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The over-rational portrayal of middle managers has the intended or unintended consequence of masking and marginalising the emotional dimension demanded in this role. This research critically examines emotion at work, exploring how it is shaped and bound up with concepts such as control, power and fear. The framework used particularly focuses on both the emotions of control, and the control of emotions, which gives empirical support to the critique of over-rational views of management work. This research takes place longitudinally within an engineering company who have recently downsized by 50%, in a community which is tightly knit and lacks alternative employment opportunities. The overriding narrative of `site survival' is the key local discourse used, and this is explored through several discursive themes in evidence on site. This study explores how managerial emotion work involves the suppression and expression of emotion on a number of levels, as managers face off to multiple allegiances, some in direct tension with each other. This study illustrates how emotions are not merely the business of the individual, but are dynamic social constructions, and argues for an emotional framework that is relational rather than entitative. Emotions, their expression and suppression, are subject to, and situated within, numerous structural factors, and managers are subsequently both constrained and enabled by their environment. Far from being powerless, it is argued that managers are able to employ a number of resistant strategies and exert a degree of personal agency to alleviate tight emotion control. It is concluded that in times of change, emotion work represents a large but invisible part of the middle manager's role, yet is unacknowledged, unsupported and unscripted. By peeping beyond the 'over-rational iron cage', this study provides rich empirical accounts which enhance our understanding of the emotion work carried out by middle managers.

The study examines the motivation, values and work reactions of mana- gerial job holders in manufacturing companies in a state of contrac- tion. The empirical investigation is in two parts. The first part, or pilot study, examines, through interviews, middle and junior managers in 3 manufacturing organisations in a state of contraction. The second part, or main study, again looks at middle and junior managers, in this case in 2 manufacturing organisations, but using repertory grid technique in addition to interviews. Despite the amount of research that has been done on motivation at work, the thesis is seen as an exploratory study of the work motiva- tion of managers. Because of the inadequacies of the literature, the study has taken a relook at motivation and broadly investigates the possible reasons for managers working hard or not, in contracting organisations. The study emphasises the notion of work values. Work values are seen as a way of combining the broader explanations of work behaviour, par- ticularly those of the Work Orientation school, with narrower psycho- logical explanations, especially cognitive process theories. Particularly emphasised in the study are those values that may be tied in with an individual's self concept, and repertory grid is used to investigate these work values. The main conclusion of the research is that a major factor which helps explain managerial motivation in a contracting environment is a manager's self image or self concept. Although self image is acknowledged in many motivation models, this study indicates that the notion is of central importance and should play a more dominant role in explanations of motivation.

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Successful Information Technology Diffusion (ITD) requires a clear understanding of the organizational context including human and technological dimensions. Towards the establishment of this understanding, this research explores the management styles within a developing country context and the managers' attitudes towards IT. In particular, relationships between certain demographic characteristics and managers' attitudes towards IT are explored. Finally, association between management styles and managers' attitudes towards IT as a part of an e-govemment program is explored. The sample for this research was drawn from a list of the Jordanian Governmental Organizations (JGOs). Lower and middle line managers of public service organizations were selected to investigate the research issues. This research is mainly deductive and includes elements of both quantitative and qualitative methods. A survey approach was employed to achieve the research objectives. Moreover, six interviews were carried out with some managers to obtain insightful data and to enhance the interpretation of quantitative findings. Exploratory factor analysis, bivariate approaches, and general linear modelling were employed to explore patterns of complex multidimensional relationships for various attitudinal components towards management styles, IT and demographic characteristics. Five styles of management that represent two managerial dimensions were identified and ordered according to their preference. Although all these styles were prevalent to the research context indicating the diversity of management styles, people oriented management which represents the New Management Paradigm (NMP) including innovative, democratic, and participative styles was found to be more dominant than task oriented management which represents the traditional management styles including autocratic and authoritarian management. Moreover, the findings revealed that managers were found to have highly favourable attitudes towards IT. Additionally, a significant positive relationship was found between educational level and managers' attitudes towards IT. In contrast, significant negative relationships were found between managers' attitudes and age and organizational experience. No significant differences were found between male and female managers' with respect to their general attitudes towards IT. Finally, no significant relationship was found between managers' span of control and their attitudes towards IT. Managers' attitudes towards IT including computer anxiety, computer confidence, computer liking and computer usefulness were found to have significant positive relationship with the people oriented management styles including innovative, democratic, and participative style except the relationship between participative management style and computer liking which was not statistically significant. Considering the scarcity of previous literature in the research's particular context (Jordan) and its broader context (Arab and developing countries), this research provides an original contribution concerning the effect and appropriateness of management styles and attitudes towards IT on the use of modem computer technology within the context of governmental organizations in developing countries. Unlike previous studies within developed and developing countries, this research focuses on some organizational aspects of IT diffusion and puts emphasis on people's management styles and characteristics as the key driver towards successful ITD.

This thesis analyses the career orientations of locally recruited host country managers in the specific organizational context of foreign multinationals operating in a culturally and institutionally distant developing economy like Pakistan. The key research objective is a pluralistic consideration of the individual, organizational and institutional/societal levels of analysis. To this end the project focuses on the uptake of distinctly Anglo-Saxon protean and boundaryless career concepts as well as the international career orientations of a pre-internationalized employee group within the MNCs’ international operations. Existing ‘new’ careers literature is limited in its consideration of different organizational and cultural/institutional contexts. Moreover, international HRM literature discusses the diffusion of HRM but fails to adequately highlight that this process is complex, incomplete and likely to lead to hybridization in deinstitutionalizing, yet culturally distinct, countries like Pakistan. With the purpose of addressing these specific research gaps a qualitative case study approach was applied and interviews were conducted with employers/senior managers as well as managerial employees in four foreign subsidiaries operating in Pakistan. Analysis reveals that the combined application of Western and traditional work values in these four Pakistani subsidiaries leads to a hybridized and contested employment relationship whereby ‘marketization’ is evident but subject to implicit societal pressures and transmutations. Secondly, these host country managers’ career mobility perceptions and patterns highlighted the need to take a more nuanced approach to physical and psychological mobility that simultaneously considers increased ‘boundary-crossing’ and ‘boundary-creation’. The results highlighted the importance of recognizing the differential impact of individual, organizational and institutional/societal factors on the transfer, implementation and internalization processes and the implicit and explicit inter-linkages between these factors.

This study aims to explore supervisors' perspectives of their supervisory relationships (SRs) with trainee clinical psychologists, particularly the ways in which they enhance these relationships, and identify and resolve problems.A retrospective qualitative design was used, and clinical psychologists with experience of a range of SRs with trainees participated in the study. Method: Twelve supervisors completed a semi-structured interview about their effective and ineffective SRs with trainees. The data was analysed using Grounded Theory.Three core categories were highlighted regarding the quality of the SR's contextual influences, the flow of supervision and core relational factors. Contextual influences, which influenced the development of the SR included the team or service context, the training course and individual factors the supervisor and trainee contribute to the relationship. The flow of supervision incorporated the supervisor's investment in the SR and the trainee's openness to learning. The core relational factors of the SR incorporated interpersonal connection, emotional tone and the degree of openness, honesty, safety and trust. The findings suggested a reciprocal relationship between the core relational factors, the supervisor's investment in the SR, and the trainee's openness to learning. Strains in the SR can occur in any of the three categories, and the findings suggest that the supervisor's investment in the SR and the trainee's openness to learning improve the chances of problems being resolved. A resolution cycle was highlighted which incorporated noticing the problem, gathering information, formulating and intervening.The findings are discussed in relation to relevant theory and research. The implications for future research, theory and training are highlighted.

Adopting a radically diverse organisation studies approach that embraces a Cultural Studies analytical framework, this thesis examines the ways in which today's middle managers enact masculinity. Considering the gender-orientated 'ways of being' of a middle manager within a contemporary organisational environment, the research gives equal credence to space, language and the body - termed Locations of Enactment - at a time when masculinity (and even middle management) is thought to be 'in crisis'. Focusing, primarily, upon a single case-study - a local authority social services department that provides child-care for a homogenous South Wales community (Wood Valley) - the research is placed within its contemporaneous social, cultural and organisational context: a public sector that, as it is currently experiencing severe staff recruitment and retention difficulties, can be deemed to be 'in crisis' also. Utilising a grounded theory methodology that acknowledges both the research setting and the data itself as 'organic' entities, the middle managers of Wood Valley are understood to be dynamic organisational players who, on a daily basis, attempt to balance their work duties with their home responsibilities. As middle managers they are perceived to be 'in the middle' in a multitude of ways: they are 'in the middle' of an organisational hierarchy; they operate as intermediaries 'between' Wood Valley and outside agencies; they are middle managers who are precariously placed between the working-classes (whom they have distanced themselves from through social mobility) and the middle-classes (as their blatant attempts to prove their worthiness within that strata only heightens their 'anxious' bodily display). Furthermore, as middle-class 'bureaucrats' who work and live among a staunchly working-class community, the middle managers of Wood Valley often find themselves singled-out and scathingly criticised as socially and culturally 'different'. With this in mind this thesis insists that, as an increasing number of individuals are finding themselves employed within white-collar administrative posts, middle managers deserve to find themselves the focus of studies that are determined 'to put the humans back into organisation studies'.

Depuis une trentaine d’années, les travaux français qui portent sur les grandes surfaces alimentaires en sociologie du travail ont privilégié l’étude des caissières sans se soucier outre mesure des salariés des rayons. Cette thèse vise à rétablir ce déséquilibre en se focalisant sur les managers de rayon, premier niveau d’encadrement des magasins.Afin d’étudier ce groupe, nous commençons par mobiliser la sociologie du travail pour conduire une analyse microsociologique de leur travail quotidien. Les managers ont pour principales missions de faire progresser le chiffre d’affaires et la marge des rayons sous leur responsabilité ainsi que de motiver leurs équipes d’employés. Ils sont donc en interaction constante avec les employés chargés de la mise en rayon des produits, d’une partie des commandes et de la gestion des stocks, mais aussi avec d’autres interlocuteurs comme les fournisseurs ou encore les clients. Ce sont les membres de la direction du magasin (manager secteur, directeur) qui leur donnent des directives, contrôlent leurs résultats et évaluent leur comportement.Afin de prendre de la hauteur vis-à-vis des interactions quotidiennes, nous mobilisons également la sociologie des professions pour conduire une analyse davantage mésosociologique et macrosociologique. Nous étudions de cette façon les transformations de l’organisation du travail dans les magasins et celles du groupe des managers de rayon, toutes deux étroitement corrélées aux mutations structurelles de la branche de la distribution qui s’adapte en permanence aux aléas de la conjoncture économique et au goût versatile des consommateurs. Nous nous focalisons par conséquent sur les changements du travail, de l’emploi et de l’organisation des supermarchés et des hypermarchés qui touchent les managers depuis les années 2000 et s’accélèrent au cours des années 2010.Contrairement aux monographies réalisées sur les caissières, cette approche permet au moins deux choses. Premièrement, nous pouvons replacer dans leur contexte les nombreuses transformations du travail, de l’organisation et de l’emploi qu’ont vécues les salariés des rayons depuis le tournant des années 2010. Quand cela s’avère nécessaire, nous détaillons l’impact différencié de ces mutations sur les managers en fonction de leur appartenance à un ou plusieurs segments professionnels : enseigne intégrée vs indépendante, rayons alimentaires vs non alimentaires, zone urbaine vs rurale, supermarchés vs hypermarchés, faible présence syndicale vs délégués syndicaux revendicatifs.Notre approche nous permet par ailleurs de développer une réflexion dans le champ de la sociologie des professions : entre une approche fonctionnaliste qui se focalise sur l’unité d’une profession et une approche interactionniste qui insiste sur la diversité des pratiques au sein d’un même groupe professionnel, nous mobilisons le concept d’ethos professionnel pour penser à la fois l’unité et la diversité du groupe des managers de rayon. Nous proposons pour ce faire une définition personnelle de l’ethos en trois dimensions : une dimension pratique (activité, tâches, travail concret), une dimension symbolique (discours, normes, valeurs, représentations) et une dimension sociale (sexe, classe, race, diplôme, âge). Cet ethos ainsi défini articule les caractéristiques objectives d’un groupe professionnel avec ses valeurs et représentations et avec son travail concret.La thèse se divise en deux grandes parties. La première décrit la dimension pratique de l’ethos professionnel des managers de rayon. La seconde ajoute les dimensions symbolique et sociale de cet ethos bousculé par les récentes réorganisations des magasins. La thèse se conclut par une définition précise du concept d’ethos professionnel qui ouvre des perspectives de recherche concernant d’autres groupes professionnels. / For the past 30 years, research in France concerning workplace sociology within supermarkets and hypermarkets have highly favored the study of cashiers, thus disregarding the department employees. The aim of this dissertation is to restore this discrepancy by focusing on department managers who represent the first level of management in retail stores.In order to study this specific workforce, a focus on workplace sociology was initially necessary to advance a microsociological analysis of their daily work. The main tasks of department managers are to increase the turnover and the profits of the departments they are responsible for as well as keeping up the motivation of their teams. Therefore, they are interacting on a daily basis with the employees responsible for shelving, ordering, and stock managing products as well as dealing with suppliers and customers. Instructions are given by the store management i.e. store manager or sector manager, who also check the employees’ results and assess their behavior. To get some insight into the daily interactions in a supermarket, the sociology of professions was considered to produce a mesosociological and macrosociological analysis of the workplace and employment. This serves as a way to study the evolution in retail stores’ work structure as well as the changes in the particular group of department managers. Both are closely linked to the structural changes of the retail industry which is constantly adjusting to the contingencies of the economic context and the changeable desire of customers. Therefore, the mutations at work will be highlighted, for the employment and management in supermarkets and hypermarkets, which have impacted managers since the early 2000s ; a process that began accelerating around 2010.Unlike the numerous monographs that can be found on the topic of cashiers, this approach will focus on two elements. First, we will contextualize the structural and employment evolutions at work that retail employees have faced since the turn of the 2010s. We will elaborate, when needed, on the differentiated impact of these mutations on managers depending on their relation to one or several professional segments: food store chains vs. independent stores, food department vs. non-food departments, urban areas vs. rural areas, supermarkets vs. hypermarkets, weak union presence vs. strong union representation. In addition, this method leads to a deeper consideration on the sociology of professions: 1) a functionalist theoretical approach which focuses on the individuality of a profession and 2) an interactionist theoretical approach underlining the variety of practices within the same professional group. The concept of professional ethos is all the while used to encompass both the uniqueness and variety of department managers. A personal interpretation of this ethos will be developed revolving around 3 points: a practical dimension (practice, activities, tasks, rules, daily missions), a symbolic dimension (discourse, norms, values, representations) and a social dimension (gender, education, age, social category). This new definition of ethos, remaining consistent with the objective features of a professional group and its values, representation, and daily work, will open up new perspectives of research regarding other professional groups.This dissertation is divided into two parts. The first is dedicated to the practical dimension of the professional ethos of department managers. The second is devoted to the symbolic and social aspects of this work ethos which has been disturbed by the recent restructuring of retail stores. This thesis will conclude with an accurate definition of the concept of professional ethos which will contribute to understand other professional groups.