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This paper seeks to discover whether anecdotal feedback about the value of a workshop-style teaching intervention would be supported by quantitative research. The author used a referral mechanism to build a cohort of highly effective networkers whose input was used to develop a 34 question, nine factor networking inventory. These nine factors were derived through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and differ from the inductive typology assumed at the outset. These factors are: Altruism, Clarity of Purpose, Contact Maintenance, Contact Management, Engagement, Locus of Control, Openness to Help, Persistence and Recall Ability. The inventory was subsequently tested for its ability to discriminate between this group of highly effective networkers and others, and succeeded in doing so at a statistically significant level for seven of the nine factors. Having demonstrated its discriminatory ability, the author applied the inventory in a ‘before and after’ study to workshop participants and showed that the intervention resulted in a significant but selective improvement in inventory scores, with moderate or large effect size, for eight of the nine factors at one month follow-up.

Perceptions of organizational politics (POPS) have received significant attention in the literature and scholars have devoted great efforts to explore this phenomenon. Although they have recognized organizations as inherently political arenas relatively little is known about the antecedents as well as the consequences of POPS on employees and their organizations. This thesis draws on social exchange framework to describe the relationships among POPS and individual and organizational outcomes namely affective commitment, turnover intentions, organisational citizenship behaviors, and innovativeness related behavior. However, what drives employees to engage in POPS? It answers this fundamental question by examining the role of personality in the prediction of POPS. Furthermore, it explores how the mediating variables (organizational cynicism, political influence behavior, and trust) affect these relationships. A two wave study addresses these questions over a six-month period. In addition this study introduces the political skill self-efficacy (PSSE) construct and investigates its moderating impact on POPS-outcomes relationships. I developed and validated a scale of political skill self-efficacy (PSSE) to measure the proposed construct using three independently samples. Findings indicated that personality trait of neuroticism predicts POPS (T1) while POPS (T1) found to have positive significant relationship with organizational cynicism. I also found evidence that POPS (Time 1) has an impact on turnover intentions (Time 2) and affective commitment (Time 2). Specifically, increased perceptions of politics were associated to decreased affective commitment and increased turnover intentions. In addition, no support found for the mediating role of organisational cynicism, interpersonal trust and political influence behavior in the relationships among POPs (T1) and organizational outcomes (T2). Further, results partially supported the mediating role of organisational trust.

Whilst research on work group diversity has proliferated in recent years, relatively little attention has been paid to the precise definition of diversity or its measurement. One of the few studies to do so is Harrison and Klein’s (2007) typology, which defined three types of diversity – separation, variety and disparity – and suggested possible indices with which they should be measured. However, their typology is limited by its association of diversity types with variable measurement, by a lack of clarity over the meaning of variety, and by the absence of a clear guidance about which diversity index should be employed. In this thesis I develop an extended version of the typology, including four diversity types (separation, range, spread and disparity), and propose specific indices to be used for each type of diversity with each variable type (ratio, interval, ordinal and nominal). Indices are chosen or derived from first principles based on the precise definition of the diversity type. I then test the usefulness of these indices in predicting outcomes of diversity compared with other indices, using both an extensive simulated data set (to estimate the effects of mis-specification of diversity type or index) and eight real data sets (to examine whether the proposed indices produce the strongest relationships with hypothesised outcomes). The analyses lead to the conclusion that the indices proposed in the typology are at least as good as, and usually better than, other indices in terms of both measuring effect sizes and power to find significant results, and thus provide evidence to support the typology. Implications for theory and methodology are discussed.

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This research addresses the subject and practice of capacity building through professional development and career ladders in the petroleum (oil and gas) upstream or Exploration and Production (EP) sector. It focuses upon petroleum professions concerned with the evaluation, development and production of petroleum resources – notably petroleum engineers and geoscientists. The study adopts an insider action research methodology, with a particular focus on a national oil company – Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) LLC, which operates in the Sultanate of Oman. PDO epitomises a typical EP company undertaking significant professional development efforts across its sizeable pool of petroleum professionals. Despite its wide operational remit, however, there are some key issues that have affected the firm and that warrant scholarly interrogation. Notable amongst these are challenges in developing specialists, technical professionals and managers who are competent and able to address the increasing technical, developmental, commercial, and managerial difficulties facing the oil and gas sector. Consequently, this study seeks to propose actionable remedial strategies to address these managerial skills and organizational capability gaps. This research thesis offers valuable literature review of the concepts and practices related to capacity building, professional development, and career aspects. This has enabled bridging conceptualization gaps underpinning professional development and career management in the EP petroleum sector, particularly in PDO, and identifying elements and aspects that were considered in evaluating the studied case. Further, by examining PDO’s organizational records and codes of practice, the study has established the company’s intended strategies and approaches, hence allowing identifying gaps with practices as assessed by engaging PDO’s executives, team leaders, and professionals.

The first part of the thesis focuses on the effect of the attitude towards interaction and the strength of family ties on career progression, .analysing both the attainment of managerial responsibility and the achievement of managerial and professional status. The contribution of this research is the focus on the inclination to develop social networks, the attempt to measure people's attitude towards interacting more with strangers and acquaintances, whereas previous research analysed social networks people had already established. To test any change over time, random-effect logistic regression models and multinomial regressions were run using longitudinal data (British Household Panel Survey 1998-2008). The research examines both internal and external careers, III order to explore the peculiarities of each career path. The second part of the thesis investigates the changing nature of professional relationships through the examination of intra- and inter-professional conflict. The data come from the Cambridge Centre for Business Research Survey 2000-2001, and focus on four professions from Great Britain: pharmacists, human resource managers, solicitors, and counselling psychologists. The contribution of this research is the development of the concept of role disrespect; in the thesis I discuss this concept and give evidence to show it may be one of the main causes of inter-professional conflict. This idea is based on the different levels of occupational prestige associated with professions. Using income as a proxy for occupational prestige (the most prestigious professions are likely to be those that are better paid), this research examines the relationship between income and intra- and inter-professional conflict.

This study sought to investigate the influence on the operational effectiveness of experienced Large Goods Vehicle drivers undertaking National Vocational Qualifications and the role of Further Education in the delivery of vocational qualifications to experienced practitioners. With the exception of studies conducted on behalf of Skills for Logistics (Grey, 2005; Winters, 2007, 2010) there was little research, which was openly available, that examined the deployment of National Vocational Qualifications to Large Goods Vehicle drivers. The specific focus of this research was concerning the effectiveness of work-based competency assessment NVQ programmes delivered to Large Goods Vehicle drivers working within the Road Freight sector of the logistics industry. Using an interpretive, qualitative based study and drawing on an Action Research approach, I analysed interview and observational data gathered during three Action Research cycles, undertaken over an eighteen month period. During the Action Research cycles, participant reflection was used as a key change mechanism. The research findings indicated a low level of satisfaction with regard to the objectives and outcomes of the National Vocational Qualifications programme for Large Goods Vehicle drivers and an unwillingness by the research participants to engage in overt reflective activity. There was very little credibility afforded to the National Vocational Qualifications by either the participating Large Goods Vehicle Drivers or their Managers. However, following the inclusion of an additional 'demand led' element into the programme, there was further evidence to demonstrate that as experienced practitioners the Large Goods Vehicle drivers did value professional development predicated upon the validity and credibility of the provision available. The key findings from the study provide evidence for concluding that professional development is valued by experienced Large Goods Vehicle drivers, who are both willing and able to engage with work-based learning if it is within the context of their experience, aspirations and praxis.

This thesis uses labour process analysis to consider occupational stress in the Nigerian oil and gas industry (OGI). Rather than taking a narrow, positivist/psychological approach to occupational stress, which encourages a focus on workplace-level “problems” and “solutions”, this study drew inspiration from Thompson’s (2003) disconnected capitalism thesis to investigate how various forms of disconnections can lead to stress, thus giving a sociologically grounded investigation into occupational stress. According to this approach, whilst the workplace remains significant as a location for occupational stress, the world “beyond the factory gates” is also viewed as causally significant in determining occupational stress outcomes. The study uses multiple embedded case studies and survey data to explore occupational stress outcomes in the Nigerian OGI. One of the key findings is that the regional political economy, in which oil companies differentially shape the development of Nigeria and the Niger Delta, is important to understanding occupational stress. More specifically, whilst the Nigerian Government and the agencies of the OGI cooperate in the redistribution of oil revenues in relation to capital and National interests, the terms and conditions of the workforce are less favourable when compared to OGI workers elsewhere and comparatively few resources are returned to the Niger Delta. This toxic combination results in various forms of social, geographical and economic disconnectedness, including, in extremis, devastating local pollution and the kidnapping and murder of OGI workers by Niger Delta indigenes. The idea of disconnected capitalism is not novel, as Thompson’s (2003) often cited paper argues: the tie-in between the interests of managers and shareholders can result in HR managers’ failure in making credible commitments to workers. This study broadens the scope of the disconnected capitalism thesis by considering how occupational stress outcomes, in particular, are affected by a range of interacting labour markets, geographical and socioeconomic forms of disconnectedness within a broader political economy framework. Nigerian OGI labour markets included clear distinctions between contract/permanent, expatriate/local, and male/female workers. Contract, female and local workers, in particular, had less favourable terms and conditions of employment and the resultant resentments between workers worsened workplace relations. Individual position in relation to this disconnected labour market was the strongest predictor of stress. At the geographical level, disconnection from home and communities had an impact on stress outcomes, particularly for those who were married and had dependants. Finally, at the socio-economic level, insecurities within in the Niger Delta led to disconnections from host communities and a culture of dependency within Nigeria more broadly were also both sources of stress to offshore workers. Overall, this study offers a ground-breaking attempt to develop a multi-level approach to the study of occupational stress that develops and extends Thompson’s disconnected capitalism thesis. In this case, a triple-bind, between managerial, capital and state interests, created a series of local disconnections that both caused occupational stress and, perhaps more worryingly, apparently undermined the productivity of the industry as a whole. In these circumstances a raft of policy and regulation directed at tackling both the employment conditions of the OGI and Niger Delta environmental and socio-economic concerns is badly needed to tackle the problems of the industry as a whole.

This study examines value co-creation in networked service-for-service business relations. Current literature considers value through the experiential and circumstantial properties that permeates co-creation. Contemporary research also indicates the integration of resources and value facilitation as key aspects for co-creating value. This work suggests that value co-creation is a continuously changing practice that expands within on-going knowing and learning movements. The research collected the data of the study during the years of 2010-2012 in the city of Fortaleza – Brazil. Fieldwork concerned the implementation of IT systems in hospitals and clinics. The investigation comprised six case studies nested in two main cases. The first main case presents the perspective of the supplier side, while the second approaches a client organization. The methodology of the study, the case study ethnography, draws on cultural-historical activity theory and applies developmental work research in natural settings. Value co-creation in networked service-for-service relations emerges as multifaceted systems of diverging interests. Resource integration relates to questioning daily practices and envisioning potentialities. Interactions evolve through fast and distributed encounters that co-configure resolutions. In the context of multiple and diverging interests and contradictions, co-creating value refers to managing change. Knowing and learning how to co-create value consist in practicing transformational movements of navigating and interacting within multiple locations and participants in order to resolve contradictions in and between activity systems. The study identifies value co-creation as a dialectical system of practice. Contradictory elements hamper mutually benefiting relations at the same time that create possibilities for changes in the direction of co-creating value. The practice of value co-creation concerns questioning daily practices, knotworking value, and managing change. The central aspect of this practice concerns knowing and learning to accomplish these situated performances within the flow of daily market interactions.