A research study was conducted of the management theories and quality philosophies that have been expounded throughout the twentieth century. This study included the modem thinking for quality improvement and business excellence to include the modem concept of Learning Organisations. This research project was undertaken with the aim of producing a framework based on the culture of Learning Organisation Theory and including within it the external influences on such a culture. The framework consisted on a core of human values, divided into five areas that are deemed important to learning organisations. These were surrounded by the basic values of Trust, Honesty and Openness thus protecting the core from outside influence. Elements from traditional management systems theory provided the outer casing for the framework, these elements influencing the core for both good and bad. The contents of the framework were then studied in three organisations of differing background with a view to firmly establishing the elements and areas within the framework for validity in these three organisations. The common theme between all the organisations chosen was that they had all in the recent past been involved in major management and internal change. One study involved the development of a questionnaire and supporting matrices in order to identify the areas and elements of the framework, thus establishing their existence. Active research techniques were used in the other studies in order to establish both 'why' the elements are important and any interrelationship between the areas. As a result of these studies suggestions for modification to the framework were established in order to strengthen the thinking and these were encompassed in to the framework. Probably the most significant of these changes was the inclusion of 'Leadership' as being a major factor in the filtering of undesirable elements. The outcome from the research is that the aim was achieved and a framework was developed that, for the first time, was drawn up in such a way that the elements and areas can easily be recognised and an understanding of what they represent is clearly shown. The reasons as to why these elements are important are also established. This is regarded as an advancement in this field of study.

This thesis critically reviews and evaluates theories of organisational learning and IT-related organisational change with particular reference to the task of explaining users’ acceptance (or rejection) of new technology. It seeks to develop a conceptual model of organisational learning and apply it to the particular case of recent IT-related (e-government) organisational change in Korea’s Supreme Court Registry Office (SCRO). Hitherto, there has been no systematic attempt to analyse the way in which management theories contribute to the electronic government (e-government) transformation effort within the public sector. This thesis seeks to fill this gap by synthesising perspectives drawn from the study of public sector organisation, IT, organisational transformation, and organisational learning. The analysis of the case study organisation (based on a qualitative research methodology) identifies various organisational learning phenomena occurring during the change project within the SCRO. In particular, it elaborates the interplay between the process of learning and change in the level of users’ acceptance (or rejection) of the new technology (the change over time is presented graphically in the form of a ‘support curve’). The research follows the organisational-transformation project since 1994 in terms of the process innovation diffusion model (Cooper and Zmud), which identifies the following key stages: initiation, adoption, adaptation, acceptance, routinisation and infusion (Cooper and Zmud). For each of these stages, processes of organisational learning are linked to the level of users’ acceptance. This aspect of the analysis involves considering the nature and scope of collective, mutual, situated, single-loop and double- loop learning; learning by doing; team learning; and leadership. These various approaches to organisational learning, which emerge from the analysis of the existing organisational-learning literature, are applied to the case analysis to bring out major developments in the SCRO’s organisational transformation. The findings derived from this study provide a framework that can be further applied and tested in future research, and that will also allow public sector management to continuously anticipate the problems involved in cultivating and sustaining users’ acceptance of new technology and nurturing appropriate organisational learning.

Ces dix dernières années, la mondialisation des entreprises a bouleversé l'organisation des processus d'innovation. Dès lors, on constate qu'un nombre croissant d'équipes d'innovation repose sur des acteurs éparpillés dans le monde entier. Si les gains attendus sont légitimes (localisation proche des marchés, mains-d'œuvre qualifiées à moindre coût…) cet éparpillement des acteurs pose de réels problèmes de coordination. La littérature sur les équipes multilocalisées a jusqu'ici souligné ces difficultés sans pour autant apporter de réponses. À partir de la théorie de la contingence, le modèle de recherche propose d'étudier quels sont les principaux modes de coordination des projets d'innovation adaptés au contexte de la multilocalisation. Le test du modèle est réalisé au moyen des équations structurelles (PLS) et repose sur une enquête ad hoc menée auprès d'équipes projets soumises à différents niveaux de multilocalisation. Le résultat montre que la multilocalisation influence l'ensemble des modes de coordination identifiés et peut ainsi être considérée comme un facteur de contingence. Au final, cette recherche contribue à la littérature sur l'innovation et à celle des équipes multilocalisées en proposant deux configurations de modes de coordination (au niveau de l'organisation, de la décision et de la communication) distincts en fonction du niveau de multilocalisation (faible ou élevé). / Over the past decade, corporate globalization has changed the organization of the innovation process. A growing number of innovation teams are now organized around members scattered all over the world. If the expected gains are legitimate (location close to the markets, skilled and lower cost labor...) the scattering of these teams yields to real problems of coordination. The literature on distributed teams has highlighted so far these difficulties without providing answers. Based on the contingency theory, the research model proposes to investigate the main coordination modes of innovation projects that are adapted to the context of projects distribution. The empirical test of our model is achieved through structural equation modeling (PLS). It is based on an ad hoc survey conducted through project teams of different levels distribution. Main results show that the distance influences all the identified coordination modes and can be considered as a contingency factor. Finally, this research contributes to the literature on innovation and on distributed teams offering two configurations of coordination modes (in terms of organization, decision-making and communication) according to the level of project distribution (low or high).

The focus of this research questions the role of change management in successfully implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning solution in the retail industry. The importance of the study could reveal a change approach more useful and relevant to the retail industry and offer opportunities for further research in this industry. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBA

The research objectives of this report are to identify key drivers of change, investigate possible barriers to the implementation of change and determine the change readiness of the organisation / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBA

Research report presented to the Unisa School of Business Leadership / This study looks at five cases of organisational change and considers how the respondents have perceived the implementation of change within their organisations. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBA

Although emerging technologies offer the construction industry many opportunities for IT-enabled collaboration environments, the companies adopting these technologies usually fail. in achieving the full benefits from their implementations. The reason for this is found as focusing too much on the technical factors and ignoring or underestimating the factors related to change, implementation, human and organizational factors, and the roles of the management and end-users. Each new information technology implementation involves some change for the organization and the employees, and is therefore a source of resistance and confusion unless special attention is paid to managing this change. This research aims to find how to introduce collaboration environments to construction organizations and how to manage the changes required in order to obtain the full benefits from their implementation. In order to achieve this aim, the theoretical concepts and previous work on collaboration environment implementations in construction industry, and change management with a focus on organizational change management are reviewed. The perspective of the construction organizations on the implementation of collaboration environments are investigated conducting case studies. Based on the findings from the literature review and the case studies, an organizational change management framework is developed for implementing collaboration environments. A computer based prototype is also developed in order to automate the framework. The framework and the prototype are evaluated by the industry professionals.

This dissertation explores the relationship between scenario planning and the building of new social capital in addressing potential or actually perceived environmental turbulence. In particular, the research explores how, when environments around organizations risk unpredictable and disruptive change, people in those organizations can act to develop new social capital that contributes to their survival. In this research, I present scenario planning as a mechanism for organizations to build this new social capital. Scholars have suggested that certain forms of social capital are more conducive to being directly built than others. My research indicates that scenario planning entails aspects which, in effect, are direct investments in creating the cognitive social capital resources that make new sense of turbulence. These resources are created with the scenario process articulating new conceptual framings and possibilities for the future, thereby re-conceptualizing the situation. The resources enable new shared meanings to be created - directly building the cognitive dimension of new social capital while enabling the more researched structural and relational dimensions to be built as by-products. This dissertation also suggests that social capital can be built more quickly than researchers have previously indicated. By directly investing in the creation of new shared meanings, scenario planning can build new social capital faster than the centuries that Putnam and generations that Emery and Trist suggested were needed. The dissertation’s contribution to the social capital literature is to suggest how new social capital, by foregrounding the cognitive dimension, can be purposefully and more quickly built to address turbulent conditions. The contribution to the scenario planning literature is to propose a scholarly explanation for how scenario planning builds new social capital, suggested in practice but not yet theorized, and in so doing, provide practitioners with a new purpose to strengthen the return on investments these efforts require.

The research objectives of this report are to identify key drivers of change, investigate possible barriers to the implementation of change and determine the change readiness of the organisation / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBA

The focus of this research questions the role of change management in successfully implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning solution in the retail industry. The importance of the study could reveal a change approach more useful and relevant to the retail industry and offer opportunities for further research in this industry. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBA