No description available.

No description available.

The organisation under review, like many others, is currently facing a number of challenges, such as profitability and the life-span of the existing resources, and the ability to locate new resources. This calls for leaders to think and respond differently in such times, which has called for a revision of the current business strategy and operating model. This has included, amongst others, the disposal of marginal/loss making resources, the revision of the traditional organisational hierarchical structure, referred to as the inverted triangle (with a more direct focus on front-line employees) and the implementation of continuous business improvement, supported by lean manufacturing principles. This study aims at exploring the supporting socio-technical change considerations within a learning organisation, specifically focussing on aspects referring to the desired culture, such as communication patterns; social and behavioural patterns and leadership characteristics. In order to effect successful, holistic change, it is imperative that both the social and technological dimensions of organisational change are jointly managed and optimised. The purpose of this study will therefore be to explore and suggest the socio-technical considerations required to facilitate holistic change in order to achieve efficiency within the organisation. / Thesis (M.Comm.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2010.

No description available.

This thesis has analyzed those critical areas, which eighty-two Presidents of American Corporations believe are the most important with which a new President must concern himself during his first twelve months of operation.In addition, the thesis has made an attempt to condense the thinking of all the Presidents interviewed into a pattern of action that a new Chief Executive may follow. The pattern of action is supported by examples of documents in use today.The method of investigation used was by personal interviews with each President. The findings indicate a broad general agreement on principles and philosophies which are drawn together in the pattern of action.

This thesis reports the outcomes of a multi-level longitudinal empirical enquiry designed to test several fundamental, though previously unsubstantiated, propositions associated with the theory of competitive enactment, recently advanced by Porac and his associates as an explanation of the role of cognition in the evolution of competitive structures in industries and markets (Porac et al, 1989; Porac & Thomas, 1990). The study, which was conducted in the UK residential estate agency industry, employed a modified repertory grid based approach in order to explore three issues: the extent to which strategists' mental models of competitive space are correlated with measurable strategic behaviours and organisational performance; the extent to which strategists' mental models within this industry are homogeneous or diverse; and the extent to which strategists' mental models are stable or transient in the face of significant changes in market conditions. In all three cases substantial empirical support was obtained in keeping with the predictions of competitive enactment theory - ie mental models were found to correlate with a number of measurable strategic behaviours, mental models were found to be highly homogeneous, and mental models were found to remain stable - despite a significant down-turn in the market from Tl - T2. These findings provide a convincing demonstration of the existence and negative impact of a strongly held collective mental model, within a mature industry, on strategy and performance. The implications for theory, research methodology, and the practice of strategic management are discussed, as are the limitations of the present study. The thesis concludes with a call for further multi-level longitudinal studies, which extend the range of industries investigated and the methodologies employed for cognitive modelling, and vary the time intervals between data collection periods, in order to tease out the confounding effects of these factors.

Thesis (DBusinessAdministration)--University of South Australia, 2007

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have a strong influence on the Thai economy since they account for more than 95% of the companies in Thailand. They are not merely miniature versions of big corporations because not everything that works for big corporations will work for SMEs as well. Thai SMEs need a tool to help them to identify effective leaders for their organizations. Fiedler's Contingency Model of Leadership Effectiveness has been shown to be able to identify the right leader for various control situations in the United States. However, the model has never been specifically tested on the SMEs in Thailand. To determine whether Fiedler's model is also applicable to Thai SMEs, twelve Thai companies participated in this research study. One supervisory leader was selected from each company to answer the questionnaires provided by the model (translated in Thai) in the form of a structured interview to establish the theoretical effectiveness of the leader. One superior and two subordinates of the same supervisory leader participated in another structured interview to determine the observed effectiveness. The research found only 33.3% percent agreement between theoretical and observed effectiveness. Since the translation process and how the questions were understood by the respondents could be the cause of the low support for the model, the questionnaires that had been translated into Thai were then tested to see if the translation from English to Thai was accurate enough to convey the original work-related meanings that were intended. The results of the tests on the questionnaire show that Thai words used in the questionnaire are acceptable according to the standard English translation with an average of 59 percent of the meanings overlapping each other. Another test was then done using the newly revised translation that focused on the relationship between superior and subordinate at work and the result showed no significant change in the outcomes of the model. The low support for the mode, therefore, was not caused by the translation. Possible reasons for the low support of Fiedler's model include the characteristics of SMEs and the characteristics of Thai culture. The characteristics of both SMEs and Thai culture could affect the nature of the relationship between a superior and subordinate in Thai SMEs that resulted in the poor performance of Fiedler's Contingency Model of Leadership Effectiveness. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2006.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1992. / Bibliography: leaves 141-156.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1992. / Bibliography: leaves 141-156.