This thesis explores the different types of information security management decision making that take place within an organisation. It identifies how the construction of an information security management system (ISMS) alters in order to respond to different organisational variations, identifies the resource implications of making these alterations, and describes how the process of embedding an ISMS into the operational fabric of an organisation changes the way in which information security is managed. This thesis responds to the following "real world" problem: quantifying the type of resource needed to develop and maintain an ISMS is difficult because little is known about how ISMS are structured and how they respond to organisational variations. Documentation only considers ISMS in terms of its response to information security risk. As a result, not only is it difficult to quantify the resource required to manage information security, but it is also difficult to measure and compare the effectiveness of ISMS. This real world problem is paralleled by the following academic problem: ISMS theory is largely based on the views of practitioners and has not been augmented by systematic objective organisational research. In addition, existing information security management research shows that there are clear synergies with organisational sociology, organisation theory and cybernetics but these synergies have not been extensively reviewed. As a result, there is no specific academic platform from which to develop a theory of ISMS design. In response to these real-world and academic problems, this research contributes to the development of organisation theory relevant to information security management and is based on systematic organisational investigation. As a conclusion to this research, a theory of ISMS design is developed that has synergy with theories of organisational sociology, organisation theory and cybernetics but that also shows clear characteristics of its own.

In order for firms to remain competitive CEOs acknowledge the importance of innovation. In life science R&D firms scientists are crucial for innovation because they hold knowledge to create competitive new products. They are also known to fall outside of full control of management. Therefore, understanding the role of the CEO in innovation in life science R&D is key to understanding innovation in these firms. In order to gain insight into the role of the CEO a comprehensive review of the literature was conducted. It showed that the role of the CEO was mainly explored by means of survey-based investigations. The knowledge thus obtained has not offered insight into what CEOs actually do to lead innovation in life science R&D firms, nor does it take into account how it is perceived by R&D. It was therefore decided to conduct structured interviews of 15 CEOs of life science R&D firms to obtain a better understanding of what they actually do to lead innovation. Their views were contrasted against the perceptions of 33 R&D managers who report to the CEOs. It was found that CEOs need to make considerable use of their absorptive capacity to lead innovation and that they use this capacity to focus R&D. The R&D function refers to the need for the CEO’s absorptive capacity but emphasizes a relationship with the CEO based on trust. The unique contribution of this research is that not only takes into account the view of the CEO but also of the R&D function. For academics, it opens new avenues for research in innovation using CEO absorptive capacity. For practitioners, it advises CEOs to make efforts to improve their absorptive capacity in order to be able to lead innovation in life science R&D firms.

Today's business environments are characterized by dynamic and uncertain environments. In order to effectively support business processes in such contexts, workflow management systems must be able to adapt themselves effectively. In this dissertation, the workflow is redefined in concept and represented with a set of business rules. Business rules play a central role in organizational workflows in context of cooperation among actors. To achieve business goals, they constrain the flow of works, use of resources, and responsibility mapping between tasks and actors using role concept. Business rules are explicitly modeled in the Knowledge-based Workflow Model (KWM) using frames. To increase the adaptability of workflow management system, KWM has several distinctive features. First, it increases expressiveness of workflow model so that exception handling rules and responsibility mapping rules between tasks and actors as well as task scheduling rules are explicitly modeled. Secondly, formal definition of KWM enables one to define and to analyze correctness of workflow schema. Knowledge-based approach enables more powerful analysis on workflow schema including checking consistency and compactness of routing rules as well as terminality of a workflow. Thirdly, providing change propagation mechanism which assures correctness of workflow after the modification of workflow schema increases adaptability. Change propagation rules for the modification primitives are provided to manage workflow evolution. On the other hand, metarules that control rules in KWM are used to handle exceptions that occur in a running workflow instance. Workflow participants can easily change workflow schema of a workflow instance with the support of extra rules and a metarule. Based on KWM, K-WFMS (Knowledge-based WorkFlow Management System) has been implemented in client/server architecture. Inference shell of knowledge-based systems is employed for enactment of business rules and integrated with database systems. From a real application based on the KWM architecture, it has been shown that system performance can increase notably by reducing the number of rules and facts that are used in the course of workflow enactment.

This thesis presents an in-depth case study of a Malaysian public utility company expected by the government to transform itself into a self-financing, efficient and profitable organisation during corporatisation. As profitability became increasingly important, attempts to enhance profitability were made through imposing new accounting rules and recruiting new accounting graduates. In spite of these attempts, the finding reveals that accounting changes were enacted, but over time became separated from, or loosely coupled with, other intraorganisational concerns. An explanatory case study method, using mainly semistructured interviews and document reviews, was adopted. The framework for understanding the process of implementing accounting change, the context in which change unfolded and the emerging consequences of change is based on the combined insights of New Institutional Sociology (Meyer and Rowan, 1977) and Old Institutional Economics (Bums and Scapens, 2000). As sensitising devices, these institutional theories are useful, but alone are not able to fully incorporate the idiosyncrasies of the case findings. Subsequently, the research aims to develop a theoretical framework to understand the processes through which accounting systems can become loosely coupled by incorporating the insights drawn from the two institutional theories as well as the idiosyncrasies of the case. In this framework loose coupling is conceptualised as an evolutionary process shaped by existing internal institutions, the beliefs and norms in the environment, and the interests and power of organisational actors. Issues of the intertwined relationship between efficiency and institutional pressures, the balancing act between public service and profitability concerns, and the inter-play of resistance, trust and power are included. The theoretical framework enriches our understanding of why the role of accounting took its present form and why accounting change was enacted, but continued to (re )embed the existing public service values and norms within the case organisation. It is able to capture the complexity of the ongoing process of accounting change during which the ingrained public service values and practices remained stable in spite of corporatisation.

In the twenty-first century, globalisation is changing and widening the basis of competition. The trend in international outsourcing continues to grow, both in the number and value of transactions, as well as the variety of services outsourced. International outsourcing has been emerged as an important solution to improve the supply chain and achieve comparative advantages. More SMEs are involved with the outsourcing strategy now. Key to the planning and deploying a successful international outsourcing project is the methodology throughout the project lifecycle. For SMEs in particular, they need a practical framework to sustain success. This research gives new insight into how outsourcing delivers supply chain integration in the global context and proposes a framework for SMEs to facilitate their outsourcing planning and deployment, in particular for the aerospace manufacturers. The literature investigated considers the areas of supply chain management, SMEs and outsourcing strategy. This identifies the research gap between the existing literature and the practical demand from SMEs, therefore the necessity of this research has been shown. Action research is an important part of the research methodology, as well as case study because the framework is formulated via literature and a case study, then further developed and improved by two case studies. The outputs from the research activities provide the foundation for the framework. The proposed framework contains a workbook which configures SMEs' requirements and describes the necessary stages and steps in the outsourcing process. Industrial case studies are applied to develop, deduce and demonstrate the proposed framework. The future work is planned to enhance the performance of the outsourcing applications.

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The aim of this thesis is to develop a coherent theory of organisational learning which can generate practical means of assisting organisational learning. The thesis develops and applies this theory to one class of organisations known as non-government organisations (NGOs), and more specifically to those NGOs who receive funds from high income countries but who work for the benefit of the poor in low income countries. Of central concern are the processes whereby these NGOs learn from the rural and urban poor with whom they work. The basis of the theory of organisational learning used in this thesis is modem evolutionary theory, and more particularly, evolutionary epistemology. It is argued that this theory provides a means of both representing and assisting organisational learning. Firstly, it provides a simple definition of learning that can be operationalised at multiple scales of analysis: that of individuals, organisations, and populations of organisations. Differences in the forms of organisational learning that do take place can be represented using a number of observable attributes of learning which are derived from an interpretation of evolutionary theory. The same evolutionary theory can also provide useful explanations of processes thus defined and represented. Secondly, an analysis of organisational learning using these observable attributes and background theory also suggest two ways in which organisational learning can be assisted. One is the use of specific methods within NGOs: a type of participatory monitoring. The second is the use of particular interventions by their donors: demands for particular types of information which are indicative of how and where the NGO is learning In addition to these practical implications, it is argued that a specific concern with organisational learning can be related to a wider problematic which should be of concern to Development Studies: one which is described as "the management of diversity". Individual theories, organisations, and larger social structures may not survive in the face of diversity and change. In surviving they may constrain and / or enable other agents, with feedback effects into the scale and forms of diversity possible. The management of diversity can be analysed descriptively and prescriptively, at multiple scales of aggregation.