There has been considerable interest in time varying performance particularly that related to business cycles in recent years. This topic has been a persistent focus from the end of the last century, as evidenced by the quotes above, continuing through much of economics since the 1930's, when the peculiarities of pricing behaviour, particularly in the United States, during the depression years were the driving force behind interest in the topic. Since then, there has been an ongoing debate on the effects of the business cycle upon pricing and profitability. In recent years this debate has intensified having been fuelled both by technical factors and politico-economic developments. On a politico-economic level the ending of the "Golden Age" of capitalism, which had been characterised by steady growth, low unemployment and relatively small cyclical fluctuations, in the 1970's can be seen as a prime reason for a resurgence of interest in such issues. On a technical level within the economics discipline two aspects have promoted increased interest in this issue. Firstly there has been a mushrooming of theoretical approaches to the question driven by the growing dominance of game theory in particular in trying to explain the prevalence of collusion during the business cycle. At the same time, but we would argue not In parallel, there has been an expansion of empirical testing of the question of time varying performance at a microeconomic level. This expansion can be largely attributed to the advent of improved techniques and computing capability for dealing with panel data which facilitates the examination of these issues. This thesis seeks to examine one aspect of this question, the relative performance of large and small firms, a subject which has been largely overlooked within the main body of the literature on time varying performance but which can add to, and point to, useful insights for that literature.

The History of the making of Furniture is inexorably tied to the development and decline of the successive civilisations which have given the punctuation to the story of man's emergance in a settled society. In tracing the development of the Trade Unions in the furniture industry it is necessary to provide as a postscript a brief summary of furniture making through the ages, and its development in the United Kingdom. Of necessity this history is not exhaustive, and must needs take a partial view, but it is included in the main work to set the scene for the emergance of the workers organisations in the middle of the Victorian era.

This is a study of adult job retraining in further education and industry. Through indepth case studies of a small number of chemical and engineering companies and one college of further education, it attempts to develop an understanding of the broader relationship between further education, industry and government as it pertains to retraining. Data was collected by unstructured interview and participant observation. Supporting data was collected by means of postal questionnaires. The thesis is divided into four parts. Part one examines national government training and retraining policy; a policy characterised by ambiguity and ambivalance. Part two reviews the development of further education, and assesses the adult job retraining provision within one particular college. Part three examines retraining in industry and describes the enterprise restructuring under which retraining took place in three chemical companies. On the basis of findings outlined in Parts two and three, Part four asks whether further education is equipped to provide the type of retraining which industry believes it requires. The thesis concludes that, because industry and further education acknowledge two different concepts of retraining, a structural disengagement occurs. Further education seeks to provide individuals with general competencies whereas industry is concerned with enterprise specific retraining. The remainder of Part four examines the retraining experience from the point of view of trainees and students and looks at the way skills, in the context of training and retraining, undergo reconstruction. This thesis contributes to an area which is currently under-researched; and at a time of structural change within industry and further education, issues relating to retraining become important. The thesis examines this restructuring and suggests ways in which retraining can be reorganised for the benefit of industry, communities and individuals.

Industrial organisations face uncertainty created by consumers, suppliers, competitors and other environmental factors. To deal with this uncertainty, managers have to coordinate the resources of the organisation to produce a variety of behaviours that can cope with environmental change. An organisation that does not have sufficient internal complexity to adapt to the environment cannot survive, while, an organisation with excessive complexity would waste resources and might lose its ability to react to the environment. The main objective of the research was to create a model for dealing with complexity and uncertainty in organisations. The initial ideas for the model originated from the literature, particularly in the fields of systems and complexity theory. These initial ideas were developed through a series of five case studies with four companies, namely British Airways, British Midlands International (BMI), HS Marston and the Ford Motor Company. Each case study contributed to the development of the model, as well as providing immediate benefits for the organisations involved. The first three case studies were used in the development of the model, by analysing the way managers made decisions in situations of complexity and uncertainty. For the final two case studies, the model was already developed and it was possible to apply it, using these cases as a means of validation. A summary of the case studies is presented here, highlighting their contributions to the creation and testing of the model. The main innovation of the research was the creation and application of the Complexity-Uncertainty model, a descriptive framework that classifies generic strategies for dealing with complexity and uncertainty in organisations. The model considers five generic strategies: automation, simplification, planning, control and self-organisation, and indicates when each of these strategies can be more effective according to the complexity and uncertainty of the situation. This model can be used as a learning tool to help managers in industry to conceptualise the nature of complexity in their organisation, in relation to the uncertainty in the environment. The model shows managers the range of strategic options that are available under a particular situation, and highlights the benefits and limitations of each of these strategic options. This is intended to help managers make better decisions based on a more holistic understanding of the organisation, its environment and the strategies available.

This thesis is concerned with understanding the way in which knowledge is managed in IT-based innovations. Although there is a growing body of research on how to leverage knowledge to improve organisational performance, particularly in the field of "knowledge management", most studies divorce knowledge from its context and fail to consider the purpose for which knowledge is managed. One such purpose is the integration of IT-based innovations, during which knowledge about complex IT is integrated with context-specific organisational knowledge, in order to develop firm-specific solutions. However, existing research in IS implementation and IT-based innovation tends to be fragmented and falls short of providing a comprehensive analytical framework for understanding the management of knowledge in IT-based innovations. An analytical framework based on the processes of knowledge creation, sharing and retention is developed by reviewing literature in the area of knowledge management, IS implementation, IT-based innovation and organisational knowledge. As this research adopts a constructivist view of IT and knowledge, an interpretive case study approach was selected for the empirical investigation. The implementation of B2B e-commerce was selected, as it has been commonly described as knowledge-intensive. This research provides both a chronological and thematic description guided by the analytical framework of the integration of B2B e-commerce at ComCo and AutoCo, two large original equipment manufacturers in the vehicle manufacturing sector. One major contribution of this research is the development of an analytical framework that focuses specifically on understanding the management of knowledge in the integration of IT-based innovations. The analysis has revealed the existence of "knowledge phases" - periods of time in which the relationship between knowledge creation, sharing and retention is based on a stable pattern of organisational activities in order to serve a specific purpose.

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This dissertation presents a multilevel comparative approach to investigating the degree to which Japanese knowledge-driven work systems are implemented and internalised in the UK business system. The focus is on processural and structural limits to accepting structural, cultural, control-related and technological practices of Japanese multinational corporations. The study addresses the national and local institutional, organisational and group levels in order to consider the contextual embeddedness of work systems. There is an interest in examining the interplay between the context and process of diffusion. Whitley's (1999) work on divergent capitalisms is furthered here by linking structures to micro-level social action in which they are implicated. The study is based on qualitative case studies that systematically compare the ways in which Japanesek nowledge-driven work systemsa re adoptedi n two UK subsidiary firms and an Aglo-Japanese technical collaboration. It draws on 73 semi-structured interviews conducted in the UK and Japan between August 1998 and April 2000, participant observation carried out in the subsidiary firms over one week and factory tours in Japan. The study concludes that firms face a double barrier in the adoption of work systems in the form of, first, institutional embeddedness at the national level, and second, embeddedness of tacit work systems at the firm level. Nationally distinct social institutions show divergence in business systems across countries and local institutions point to divergence within a particular national business system. Organisational and group characteristics highlight the role of actors (management initiatives and interpretation of alternative work systems by adopters). The research findings suggest that firms attempt to locally interpret alternative work systems rather than submit to environmental pressures towards isomorphism. There is an enactment through social patterns of interaction in organisations, hence a variation in actors' response to similar practices and procedures diffused from highly institutionalised settings.

This submission is a summary of the ten submissions that form the Engineering Doctorate Portfolio. The aim of the portfolio is to demonstrate the benefit of applying systems modelling and simulation in a modified powertrain product development process. A description is given of the competitive pressures that are faced by motor manufacturers in the global automotive business environment. Competitive pressures include a requirement for reduced time to market, exacting product quality standards, manufacturing over-capacity that increases fixed costs and compromises profit margins, and legislation that is increasingly difficult to meet. High-level strategic responses that are being made by manufacturers to these pressures are presented. Each strategic response requires organisational changes and improved approaches to the way in which day-to-day business is conducted. Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) is presented as an approach that can help to improve the competitiveness of motor manufacturers by reducing product development time and the level of hardware prototyping that is required. An investigation in five engineering companies yielded a number of observations about the use of CAE and its integration into product development. Best practice in the implementation of CAE in the product development process is defined. The use of CAE by a leading motor manufacturer in powertrain development is compared with the best practice model, and it is identified that there is a lack of coherence in the application of CAE. It is used to tackle specific problems but the use of CAE is not integrated into the product development process. More importantly, it was found that there is limited application of systems modelling and simulation, which is a critical technique for the effective integration of vehicle systems and the development of on-board vehicle control systems. Before systems modelling and simulation can be applied III powertrain development, an appropriate set of tools and associated modelling architecture must be determined. An appraisal of a range of different tools is undertaken, each tool being appraised against a set of criteria. A combination of DymolaIModelica and MATLAB/Simulink tools is recommended as the optimum solution. DymolaIModelica models of the vehicle plant should be embedded into Simulink models that also contain controller and driver models. MATLAB should be used as the numerical engine and for the creation of user environments. Transmission calibration is selected as a suitable pilot example for applying systems modelling and simulation in powertrain development. Best practice in CAE implementation and the systems modelling and simulation architecture are validated using this example. Simulation models of vehicles equipped with CVT and discrete ratio automatic transmissions are presented. A full description of the operation of the transmission system, of the simulation model itself, and of the validation of the model is presented in each case. The potential benefit of the CVT model in transmission calibration is demonstrated. A Transmission Calibration Simulation Tool (TCST) is described within which the discrete ratio simulation model is encapsulated. The TCST includes a user environment in which the simulation model can be parameterised, a variety of simulation runs can be specified, and simulation results are processed. Development of the TCST requires an objective measure of driveability effects that are influenced by the transmission shift schedule. A method for objective assessment of driveability is developed, correlated, and implemented as an integral part of the TCST. This element of the TCST allows trade-off exercises to be conducted between fuel economy and driveability. The development of a transmission calibration based on experimental testing is compared with a similar exercise based on simulation testing. This study shows that, if the TCST is properly integrated into the transmission calibration process, the vehicle test time taken to optimise the calibration for fuel economy could be reduced by six weeks, and a week of calibrator time could be saved. Thus, the aim of the submission is fulfilled, since the benefit of applying systems modelling and simulation in the powertrain development process has been demonstrated. It is concluded that a consistent approach is required for effectively integrating systems modelling and simulation into the product development process. A model is proposed that clarifies how this can be achieved at a local level. It is proposed that in the future, the model is applied whenever systems modelling and simulation is introduced into a powertrain department.

It has long been recognised that inter-organisational collaborations have great potential for learning and knowledge creation, although there has been very limited attention paid to the way in which organisations actually create new knowledge jointly. The present study contributes to this area of research, and examines the processes that facilitate and constrain new knowledge creation in inter­-organisational collaboration. It draws upon five longitudinal case studies of inter-­organisational collaborations across different sectors: pesticides, biotechnology, life sciences, engineering manufacturing, and software development. The study conceptualises inter-organisational learning as production and re-production of inter-­organisational rules that govern inter-organisational relationship, and facilitate and shape joint knowledge creation. The study advances understanding of the mechanisms underlying inter-organisational learning which rely on such aspects of collaboration as the nature of inter-partner interactions, interdependency between collaborating organisations, and power balance among partners. The longitudinal analysis of inter-organisational learning in the course of collaboration development also contributes to understanding of the relationship between inter-organisational learning and collaboration dynamics. The findings indicate that inter-organisational learning can have positive, as well as negative, effects on collaboration development. The results also suggest that inter-organisational learning closely co­evolves with the developmental dynamics of collaboration, meaning that inter-­organisational learning is not only a product of collaboration development, but is also a force capable of shaping it.

This thesis sets out to investigate the possibility that the All China Federation of Trade Unions is capable of reform in the face of the development of capitalist employment relations. The thesis is centred on the examination of hitherto under-researched areas of ACFTU activity by researching the motivations, conditions and actors involved in three local-level pilot projects: collective bargaining, a trade union rights centre and enterprise-level trade union elections. The fieldwork is contextualised by historical summaries of the development of China‟s industrial relations and Party and trade union responses to labour unrest in both the state and private sectors since the establishment of the People‟s Republic in 1949. The results of my research demonstrate that it is no longer appropriate to refer to the ACFTU as a monolithic organisation. Furthermore, my argument departs from mainstream views of the organisation by locating the impetus for trade union reform in the challenge of increasingly sophisticated labour militancy from below, rather than reacting to orders from above. I conclude that while the pilot projects studied each have their own merits and qualifications, taken as a whole they prove that the ACFTU is capable of gradual reform from below. In the light of the improved relations between the ACFTU and the International Trade Union Confederation, this thesis speaks to this fact and aims to contribute to future engagements by expanding the knowledge on which dialogue and trade union exchanges must be based if they are to have any chance of success.