This dissertation set out to examine two quite separate but interrelated issues. First, it explored the comparative history of charity in the UK and Canada, and attempted to calculate the size of the footprint history has left on today's nonprofit sector management. Secondly, the dissertation set out to explore how human resources are managed in each country's voluntary sector, mainly through a comparative analysis of 26 case studies. Four broad questions were articulated in Chapter One which go to the heart of these issues. The first two, which deal with the history, have links to the last two, which deal with the human resources agenda. Twenty-six voluntary organisations were chosen for the study. Thirteen British organisations were matched with thirteen Canadian ones in areas such as health care, social services and international development. The researcher used a qualitative methodology -- an open-ended questionnaire and interviews with key informants about HRM practices. Documents such as leaflets, annual reports, and recruitment kits were collected. There are two consistent themes that run through this research. First, the rate of change in the voluntary sector is profound. From concerns expressed in the mid- 20th century that the sector would be seriously eroded by the state, there is now the idea that voluntary sector provision will be taking the place of state provision in some areas in years to come. A second theme is size. The size of organisations within the voluntary sector predict many things from the level of service, to management, to how human resources are managed. On the face of it, large size voluntary organisations offer the prospects of more systematic and equitable HR policies. But with size come problems such as bureaucracy, inflexibility and loss of personal stake (and personal service) in an organisation. Yet it is the individualised service and community-based support which ensures the sector's uniqueness and longevity.

Various publications have focussed attention on the building trade unions, usually with the aim of presenting an account of the history of an individual union. In most of them it has been assumed that one union for the building industry was the real and realisable objective of many of the actors in that history. The object of this thesis is to assess the validity of that assumption in the light of discussions on structural change within and between the unions concerned. The work takes the form of a historical account spanning the years of the twentieth century. It is based on surviving documentation and interviews with former officials of the unions concerned. Firstly it is argued that changes in the labour process were a necessary pre—requisite for changes in trade union structure. The labour process is defined according to its specific social form, that is as a capitalist process of production and emphasis is placed on capital formation, on government policy, on the level of technology and on the division of labour within the construction industry, as factors which explain the long survival of a craft form of trade union organisation. Attention is directed to changes in the form of engagement of labour, to the emergence of labour—only sub—contracting, and its significance for trade union organisation in construction. Secondly it is suggested that there is a close relationship between trade union government and trade union structure. Adjustments to the shape and size of trade unions are used by their leaders to foster their own authority and status within the emergent organisation. It is concluded that these factors were more important in motivating changes than any commitment to a particular form of trade union organisation.

This is a comparative study of strategy formation in Irish complex organisations. Four organisations were chosen for study which are representative of the four main types of organisation to be found in the Irish economy,a state agency,a public limited company,a state-owned entreprise and a producer cooperative. The approach taken in this research is multi-level and contextual,an approach which is still very rare in organisational studies. Insight is sought through intensive, longitudinal study of the four organisations over their whole life histories. The central thrust of the inquiry is the empirical examination of how situational context and autonomous organisational behaviour influence organisational strategy and of how these two elements interact. The context - strategy formation link,in particular, is under-explored in the strategy literature. The small national context facilitates the development of a multi-level perspective on the interaction of situational context and organisational action that includes the national,industry and organisational levels of analysis. It also throws the context-organisation interrelationship into greater relief than would be possible through using a similar research design in a much larger national context. The empirical analysis identifies SITUATIONAL CONTEXT,ORGANISATIONAL LEADERS and ORGANISATIONAL HISTORY as the three main elements in strategy formation. It isolates and empirically analyses FIVE important CONTEXTUAL FACTORS that shape strategy,and provides a greater elaboration of the contextual influences on organisational action than that to be found in much of the organisational literature, where the environment of organisations tends to be viewed as homogeneous and residual. It also reveals that the contextual influences on organisational action often arise from INTER-LINKING PROCESSES OF SOCIAL VOLITION across multiple levels of social and economic structure and it examines the nature of these processes. In this way the study goes beyond the predominant conception of contextual influences as 'impersonal forces', a perspective on situational context that also predominates in the organisational literature. The study also provides a FRESH PERSPECTIVE ON the role of LEADERSHIP in strategy formation. It deflects attention away from the predominant pre-occupation in the leadership literature with the personality and personal attributes of the leader. Leadership effectiveness is also seen to be related to the ongoing processual dynamics of leading(i.e. to ongoing performance and the maintenance of credibility over time) and to the nature of the historical challenge presented to individual leaders by situational context and organisational history. A classification of leaders in terms of their historical roles is developed and offered as a useful way of organising future research into the leadership phenomenon. The study then develops,from the data and the analysis,a model of organisational development,based on the concept of ORGANISATIONAL CAREER,which is more existential and less deterministic than that based on the life cycle analogy. These insights are finally synthesised into A RELATIONAL MODEL OF STRATEGY FORMATION and the study ends with an assessment of the utility of this model,and of the related findings, for future research and practice.

Performance improvement is the natural objective of any intervention in the organisation. Performance improvement in operational terms is particularly interesting when it is able to influence the competitive position of the firm. By being able to deliver superior value and/or offer prices through lower costs a firm will increase customer satisfaction and loyalty and potentially increase its market share and profitability. This research explores the determinants of strategic operational performance improvement, the particular questions we address are: 1) What characterise the process in which the firm achieves operational performance that is strategically significant?, and 2) Why once advantage is achieved, it is not automatically replicated? The manufacturing strategy model and the literature associated with the resource-based theory provide the theoretical foundations of this work, although the link between the two literatures is problematic because their fundamentals are usually at odds. Because the nature of the work is exploratory, and its purpose is one of theory building, we build a model of strategic operational improvement through grounded research. Four case studies are studied and analysed in order to test and improve the model. The results provide a number of insights on the role of managerial rationality, managerial behaviour, and the relationship between managerial and workers behaviour. We are also able to address a number of questions on the nature of strategy in operations. The final product of this thesis is model that relates the processes in the organisation to the firm's initial conditions to explain the evolution of performance. Empirical evidences suggest that the strategic improvement of operational performance depends on the sequence evolution of initial conditions, managerial behaviour, and organisational behaviour. It is argued that by understanding the relationships in this model it is possible to develop more effective operations processes which are able to deliver superior value and or lower costs.

This thesis presents the result of research into small-scale enterprise in Borno State of Nigeria. The development of the small-enterprise sector has been a policy objective in the country over the past decade. Its main contributions are envisaged as creating employment, contributing to industrialisation, spreading industry to rural areas, and mobilisation of local resources. The growth of the sector and its contribution have, however, not been as great as desired.Lack of information and advice for potential and existing small-scale enterprises can restrict their development and growth. This aspect had not previously been studied in depth in the Nigerian environment. This created the need to study the information needs of and sources available to small firm entrepreneurs. The research was concentrated in Borno State. The method of study involved interview with small firm agencies and with small firm owner/managers.The study found that there are quite a number of programmes for assisting small firm entrepreneurs but emphasis is mainly laid in providing material and technical assistance rather than information and counselling. The existing agencies are also found to be constrained in providing effective assistance to small firm entrepreneurs by inadequate organisation. The perceived needs of small firm entrepreneurs on the other hand are mainly related to finding resources. Need for management competence is unrealised or suppressed. They tend to look for information on their perceived needs through informal personal sources and business contacts and are reluctant (due to a lack of confidence) to contact Government sponsored services for assistance.The main recommendation is for an overhaul of government aided assistance to small firms and a need to stress the development of management competence rather than emphasis on material support. In particular it is recommended that the several existing services be coordinated into an information network of assistance programmes. This will consist of consultancy units, a business information unit, a coordination centre and a credit guarantee scheme.

The primary concern of the thesis is the development of a materialist analysis of the state regulation and administration of labour in the context of the development of the water industry in England and Wales over the past two centuries. The project develops and explores the methodological and conceptual premises of Karl Marx contained principally in Vol. I. of Capital, the Grundrisse and A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. The project determines the form and function of the state 'logically' as a precipitate of the contradiction between value and use-value, and traces the 'historical' manifestation of state 'forms' through the movement of this contradiction. The 'determination' of the 'municipal', 'planner-state' and 'neo-liberal' state 'forms' of regulating the water industry developed through the contradiction between value and use-value and the project traces the way in which this was manifested through the struggle between concrete and abstract labour or the working class and capital. The struggle between abstract and concrete labour shifted the contradiction between value and use-value to the level of the state which became manifested through the struggle over the form of the state; as manifested through the contradiction between regulation and administration. The specific form of this struggle with respect to the water industry became a struggle over the form of 'public service'. The thesis, therefore, develops an analysis of the struggle between concrete and abstract 'public service'. The thesis emphasises the way in which different forms of abstract and concrete state regulation have fundamental implications for the form of 'management' within industry; and highlights the importance of 'valorisation' imperatives with regard to the study of management and labour process. The thesis finally develops the 'socialist pluralism' of GDH Cole to develop an outline of a non-alienated water industry.

New Deal for Young People was hailed as the Labour government's flagship' initiative when it was introduced nationally in April 1998. The programme promised to help young people who have been unemployed and claiming Jobseeker's Allowance to find work and improve their prospects of gaining and sustaining employment. It is especially pertinent to young people from minority ethnic groups who have been identified as having an increased tendency to be unemployed. However, the government's expressed intention to bring about parity of job outcomes for minority ethnic young people has not been matched with any real commitment, nor has it been matched at local level by the Employment Service as well as employers with changes required to improve institutional procedures and practices for the delivery of the programme. This thesis presents the findings of research conducted in Southern Derbyshire. Using both qualitative and quantitative approaches, it examines the perspectives and experiences of young people from minority ethnic groups as they pass through the various stages of New Deal, including work-placements. It argues that young people from these groups have not benefited from the programme to the same extent as their White counterparts.

Privatisation (defined as change of ownership and control of State-owned enterprises- SOEs) is a controversial economic and political policy that elicits diverse opinions and academic conclusions on its impact. With regard to its impact on industrial relations, the privatisation literature concludes that in most privatised SOEs, problems anise between unions and management over some important dimensions of the employment relationship. This Author's search of the privatisation literature led to the emergence of two hypotheses, as follows: I. The employment relationship changes in its expression and management in privatised enterprises as a consequence of the change in ownership and control, structure and product market competition arising from privatisation; and, 2. The employment relationship in privatised enterprises changes, not necessarily as a consequence of privatisation, but as a consequence of changes in managerial/corporate strategies, national and firm-level industrial relations policies and other environmental factors not related to privatisation. Data was collected from two privatised finance SOEs and one privatised petroleum SOE in Nigeria to test these hypotheses. Some key findings emerged which differ slightly from the conclusions of the privatisation literature, as represented by these two hypotheses. First, the study concludes that contrary to the conclusion of the privatisation literature, the observed changes in the employment relationship of privatised SOEs are mediated by the different effects of environmental and sectoral factors, economic centrality, the nature of the unions involved in bargaining and the balance of bargaining power between unions and management, as determined by the development context of the country concerned. Secondly, the study concludes that contrary to the conclusions of the privatisation literature, the employment relationship in privatised enterprises changes as a consequence of changes in managerial/corporate strategies and fin-n-level industrial relations strategies directly related to privatisation. These conclusions suggest the need to slightly modify the conclusions of the privatisation literature and theory to take account of the economic, institutional and political differences between developing and developed economies, rather than seek to apply similar theories and conclusions to both development contexts like is currently the case.

Teamwork, participation and the structure of representation are the core issues of this thesis. The aim is to show how an industrial relations (IR) system shapes the introduction of teamwork and defines the introduction of teamleaders and teamspeakers, and how these teamleaders/teamspeakers affect the structure of representation. To evaluate this, organisational behaviour theories of teamwork, leadership styles and industrial relations models (unitarism, pluralism, adversarialism) are applied. Since the introduction of teamwork into an existing manufacturing plant represents a transition from a workersupervisor system to a team-based system, a theory of democracy and collective bargaining is used to evaluate the outcome of such a transition. In contrast to a worker-supervisor system on the shopfloor, teamwork involves either a management-appointed teamleader or an elected teamspeaker. Both cases have certain consequences for the structure of representation on the shopfloor. This research was designed to answer the question: To what extent and in what ways does the institutional context affect the transition from a traditional system of representation to teamwork and how does this affect the structure of representation? Two detailed case studies have been conducted in the motor-car industry, using surveys and interviews. One of the case studies was carried out at Vauxhall's Luton (UK) plant, the other at Adam Opel AG in Germany. Both plants are subsidiaries of General Motors which introduced teamwork as part of their Quality Network Production System in the early 1990s, modelled on MIT's lean production. In one plant (Vauxhall) there was an adversarial IR system, resulting in an appointment model: in the other there was a pluralist IR system which led to an election model. The effects of an elected teamspeaker or an appointed teamleader on the structure of representation have been examined. The thesis argues that an existing IR system shapes the introduction of appointed teamleaders or elected teamspeakers. The findings of the case studies and the survey results indicate that appointed teamleaders tend to adopt an authoritarian leadership style and are not seen as representatives by team-members (Vauxhall). In other words, the outcome of a transition taking place in an adversarial IR system is adversarial; management, teamleaders and team-members still view each other as us and them. In contrast to this, a pluralist IR system tends to favour the election of teamspeakers, who are seen as representatives. Consequently, the structure of representation in a pluralist IR context supports pluralism as an outcome and strengthens its capacity for problem-solving; while the structure of representation in the adversarial IR case increases the adversarial nature of the system and further weakens its capability for problem-solving.

Knowledge workers, who typically enjoy global labour mobility, are considered critical to economic growth in developing countries. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the organizational commitment of South African knowledge workers, a commitment widely considered both improbable and unobtainable. In this study, a critical review of the organizational commitment literature, to ascertain its psychometric applicability to knowledge workers in South Africa, uncovered an unsystematic and fragmented body of research that has been imperfectly integrated in previous research models. A new definition of organizational commitment is therefore developed to account for current contextual complexities and theoretical advances in commitment research (e.g. multiple foci, variable duration, and changing intensities). A mixed-method research design was used in all stages of the investigation. To establish the construct validity and practical validity of the organizational commitment construct, a multidisciplinary explanatory model was developed based on the extant literature and focus group discussions with knowledge workers. To test the proposed model, a self-administered survey questionnaire was developed. A total of 637 usable questionnaires from knowledge workers employed in the accounting and information technology occupations in both the public and private sector were analysed using a variety of statistical techniques, primarily hierarchical regression analysis and structural equation modelling. Particular care was taken that appropriate and strict statistical criteria guided the analyses. The survey results were then presented to focus groups for discussion. The results clearly evidence the widely accepted three-component structure of organizational commitment but provide new insight into the nature of the relationship between the commitment components. The veracity of a multiple foci approach is demonstrated and interaction effects between commitment bases and commitment foci are examined. The results are mixed concerning the proposed model, which required revision after the psychometric analyses. Overall, however, the results are both surprising and encouraging. Surprising given the evidence of high levels of organizational commitment amongst knowledge workers, and encouraging given the amount of variance explained in salient organizational outcomes such as turnover intentions (37%) and boosting behaviour (24%). Analysis per employment sector showed no overall effect of sector in the regression models but further analyses showed different patterns of significant antecedents amongst knowledge workers employed in the public and private sectors. The empirical findings and theoretical position of this study challenge prevailing assumptions about the organizational commitment of knowledge workers and provide refreshment to both scholars and practitioners faced with the development of new management approaches and insights.