This thesis analyses institutions and business system characteristics in Cyprus with the aim of describing economic organisation patterns in the country and discussing issues of institutional change and business system diversity. More specifically, by reviewing the development and current features of the legal, financial and education systems, industrial relations and authority relations, the extent and kind of British colonial influence on each institution is examined and the ways in which transformed institutions shape ownership and control of firms, relations between them and employment practices are explored. Research findings are expected to contribute to existing empirical knowledge regarding the different ways of organising and controlling economic activities by describing arrangements in a postcolonial society and inform theoretical analyses of processes of institutional change and the impact of colonial rule on economic organisation. Results indicate that the colonial experience transformed completely institutions like the legal system and greatly influenced aspects of the development of others, such as the education and financial systems, authority relations and industrial relations. These institutional changes contributed, first, to the creation of a significantly different institutional environment compared to neighbouring countries that were not colonised by a major European power and, second, led to considerable heterogeneity in some if its aspects. This institutional environment offered more potential for business system diversity and two major groups of firms may be identified with distinct business system characteristics in Cyprus, private firms and banks. The former group consists of firms that are largely family owned and controlled, are characterised by authority relations that are more paternalistic and exhibit employment practices that are more informal whereas in banks, ownership is largely market based, control more decentralised, relations with other firms more adversarial, authority relations less paternalistic and employment practices more formal. The empirical analysis suggests a number of theoretical points regarding colonialism, institutional change and business system diversity. First, it highlights that the three key mechanisms driving institutional change - the coercive, the mimetic and the normative - can be identified as contributing to institutional conversion during colonial rule. Coercive mechanisms may include the introduction of a new government administration system whereas mimetic processes, such as copying some of the colonial power's systems, and normative pressures due to the interaction between colonial power and colony were also common. Second, it shows that both radical and evolutionary change of institutions take place. The introduction of a new legal system is an example of abrupt change whereas the influence on the education system, and indirectly on people's values, is more incremental. Third, it suggests that the kind, extent and the rate of institutional conversion depends on the nature of each institution but also on power dynamics and preferences of individual and collective actors in both the exporter and receiving country. These observations highlight, fourth, the role of institutional entrepreneurs who influence institutional development by reflecting on structures, using their analytical and political skills and mobilizing others. Finally, these multiple influences on institutions are likely to result in considerable diversity within them, something that gives firms more 'social and economic space' from which to choose and formulate their own distinctive business system characteristics.

The claim that there is a need for continuous organizational change has become a modern day cliche. In particular it has been taken up by influential management gurus who have provided popular versions of debates that have been going on within the academic literature for numerous years. The most influential of these debates is that of the post-bureaucratic organization. This shares with the guru models of change the assumption that a radical epochal transition is taking place in the way organizations and working relationships are structured. However despite the attention which these claims have received there is still relatively little detailed empirical evidence against which to evaluate them.

This doctoral thesis explores the influence of middle management on cultural change processes in organisations. An action research strategy in a medium-sized organisation that was facing broad structural and cultural change was adopted. It is well-documented in the literature that the position top management takes with respect to cultural change is of high importance for successful change. At the same time, the role of middle management seems to have lacked attention until recently. The purpose of this work is to contribute to knowledge about middle management during such processes and to explore the roles middle-managers play within such cultural change. In addition it researches if middle managers take over the explored roles, when the organisation creates an environment that supports cultural change. Middle management is mainly discussed in the literature in the context of strategic change. In the context of organisational culture research with a middle management perspective still seems to be missing. Using a critical realist philosophical approach an action research strategy was adopted. The practical part reveals the action cycles undertaken. First, the action research cycles according to the consultancy work are presented, as they form an important basis for the parallel conducted thesis cycles. Actions and data collection methods are discussed. During the research different methods have been chosen to create an extensive picture of the development inside the organisation, and to answer the research questions: three qualitative interviews, participative observations on six occasions (workshops and meetings), as well as two quantitative questionnaires (staff surveys). The findings suggest that an organisational culture change occurred in the time-span of two years and that middle management played a crucial part within this process. Several roles can be located with the role 'cultural role model' as the most important one. In addition, the roles middle management play as part of strategic changes according to various literatures was in the main confirmed. These findings contribute to knowledge about middle management and help to minimise the existing gap. The results can be used to develop a model of integrating middle managers actively into the change process and using their creative potential. The thesis finishes with recommendations, not only for further research but also concerning practical considerations. Furthermore, limitations of this research work are outlined.

This study carries forward earlier research by the author into the management of change and the evolving role of managers and professionals who now find themselves involved or implicated in the process of organisational change. The conceptual focus for the study is the dynamic interplay between the structures that are generating the distribution of change management responsibility and the freedom of social actors to make intentional choices and decisions about how they will or will not assimilate that responsibility into their role, and the consequential effects this produces for them and the change process. The case study method was employed to investigate the roles of managers and professionals in two contrasting organisations: one a large Primary Care Trust, the other, a small Research and Technology company. A total of forty-four semi-structured interviews were conducted with a non-probabilistic sample of managers and professionals in both organisations. The data were supplemented by observation and an in-depth analysis of documentary data sources which were used to define and describe the substance and context of the change processes under investigation. Analysis of qualitative data was based on a modified grounded theory approach. The findings suggest there are challenges to the sustainability of rational, centred, top-down, hierarchical models of change management when they are confronted by the discontinuities and instabilities of contemporary change scenarios where hierarchy and status are arguably less meaningful and important and where control and certainty become more problematical. Arguments are made that senior managers, as change strategists, may have to learn to modify or even discard existing models of directive control. Instead, they will look to make second-order interventions that generate the receptive contexts for successful change. The aim is to 'push' responsibility towards their middle and junior managers and professionals and in doing so, to influence their willingness or otherwise to accept that responsibility. However, at the same time, change strategists may have to acknowledge and accept that the receptivity of individuals to 'pull' a responsibility for change management into their role by accepting a delegated responsibility, or to unilaterally and independently create their own area of responsibility, is a significant consideration in framing a progressive change strategy. Equally, any strategy has to acknowledge that individuals may resist or reject efforts to involve them in change management, or they may view responsibility as means to attain personal goals which may or may not be congruent with those of the organisation, and in that sense, change management responsibility could be used to undermine or even usurp the change process. With these issues in mind, the findings of the study suggest that the theory around change management appears to be underdeveloped and does not reflect the complexity and fluidity of leadership revealed by more recent empirical studies. Practical improvement must revolve around a more explicit need to �manage the change managers.� Here, the positive and negative effects of distributed responsibility are framed in a coherent HR strategy for selection, skills development and support to those involved in change management.

In the early part of this twenty-first century, one of the most important pressures facing businesses in the UK, is arguably the need for integrating sustainability issues into daily business operations. There is, however, a little empirical research on managing change and knowledge associated with sustainability initiatives. Therefore, the aim of this research is to investigate how UK industrial sectors are managing change and knowledge associated with sustainability initiatives to improve their competitiveness. The study concluded that an industry-wide awareness raising programme(s) on the concept of sustainability needs to be implemented.

In the last two decades the service sector has dominated the UK economy. Recently, performance and service quality delivery has become a critical issue to the sustainability of businesses in this sector. Disruption to day-to-day operations is increasingly becoming an emergent pattern for organizations across this sector. This has implications for how service organisations structure and organize to deliver efficient and uninterrupted services to clients and stakeholders. Managers and staff within the service sector have been portrayed as struggling to deal with the impact of occurrences of unexpected change and uncertainty on their business operations. Literatures from organizational learning, change management and organizational crisis are drawn upon to develop this study. Concepts of resilience and adaptive capacity form a framework for exploring disruption occurrences on daily operations in the service sector. Investigations are carried out into the experiences of managers and staff to disruption occurrences. Organizational barriers to individual response are examined. Target groups for the study are drawn mainly from the finance, telecommunications, aerospace and defence related sectors. Research methodology and data analysis is based on the grounded theory approach. Fieldwork activity is undertaken in three phases over a twenty-four month period. Twenty six in-depth interviews with senior managers are carried out and two hundred postal questionnaires are administered. There are three main outcomes of the study. These are; i) core categories of disruption & core categories of response behaviour, ii) the Codar Dial; mapping core disruption categories and typical behaviour in response, iii) the five (5) 'C' drivers for enhancing resiliency in dealing with occurrences of disruption. Findings contribute to current knowledge on the concept of disruption and organizational behaviour in management studies. The research contributes also to the fields of change management and organizational learning. The findings have implications for service sector managers in relation to work structures and human resource practices at the management and individual level.

This thesis confronts the question: what supports breakthrough? From my practice base as an Organisational Development (OD) consultant, I question sanitised assumptions at the heart of OD that leadership, management and corporate transformation is necessarily about "upward curves" and that development is experienced positively. I show how received, techno-rational notions of "on demand" corporate innovation and cultural transformation often neglect the central human experience of breakthrough, including issues of encounter, catharsis and collapse which - far from being manifestations of psychopathology - might well have their place in individual and corporate revitalisation and renewal. To explore what I believe to be neglected issues concerning the living experience of breakthrough and transformation, I situate my enquiry in the tradition of Heuristic Action Research. Enquiring across personal, organisational and social boundaries, I undertake critically-reflexive self-study in both professional and personal domains of my life; I undertake "insider" action research with colleagues in the innovation consultancy I eo- founded and eo-led: and I engage in networked, participative enquiry with a number of colleagues and clients. I explore the implications for my work as an OD consultant that breakthrough and transformation require a disruption and reorganisation of the self. Exploring hidden dynamics in change processes, I describe how working with field-relational, eo-creative, embodied and aesthetic dimensions of experience has become central to my own theory of practice, which has been challenged and changed through this research process. While this is predominantly a first-person enquiry, I suggest that these guiding heuristics might also have applications for other OD practitioners whose work encourages them to break new ground.

This thesis examines the implementation of a number of business change programmes completed within three specific organisations; PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland), BAA plc and Govan Initiative (Scottish Enterprise). Specifically the study focuses on the methods of implementation employed and the corresponding results. The study examines, on the basis of case study evidence, the impact of employing contrasting approaches to the documentation of business change programmes. The projects studied range in approach from those which employ manually documented methods to those which use structured software modelling technique for the design and implementation of business change programmes. The programmes considered fall into the areas of Business Processes, Business Performance Management and Risk Management. The study finds that there is a case for the use of structured, object based methods supported by modelling software, particularly in relation to the implementation of change programmes with a significant IT basis or where there is complex relationship between activities and supporting human resource interface. The study concludes that the use of a structured, software supported implementation methodology can be employed to improve the quality of implementation, mitigate risks of conflict and resistance, decrease the cost and effort associated with modification and re-engineering, and contribute significantly to the sustainability of the implementation objectives under certain circumstances.

Organisational change aimed at increasing individual, group and organisational learning has been widely discussed over the last two decades in bodies of literature surrounding Communities of Practice and the Learning Organisation. Both bodies of work are ultimately concerned with ways that learning and practice development is pursued and constructed within organisations and the groups of people working within them. Emphasis in literature on Communities of Practice is placed on groups of individuals developing and maintaining a body of practice focused on specific tasks. Models of Learning Organisations emphasise the processes of organisational capacity to facilitate and access internal learning for overall improvement and development. This thesis argues for the synthesising of these two bodies of work when approaching the diagnosis of an educational institution for its capacity to foster internal Communities of Practice that are supported by, and work for the benefit of, the larger institution in terms of producing, evaluating and implementing new learning and practices. This thesis is an interpretive case study of a technical training institute operated by a national oil company in the United Arab Emirates. It seeks to identify teachers' perceptions as they indicate the presence or absence of elements of models of both Communities of Practice and Learning Organisations within the Institute. Middle and Senior leadership perceptions of where they believe teachers place themselves in relation to power and decision making capacity further illuminated the landscape drawn by the study. Focus group and individual interviews guided by a q-sort activity wherein placement of 15 statements related to elements of a synthesised framework of the two bodies of literature gathered perceptions to present the case study. Qualitative analysis of group discussions of statement placement based on group negotiation of more and less true of participants' experiences drew a landscape of group and organisational function.

Organizations are working in a changing environment. It is well established that performance measurement plays a critical role in organizations, signaling how well they are succeeding in achieving their objectives and identifying where improvement efforts are required. However, in spite of the remarkable progress in the field of performance measurement development, it is recognized that there are still 'issues' which deserve further research, if performance measurement systems are to receive a better understanding of key objectives, identification of the key "determinants" for organizational performance, performance measures selection and the improvement of the overall validity. Informed by the literature review and empirical evidence, this thesis aims to show that the use of Strategy Cause Mapping and (SCM) and System dynamics (SD) in an integrated way could support the design, implementation and use of more effective performance measurement systems.