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Performance and sustainability of a company are often viewed as being strongly influenced by its top management. And yet, despite a rich literature in the field of organisational learning, little is known about how the top management of a company acquires and maintains the knowledge of "how to run the business", especially in fastchanging environments. This study focuses on Deutsche Telekom as it sought to transform itself during a turbulent period from a traditional operator into an international, diverse business player This work seeks to extend the theory and understanding of organisational learning to this particular group of people at the apex of the organisation and contributes to the debate of top4level organisational learning (TLOL) as a dynamic capability. The study, which is based upon longitudinal, qualitative research, featuring separate cases embedded within a single, large organisation, explores the methods and outcomes of TLOL. Comparative cases in different organisational settings and business contexts, at corporate and at divisional level, were used in this diversified organisation to empirically investigate the deployed initiatives and methods as well as drivers of and barriers to TLOL.

This research study focuses on the transition to e-business in the particular context of the maritime sector in Egypt. Making the transition to e-business involves transformations of organisational processes, including process automation. The literature review explores the evolution of e-business in terms of an analysis of business functions, and consideration of some stage models of the evolution. The Egyptian maritime sector background is also presented. The research method combines a case study approach with the use of process modelling tools. Two ports with contrasting histories were selected for study: Alexandria, Egypt's largest port, long established and Government-run; and Sokhna, a modern port in the private sector. The process architecture modelling method used was Ould's Riva, which supports modelling of the wider process architecture of an organisation as well as of the internal structure of individual processes (in role- activity diagrams). On the basis of interviews, observation, and analysis of documents, Process Architecture Diagrams (PADs) were produced for both ports, together with role-activity diagrams for selected processes. These diagrams show a model of the business processes in the two ports at the time of investigation. The models were substantially similar for the two pons at the architectural level but divergent in internal process detail. This outcome suggests that. while organisations in the same business will have similar process architectures, they can differ substantially in process detail, probably reflecting differences in organisational history, structure and infrastructure. Both the port models were scrutinised to identify possibilities for process improvement, using a combination of three methods: Ould's improvement diagnosis, which is oriented towards eliminating redundant activities and fostering better decision making; Davenport's analysis of the role of information technology in process innovation; and Earl's six stage model of e- business development, which focuses on the online presence of an organisation. Based on this analysis, an assessment was made of how far the two ports had progressed towards e-business operation. Comparisons were also drawn between process improvements suggested from the modelling and actual improvements being introduced or planned by the two ports. 111is combination of detailed process modelling, analysis, and comparison, enabled recommendations to be made an process improvements for the two ports. to assist their transition to e-business. The method and results can be generalised beyond the Egyptian maritime sector.

Organisations face ever growing complexity in the business environment and use processes to deliver value in a stable, sustainable and controllable way. However complexity in the business environment is threatening the stability of processes and forcing their continuing evolution in ever shorter time cycles, which then creates significant management challenges. Addressing complexity requires a change in management thinking about processes. The research explores the nature of complexity, how businesses respond to it, and the consequent impact on process complexity. The research reviews the notion of complexity and its relevance to organisations, business processes and knowledge contexts. The research focuses on knowledge intensive firms, as these exhibit several of the features and allow early application of the approach suggested by this thesis. The research draws upon concepts from several fields including complexity and complex systems, business process management, and knowledge management. This thesis addresses the question: “How can organisations address the complexity of knowledge intensive business processes?” In answering the question the thesis argues the need to integrate multiple perspectives involved in managing such processes, proposes an approach to complex knowledge intensive business processes that reduces the management challenge, and argues the need to develop an agile shared knowledge context in support of the approach. This thesis develops a theoretical framework consisting of a set of hypotheses rooted in the literature, and then proposes an approach to addressing complex knowledge intensive business processes based upon these hypotheses. Then,through a series of QDS investigations and action research cycles, this thesis tests the hypotheses, further develops the approach and examines its application in different problem domains in multiple organisations. This thesis then discusses the process and the outcomes of applying the approach, identifies its limitations, assesses its contribution to knowledge and suggests directions for further research.

Requirements negotiation, as a main activity in requirements engineering, unites stakeholders to discover and resolve conflicts among their declared requirements. Research into early requirements negotiation views conflicts as problems, resolves conflicts through a problem solving process, and recognises the significant role of stakeholders in the requirements negotiation.