This thesis objective is to discover “How are informal decisions reached by screeners when filtering out undesirable job applications?” Grounded theory techniques were employed in the field to observe and analyse informal decisions at the source by screeners in three distinct empirical studies. Whilst grounded theory provided the method for case and cross-case analysis, literature from academic and non-academic sources was evaluated and integrated to strengthen this research and create a foundation for understanding informal decisions. As informal decisions in early hiring processes have been under researched, this thesis contributes to current knowledge in several ways. First, it locates the Cycle of Employment which enhances Robertson and Smith’s (1993) Selection Paradigm through the integration of stages that individuals occupy whilst seeking employment. Secondly, a general depiction of the Workflow of General Hiring Processes provides a template for practitioners to map and further develop their organisational processes. Finally, it highlights the emergence of the Locality Effect, which is a geographically driven heuristic and bias that can significantly impact recruitment and informal decisions. Although screeners make informal decisions using multiple variables, informal decisions are made in stages as evidence in the Cycle of Employment. Moreover, informal decisions can be erroneous as a result of a majority and minority influence, the weighting of information, the injection of inappropriate information and criteria, and the influence of an assessor. This thesis considers these faults and develops a basic framework of understanding informal decisions to which future research can be launched.

Underpinned by the resource-based view (RBV), social exchange theory (SET), and a theory of intrinsic motivation (empowerment), I proposed and tested a multi-level model that simultaneously examines the intermediate linkages or mechanisms through which HPWS impact individual and organizational performance. First and underpinned by RBV, I examined at the unit level, collective human capital and competitive advantage as path-ways through which the use of HPWS influences – branch market performance. Second and-, underpinned by social exchange (perceived organizational support) and intrinsic motivation (psychological empowerment) theories, I examined cross and individual level mechanisms through which experienced HPWS may influence employee performance. I tested the propositions of this study with multisource data obtained from junior and senior customer contact employees, and managers of 37 branches of two banks in Ghana. Results of the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis revealed that (i) collective human capital partially mediated the relationship between management-rated HPWS and competitive advantage, while competitive advantage completely mediated the influence of human capital on branch market performance. Consequently, management-rated HPWS influenced branch market performance indirectly through collective human capital and competitive advantage. Additionally, results of hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) tests of the cross-level influences on the motivational implications of HPWS revealed that (i) management-rated HPWS influenced experienced HPWS; (ii) perceived organizational support (POS) and psychological empowerment fully mediated the influence of experienced HPWS on service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), and; (iii) service-oriented OCB mediated the influence of psychological empowerment and POS on service quality and task performance. I discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

The question of what to provide employees in order that they reciprocate with desirable behaviors in the work place has resulted in a great amount of work in the area of social exchange. Although offering fair compensation, including salary or wages and employee benefits, has been extensively studied, the effects of offering specific types of benefits, such as work-life balance benefits, and the intangible rewards that such an offering inadvertently offers, has only been minimally explored. Utilizing past literature, this current research examined the offering of work-life balance benefits, the value employees place on those benefits, the communication of the benefits by the organization to employees, and their effect on employee attitudes and behaviors. The goal was to identify the effect on desirable outcomes when work-life balance benefits are offered to determine the usefulness to the organization of offering such benefits. To test these effects, a study of an organization known to offer a strong work-life balance benefits package was undertaken. This was accomplished through the distribution of questionnaires to identify the possible relationships involving 408 employee respondents and their 79 supervisors. This was followed with interviews of 12 individuals to ascertain the true reasons for links observed through analysis. Analysis of the data was accomplished through correlation analysis, multilevel analysis and regression analysis generated by SPSS. The results of the quantitative analysis showed support for a relationship between the offering of work-life balance benefits and perceived organizational support, perceived distributive justice, job satisfaction and OCBO. The analysis also showed a lack of support for a relationship between the offering of work-life balance benefits and organizational commitment, OCBI and IRB. The interviews offered possible reasons for the lack of support regarding the relationship between the offering of work-life balance benefits and organizational commitment as well as organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBI and IRB). The implications of these findings on future research, theory and practice in the offering of work-life balance benefits are discussed.

This study examines the potential confusion that arises for business regarding the delimitation of 'Workplace well-being". This potential confusion arises in several places including Government reports, business practice and in academic and other literature. The reason for this is that Workplace well-being is simply equated either with workplace health within a health model and/or as employee engagement within a business model. In this study we explore this issue and argue that for the successful implementation of Work place well-being we should keep health issues distinct from a general business concept of Workplace well being which encompasses other elements such as employee engagement and organisation communication, what we call an 'Integrated Workplace well-being Model (IWBM).' To make our case we focus directly on two cases study organisations where 'Workplace wellbeing' strategies are about to be implemented. As a first step we establish the context and management thinking within these companies regarding their views on what is 'Workplace well-being' within the workplace. We find that the management of both companies are caught between the health and business models, often conflating, confusing or overlapping the two. In order to provide a coherent way forward for both companies we develop an integrated business model of employee engagement which utilises a factorial measurement that allows us to focus on an IWBM approach. This approach is then applied to both cases studies and the findings considered in terms of the practical aims of business and business management in their efforts to develop plans for Workplace well-being. The findings suggest the IWBM offers business a more immediate and tractable process for assessing the present context of Workplace well-being, and that because it is integrated it allows managers to explore individual trajectories (employee engagement or organisation communication for example), as well as allowing them to integrate these within a larger view of the company.

The first chapter uses the entry of large corporations into U.S. counties during the 1980s and 1990s to analyse the effect these firms had on local firms’ innovation. We use a difference-in-differences identification strategy based on counties competing for the entry of a large multinational where we take losing bidders as a counterfactual for winning bidders. We find that inventors located in winning counties start citing the patents of these large corporations three times more than inventors located in losing counties. We also find a positive effect on patent production by winning counties, however this seems to be limited to the main technology class of the large corporation. The second chapter looks at how social capital in the form of trust across affiliates within business conglomerates, shapes the hierarchical structure of these business groups, and in turn how these different business group structures associate with firm level performance. With a unique dataset containing detailed information on ownership chains and hierarchical structures, we look deeper into these structures, and their effects on affiliate performance. Our results indicate that higher trust allows for more vertical structures. Moreover, we find that vertical structures are associated with higher firm performance in a business group. The third paper evaluates the effect of multinationalization of a group on its pre-existing members. The analysis shows that performance of firms, measured in terms of sales, improves by 2% if the group they belong to becomes a multinational. The effects materialize progressively over time. I also evaluate two channels through which multinationalization can affect firm performance: cultural diversity and layer of foreign entry within a group. The former does not seem to play a role, whereas the latter has an effect, showing closer levels of entry to the headquarter having a positive impact on firms’ performance.

The human resources contained within a top management team (TMT) are thought to be significant in determining firm performance. However, technology-based ventures are often identified as being deficient in commercial and managerial expertise. This underlines the importance of understanding how high-quality TMTs are constructed. This thesis examines the formation and development of TMTs within Scottish high-technology ventures. In doing so, it challenges popular existing theoretical conceptualisations, which are typically universal and deterministic in their explanations of TMT evolution. Instead, this research conceptualises TMT development as a highly context-dependent and heterogeneous phenomenon. Two contributions are important here: Firstly, unlike most popular models of TMT development, this research underlines an important 'pre-founding' influence. Using human and social capital theories, it illustrates how the dominant career paths and incubating organisations within a regional context dictate the emergence of heterogeneously resourced entrepreneurial teams. This, in turn, has significant implications for subsequent TMT development. Secondly, the study relegates focus on overall development patterns and, instead, examines the actions and behaviours made by the existing team during specific periods of TMT modification. This places the existing team, and the decisions they make in the face of wider context-specific stimuli, at the heart of how TMTs develop. The purpose here is to build towards theoretical explanations for what are the fundamental building blocks of TMT development. Scotland represents a region where managerial expertise deficiencies have been highlighted as a challenge to growth within key technology-based industry sectors. As what has been described as a 'less favoured region', the research context offers a counterbalance to those studies conducted within exceptionally performing regional economies, such as Silicon Valley context at the forefront, the study portrays TMT formation and development as it occurs as part of a wider 'ecosystem'. Using a multiple case study approach, which details the formation and development narratives for TMTs within eighteen Scottish technology-based ventures, the study advances a number of emergent findings. It also suggests future research directions concerning how the mechanics of TMT modification are understood, as well as forwarding a number of implications for practice.

This thesis examines the opportunities to improve the implementation of a Continuous Improvement (CI) culture supporting the success of logistics organisations of the future. It is based on the proposition that the manner in which individuals and organisations behave will form greater influence on the success of CI implementation programs than the use of recognised CI tools and techniques taught in the classroom. By definition CI covers wide-ranging themes and its applications are not tied specifically to projects; the literature review will explore how CI can be utilised to improve organisational performance evaluating synergies between CI and associated domains. Enablers and blockers to successful CI implementation programs will be examined leading to an understanding of the amalgam between soft and hard skills and their interactions. Reflective practice is the chosen approach to the PhD, underpinned with over twenty years’ experience of the researcher working with CI as part of their roles and responsibilities. The literature review provided a theoretical base, including the development of content for the semi-structured interviews deriving qualitative data in support of the thesis aims and objectives. This process supported additional unexpected outputs, discussed within the conclusions and recommendations sections. The over-riding domain of the thesis is CI Implementation; however this was broken down into Organisational Learning, Organisational Frames of Reference, Learning Organisations, Culture, Emotional Intelligence and Appreciative Inquiry with supplemental areas of Knowledge Management, Innovation and Trust. The taskorientated elements of CI tools and techniques are described, providing the reader with an overview of their use and potential value to organisations. Conclusions are drawn regarding the importance of successful CI implementation in logistics organisations. Recommendations are proposed as to how to improve CI implementation by reducing the potential for blockers to stall or ultimately prevent the process from operating as a self-sustaining business as usual activity. This is achieved through a blend of task, organisational and individual cultures working in unison. The main contribution of the thesis is the provision of a CI Implementation Model, developed through the thesis and detailed within Chapter 7. Further contributions to theory and practice are derived from the research undertaken, specifically targeting a cultural rather than task-orientated approach. These include; the wider CI community, Deutsche Post (DP) DHL community, methods and practice. Methods by which colleague engagement can be improved are identified from individual and organisational perspectives targeting discretionary effort of colleagues as a key measure of successful implementation of a CI culture.

The major contribution of the study is the identification of a positive link between perceived effective managerial coaching (PEMC) and team task performance and also, the examination of PEMC adopting a multilevel research design and incorporating dual-source data. Specifically, drawing on social psychology, the thesis aims at developing and testing a comprehensive conceptual framework of the antecedents and consequences of PEMC for knowledge workers. The model takes into consideration intrapersonal, interpersonal and team-level characteristics, which relate to PEMC and, subsequently associate with important work outcomes. In this regard, the thesis identifies PEMC as a practice of dual nature in that it may be experienced not only as a one-on-one workplace developmental interaction, but also as a managerial practice that is experienced by each member of a team for co-ordination purposes. Adopting a cross-sectional survey research design, the hypotheses are tested in three organisations in Greece and the UK. In particular, hierarchical linear modelling of 191 employees nested in 60 teams yields that employees’ learning goal orientation (LGO) and high-quality exchanges between an employee and a manager (LMX) are positively related to effective MC, while a manager’s LGO moderates the relationship between employees’ LGO and PEMC. In turn, PEMC, as a one-on-one practice, is related to cognitive outcomes, such as information sharing, while as a shared team practice is related also to behavioural outcomes, including individual and team performance. Overall, the study contributes to a growing body of coaching and management literature that acknowledges PEMC as a core managerial practice.

In the United Kingdom, small businesses account for 99.9% of all private sector businesses, 59.1% of private sector employment and 48.8% of private sector turnover (BIS, 2012). Small business growth is considered to offer benefits to the economy via wealth creation and employment. Implicit in policy and the management literature is the idea that in order to grow, businesses must recruit additional resource. However, there is limited research into how, why and when businesses take this first step. The complex transition from being a sole trader to a manager is largely ignored in studies of business growth and human resource management in in favour of normative accounts, which relate to larger or more established businesses. To address this gap in the extant research, this research aims to critically investigate the complexities of employment decision making in a start-up business context in order to further understand start-up business growth. The research adopted a longitudinal, qualitative case study design to critically evaluate business owners’ employment decisions. Visual data elicitation tools (mapping) complemented semi-structured interviews and observational data collection to develop four case studies, presented as the empirical contribution of this study. Employing the theoretical lens of effectuation, this study moves towards an expanded theory of human resource management in growth orientated start-up businesses and provides an empirically grounded conceptualisation of effectual logic in practice in a start-up business context. The contributions are an expanded understanding of the practices of hrm in growth oriented start-up businesses, strongly influenced by kinship and notions of legitimacy, and an understanding of the role of effectuation in relation to hrm in growth oriented start-up businesses. These findings make a valuable contribution to extending perspectives on growth, support and employment practices in the UK small business sector. Specifically contributing to the academic discussions regarding effectual decision making and growth. It also offers practical utility via policy and practice implications.

Globalisation is a popular word in business and industry today. The term relates to viewing the marketplace as existing world-wide, breaking down trade barriers between nations. Global expansion is necessary to achieve growth and profitability when the domestic market is saturated. This places greater responsibility on management to prepare their organisation and manpower to function in new and different environments. The purpose of this study is to provide management with the tools necessary to be successful in the global marketplace. Although the focus of this study is primarily designed to assist Saudi Arabian management to participate in the global marketplace, this research can benefit management of every organisation contemplating entering the global marketplace. The emphasis of the study is on Human Resource Management (HRM) and Human Resource Development (HRD) in preparation for entrance into the global market. The methodology selected includes both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected from 223 Saudi and non-Saudi general managers or their assistants, currently employed in Saudi Arabia. The instrument selected to collect empirical data was a questionnaire for the purpose of testing eight hypotheses. The data was compared with a study conducted by Barham and Devine in 1991. Secondary data was collected from articles, tests and publications relative to HRM and HRD and the demands of the globalised marketplace. The primary research resulted in support of some of the hypotheses and lack of support in others. An analysis of the data indicates that the differences in support of the hypotheses were based on lack of experience in the global market. The secondary research supported the view that increasing numbers of companies have had to enter the global marketplace for growth and expansion. The research supports the view that for business and industry to grow they must expand into the global marketplace. However, not all managers have the knowledge, skills, or experience to guide their organisation into larger markets. The main outcome clearly shows that before Saudi companies can enter the global marketplace they must look at their organisation to determine if their products are suitable and whether or not they have qualified personnel to support the plans for globalisation. In most cases, HRD programmes are required to prepare managers to manage in a foreign environment if they are to be successful in the new venture. A model has been designed to serve as a guideline for managers considering entering the global market. Emphasis has been placed on the need for developing managerial skills of those selected for foreign assignments. The model can assist management to have a better understanding of that which is required if the company is to be effective in a foreign environment.