This Executive Summary is a summary of the author's Engineering Doctorate research and the application of that research. The Executive Summary has sufficient detail and description to be read independently from the other pieces of research, called submissions, to which this refers. In outline, the three areas of research arose from the three research programmes with which the author was closely involved. The first area of research involved the identification of critical success factors within customer-supplier relationships in the automotive industry. An extensive literature review was performed using Lamming's Lean Supply Model (1993) as a starting point. A number of gaps in the body of knowledge were identified and were grouped into five areas for the purpose of further research. One area was subsequently addressed as part of the second area of research. The second area of research was aimed at assisting small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in their use of the internet to improve their performance. A means of assessing the effectiveness of the operations of the SMEs was a critical part of this programme. A new tool called the SME (Operations) Assessment Tool, (SOAT) was developed because it focused on key business processes as the basis for assessment instead of the more traditional financial analysis. Having developed SOAT within the specific research programme, it was applied to three SMEs as a test of the methodology as a more general tool. Feedback from the three SMEs and those within the research programme showed that SOAT was straightforward to apply. The third area of research allowed the author to develop his interest in customer supplier relationships, as this was seen to be the main focus of concern within companies within the programme. A Memorandum of Understanding and Intent (MUI) was developed and justified, but was in the process of being applied by other researchers.

This research looks into the relationships between uncertainty, variability and flexibility in manufacturing systems from an operations strategy viewpoint. After reviewing the literature concerning the three categories, 6 research propositions are defined in order to guide the research. A research method (case-studies with semistructured interviews) is then selected and field research which encompassed 8 companies, including the ones of the pilot study is described. The field work resulted in 4 in-depth case studies, performed with Brazilian and British companies (2 in each country), all of them belonging to the automotive industry. Based on the conclusion i of the literature review and on the results of the field work, the 6 propositions are discussed and an original model is then proposed in order to help managers understand and analyze unplanned change from the operations management's viewpoint. The model proposes two complementary categories which are used by managers in order to deal with unplanned change: control and flexibility. Control is related to the managerial actions which aim to restrict the amount and level of unplanned change with which the organization will have to deal ex-ante the occurrence of the change. Flexibility is related to the managerial actions taken in order to respond to the uncontrolled unplanned change's effects ex-post the change. Types and dimensions of control and flexibility are proposed and discussed. A new way to look into the flexibility of the manufacturing structural resources is also proposed, which is based on the presence of the resource switchability and on some types of redundancy of the resources - of capacity, of capability and of utilization.

This study traces the influence of scientific management on the development of modem management methods in Britain from the end of the 19th century to the outbreak of the second world war. It is concerned with both the organisation of work and the management of the worker, with employers' labour strategies and worker and trade union responses. The Introduction discusses key concepts like Taylorism, Fordism and mass production; chapter one identifies technical and managerial changes taking place at the turn of the century and the reception Taylorism received in Britain; chapter 2 is mainly concerned with premium bonus schemes and the impact of the first world war; chapter 3 analyses the growth of new management functions and roles, particularly production engineering between the wars; chapter 4 discusses the impact of mechanisation and deskilling on workers in the engineering industry; chapter 5 traces the growth of piecework schemes and time study, the significance of the Bedaux system, and the impact of worker resistance. A postscript and a conclusion relate these themes to the post second world war history of work study and to contemporary debates about flexible specialisation and post-Fordism. Three key issues are addressed the meaning of scientific management, the extent to which employers adopted scientific management practices, its impact on workers and the effect of worker resistance. It is argued that, if scientific management is located historically, it is seen to be concerned with the management of production as well as the management of the worker; with production engineering, progress and planning departments, as well as time and motion study and incentive payment schemes. As such it is not reducible to any particular form of Taylorist practice. Employers were slow to develop the new management methods. Slow adaptation to change was part of the more general problem of relative economic decline. But both were uneven. British employers were reluctant to abandon tools and techniques which still made money but some did, and more followed. Taylorism was more positively received in Britain than has been suggested and was widely accepted by the end of the first world war. Its impact on managerial practice can be traced in the inter-war period in the development of production engineering and more rigorous payment systems, including those inspired by Bedaux. A 'deskilling dynamic', centred on a new split between mental and manual labour, was fatally undermining both craftsman and foreman in the engineering industry, though it owed more to the jig and tool designer, and more broadly, the management of mechanisation than the efficiency engineer. But changes in the labour process also affected women and semi and unskilled men and they were centrally involved in shop floor resistance to 'speed-up'. Resistance modified but could not prevent the restructuring of the labour process consequent upon scientific management.

There has been much discussion in the literature concerning the potential conflict over transfer pricing techniques used by MNCs to shift profits outside the borders of a host country. This happens whereby MNCs artificially lower their profits by manipulating transfer prices with their subsidiaries. They can achieve substantial benefits by adopting effective pricing policies. Careful planning of intra-company prices can take full advantages of differences among such things as corporation tax rates, tax incentives and reliefs and customs duties. The decade of the 1970s produced important economic changes in the Egyptian economy as a result of the economic open door policy. Since then Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) grew rapidly which reflects confidence in the Egyptian economy. Despite initiatives undertaken by the Egyptian government to attract greater inflows of FDI, greater efforts should be devoted to streamline and simplify the relevant administrative procedures of the government. Governmental policies and regulations could encourage multinationals to engage in transfer pricing manipulation more often in developing countries than in more developed countries. This is rarely due to the ignorance of the governments of developing countries to transfer pricing issues at the international level. Also, authorities concerned with the the issue are poorly equipped. The purpose of this study has been to investigate transfer pricing and profit shifting practices by MNCs doing business in Egypt. The case study approach has been used in the empirical work, including eleven companies. The investigation involved governmental authorities and an accounting firm that has an interest in the transfer pricing issue. The empirical study focused on factors influencing transfer pricing strategies which represent a motive to shift more profits from Egypt.

This thesis is based on observation and interviews carried out in two engineering firms in the West Midlands between October 1978 and May 1980. Besides presenting and analysing a core of empirical material, it seeks to develop a general argument concerning the material and social bases of control over labour in the workplace. In doing so, this research points out some of the ways to link two major trends in the literature: the institutional approach to the study of labour relations and the more recent studies of the labour process. During the 1970s, the two companies studied implemented a reform of labour relations which appears to be typical of developments which took place in engineering and, more generally, in the manufacturing sector of British industry over the decade following the publication of the Donovan Report. The problem under study is the impact of this institutionalisation of workplace labour relations on the control workers have over the utilisation of their labour power in the work process. The fieldwork showed that, behind similar organisational and institutional features, sharply different work relations had developed. The degree of control imposed by manual workers over issues such as assignment of labour, labour mobility, manning levels, job demarcations, immediate intensity and distribution of effort, was significantly higher in one of the two case studies. At Firm A, the institutional reform helped management to confine job control within narrow limits while, at Firm B, similar changes did not help management to reduce worker control over effort but rather contributed to stabilise it. In seeking to explain this social process, attention is given to management strategies and to the strength of workers' organisations. It is also argued that the nature and contours of the work process sets the material basis for control over labour utilisation, the pattern of control also being shaped by social relations in the workplace. The main implications of the research for theory and policy are discussed in the final chapter. It is suggested that although job control resisted changes in the structure of labour relations, in a context of economic recession, it might be more vulnerable to market pressures.

This thesis is centred on the problem of child labour in the urban areas of Zambia. The origins, types and context of child labour are extensively described as are the incidence and distribution of the problem by locality, trade and activity. The very definition of 'child labour' is uncertain with legal, historical, comparative, customary and academic definitions being somewhat contradictory. The differing notions are considered and reconciled. As child labour is mainly concentrated in the 'informal sector', the nature of this sector in Zambia and other poor countries is analysed. The limited opportunities for education, employment and productive and fulfilling self-employment in the informal sector are highlighted. An account of the historical origins and development of child labour in the pre-colonial and colonial periods is provided. An assessment of the measures designed to control or ameliorate child labour follows. This covers the work of international organisations, the colonial and post-colonial governments in Zambia, the voluntary sector and concerned individuals. The effectiveness and coverage of the relevant international conventions and local legal provisions and enforcement are evaluated. The consequences on child labour of more recent interventions by international agencies, for example the Structural Adjustment Program of the World Bank, are illustrated. Three main forms of analysis have been used in this thesis. First a descriptive account of child labour has been supplied using secondary accounts and unpublished reports. Second, the author has undertaken a comparative analysis, examining child labour in two other African countries as well as two countries in each of the continents of Asia and Latin America. Third, extensive interviews with child labourers themselves and those who are close to their plight have been undertaken, to provide the actor's own graphic and personal views on the issues discussed. The thesis concludes with an appraisal of the significance of the study, general prescriptive comments and some more specific policy recommendations designed to address and combat the incidence and worst features of child labour in Zambia.

This thesis investigates the role of purchasing managers (and departments) in supplier relationships( SRs) and assesses the impact of their role on SRs' performance. Driven by the importance of outsourcing in organisations, there is an intense interest in academia in the study of SRs and an increased awareness that purchasing has an important role to play in their management. In the literature however there appears to be an incoherent view of the actual role of purchasing in SRs, which is limited to anecdotal accounts that take the vague assumption that purchasing managers and departments, by virtue of their position in organisations, manage the SRs. The aim of this thesis is to push theory forward by exploring this role in a systematic way and to investigate whether and how it varies across SRs that involve the exchange of products/services with certain structural characteristics.I n that way it generates insights about how the purchasing function can be leveraged to better manage SRs. A multiple case study research design is employed in order to achieve a deeper and greater understanding of the processes that define the actual role of purchasing. Empirical research is conducted in two large service organisations in the UK (a financial organisation and an airport operator), examining seven diverse SRs that involve the exchange of products and services with different levels of asset specificity and criticality. An integrated framework of various activities that purchasing managers are involved in for the management of SRs is developed initially. The way that purchasing managers conduct these activities in the different SRs is then examined to generate insights about the actual role of purchasing in the individual SRs that is defined in terms of four variables (level of contribution to the development of trust in the SR, level of power in the SRs, level of involvement in the SR and level of contribution to the development of commitment in the SR). With the use of a gap analysis model to assess the performance of the individual SRs, the impact of the role of purchasing on SRs performance is finally extrapolated. The results provide support for the following primary conclusion. The widely held assumption that purchasing managers are in effect supply chain managers is tempered by the findings of this research, which observed a far more limited role for purchasing managers (and a negative impact) in the management of SRs relating to products/services which have high levels of criticality and asset specificity. Their negative impact in such SRs was also observed to have implications for the dyadic relationship of the purchasing department with the internal (customer) departments, which under certain conditions can create problems of coordination in the organisations. From a managerial point of view this thesis demonstrates in a systematic way the contribution and role of purchasing to SRs. The framework of activities that is developed may provide a useful reference point for the auditing and improvement initiatives of purchasing professionals in SRs. From this, guidance about the types of situation in which certain activities may be more important than others will provide a useful guide to how purchasing departments may be involved in an effective and efficient way. Academically, this thesis utilises an innovative conceptual method in evaluating SRs by incorporating two major theoretical frameworks and provides with insights in delineating the actual role of the purchasing function in SRs. Finally, the thesis contributes to the ongoing debate of the establishment of a contiguous Supply Chain Management discipline, by investigating its problem domain.

This study aims to ask whether the Japanese state was capable of responding to a challenge from international labour migration as a force of globalisation. and to consider the significance of the subsequent change in the relation between state transformation and the realisation of social justice within the context of globalisation. The focal point of the study is Japan's criminal justice system in the 1990s, with particular attention to the `language barrier', namely legal and political problems that affect foreigners and state officials. The study analyses how the language barrier emerged in Japan, how it influenced the state, and how state and civil society actors reacted to address the problem. This theoretical and empirical study in International Relations and International Political Economy takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing insights from Sociology and Gender Studies concerning international labour migration. Documentary research on secondary and tertiary documents of Japan's state and civil society actors has been complemented by sixteen semi-structured interviews with those who were involved in the process of tackling the language barrier. The study argues that, by introducing judicial interpreters over the decade and with inputs from civil society actors, the Japanese state was able to reduce the extent of constraints posed by the language barrier on its ability to control crime. This indicates that an internal sector of the Japanese state that is in charge of political matters, namely law enforcement, has been able to largely solve the challenge of the language barrier, which is a manifestation of international economic force. This study thus counters the claim of the Hyperglobalist thesis of globalisation concerning loss or decline in capability of the state, and extends the plausibility of the Transformationalist thesis in terms of geographical area and the issues analysed.

The author has designed, developed and applied, employing a system dynamics approach, a new innovation system concept - the Creative Factory - in order to communicate innovation theory to the different actors in the system using a common perspective and to reveal the complexity of innovation systems. Furthermore, the model aims to create a dynamic framework that can be used to analyse and assess the innovation activity of a firm against best practice and to illustrate, through simulation, the short and long-term influences of managers' decisions or external factors on innovation outcomes and between the different factors in the system. The concept has at its centre the firm's knowledge creation, the new product design and development process and the competencies that separate successes from failures. These core elements are affected by other business activities of the firm such as the corporate strategy, the risk taking policy and the organisational structure. Additionally, it is influenced by the National Innovation Environment within which the firm operates. The creative factory model has been used in this project as an assessment tool in three different firms. Then, action-scenarios are simulated, which demonstrate how to improve and control the innovation activity of these three firms. Additionally, the author designed scenarios in order to demonstrate the effects of external influences on the innovation activity of the firms. Studying the results of the creative factory's simulation, the interconnection between the elements of an innovation system is illustrated. The need for capital investment in research in parallel with organisational improvements is shown to be a key factor for the success of the innovation process. The importance of the early stages of the new product design and development process in the overall performance of a firm is demonstrated. Finally, the influence of the national innovation environment on the innovation process and on the related business activities is identified.

There is a growing recognition that sustainable competitive advantage requires a viable integration between information technology (IT) and organisational change. Increasingly, firms are interested in the transfer of IT-related best practices in the hope that fundamental organisational change will thereby be achieved. However, the investment in IT is often disproportionate to the benefits obtained. This issue of what has been referred to as the IT productivity paradox requires a re-examination of the organisational dynamics rather than a mere proclamation of the insufficiency of best practices. In this study, the re-examination is based on the viewpoint of alignment and contextualism. To achieve this aim, the study is divided into two phases. Phase one uses five cases to investigate the alignment behaviour of organisational change, and proposes four change patterns. Phase two uses one in-depth case study to explore the problem of IT-enabled change backfire and enhance the contextualism perspective of change in terms of four propositions (underlying logic, reciprocal causality, time effect and frame awareness). This conceptualisation offers a socialscientific perspective on the analysis of the IT productivity paradox, and draws out the practical implications for change management based on a "reflective transfer" model that complements the planned approach. The research adds to current understanding of the IT productivity paradox by highlighting the importance of the alignment and dynamics of organisational change.