Tacit knowledge has been acknowledged to be a strategic source of sustainable competitive advantage. Thus, there is a great urgency for a firm to accumulate a stock of tacit knowledge. The acquisition of tacit knowledge through relationships with foreign business partners is deemed significant in increasing a firm’s competitiveness as it allows the firm to access not only tacit knowledge but other idiosyncratic resources belonging to its partners. A manufacturing supplier who engages in international outsourcing relationships can use the opportunity provided by collaborating with its foreign buyers to obtain tacit knowledge that is new and valuable to it. Once the external tacit knowledge is assimilated and applied within the supplier firm, its level of competency and business opportunities are expected to increase. Using survey data from 122 Malaysian manufacturing suppliers, this study attempts to analyze the effects of absorptive capacity and relational capital components on the Malaysian suppliers’ acquisition of tacit knowledge from their international outsourcing relationships. It also investigates the implications of the newly acquired tacit knowledge in enhancing the suppliers’ capabilities and opportunity recognition. -- Three important absorptive capacity components of prior related knowledge, business relatedness and interactive involvement have been identified as important in facilitating the supplier’s learning process. From the relational capital perspective, this study examines the roles of trust, interaction and cultural sensitivity play in the supplier’s tacit knowledge acquisition. In reference to the absorptive capacity, the findings reveal that the interactive involvement appears to be the most critical factor, while prior related knowledge is not significantly related to the success of tacit knowledge acquisition.

This study investigates organisational trust in a crisis management context, focusing specifically on managerial behaviours and attitudes. Crisis managers and leaders are typically challenged with problem-solving in times of increased uncertainty, information deficiency, scarce resources, and pressure from various stakeholders—and yet, the expectation is often that the organisation not only survives, but that it emerges even stronger from the very crisis. Whilst the technical skills, knowledge, and experience that crisis managers and crisis leaders possess are a good foundation for effective crisis management, their specific behaviours and attitudes are at least equally, if not more, important. People’s trust-related behaviours and attitudes are likely to be affected by the economic and organisational context in which they operate. Therefore, the psychometric assessment of such behaviours and attitudes can be an essential step towards a fuller understanding of the role that trust can play in the organisation, and may augment management’s individual and collective crisis management capabilities. The proposed new psychometric instrument is the result of item- and factor analytical procedures on a pool of 168 items, newly written on the basis of survey data from three cohorts of experienced managers and leaders, categorised and condensed in several inter-rater agreement studies, and empirically tested with a sample of 377 US managers. Distinct clusters of managerial behaviours and attitudes emerged in exploratory factor analysis, and in confirmatory factor analysis a three-factor model performed best among several competing structural models. Together with high internal consistency of the full scale and each factor individually, the results provide strong support for the validity and reliability of the new construct organisational trust behaviour in crisis management. Content and face validity were demonstrated through the rigour of the development process, especially the highly significant inter-rater agreement coefficients from the assessment by 19 independent judges. Discriminant and convergent validity were supported by the results of correlational analysis and multiple linear regression with established measures of organisational trust and managerial skills. The substantive meaning of the three factors (individually and collectively) is based on item content, and supported by the extant literature. Further confirmatory analysis is recommended to enhance confidence in the stability of the factor solution, and to assess measurement invariance across different populations. Researchers are encouraged to explore the construct further, widen its nomological network, and help compile data for the establishment of appropriate norms beyond the development sample.

This thesis sets out to explore some questions about the nature of consultancy, the client organization and interactions between consultant and client that can make the journey akin to a tightrope walk - sometimes smooth and relatively uneventful, though still requiring considerable skill, at other times fraught with hazards. The main research question posed is What are the characteristics of consultants that might be significant in whether or not they make a difference? and this concerns factors about consultants, organizations and the interaction between them might affect whether or not a consultant can meet the client's needs. In addressing them, the thesis will identify some characteristics of consultants, aspects within organizations, and events at the consultant/client interface that can affect both the likelihood of a successful outcome and the smoothness of the tightrope walk. Here I shall introduce some factors in the very complicated mosaic of consultancy in action, and illustrate some of the characteristics of consultants and organizations that can contribute to the politics of consultancy. Some features of consultants and consultancy that might be significant in making a difference are reviewed. This will be set within a framework that illustrates the developing role of the management consultant and proposes that there are different approaches to consultancy. Some of these differences have come about as the profession has developed for example, from the Organizational Development approach to knowledge management strategies - while others are down to tactical differences between different styles, approaches and outcomes of consultancy. For example, some consultants make numerous contributions to the academic literature, developing and testing theory. Others produce just one or two best-selling books describing their approaches and solutions to management problems, while others do not publish anything at all. In considering these differences, we shall find evidence in support of the contention that one group of consultants, the management gurus, might be unable to bring lasting and beneficial change to an organization at all. Indeed, they might not even be able to bring about the kind of change that the client had in mind, even in the short term. I shall explain why and, in so doing, will make a contribution to the debate by supporting the criticisms made in the academic literature against the gurus. This is followed by a review of some organizational characteristics, beginning with why an organization might want to engage a consultant in the first place. It will also look at organizational features such as decision-making that might be significant in the organization's ability to translate the consultant's recommendations into action, and thereby ensure that a difference is made. This leads to a review of the different roles and priorities of consultants and organizations. Very little has been written about the consultant/client interface, yet in some cases this might be extremely significant to the outcome and in many instances it will be highly significant in the process. These three domains, the consultant, the organization, and the interface between the two, are discussed in the context of a (largely retrospective) case study undertaken as a part of the author's own work as a consultant in the specialist field of medical and dental education.

The increase in international business activity and the potential high losses deriving from unsuccessful negotiations highlights the importance of continued research within the international business negotiation discipline. The importance of international business negotiations within global business is reflected in the academic community by observing the growth in the number of publications and the increased reference to conceptual models of international business that capture a vast array of factors. Based on a thorough literature review the following research gaps were identified. First, insufficient empirical scrutiny regarding the use of international business negotiation models; and second the lack of statistical understanding of the association between 'important factors' and the negotiation process. The contribution to knowledge of the study is the empirical examination of the relationship between the 'negotiation process' and the 'important factors': 'power', 'environmental factors' and 'negotiators characteristics'. These three factors were identified as they are deemed important in international business negotiation models as well as negotiation literature in other disciplines. By examining the 'compositions' of the three factors and based on a comprehensive literature review, eleven variables and associated hypotheses encapsulating the above factors are suggested and tested. The number of negotiators in the sample was statistically determined and the survey was administered electronically (N=155). Testing of the hypotheses was conducted through a linear structural equation modeling methodology using LISREL i.e., a specialist software for the purposes of model testing. The main findings of the study are as follows. Six statistically significant results corresponding to six of the eleven hypotheses of the study were identified. These include information power, legitimate power, social harmony, political influence, team commitment and individual motivation with respect to competitive or cooperative negotiation processes. The academic contribution of this study relates to model exploration. It brings causal statistical objectivity to qualitatively developed concepts, as an essential step in development of knowledge. Both theoretical and managerial implications of the study are examined. Furthermore, directions for future research that build on the findings of the study are indicated.

An enquiry into the origins, content and subsequent treatment of certain major business strategy classification schemes by Miles and Snow, Michael Porter and Henry Mintzberg found little supporting theory within existing organisational and management science literature for a principled critique thereof. Furthermore, there is little discussion within such literature that addresses the ontic and epistemic status of cross-cutting abstract institutional kinds that might apply to the categorisation of generalised strategic behaviours. Accordingly, this thesis develops an eclectic synthesis of theoretical contributions from philosophy, (Richard Boyd, John Dupre, Ian Hacking, Ruth Millikan, Amie Thomasson, inter alia), semiotics (e.g. Umberto Eco, George Lakoff) and cognitive science (especially, Susan Gelman and Douglas Medin) to produce a new, bespoke theoretical framework for the subsequent case studies of these business strategy classification schemes. It recognises the artifactual nature of such schemes and endorses a pragmatic and pluralistic approach that proposes a typology of classification schemes and acknowledges the possibility of intransigent homologating forces being responsible for at least some of the postulated similarities. It steers between essentialism and nominalism, in ’accommodationist’ mode. The framework recognises that some such schemes are more ’successful’ than others and attributes this to a number of their ontic and epistemic features in the three detailed case studies. The use (and abuse) of these schemes in our epistemic practices is critiqued. Some consequential recommendations are made concerning the promulgation and subsequent use in research and pedagogy of business strategy classification schemes. Recommendations that may hold wider relevance for social sciences in general.

The study is to use institutional entrepreneurship perspective to complement the functionalist’s viewpoint to understand the process underlying collective action in a mature eco-system and how institutional entrepreneurs manage critical stakeholder relations, collective action and discursive activities in technical standard change processes. The standard war of Sony Blu-ray Disc vs. Toshiba HD DVD is used as a critical and intrinsic case. The functionalist’s viewpoints have paid much attentions to the numbers of customers adopting new technologies, and etc. By means of institutional entrepreneurship perspective, it claims that it does not matter about the number and amount, but it does matter about how focal firms make the markets believe that they have the abilities to win standard wars. The study further claims that the variables studied in functionalist’s viewpoint also have the meanings of institutional entrepreneurship perspective. Moreover, the BD and HD DVD standards are incremental innovations in a mature field where there are many things are settled down. Focal firms can easily forecast the expectations of the dominant institutional logics. The study contributes that institutional entrepreneurship perspective still provides the process insight to complement the functionalist’s viewpoint. This perspective can be applied in emerging field, where it is no dominant logics and the innovations are likely to be radical. The BD case represents a critical case. It can makes possible naturalistic generalization to other similar contexts. Eisenhardt’s principles are used to build theory from the case study. I borrowed techniques of open coding to analyze the data. The findings show that collective action (including critical stakeholder management and structuring collaboration capabilities) and discursive activities are the central features of institutional entrepreneurship. They have mutual relationship with the institutional entrepreneur’s resources (power and legitimacy). Furthermore, good collective action and discursive activities can lead to network effects and product performance.

This thesis aims to go beyond the traditional approaches to the management of change and to offer new ways of conceptualising the implementation of planned organisational change. The form in which the conceptualisations are presented is that of narrative sense making. Conceptualisations are linked to concrete contexts of action, thus constituting a theory at the substantive level. The latest concrete manifestations of planned organisational change, TQM (total quality management) and BPR (business process reengineering), are investigated at both the theoretical and empirical level. The empirical investigation examines the introduction of change programmes based on the TQM and BPR constructs in two large British manufacturing companies. The research is underpinned by the broad question: "What happens during the introduction of planned change in a large organisation where strategies and structures have been long established?" Further questions that will be addressed to build up an answer to this broad research question are: What do abstract change constructs such as TQM and BPR mean in a concrete organisational context? How do these constructs become institutionalised in a particular organisation? What are the main causal processes that can be identified in the implementation of a change programme? How do these causal influences interact and what influence do they exert over time? It will be argued that management innovations such as TQM and BPR do not constitute a cut-and-dried reality but have to be enacted by managers in order to become "real" in a particular organisation. This enactment will be based on choices not only based on the underlying rules of the programme but also on the rules governing behaviour in the managers' particular organisation. An obvious point perhaps, but one that is consistently ignored in much of the popular change literature. Many different meanings will be shown to surround the issues, events, and outcomes relating to the change programmes as the enactment process is neglected during the institutionalisation process. Van de Ven and Poole's framework for studying organisational change forms the template for my causal analysis of planned organisational change. Forces impacting on the change programme that can be identified from outside the organisation emanate from the environmental, the political, the immediate and wider social context. In addition, the popular change literature with its particular logic (the bearers of which are management consultants) can be conceptualised as a major causal influence since it governs actions of senior managers in a very direct way. Existing cultural rules and departmental structures, and the historical experiences concerning organisational change constitute important internal causal forces. Furthermore, attention will be paid to the causal importance of "reason explanations" of managers involved in the research. Various causal mechanisms will be seen to exercise different influences at different moments in time. The contribution of this thesis is to provide or renew the conceptual vocabulary allowing managers to understand better and act upon about the multiple dimensions of planned organisational change. However, the manner in which the conceptualisations will be used is contingent upon specific contexts in which managers find themselves. They have to be related to the practical knowledge of the managers concerned.

The management of strategic change has come to be viewed as a complex and difficult area of organisational analysis, both from a theoretical academic and practical management point of view. However, much of the literature on the subject is typically characterised by high levels of normativism and a general lack of analytical depth or sophistication. Empirical studies attempting to capture the complex, dynamic and contextually-embedded character of strategic decision implementation are rare. Those that exist are typically long on description and short on analytical insight. Comparative studies in this field, guided by coherent conceptual frameworks, remain largely unexplored. In recognising these problems, the research presented in this thesis sets out to examine and compare strategies and processes of decision implementation across a diverse range of organisational contexts. The theoretical framework adopted for the study is predicated on the idea that the nature and form of processes of implementation is critically influenced by the interrelationship between three central determining factors - the managerial strategies employed to effect change, the nature or content of the decision issue being implemented, and the wider institutional setting within which the process occurs. The essence of this interrelationship is captured in the concept of implementation system congruence, which identifies the extent to which strategies of implementation adequately address the requirement for staff and employees not only to understand the decision issue, but also to demonstrate sufficient levels of commitment to ensure it is translated into action. The programme of research is conducted using a qualitative case study method within eight British organisations, examining the process of implementation relevant to one decision in each case. All eight decisions are strategic in nature in that they are perceived to be important or consequential by the organisations concerned. Two of the organisations are in the motor component manufacturing industry; the others are a financial institution, a charity, a power station, a printing company, a telemarketing agency and a grammar school. Each detailed study is analysed in a comparative manner alongside the other seven in an effort to derive valid analytical generalisations on the process of strategic decision implementation. The concept of implementation system congruence is found to be extremely useful in understanding relationships between the strategies, content and context of change, and their association with ultimate process outcomes. The research also underscores the nonlinear and dynamic nature of change and the critical need for change managers to assimilate and respond to unforeseen contingencies as processes of implementation unfold over time. In this respect, the notion that the implementation of consequential business decisions seems to require strong commitment, patience, perseverance and repetition fits well with the empirical fmdings of this study. Finally, the broader context in and around the organisation is also revealed to have an important influence in creating a social backdrop against which implementation activities and decision issues are shaped, interpreted and evaluated by others. Levels of trust between sponsors and recipients are singled out as an especially prominent element of an organisation's social context influencing the former's capacity to effect change. 22 No portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. 1. Copyright in text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies (by any process) either in full, or of extracts, may be made only in accordance with instructions given by the Author and lodged in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester. Details may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. Further copies (by any process) of copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the permission (in writing) of the Author. 2. The ownership of any intellectual property rights which may be described in this thesis is vested in the University of Manchester, subject to any prior agreement to the contrary, and may not be made available for use by third parties without the written permission of the University, which will prescribe the terms and conditions of any such agreement. Further information on the conditions under which disclosures and exploitation may take place is available from the Head of the Faculty of Business Administration, Manchester Business School.

This I doctoral thesis examines a specific aspect of Knowledge Management (KM). This is knowledge sharing and the knowledge relationships that exist in knowledge flows through processes in organisations. It focuses on cultural influences on knowledge flows through knowledge coordinating mechanisms. This study is conducted through qualitative methods. The study involves immersion and snow ball sampling interviews to uncover the forms, perceptions and cultural factors influencing the operation of knowledge flows. The interpretive approach makes possible a deeper examination of perceptions of knowledge on the operation of a process from the perspective of those involved, and their perceptions of the other agents involved. Human Resources (HR) Shared Services are a means to address concerns surrounding qUality and cost in transactional oriented HR services. This study compares internal HR Shared Services and externally outsourced models. They are currently one of the most lucrative and popular means of outsourcing aspects of the firm. As a process they incorporate a broad range of knowledge flows that can be considered as reasonably stand alone. The hierarchical construction of HR Shared Services makes them representative of many processes within organisations from which generalisations can be drawn. This study argues in favour of KM being applicable to hierarchically oriented organisations and not just suitable for specific knowledge focused organisations. Knowledge flows are seen as the means for organisations to focus their corporate cultures to facilitate knowledge sharing and exchange. In this case it provides more relevant HR advice through better use of resources and improves the quality of the prOduct. It facilitates sustained competitive advantage in the use of combining resources of organisations in unique ways. It builds on a theoretical foundation of Cultural means of coordinating knowledge and by considering perceptions of agents in knowledge studies. It also considers how conflicts can be resolved and the issue of knowledge hierarchies.

This thesis departs on a trip into discourses of knowledge and innovation in postindustrial societies and knowledge-based organizations, and investigates the value of knowledge and the question of innovation management in a fully commercial environment. The gaining momentum the discourses on the value of knowledge in today's post-industrial societies and on the significance of innovation for knowledgebased organizations has attracted the attention of both practitioners and academics. The structural and discursive transformations it has caused so far indicate that it is a phenomenon that needs be further studied. This thesis explores the transformations the disciplinary discourse of knowledge and innovation management causes in the research language game and the practices organizations develop in order to support the creation of new knowledge, and questions whether innovation can be adequately supported in a fully commercial environment. In contrast with most of the mainstream approaches to study innovation management, which assume the rationality of managers and the controllability of knowledge and of the related processes, this research chooses as starting point to critically examine these assumptions before we proceed with further suggestions on how to manage knowledge. Thus, the project starts by examining the nature of knowledge and the disciplinary discourses that shape our understanding of what knowledge is, and consequendy how it should be supported. The research clearly adopts a discourse-centered approach to both the study of these phenomena and the interpretation of the empirical findings. In other words, it assumes that discourses are constructed by social and organizational realities, as well as in local interactions, and recursively they transform them. Through these theoretical lenses, the influential discourse that describes knowledge in organizations as their most valuable asset to improve performance and profits, in other words, the discourse that equals knowledge to power creates a contested arena, where the groups and individuals involved want to take control over this valuable resource. Thus, the rhetoric of the free knowledge-sharing, which is based on the assumptions of trust and collaboration, is flawed, together with the technical models it suggests for innovation management. This thesis argues for the significance of addressing the political games and power struggles enacted in managing innovation processes, which result from the opportunity certain groups see to acquire or extend their control over valuable resources; the rationalistic models so far neglect this dimension of organizational life, or when they address the politics of innovation, they reduce it either to the individual's ability to negotiate and convince others about the value of the innovation, and/or to the social network that supports the 'innovation hero'. The empirical part of the project, conducted in two Business Groups of a technology knowledge-based organization, i.e. Shell Global Solutions, studies two different innovation mechanisms, which were based on two different models of innovation management, and demonstrates that both mechanisms fail to achieve the expected results, because they neglect the political dimension of organizational reality. The research applied a range of qualitative data collection techniques, i.e. in-depth interviews, non-participant observations and documentary analysis, seeking the way multiple realities are discursively constructed and co-exist within the same context. Finally, the thesis discusses the conditions under which long-term and uncertain innovation can be supported in a fully commercial environment.