This research aims to support sustainability practitioners at the beginning of a change initiative towards sustainability to increase the success of the change. Moving towards sustainability is a complex journey and requires radical and structural transformational change in companies. Mutual understanding of the company and the practitioner is required to design a suitable change process. Existing tools related to sustainability, change management, corporate analysis and assessment were analyzed. In addition, practitioners in organizational change and sustainability were interviewed. Identified were eight Areas of Inquiry for the practitioner to focus on at the initial stage of an engagement: Vision; Purpose and Commitment; Urgency, Importance and Business Case; Level of Integration of Sustainability; Business Goals and Strategy; Culture and Capacities; Communication and Stakeholder Engagement; Measurement and Reporting. These areas form a platform for dialogue to guide sustainability practitioners in gaining understanding of the organizational change capacities and sustainability within the company and, in doing so, contributes to addressing the sustainability challenge at large.

Notre recherche répond à une volonté d’explorer une méthode d’humanisation de l’implantation des principes du NPM pour rendre le changement à l’hôpital socialement plus acceptable. Compatible avec un management polyphonique propice aux changements lorsque des individus aux valeurs et aux intérêts divergents doivent coopérer autour d’une problématique, la sociologie de la traduction s’est donc imposée comme grille d’analyse d’un processus de changement que nous observons et que nous conduisons à travers deux projets visant la fidélisation du personnel. Dans une posture transformative, notre recherche-intervention repose sur deux études de cas similaires dans des hôpitaux publics. Le rapport ethnographique au terrain a été favorisé par une CIFRE et nous a permis un recueil de données riches et variées. Nous avons ainsi contribué à l’identification des déterminants de l’intention de départ des infirmiers de psychiatrie en France grâce à la mise en place de groupes de travail multidisciplinaires. Puis dans une seconde période de mise en œuvre des projets co-construits avec les acteurs de terrain, nous avons identifié les freins et les facilitateurs du changement. / We initialised this piece of research in order to explore methods that could humanise the implementation of NPM principles and make changes in hospital environments socially more acceptable. Compatible with a polyphonic management, favourable to change when people with different values and opposing interests have to co-operate around one same issue, Actor Network sociology became an obvious assessment matrix for a change process that we have been observing and conducting via two projects that aim to retain staff. .Lead in a transformative approach, our research and intervention is based on two similar case-studies undertaken in public hospitals that have to face chronic shortages in nursing staff in psychiatric wards. Our ethnographic connection with the field was possible thanks to a CIFRE. It enabled us to obtain all kinds of rich and diversified data. We thereby brought our contribution to identifying what determines the initial intentions of psychiatric nursing staff in France, thanks to the organisation of multi-disciplinary workshops. During the second part of the implementation of our projects, thought-out in total collaboration with the actors on the field, we determined the actual obstacles to change as well as change-facilitators.

The notion of Strategic Fit has been and remains to be one of the most important arguements in the fields of business strategy and strategic management. This research study examines the key concept of ‘strategic fit’ and its associated theories and seeks to investigate the causes that have created ‘strategic drift’ in Abu Dhabi’s governmental agencies in the infrastructure sector with the aim of improving their performance. However, for organisations, public or private, it still remains to be the most important notion and one that cannot be ignored because it is about the success of the organisation in its external environment where all competitive activity takes place. Thus, there are many underlying factors such as organisational culture, structure and organisational history that impact, or influence, the level of fit that organisations achieve. Therefore it is imperative that research is further undertaken on a deeper and wider level to fully understand the concept and importance of strategic fit and how it can be achieved. Hence, a research study in this area, especially in developing cities such as Abu Dhabi, is well justified and needed. The lack of strategic fit that has been witnessed in the Abu Dhabi’s infrastructure sector over the past few years continues to be, and it is a clear indication of a developing mismatch between the government and its policies and the agencies that implement them. However, this is clearly a major issue for the government going forward, if polices are developed with no clear understanding of the available resources and capabilities. Similarly, the study also seeks to determine why a strategic fit has not been achievable by the Abu Dhabi government. Though the government has developed policies to better serve its people, it continuously faces issues of policies not being implemented, or being implemented too late and targets not been met according to the original brief. It has been identified that there are numerous deficiencies between the various government agencies in the infrastructure sector in terms of keeping pace with governmental policies - consequently, resulting in strategic gaps with an increasing possibility of a possible strategic drift, if these issues are not addressed effectively and in a timely manner. The study further wishes to explore if strategic gaps have occurred as a result of inherent cultural, historical, political and/or structural aspects of the Abu Dhabi government and its numerous agencies – simply because these issues can be seen as preventative to change and progress which, in turn, can lead to strategic gaps and strategic drift in the long term. The research paradigm selected for this research study is that of the pragmatist approach and subsequently the key methodology employed throughout this research is that of the mixed methods. That mixed methods research is an intellectual and practical synthesis based on qualitative and quantitative research. Also, This research provides a summary of the important findings, proved hypotheses, achieved aim and objectives, and significant contribution to the knowledge of strategic management through the development of the “Community Innovation Scheme”, the “3-Spectrums of Change”, the “4Ms Change Model”; and the resulting framework model; the “Government Strategy Model”.

The present study investigated the attitudes of middle managers towards organisational change within the automotive industry in South Africa. As a result of global recession, the automotive industry has been going through a series of changes but at a very slower pace. An empirical investigation was undertaken using a sample of seventy two (72) middle managers drawn using the cluster sampling technique. An organisational change attitude questionnaire adjusted to suit the automotive industry environment was employed to collect data. The findings of the study indicated that middle managers have positive attitudes towards technological change (59%), Innovative Change (84%) and Total Quality Management (65%) However, middle managers indicated that they have negative attitudes towards re-organisation. There was moderate significant relationship between factors influencing attitudes (administration, participation, communication and the threats and benefits) and the attitudes portrayed. Factors such as administration of the change process, threats and benefits of the outcomes as well as opportunity for personal growth were found to be highly influential to middle managers attitudes towards change. In all cases, demographic variables such as gender, age and experience played a significant role in the views of middle managers towards organisational change. Key words: Attitudes, organisational change, middle managers, factors influencing attitudes and automotive industry.

The thesis is focused on product development in companies in the telecommunications industry. These companies provide products to end customers. The introductory section lists and describes the basic concepts accompanying the issue. Also described herein is a method for achieving the objectives of the thesis, that is based on personal interviews with specialists in selected telecommunications companies. The first objective is to identify variables affecting success launching a new product to market services. The thesis defines the internal and external factors in the organization. Part of the analysis is to assess the current state of internal RFC, that was unexpectedly during the development of a long implementation period (TTM). The content of this thesis is identification of key factors and their impacts on implementation also unveiling constraints of the development process. These constraints are in the view of issues that prevent better performance of the relevant processes. The third and the main objective of this thesis is based on previous analyses, proposal of improvements that could contribute in the future to better product development. The proposed improvements are consulted with a specialist Demand Management to determine the feasibility and potential benefit in practice. The greatest contribution of the thesis lies in the proposed improvements and their assessment for future implementation.

Process management is frequently used term these days. The aim of this diploma thesis is to explain, what „process“ actually means, what has been the historical evolution, what are its alternatives, but mainly what are the benefits for the company. Even though the title of this thesis is „Process model of trading company“, its content goes further than that. Creation of company’s process model is only one part, even though important, of the process- based management of the company (Business Process Management, BPM). Moreover, the methods and procedures described in this thesis can be used almost in any company, not only in the trading one. The main contribution of this thesis is in its broad view of process management. This thesis deals with some topics, which at the first sight don’t even relate to BPM (ISO standards or Change Management). Nevertheless, after closer examination the link becomes obvious. Most of the methods described in the theoretical part of this document are later used in its practical part for the BPM implementation proposal in the concrete company. The read is thus given an option to immediately confront theory with reality and visualize sometimes very general theoretical procedures. This document is structured in 5 chapters. The first chapter introduces a reader to this thesis topic, reasons for its selection and the aims, benefits and limitations. The second chapter shows the meaning of process management in the broader context of related concepts. The aim of the third chapter is to show practical use of process management. The fourth chapter is dedicated to implementation proposal of BPM in specific company. First, the company is described and its main aspects analyzed, which enables to present the company strategy. Then, the most important company processes are modeled and described, together with their evaluation and optimization proposal. The benefits and advantages of BPM are outlined in the closing chapter.

The topic of this thesis is change management. A summary of the topic is made in the first part of this thesis so that a reader has the theoretical background to read further. In the second part, the author describes five most important change management methods. These methods are described, analyzed and compared to one another. Five hypotheses about the most influential factors to the outcome of a change project were created out of the analysis. These hypotheses cover the entire span of a typical change project and are tested in the practical part of this thesis. The practical part of the thesis relies on a thorough case studies analysis and interviews. By analyzing the case studies and the interviews, the author was able to judge the validity of set hypotheses and create a set of recommendations for future change projects. These recommendations are based on many real situations and therefore are valuable for future reference. The role of information technology in change management is also emphasized at the end of the thesis.

The objective of this thesis is to provide a comparison of theoretical knowledge, mapping processes in the post-merger integration, including the perspective of professionals and an assessment of the post-merger integration in selected company in terms of achieving the objectives of the integration project. Further objective of the thesis includes an analysis of the integration from the perspective of corporate culture, perception of employees and basic information on analyzed acquisition. The primary benefit is to create a theoretical basis for the integration process for further detailed research and theoretical preparation for the implementation of the post-merger integration. At the practical level following thesis should serve as a general guide on how to proceed in this process. The practical part contains a comprehensive analysis of the integration phase and its impact on the selected company, comparison with the best practices and general recommendations. Furthermore the thesis provides a high level perspective on the acquirer's future development and its long-term profile. Research methods were mainly driven by interviews with the management of the company, analysis of internal documents and questionnaire.

This study examines the process of technological change in the religious television environment. The study also focuses on managerial response to said change. Through the use of a survey instrument, a quantitative examination is given, illustrating a managerial embrace of change principles, a positive attitude toward the idea of change, and a system of change behavior that matches several previously theorized change models. Also examined is how different station funding types correspond with types and rates of technological change, with the results reflecting that more funding sources for a station generally indicate a greater likelihood of technological change.

As demandas por mudanças devem ser vistas como situações normais dentro do processo de gestão de uma organização. Nesta abordagem, dois elementos são fortes contribuintes como sistemáticas de apoio: a gestão (ou gerenciamento) das mudanças, que estabelece os processos e controles necessários para que os objetivos da mudança sejam alcançados de maneira organizada e a existência dos fatores críticos de sucesso para a mudança, que atuam como elementos de convergência em relação aos objetivos planejados. No mesmo contexto, as grandes empresas, principalmente aquelas de atuação global, têm tido demandas pelas diversas partes interessadas com as quais possuem interface, em demonstrar o seu desempenho na gestão da sustentabilidade, dentro das suas respectivas dimensões: ambiental, social e econômica. O objetivo geral do presente trabalho consiste em identificar quais fatores críticos de sucesso são determinantes no processo de mudança organizacional, em particular na abordagem da prática de gerenciamento de mudanças de uma empresa petroquímica brasileira, associados com inclusão da gestão proativa da sustentabilidade empresarial, através do diagnóstico do cenário atual em relação a este tema. A estrutura metodológica consistiu em macro etapas de revisão da literatura, seleção dos fatores críticos de sucesso e critérios de sustentabilidade, desenvolvimento de questionários e aplicação destes através de um estudo de caso, do tipo observação participante, em uma empresa petroquímica brasileira, viabilizando a subsequente análise dos dados obtidos e conclusões. Os principais resultados identificaram quarenta e cinco fatores críticos de sucesso relacionados ao processo de gestão da mudança organizacional e o modelo da GRI como o de maior aderência no meio empresarial mundial. Foram identificadas contribuições da literatura em fatores críticos de sucesso no processo de gerenciamento de mudanças vigente na organização, tais como comunicação constante e eficiente e recursos, de forma a agregar práticas ao modelo atual de gestão da mudança organizacional. As dimensões de fatores críticos de sucesso identificadas como mais relevantes no estudo de caso foram a liderança e recursos. Em relação à percepção sobre conceitos de sustentabilidade, particularmente quanto requisitos da GRI na versão G4, foi verificada junto aos respondentes uma visão que enfatiza a dimensão ambiental, a despeito das dimensões social e econômica, associada a fragilidades em ambientação dos mesmos em relação a conceitos de sustentabilidade e conexão deste tema com fatores críticos de sucesso na mudança organizacional, trazendo elementos para a melhoria contínua das práticas de gestão, assim como do relato da sustentabilidade empresarial. / The demands for change should be seen as normal situations within the management process of an organization. In this approach, two elements are strong contributors as systematic support: change management, which establishes the necessary processes and controls for the objectives of the change to be achieved in an orderly manner, and the existence of critical success factors for change, which act as elements of convergence towards the planned objectives. In the same context, large companies, especially those with global operations, have been demanded by various stakeholders to demonstrate its performance in sustainability management within their respective dimensions: environmental, social and economic. The overall objective of this study is to identify, particularly in the practice of change management in a Brazilian petrochemical company, the proactive management of corporate sustainability and the critical success factors that are decisive in the organizational change process through the diagnosis of the current scenario regarding this topic. The methodological framework consisted of macro steps of literature review, selection of the critical success factors and criteria of sustainability, development and application of these questionnaires through a participant observation case study in a Brazilian petrochemical company, enabling the subsequent analysis of the obtained data and conclusions. Forty-five critical success factors related to the process of managing organizational change were identified and the GRI model was the most applied model in the global business environment. In order to add to the current practice model for managing organizational change, contributions from the literature were identified in critical success factors in the management of the current changes in the organization, such as constant and efficient communication process and resources. Leadership and resources were the most relevant dimensions of critical success factors identified in the case study. Regarding the understanding of sustainability concepts, particularly in relation to the requirements of GRI in a G4 version, it was verified that the respondents’ perceptions emphasize the environmental dimension over the social and economic dimensions. This was associated with the respondents` limited knowledge regarding concepts of sustainability and how this issue connects with critical success factors in organizational change, bringing elements to the continuous improvement of management practices, as well as the reporting of corporate sustainability.