote learning from patient incidents. This impetus is inhibited by the obstacles in its incident management system, the weak iii modes of transfer of learning and hindering organisational practices. Three propositions are offered to overcome these barriers. Firstly, revolutionise the incident management system to remove obstacles due to the rigid format of Incident Forms, the difficulty in retrieving information and the lack of feedback. Secondly, provide regular, safe, transparent and egalitarian forums for all staff to learn from patient incidents. Facilitated incident meetings have been shown to be more effective platforms for learning than a bureaucratic approach via policies, procedures, training and directive decisions delivered during departmental meetings or by written communications. Thirdly, attain a balance between controlling and learning to mitigate the effects of bureaucratic process and the silo phenomenon.

Since the institution of the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1971 and beyond its end in 1990, the Malaysian government has had mixed successes in developing Malay entrepreneurship. Despite on-going of privileges and assistance and the government’s concerted efforts and initiatives, Malay entrepreneurship still continues to lag behind that of the Chinese. This study centres on the challenges faced by the Government of Malaysia in the promotion of Malay entrepreneurial development. Based on interviews with diverse people, both within and outside the government, the study reveals that Malay entrepreneurial development is a complex process confronted by many issues and problems. The study also reveals that government privileges and assistance to Malays to promote entrepreneurship do not help much in boosting an entrepreneurial culture nor do they help them in enhancing entrepreneurial competitiveness and achievement. Instead, such privileges and assistance have conversely made the Chinese more resilient and competitive entrepreneurially but discriminative against the Malays. This conclusion confirms the proposition that “state assistance in the form of an affirmative action to an economically-challenged sector of society does little to create entrepreneurship; rather it challenges rival economic groups to sharpen their own competitiveness”. Finally, the study is able to indicate that Malay entrepreneurship differs slightly from the conventional Western concepts of entrepreneurship. The differences are largely due to the historical background of the Malays as a communitarian society; as Muslims; as a society still divided along class lines and as a status conscious community.

The impact of the Contact Centre workplace upon employee satisfaction or wellness is attracting the attention of researchers across the globe. Over 10 years of research has resulted in recommendations about how Contact Centres should be managed and how the jobs of Contact Centre agents should be designed. There is growing concern that the current practices result in significant psychosocial risk factors which are ultimately harming the Contact Agents and less obviously the bottom line of their organisations through emotional exhaustion, stress, employee absenteeism and turnover. The aim of this study was to explore whether Contact Centre managers were aware of these recommendations, in particular those relating to the design of motivating, satisfying and “healthy” jobs. Using an expanded Job Characteristic Model, this descriptive study explored the level of awareness of New Zealand Contact Centre managers (n=20) regarding the recommendations about the design of jobs, and what changes, if any, have occurred as a result. Where changes have not been forthcoming, the study explored the constraints which were preventing or limiting change. The results of this study indicated that there is a low level of awareness of the research recommendations, that approaches to improving the management and design of Contact Centre agents roles are ad hoc, and that there is a level of resistance in providing agents with autonomy to manage their day to day roles. Some efforts to increase task and skill variety have been made but these are also ad hoc rather than built into the job. As a result of this study, it appears that Contact Centres in New Zealand are still adopting a mass production model of management. This study has implications for Contact Centre managers and senior organisational managers, these are discussed. Limitations of the research, implications for Contact Centre Managements are highlighted and areas for further research are highlighted

Despite work-life balance being an area of interest to many researchers, there is little reference to any effects related specifically to elder care. Current demographics indicate that the proportion of elderly in the community is increasing, and with greater workforce participation (particularly among women workers) the availability of family caregivers is less guaranteed. Women are more likely to be responsible for elder care, and as they seek to manage their work and life, are also more likely to seek workplace flexibility, sometimes through self-employment. The effect that elder care may be having on the work-life balance of self-employed women is the focus of this research project. Using work-family border theory as a lens, this research documented the effect that elder care had on the lives of a group of self-employed women who also had elder care responsibilities. Eight women from the Wellington region participated in this research, which was carried out from a broadly phenomenological perspective. Each participant shared information, using a case study approach, about their business and elder care responsibilities. The results of this research indicate the profound effect of emotions in the elder care situation, and also the effect of expectations from others whose influences affected the ability of the participants to achieve work-life balance.

Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) face enormous financial risk when embarking on a new product launch. SMEs are less likely to implement more formal risk minimization strategies for new product development (NPD) such as StageGate, often citing reasons of resource constraints or the more prevalent notion that “this stuff doesn’t apply to us”. Two key elements of any such risk minimization strategies are an early emphasis on benchmarking competitors and a thorough study of the attitudes and behaviours of potential customers. The SME’s investment of time and resource in early acquisition of this knowledge is a critical factor for success (Cooper 2001). Armed with this information, the SME is able to adopt a Customer Focused Design (CFD) strategy, whereby the product development effort is remains focused on the external customers wants and needs through all phases. SMEs that are able to satisfy these needs more effectively enjoy an obvious competitive advantage (Matzler and Hinterhuber 1998; Lüthje 2004). SMEs are often challenged by these tasks (Freel 2000; Larsen and Lewis 2007; Owens 2007). They may be overwhelmed by the prospect of expected costs, lack of expertise, and financial pressures to rush to market. Too often the more conventional path is chosen, whereby a solution is proposed, developed and tested in the market to “see if it sticks”. Such methodologies are less effective and subject the SME to increased financial risk. International studies of SMEs attitudes and behaviour towards NPD reveal common challenges of resource limitations, skills deficiencies and organizational issues (Xueli, Soutar et al. 2002; de Jong and Vermeulen 2006; Siu, Lin et al. 2006; Murphy and Ledwith 2007; Owens 2007). New Zealand firms are no exception, and are burdened with similar challenges as their international counterparts. This study aims to propose a simple framework for small firms who wish to acquire knowledge about their target markets and potential customers with limited time and resources. The framework enables SMEs to incorporate customer focused design principles into their product definition phase, and better orient themselves to the consumer marketplace. The study makes use of a New Zealand based case study to evaluate how the framework may be employed to identify quick and inexpensive efforts that can reproduce some elements of more sophisticated CFD and benchmarking methods. The obtained results are incorporated into a product design specification and embodied into a physical prototype to further illuminate the process. In addition to the primary area of study, prospects for new adjacent product lines and new potential markets for future development are also gained from the research.

This study explores the influence of music sharing at work on social relationships between colleagues. Music sharing has been proven to facilitate friendship and maintenance in various social environments (Brown, Sellen, & Geelhoed, 2001; Voida, Grinter, & Ducheneaut, 2006). However, music sharing at work in its influence on friendships between colleagues has never been explored, even though establishing and strengthening social relationships within the workplace have become increasingly important within organisations (Berman, West, & Richter, 2002). Informal relationships are beneficial for the overall well-being of an organisation as they increase the exchange of resources between colleagues. For the individual workers these relationships satisfy their need for social interaction. The study applied a mixed methods approach involving quantitative as well as qualitative methods. Twenty-nine employees from design agencies throughout New Zealand participated in an online survey and seven in semi-structured interviews. Both online survey and interviews were used in combination in order to achieve complementarily and triangulation between quantitative and qualitative data. The results suggest that music sharing contributes to the development of social bonding that occurs in the workplace. On the basis of the music that was shared through various technologies colleagues appeared to form impressions of each other. This involved determining each others’ music preferences and associating other personality aspects with those music preferences. It appeared that the more similarly colleagues perceived each others’ musical tastes, the more likely they were to become friends and/or to form informal music taste groups at work. The degree of reciprocity of music predicted the degree of intimacy between colleagues. When colleagues who were friends shared music with each other, they were much more concerned about reciprocating the music adequately than when they shared with colleagues they knew only superficially. The findings of this study are relevant for employers who want to promote relationship development between colleagues in a work environment where employees are passionate about music.

The well recognised and parsimonious Dirichlet model of buyer behaviour (Goodhardt, Ehrenberg and Chatfield 1984) has summarised a number of empirical generalisations about market structures and buyer behaviour. These generalisations have been described by Sharp, Wright and Goodhardt (2002) as: Differences in market share can be attributed largely to differences in market penetration A double jeopardy pattern emerges, with smaller brands having a lower average purchase frequency, share of category requirements, and proportion of sole buyers A brand’s customers buy from other brands more frequently Sole buyers tend to be very rare, and are also very light buyers Heavy buyers buy more brands and are very unlikely to be sole buyers Brands share their customers in proportion to their market share (Duplication of Purchase Law). Of these empirical generalisations, double jeopardy, polygamous loyalty and the duplication of purchase law are amongst the better known. They have been observed across an increasing number of product categories, countries and differing market conditions. This thesis considers whether the Dirichlet and its accompanying empirical generalisations also hold true for radio markets. Whilst Goodhardt, Ehrenberg and Collins (1975) and Barwise and Ehrenberg (1988) have considered television and its audiences there has been very little study into radio audience patterns. Perhaps this is because many researchers consider radio to be more like television than any other media. However, Lees (2003, 2006) has started to address the issues of radio market structures and radio audience patterns. This thesis adopts an empirical generalist approach showing the Dirichlet model of consumer behaviour and its associated empirical generalizations appear to apply to radio markets in that they: Show a high correlation between market share and the brand performance measures of: cumulative audience, average time spent listening, share of category requirements and exclusive audience Reflect the double jeopardy pattern with those stations that have a higher market share also having a higher penetration or cumulative audience and a higher average weekly time spent listening. Conversely those stations with a low market share having a lower cumulative audience and a lower average weekly time spent listening Show audience duplication between radio stations that varies according to each stations’ market cumulative audience, in accordance with the Duplication of Purchase Law Have the percentage of listeners loyal to one radio station reflecting the Dirichlet’s expectation of low exclusive audience. These exclusive listeners also reflect a double jeopardy pattern with the bigger stations having more exclusive listeners than the smaller stations. The most compelling result of this thesis is the apparent ability of the Dirichlet to describe a radio market place. Thus has managerial implications – especially to what extent a manager should take the patterns as ‘normal’ or seek to ‘buck the trend’. The conclusion is that radio station managers need to carefully manage their station working with the market rather than trying to ‘buck the trend’. This is likely to involve station managers actively promoting their stations to ensure that their station remains salient to its current listeners while also trying to increase its awareness amongst non listeners. This thesis has also made several contributions to knowledge about the Dirichlet. First, it has extended knowledge about the model to a new area – that of radio listening. Second, it has shown that while some radio listening seemingly violates some of the assumptions behind the model it is still robust enough to account for variations in multivariate count data in a manner that is parsimonious. Third, it has confirmed the known boundary condition that the Dirichlet does under-predict sole loyal purchase frequency. This thesis also calls for further research into both the Dirichlet model with further extensions to differentiated product categories; and into the question of radio audience measurement. It calls for the New Zealand Radio Broadcasters Association to commission a report into the effect of introducing portable people meters as a form of audience measurement.

Single Desk Seller (SDS) firm structures dominate the agribusiness sector in many developing countries, and were created to resolve export market failure and achieve performance efficiency and effectiveness. Many of these SDSs are also state owned enterprises and have been perceived to be inefficient and a drain on the public purse, as well as no longer having a raison d'être in the face of the World Trade Organization’s anti-competition open markets policies. However, unlike in developed countries, SDSs are likely to remain a significant feature in small developing countries due to their inherent problem of small scale and undeveloped equity markets. It therefore beholds researchers and practitioners to correct inefficiencies of these structures in order to achieve optimal performance. The Arrowroot Industry Association, with a record of disastrous performance makes an ideal case to explore this governance-performance relationship. A holistic case study research methodology was used to carry out this study The main finding was that the governance structure of the Arrowroot Industry Association (AIA) was unresponsive to and did not co-evolve with its environment over the last (20) twenty years. As a result it increasingly became an inefficient mechanism for solving governance according to the normative prescriptions of property rights, transactions cost, agency, resource based view, resource dependency theories, stakeholder, and stewardship theories. Consequently, and despite having a rare and valuable starch product, the AIA was unable to meet demand or secure sufficient rents from the value chain to meet the revenue objectives of itself or of its members. The most significant causes of inertia in the AIA’s strategy and structure were caused by two exogenous variables (a fixed legislation and significant politically influence in the strategic process), and two endogenous variables (poor cognitive ability of management and directors and the limiting effects of its eroded resource base). The combination of poor performance and inertia of the AIA over the years resulted in various forms of escalating commitments, debt accumulation and a shrinking supply base upstream as producers sought alternative means of income. Furthermore, the absence of markets for managerial talents, corporate control and arrowroot production, harvesting and processing technologies restricted alternatives available to the AIA of Government in resolving the perceived problems. Research implications and recommendations for the AIA are subsequently discussed. The major recommendations proposed to reverse the performance problem of the AIA were (1) tighter vertical integration of the AIA to internalise of downstream inefficiencies, (2) efficient allocation of property rights along the entire value chain, (3) clearly defined roles and boundaries for key stakeholders, (4) increasing managerial, technological and financial capacity, and (5) reducing Government control by making influence-cost significantly prohibitive.

This thesis analyses and explores the Culture and Practices of Public Managers involved in implementing projects in Papua New Guinea. Project Implementation is an integral part of the overall project management cycle that has received a great deal of attention as a major development problem. In order for us to gain an insight of the theme of the thesis, the National AIDS Council Secretariat (NACS) was selected as the site for this case study. To investigate'how things were done in NACS', a variety of approaches were used to gauge the views, perceptions and experiences of programme and project managers in NACS, to help us understand the factors that affect staff practices. Poor management practice and the lack of a sound management culture and work ethic in PNG, is often blamed for the break down in the state?s capacity to deliver public goods and services to its citizens. Performance culture and good practice by public managers employed in State Institutions to handle projects have regressed in the last three decades, and as a result, projects are seen as failing to meet the goals and objectives of the state. The research question which the case study had to answer was: What is the nature of project management culture and practice among public sector managers in the National AIDS Council Secretariat? The study sought to investigate the extent to which the areas of command and control, project training, project knowledge and staff motivation were important integral managerial qualities in the attitudes and practice of public managers. The study showed that, of the four elements of managerial practices investigated, the inability of public managers to assume leadership, command and control and motivate their staff, were the most important elements missing among managers in NACS. Based on the findings and the evidence collected during the research, this thesis argues for substantial capacity building programmes to be designed and conducted around 'programme and project management' roles in state institutions and agencies in PNG, as the way to improve staff capabilities so as to enable project managers and their staff to efficiently implement projects.

In the contemporary workplace individuals differ considerably in the manner they approach their work and achieve outcomes. This thesis examined the construct of polychronicity (preference for undertaking multiple tasks simultaneously) within two intellectually intensive academic work environments. The impacts of imposed polychronicity on performance, job satisfaction, perceived stress and wellbeing were explored. Data was collected from 116 lecturers, teachers, supervisors and managers working in Northern Queensland, Australia. A quantitative approach was taken to data collection. Existing scales were used to measure a range of variables including preferred polychronicity, experienced work unit polychronicity, organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and perceived stress. To provide a qualitative perspective, respondents were asked for comments which were used to add depth and breadth to the study. The findings indicated that preferred polychronicity and experienced work unit polychronicity did not differ over genders or occupations which suggests that polychronicity is likely to be a personal trait. Responses were divided into polychronic, neutral or monochronic preference categories. The findings indicated that when polychronicity was high organisational commitment was high, but when monochronicity was high organisational commitment was lower. Further the findings indicated that when organisational commitment was high, job satisfaction was high and when organisational commitment was low stress was high, although polychrons relationship with stress was lower than that of monochrons. This may suggest that polychrons work better in an imposed polychronic environment than monochrons which supports previous research. The implication for employers is that through understanding the tasking preferences of employees they may be able to tailor strategies to improve and enhance personal wellbeing which in turn may increase job satisfaction, performance, wellbeing and reduce turnover.