This study of women in management was initiated to explore, through women managers themselves, the barriers they thought were hindering their progress up the management hierarchies in BT. To facilitate this study the first former utility organisation to be privatised was approached to be the case study. At the time the organisation, which was undergoing a major organisational change programme aimed at taking it from the utility provider it had been to the dynamic private company it wanted to be, was gaining a reputation for enlightened equal opportunity policies. It had a vigorous gender champion and an equal opportunities department that had ensured circulation of the organisation's equal opportunities policies to all members of staff. BT employed a large number of women managers in different functions, working in different locations throughout the UK and in a number of positions in the management hierarchy short of the most senior management or director levels. It therefore presented a unique opportunity to study women in the management pipeline from across a broad spectrum of jobs and backgrounds, women who were not being promoted in the same proportions as their male counterparts. To examine their circumstances a mixed methodology was used drawing on aspects of feminist, positivist and pragmatic models because each offered an essential element of the mix needed to satisfy the requirements for undertaking the study. As the researcher was both a manager employed by the case study organisation and a woman there were elements of feminist methodology that guided involvement and personal interest in the study. The culture of the case study organisation was such that it was driven by the quantitative measures offered by positivism. An implicit element of the agreement between researcher and case study organisation was therefore that elements of the findings should reflect this requirement. Finally, a pragmatic approach to undertaking the study underpinned the dialogue between researcher and case study organisation as ways were explored for carrying out the investigation. While it cannot be assumed that the same barriers to progress for women managers found in the case study organisation exist for women managers in other organisations, the findings of this study have nevertheless highlighted issues beyond the borders of the organisation. Firstly, they confirm the conclusions of previous research that women have been both horizontally and vertically segregated in areas of organisations from which progress into top management positions is more difficult to achieve. Secondly, the study casts new light on the pressures that women face when trying to reconcile the needs of work and caring responsibilities. Women's ambitions are still tempered by their place in the home as carer and partner and many are prepared to subordinate their career opportunities to the needs of their family. Most crucially, the study highlights the extent to which women's aspirations are bounded by their work experiences. It has been assumed that organisational cultures have been becoming more sympathetic towards the inclusion of women managers and more prepared to encourage women to progress but the evidence of this study is that this operates at the level of rhetoric instead of action. The organisational structures and management styles presented barriers that flattened the ambition of women and exposed them to bullying, intimidation and harassment. Nurtured by an uncompromisingly macho company culture underpinned by an old boys' network, the barriers that women encountered served to suppress initiative and detain them at lower levels of management. Many women felt that because of this they were stifled, inhibited from improving their own or the organisation's performance. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that the nebulous nature of these insidious discriminatory practices renders them almost impenetrable. Just as BT shares a history and culture similar to several other former utility organisations so it is probable that these practices are mirrored in other organisations. Finally, the assumptive base of some recent analysts question the ways in which women are likely to progress in management. It has been assumed that the excellent educational achievements of women in recent years will automatically translate into increased opportunities for high office in organisations. However the findings of this study show that the organisational climate in which women find themselves has a larger impact on their progress. In this study the women with the highest qualifications were clustered in the lowest ranks in the division of the organisation that showed most resistance to gender diversity. Therefore while education may enhance a woman's opportunities, it does not automatically position her for higher office. The other assumption that women are increasingly limiting their own career opportunities by making positive decisions to remain at the lowest positions in the management pipeline, through positive lifestyle choices, are challenged by the findings here. It was only when women found themselves hampered and unlikely to progress or thought that the harmony of their home lives was threatened that they decided to limit their options. Otherwise, many of them stated, they would have relished the challenge of higher office. As this study shows, it would clearly be a disservice to these women managers to confuse their forfeiture of ambition because of the prevailing hostile organisational climate or for family reasons, with their positively deciding to limit their careers.

User resistance to information system (IS) change is an important issue in the IS literature. However, despite a large body of user adoption literature, there is far less literature addressing user resistance to IS change, especially in organisational contexts. Moreover, there are still left a number of open questions regarding the why and how resistance takes place. Particularly, previous research failed to explain these questions for two reasons. First, none of the previous research explained the reasons for IS resistance from a multilevel perspective. Second, previous research, with few exceptions, was empirically conducted after IS had been implemented in organisations. Hence, it can be considered to be observations made on downstream results of the upstream resistance process. The two reasons above were used as drivers for this research at the AlphaBank during the preliminary phases of its core banking system (CBS) upgrading project. The ultimate purpose of this study is to develop a framework which will be of use to practitioners for understanding and managing resistance to IS change. Given the complexity of the resistance, explanatory theories guiding the study were argued, discussed, and developed. These guiding theories were based on the open system theory, the political variant of the interaction theory, and the status quo bias theory. The study employed an interpretivist philosophical standpoint and a collaborative practice research (CPR) was adopted. During the study, different methods were designed and conducted including informal discussions, documentation, semi-structure interviews, staff meetings and workshop. In total, twenty eight participants covering different levels of the bank’s hierarchy were involved in the study. Based on the findings, it was concluded that comprehending resistance from a multilevel lens helped the AlphaBank’s managers move beyond a search for a simple explanation of this phenomenon and enabled them to create more meaningful and actionable solutions. The findings contribute to knowledge in a multilevel model for understanding and managing resistance to IS change.

This research explored the potential influences on team functioning, from the perspective of adult attachment theory. Attachment styles are seen to reflect internal working models of self, others, and relationships, and influence individuals’ motivations, abilities, and perceptions as regards relationships. The research question explored what the role and influence of an individual’s global and team attachment style may have upon an individual’s experience of a work team. It sought to explain engagement with an individual’s work team, what is the subsequent influence of this on performance and how attachment style contributes to this. The key issues of Team Member Exchange and Team Identification were explored as areas of team functioning. These are the variables used to study and understand an individual’s team experiences, their engagement with the team, and the relationship with their performance ratings. The research found that both adult global and team attachment styles were negatively associated with Team Member Exchange (TMX), Team Identification, job satisfaction, performance ratings and Organisational Citizenship Behaviours (OCB). Using mediation analysis, team avoidant attachment was consistently and strongly associated with the study’s dependent variables and emerged as the key explanatory variable in this research. When all the attachment styles were analysed simultaneously to determine the unique effects of each attachment style, team avoidance style was the most useful in understanding both TMX and Team Identification, job satisfaction, OCB and performance measures. Those with avoidant team attachment styles felt that the experience of team was negative with lower TMX and Team Identification reported. The research has added new insights to the team and attachment literature with the important contribution of team avoidance attachment to TMX and Team Identification.

With ad-hoc application of the traditional element of marketing failing to sustainably cushion institutions against growing competition, universities are frantically searching for ways to differentiate themselves in the long term. This study ascertains the applicability of five empirically established brand equity constructs to Ghana’s university industry. It is underpinned by a pragmatist philosophy - an objective-driven blend between the ontological and epistemological philosophical positions, and adopts a mixed-methods paradigm that combines qualitative and quantitative survey methods of data collection and analysis. For the qualitative part, 22 valid face-to-face in-depth interviews with undergraduate students selected from four universities were used while the quantitative study used 625 self-administered questionnaires from undergraduate students from twelve universities. Thematic analysis was used for the qualitative data while for the quantitative data, the structural equation modelling technique of partial least squares (PLS) was employed to ascertain relationships between the five independent student-based brand equity (SBBE) constructs on one hand, and students’ university brand preference (SUBP) as a dependent variable, on the other. Results of the analysis indicate a positive relationship between most of the SBBE constructs studied and university preference in Ghana. Four SBBE dimensions namely; university institutional reputation (UIR), university institutional image (UII), university graduate employability (UGE) and perceived institutional service quality (PISQ) recorded significant positive relationships with students’ university preference (SUP). Positive relationships were also obtained between university image and university reputation, university identity and university reputation, as well as between perceived institutional service quality and graduate employability. On the contrary, an insignificant relationship was obtained between university institutional identity (UI) and students’ university preference. The correlation analysis also indicates significant positive relationships among all the independent SBBE variables. Cumulatively, the results indicate that the SBBE concept is applicable to Ghana’s university context as the SBBE constructs and university preference are positively related. The prevalence of reputation, image, graduate employability and perceived institutional service quality in the research findings has implications for policy in the university sector. Also worthy of note is the significant positive relationship obtained between perceived institutional service quality and graduate employability; as well as between university institution identity, university institution image and university institution reputation. Much of the existing academic work on higher education branding has concentrated on brand equity’s antecedents and consequences. This study links empirically proven antecedents of university brand equity to university preference. Also, most of existing empirical research on brand equity in the university sector has focused on developed countries whose circumstances are fundamentally different from those of developing economies. This study is a novelty in the sub-Saharan African context where student-focused university branding is uncommon; and so comes as a significant contribution from Ghana, to the growing worldwide debate on university branding. While contributing a survey instrument that enhances SBBE research methodology, theoretically, the unique blend of SBBE constructs employed is unprecedented. Notwithstanding some limitations identified, this study presents an empirical model that stands to guide university management in judiciously dispensing scarce resources.

Public service operates in an accountability environment, characterised by complex relationships among auditors, auditees, and stakeholders. Public sector audit provides important information to stakeholders, but it is not always so effective in transforming and improving management. This research explores audit's potential to become an instrument for positive change, by addressing a knowledge-gap about intrapersonal, interpersonal, and interorganisational characteristics that would inhibit or facilitate such a paradigm shift. It found that audit has the capacity and potential to move beyond a purely deficit-based role, to positively promote improvements and collaborative learning between institutions and stakeholders. The studies obtained data from semi-structured interviews, survey questionnaires, and documents from 13 Supreme Audit Institutions in the period 2015-2017. The first study presents a unique competency model for performance auditors, identifying citizenship, creativity, and the love of learning, as distinctive competencies, congruent with a positive audit approach. The second study explores the auditor's view of the auditor-auditee relationship using role theory and identifies distinct psychological assets used by auditors: independence, competence, positive personal attributes, collaboration, fairness, and positive change; the latter two forming scale constructs to measure adaptive relational attitudes. The third study evaluates the effectiveness of cognitive-based training in influencing auditors' attitudes to audit relationships. The final study identifies three critical factors influencing interorganisational learning in an accountability context: organisations' absorptive and teaching capacity; dynamic interorganisational processes, and the commitment, knowledge, and ability of staff. This thesis provides new insights into applying psychological theories on relationships in a public sector audit setting. It addresses practical issues affecting the recruitment and selection of staff and the design of better audit processes. It concludes that public sector audit already possesses the theoretical and practical attributes to become a proactive, collaborative, participatory activity. Thus, by expanding its role, it can be a dynamic, transformative instrument for positive change.

The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has received much attention over several decades. This research aimed at investigating the impact of CSR on organisational brand value. This thesis conceptualises CSR using the stakeholder theory approach as a brand building tool to increase organisational brand value emphasising the strategic importance of CSR and its potential to create mutually beneficial outcomes for organisations and their stakeholders. This thesis proposes that firms can gain increased organisational brand value and enjoy superior performance by incorporating CSR as an integral component of their corporate brand building strategy. A new and empirically tested CSR-brand strength-organisational brand value conceptual framework was developed in this thesis. The data was analysed to identify the significant relationships amongst these three main variables using the structural equation model (SEM) PLS.The first round of data collected were qualitative and was subjected to content analysis. It comprised of responses from the general public, customers, academic and industry practitioners. The results pointed out that most respondents understood what CSR is about and were aware of Vodafone‘s CSR activities in Ghana. They also indicated that culture has an effect on organisational CSR practice and CSR practice is more proactive in the Western world. The purpose of the second round of data analysis was twofold: to perform confirmatory factor analysis for each of the 65 variable in the model; and to use the structural equation model to examine the hypothesised relationships between CSR, brand strength and organisational brand value. By using the discriminant validity correlation matrix table, a positive relationship between all the variables of brand strength and organisational brand value was established. However, no evidence was found to support the mediating effect of brand awareness, on organisational brand value when SEM was used. Importantly, of the seven variables of brand strength only brand awareness did not significantly contribute to organisational brand value. Moreover, brand knowledge was found to make the greatest contribution to organisational brand value. In summary, this thesis argues that the results support the proposition that CSR has a direct and positive impact on organisational brand value, therefore management of firms in the telecommunications industry in Ghana can use CSR to increase organisational brand value if they incorporate CSR activities appropriately into their brand building efforts. This thesis concludes with a discussion of the limitations of the study and provides recommendations for future research.

This research explores the interactions of people across cultures. It looks into how cultural distinctiveness and cultural characteristics may serve as a strategic resource for organisations. The research investigates whether the sustained success of South East Asian Airlines in achieving high levels of customer satisfaction is influenced by the application of distinctive cultural traditions and values in the delivery of customer service. Given that this service is delivered by a predominantly female workforce, the research explores cabin crew behaviours and values in relation to assumptions about gender roles that are found within the airline industry generally and South-East Asian cultures specifically. The research is based on a case study of one company, Thai Airways. A triangulated methodology was applied, using a mixture of company documentation, observations and semi-structured interviews. The research aims to inform our understanding of the service interface in a cross-cultural airline environment. Of particular emphasis in this study is the connection between spiritual, cultural values and traditional gender roles within Thai society, which has an impact on the relationship between passengers and cabin crew. The thesis illustrates how the understanding of the relationship between national cultures and individual characteristics can be refined through the use of a conceptual framework. The findings imply that traditional Thai cultural values underpinned by Buddhist spirituality play a part in shaping the way cabin crew think about their work. These influences help them to respond positively to company policy, which in turn can help to achieve Thai Airways’ corporate goals. This synergy between company policy, national culture and spirituality may shape the quality of the service and help to create customer satisfaction. The findings demonstrate that there is a relationship between the satisfaction of basic Thai female needs and work-life balance. Thai cabin crews who work in a female environment tend to balance their career, finances and family so that these needs are met.