The Iraq War was an era of crisis and change within the U.S. Army. The failure of the army to adapt to the war revealed the obsolescence of post Vietnam army culture. Innovation experiences in the war were directionless and a new intellectual framework was required to deal with warfare that the army had long disliked: counterinsurgency. Major organizational change was accomplished by a coalition of generals led by Generals David Petraeus, Jack Keane, and Ray Odierno. These officers established a new intellectual framework with FM 3-24, Counterinsurgency. They challenged institutional military orthodoxy in Washington by proposing a renewed commitment to victory. Finally, they demonstrated the efficacy of counterinsurgency theory through a military campaign that “proved” FM 3-24. This major, yet limited, change in service culture fractured the consensus of the post Vietnam narrative and initiated an ongoing reinterpretation of the army’s philosophy of war.

Change management literature has not focused much on the role of individual characteristics in organizational changes. The present study examined the effect of trait-like motivational and emotional dispositions; and state-like personal resources within individuals on readiness for change. In the study, 161 Hong Kong employees completed an online questionnaire, which was designed to evaluate the employees’ perceived change efficacy in response to three scenarios (i.e. team restructuring, information system change, merger and acquisition) modified based on actual workplace change incidents as a measure of change readiness. Evidence suggested that individuals with learning goal orientation and positive affectivity particularly welcomed potential changes in their organizations. The relations were moderated by psychological capital, where change efficacy was significantly enhanced by Psychological Capital (PsyCap) for individuals with learning goal orientation and positive affectivity, implying the importance of this positive mental resource to changes at work. Further analyses on separate scenarios showed similar patterns as in the overall analyses, inferring robustness of the proposed model. Our findings shed light on employee selection; and on how strengthening employees’ PsyCap may heighten the chance of organizations undergoing changes to succeed. / 變革管理文獻並沒有太多關注員工的個人特質在組織變革上的影響。本研究目的為了解動機與情感傾向的個人特質和精神資源如何影響員工的組織變革知覺(readiness for change)。一百六十一名香港員工參與了是次研究並完成了網上問卷調查。本問卷設計用於評估員工就三種組織變革情景，即團隊架構重組、信息系統的變化和收購合併的改變效能感(perceived change efficacy)，從而量化員工的組織變革知覺。研究發現，擁有學習目標導向(Learning Goal Orientation)和正向情感(Positive Affectivity)的員工會比較接受組織上的變化。再者，心理資本(Psychological Capital)有效強化學習目標導向和正向情感與組織變革知覺的關係，這意味著精神資源在工作中的重要性。研究結果揭示組織或可從員工招聘和培訓方面增進組織變化的成功機會。 / Kwan, Po Lam Polly. / Thesis M.Phil. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2015. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 33-38). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on 14, September, 2016). / Detailed summary in vernacular field only.

Organisational change has proven to be a major challenge for many businesses worldwide with the pharmaceutical environment being no exception. The pharmaceutical industry is increasingly pressurised by stakeholders who seek reduced cost, higher value and quality. This has resulted in many pharmaceutical businesses attempting to launch various continuous improvement methodologies, which ultimately fail. Whereas failure of continuous improvement undertakings within the pharmaceutical environment is well documented, this study aimed to understand the factors that influence the successful sustainability of such endeavours. The purpose of this study was therefore to identify and create an understanding of the factors that influence a culture of continuous improvement within the pharmaceutical environment. The literature review revealed that factors such as leadership, teamwork, communication, continuous improvement capability and a continuous improvement mind-set contributed to the successful implementation of a culture that embraces continuous improvement. It was recognised that building a culture of continuous improvement is not instantaneous and that it requires all stakeholders to be committed and to acknowledge that changing culture requires time. An empirical study with a questionnaire as data collecting instrument was conducted to assess respondents’ perceptions of the levels of continuous improvement, leadership, teamwork, communication, continuous improvement capability and a continuous improvement mind-set within a selected pharmaceutical manufacturing business. The study revealed that all these factors were related and influenced a culture of continuous improvement. Furthermore, leadership and a continuous improvement mind-set proved to have the most significant relationship with a culture of continuous improvement. Recommendations were provided for the creation of a culture of continuous improvement in pharmaceutical businesses.

by Chan Yin Lee, Maureen. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-95). / Abstract also in Chinese. / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.ii / APPENDICES --- p.iii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.iv / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.v / ABSTRACT --- p.vi / Chapter / Chapter I. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- Theory and hypotheses --- p.7 / Dispositional perspective - arguments and findings --- p.7 / Dispositional variables related to change orientation --- p.16 / Moderating effect of demographic characteristics - age and tenure --- p.24 / Change experience and receptivity to change --- p.29 / Chapter III. --- Research Method --- p.31 / Samples and procedures --- p.31 / Measures and instruments --- p.34 / Statistical power --- p.50 / Analysis strategy --- p.50 / Chapter IV. --- Results --- p.54 / "Means, standard deviation and correlation" --- p.55 / Regression results --- p.56 / Hypotheses testing results --- p.62 / Actual organizational change and change experience --- p.70 / Chapter V. --- Discussions --- p.72 / Limitations --- p.78 / Implications and future research --- p.80 / Conclusion --- p.83 / References --- p.85 / APPENDICES / Appendix A Frequency table of age --- p.96 / Appendix B Frequency table of industry tenure --- p.97 / Appendix C The questionnaire --- p.98 / Appendix D Standardized residual plot --- p.106 / Appendix E Normal probability plot: standardized residuals --- p.107

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of frequent operational changes on the repairs and maintenance of public lighting in the Energy and Electricity Division of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality as a result of management decisions. The results of the study showed contrasting opinions and perceptions amongst all participants on the repairs and maintenance activities of public lighting. Both employees working in the maintenance operations and public lighting sections agreed that their sections were performing the repairs and maintenance of public lighting satisfactory. Customers and community leaders on the other hand agreed that the maintenance operations sections are performing the repairs and maintenance of public lighting satisfactory as compared to public lighting section. All employees were in favour and support of decisions taken respectively since these decisions were beneficial to their respective sections, but however they were concerned on the frequency of decisions taken by top management and changes implemented within their respective sections as these decisions and changes created confusion and conflict amongst employees. All sections involved in the repairs and maintenance of public lighting were faced with numerous similar challenges that created deficiencies and ineffectiveness on the maintenance activities of public lighting and that contributed to enormous complaints from customers and community leaders on the service rendered by the division.

Thesis. 1975. M.C.P.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning. / Includes bibliographical references. / by John Lanterman. / M.C.P.

Thesis. 1975. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alfred P. Sloan School of Management. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 262-269. / Ph.D.

The increased rate of change in organizations, and a failure rate up to 70% (Kotter, 1990; Higgs & Rowland, 2000; Pasmore, 2011), has led to an increase in research concerning organizational change. However, the literature still has yet to identify the ideal set of change implementation strategies. While leadership is argued to be an essential element to successful change the research on the specific behaviors and skills needed of change leaders is still in development (Beer & Walton, 1987). More investigation needs to be done concerning the identification and measurement of behaviors and skills related to successful organizational change. The current study contributes to this area in the literature. The aim was to develop and validate an instrument, the Change Leader Behavioral Inventory. The instrument identifies distinct behavioral dimensions associated with organizational change and the relationships among them. The goal was to provide a tool for individuals who lead change to receive feedback from their direct reports on how well they perform change related behaviors during a change initiative. The feedback will be beneficial to guide the professional development of change leaders. In order to develop the Change Leader Behavioral Inventory many areas of the change literature were considered. The psychometric validation of the Change Leader Behavioral Inventory was based on a modified version of Hinkin’s (1998) framework for instrument validation. The instrument was administered in an online survey to employed individuals who had been through organizational change. The analysis of the survey responses (N = 405) provided support for the hypothesized model which consisted of seven categories of change. There was also support for the addition of another dimension to the instrument, resulting in an eight-factor model which will be used for future research. The results and implications for future research and practice will be discussed.

This dissertation examines an underexplored type of innovation - the discovery of new resources. Schumpeter distinguishes among five types of innovation: new products, new processes, new organizations, new markets, and new resources. Most prior work has focused on the first three types of innovation. This study focuses on the last type of innovation, the discovery of new resources, in creative industries where talent is the most important resource of creativity and profit. This dissertation is comprised of three chapters. Each of the chapters examines a strategy or an environmental change such as unbundling, digitalization, and cross-border acquisition which may facilitate or weaken the discovery of new talent and experiment with new artists. In the first chapter, I explore the impact of unbundling on the discovery of new talent. The results highlight the trade-off between breadth-oriented experimentation (experimenting with more new alternatives by producing unbundled products) and depth-oriented experimentation (collecting more accurate information on fewer alternatives by producing bundled products) and suggest that unbundling may facilitate firms’ breadth-oriented experimentation and the discovery of new talent. In the second chapter, I investigate whether digitalization (digital market) facilitated the discovery of new talent by entrepreneurial firms. Digitalization offers diverse niche opportunities from a long-tail market and decreases the cost of experimenting with new artists. However, the findings from this chapter suggest that entrepreneurial firms did not benefit from such opportunities; iTunes and YouTube did not facilitate entrepreneurial firms’ discovery of new talent and experimentation with new artists (compared to incumbent firms). In the third chapter, I turn to look at the impact of foreign ownership or capital on the discovery of new domestic talent. The “liability of foreignness” argument suggests that foreign ownership may weaken the discovery of new talent from the host country because foreign owners may lack a good understanding of the host country culture. This study analyzes the case of Sony’s acquisition of CBS Records (a US major label) in 1988, which is the first merger by a Japanese firm with a firm of a distant culture. The results suggest that Sony did not undermine CBS Records’ discovery of domestic new talent but instead increased the popularity of new domestic artists in CBS Records and its subsidiaries.

Abstract is available to download.