A decisão sobre implementar ou não um ERP (Sistema de Integrado de Gestão), conforme constatado na literatura consultada, não é apenas uma questão de tecnologia, mas fundamentalmente uma questão de estratégia; isso porque sua implementação demanda profundas mudanças na organização. De acordo com os resultados de algumas pesquisas já publicadas, especificamente na área de Contabilidade das organizações, a implementação do ERP provoca mudanças. Diante disso, esta pesquisa foi realizada com o objetivo de compreender e descrever a influência da implantação do ERP nos aspectos organizacionais da área de Contabilidade das empresas, mais precisamente no que se refere às mudanças na estrutura organizacional, às atividades desenvolvidas e aos conhecimentos e habilidades exigidos para a execução das atividades. Em atenção aos propósitos da pesquisa, o trabalho foi construído por meio de uma abordagem metodológica empírico-analítica com a condução de Estudos de Casos nas empresas do Estado do Paraná. Para tanto, foram analisados dois casos referentes a empresas que implementaram o ERP R/3 do fornecedor SAP. A análise dos dados indica que a implementação do ERP provoca, na área de Contabilidade das empresas, alterações na estrutura organizacional, nas atividades e nos conhecimentos e habilidades. As alterações verificadas na estrutura organizacional referem-se ao design organizacional, à estrutura de cargos e ao quadro de funcionários. Quanto às atividades, as alterações estão relacionadas ao tipo de atividade desenvolvida na área (inclusão ou exclusão) e à forma de desenvolvê-las. Com relação aos conhecimentos e habilidades, as alterações dizem respeito aos conhecimentos gerais, técnicos, habilidades intelectuais, interpessoais e de comunicação. Porém, depreende-se da análise dos dados, que a implementação de um ERP influencia mais diretamente as atividades e, como conseqüência, a estrutura organizacional e os conhecimentos e habilidades sofrem reflexos e precisam ser ajustados, ou seja, a intensidade das alterações na estrutura organizacional e nos conhecimentos e habilidades está relacionada à profundidade das mudanças ocorridas nas atividades. Todavia, embora o ERP tenha potencial para alterar as atividades, as mudanças variam de empresa para empresa, pois a implementação do ERP, por si, não promove sempre as mesmas mudanças; a natureza e a profundidade das mudanças dependem das decisões tomadas pelos responsáveis pela empresa e pela equipe de projeto, durante a fase de implementação do ERP e também posteriormente, quando o sistema já está sendo utilizado. / According to literature in the area, the decision about whether or not to implement ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is not a matter of technology alone, but rather, a matter of strategy, since its implementation requires deep changes in the organization. Still according to research already published, this implementation generates deep changes in the area of accounting of organizations as well. Due to this fact, this research was carried out aiming at understanding and describing the influence of the implementation of ERP on the organizational aspects in the area of accounting of enterprises, particularly in what concerns the changes in structure, activities developed, besides knowledge and abilities required for the carrying out of tasks. Seeking to achieve the purpose of this research, the procedures followed an empirical analytical methodological approach as a guideline to Case Studies carried out in enterprises in the State of Paraná. The analysis took into account two cases of enterprises that implemented ERP R/3 by SAP (supplier of software solutions for enterprises). The analysis of data shows that the implementation of ERP gives rise to changes not only in the organizational structure but also in activities and in knowledge and abilities within the accounting area of enterprises. The changes found within the organizational structure allude to organizational design, job designs and personnel. As far as activities go, changes are related to the kind of activity performed in the area (inclusion or exclusion), and to the way of performing them. Concerning knowledge and abilities, changes regard general and technical knowledge, and intellectual, interpersonal and communicative abilities. Nevertheless, the analysis of data leads to the understanding of the fact that ERP implementation acts more directly upon activities; thus, both the organizational structure and knowledge and abilities are affected as well, and need adjustments; that is to say, the intensity of changes operating on the organizational structure and on knowledge and abilities is related to the depth of the changes that have an effect on the activities. However, although ERP has the potential to alter activities, changes vary among enterprises, since the implementation itself does not always promote the same changes; both nature and depth of changes depend on decisions made by those responsible for the business and by the group in charge of the project, and not only during but also after ERP implementation, when the system is already in action.

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For over 140 years, women faculty in the United States has struggled to reach the pinnacle of the academic tenure ladder -- the rank of tenured full professor. In 2011, women represented only 29% of tenured professors (U.S. Department of Education, 2012). This mixed-methods study sought to identify individual or groups of discrete factors, and holistically examine any inter-relatedness, which may influence the successful promotion of women faculty to professor. Through interviews with senior administrative leaders at eight private, U.S. non-profit Research I (very high research) Universities, 27, often inter-connected, themes emerged. Specific institutional policies, programs, mechanisms, and best practices were identified as potential pathways for organizational change for those institutions seeking to address this long-standing issue in academia.

Examining the impact of gender leadership differences on organisational change management outcomes in Nigeria, Africa was one of the main aims of this study. Existing literature reports that only one third (30 per cent) of change programmes in organisations meet the desired outcomes, thereby leaving 70 per cent of organisational change programmes failing to achieve anticipated expectations. Some scholars (e.g., Paton and Dempster, 2002) report that the gendered aspect of organisational change management has been largely ignored, and may be one of the contributing factors to organisational change programmes not meeting desired outcomes. Given the increasing rate of change implementations in organisations and the reported failure rate, this study reviews the current trends, strategies and approaches adopted by change leaders. Furthermore, it examines men and women’s differences in their approach to organisational change management in Nigeria, and the impact that this might have on organisational change management outcomes. This research was undertaken in order to identify and recommend strategies that will assist with successfully managing change programmes in organisations. Qualitative research methods through the use of 40 semi-structured interviews were conducted in five organisations (one federal medical health centre, two banking organisations and two government parastatal/ministries). Analytical tools including inductive content analysis, descriptive data analysis, thematic template and cross-case analysis were used to analyse the obtained data. The results show that there may be some differences in the way that men and women approach and manage change scenarios in organisations, which may have some potential impacts on OCM outcomes. However, certain factors appear to affect the observed leadership behaviour and adopted styles. Firstly, leaders’ behaviour and choice of leadership style is influenced by national and sector culture, therefore some of the leaders are unable to adopt their preferred way of approaching and managing the implemented changes as they have to conform to organisational set principles in managing the change programmes. Secondly, the results further show that leaders’ leadership behaviour and style is influenced by the gender and behaviour of the followers. Thirdly, gender leadership differences emerge as a result of leaders’ age and personality, and not necessarily because of their gender or sex. In summary, both men and women may bring intrinsic benefits to the management of organisational change programmes, and these may have a significant and positive impact on the outcome of organisational change programmes. This is based on the perspective of the larger sample of this study’s respondents and some existing views in the literature. This study suggests a gender-inclusive methodology developed from the empirical findings of this study and existing literature, which provides comprehensive guideline on how organisational change programmes can be approached and managed from a more gender-inclusive perspective. The results from the present study raise many interesting issues for both the academic community and practising managers and agents. This is the first study of its kind that has looked at the impact of gender leadership differences on organisational change management outcome in developing countries like Nigeria.

Organizations are changing faster than ever underscoring the importance of being learning agile—that is, learning new concepts and skills quickly while integrating learnings from past experiences to new situations in order to be successful (Mitchinson & Morris, 2012). Learning agility has been a topic of interest for almost two decades, and while research to date has demonstrated a positive relationship between learning agility and various performance outcomes (Dries, Vantilborgh, & Pepermans, 2012; Lombard & Eichinger, 2000; Smith, 2015), it remains to be seen whether certain contextual variables enhance, diminish, or altogether change learning agility’s positive impact on performance (DeRue, Ashford, & Myers, 2012). This research examined organizational climate rooted in psychological safety as a contextual factor, or moderator, and how it influences when learning agility leads to high performance. While learning agility and psychologically safe climate were not significant predictors of performance, a marginally significant interaction revealed that when an organization’s climate is perceived as low in psychological safety, those who score lower on learning agility perform worse than highly learning agile individuals. However, counterintuitive findings suggest than when the organization’s climate is perceived as high in psychological safety, those who score lower on learning agility outperform those who score higher on learning agility. Exploratory and post-hoc analyses are used to better understand the data and the organizational context in which the results occurred. Directions for future research are discussed along with implications for organizations.

塗爾幹的機械團結理論和有機團結理論假設了同步一致性/互補配合性的儀式表演可以提升群體內的團結感。已有的心理學研究通過實驗發現同步一致性的群體表演促進了群體內的合作行為。本研究在上述實驗的基礎上，進一步檢驗了互補配合性促進群體內團結感的假說，并對二者的結果進行了比較。在實驗中，100名參加者以4人為一組被隨機分配到“同步一致擊鼓“、“互補配合擊鼓“和“非協調擊鼓“(控制組)三個實驗條件下；進而報告其信任感、同組歸屬感和愉悦感水平；最後參加一個標準化的、包含五輪決策任務的公共物品博弈。實驗結果表明，互補配合性的擊鼓表演與同步一致性的擊鼓表演都能促進人們在公共物品博弈中的合作行為。 / The Durkheimian theory of mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity hypothesized that synchrony/complementarity promotes social solidarity. Previous psychological experiments suggested that synchronous ritual performance improves the level of cooperation among group members. This study replicated their experimental design while further testing the complementaritysolidarity hypothesis to make a comparative analysis. In this experiment, 100 participants in groups of four were first randomly allocated to one of three conditions: synchronous drumming, complementary drumming, and asynchronous drumming (control); then they self-reported on questions about in-group trust, same-group feeling, and happiness; and finally, they played a five-round standardised public good game. The experimental result revealed that both the complementary and the synchronous drumming promoted cooperative behaviour in a social dilemma situation. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Liu, Yue. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 38-39). / Abstracts also in Chinese; appendixes in Chinese. / Introduction --- p.1 / Literature review --- p.3 / Social solidarity as a solution to the problem of social order --- p.3 / Ritual performance and social solidarity --- p.4 / Synchronous ritual and mechanical solidarity --- p.6 / Complementary ritual and organic solidarity --- p.10 / Method and hypotheses --- p.12 / Participants --- p.12 / Materials --- p.13 / Design --- p.14 / Procedure --- p.17 / Result and analysis --- p.19 / Discussion --- p.23 / Appendix --- p.25 / Chapter Appendix 1. --- Recruitment message and application sheet --- p.25 / Chapter Appendix 2. --- Consent form --- p.26 / Chapter Appendix 3. --- Instruction for subjects --- p.27 / Chapter Appendix 4. --- Evaluation questionnaire for the drumbeat task --- p.31 / Chapter Appendix 5. --- End questionnaire --- p.33 / Chapter Table 1. --- T-test result for synchronous vs. asynchronous condition (one-tailed) --- p.35 / Chapter Table 2. --- T-test result for complementary vs. asynchronous condition (one-tailed) --- p.36 / Chapter Table 3. --- T-test result for experimental vs. control condition (one-tailed) --- p.37 / References --- p.38

by Wong Wing Nin. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 45). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iv / Chapter / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Overview --- p.1 / Project Plan --- p.3 / Chapter II. --- THE OLD SEAGRAM MIS ORGANIZATION --- p.4 / Company Profile --- p.4 / Driving Force behind the Change --- p.5 / The Old MIS Structure --- p.6 / Chapter III. --- ORGANIZATION THEORY REVIEW --- p.9 / Organization Change Factors --- p.9 / Readiness of Change --- p.11 / Resistance of Change --- p.11 / Overcoming the Change --- p.13 / Structural Cybernetics --- p.14 / Principal of Organization Design --- p.16 / Functional Building Block --- p.17 / Dynamic Teamwork --- p.18 / Implementation Process --- p.22 / Chapter IV. --- THE NEW SEAGRAM MIS ORGANIZATION --- p.25 / Global Planning - Regional Implementation --- p.25 / Specialization - No Rainbow --- p.26 / No Redundancy or Gap - Clear Boundary --- p.26 / Network Organization --- p.27 / Dynamic Teamwork --- p.29 / Chapter V. --- EMPLOYEE OPINION FEEDBACK --- p.31 / High Staff Turnover --- p.32 / Top Management View --- p.32 / MIS Internal View --- p.33 / Customer View --- p.35 / Summary --- p.36 / Chapter VI. --- SUGGESTION FOR IMPROVEMENT --- p.38 / Open Communication --- p.38 / Clear Definition of Job Role --- p.39 / Education and Training --- p.39 / Consolidate Ambiguous Function --- p.40 / Chapter VII. --- CONCLUSION --- p.41 / Chapter APPENDIX - --- INTERVIEW OUTLINE --- p.43 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.44

Notre projet de recherche repose sur l’étude de la construction par une approche fractale d’un modèle de prévision de la résistance et de conduite du changement. Nous avons tout d’abord mené une exploration théorique en nous appuyant sur une littérature transdisciplinaire, à la confluence des mathématiques et des sciences de gestion. Nous avons ensuite opté pour une exploration hybride, dont la première phase, exploratoire, basée sur une recherche-intervention, nous a permis d’élaborer un modèle en accord avec notre exploration théorique et notre projet de recherche. Nous avons ensuite testé la validité externe de notre modèle en l’appliquant à d’autres organisations. Cette phase de vérification a montré les limites de la modélisation mathématique du changement organisationnel, particulièrement pour l’évaluation précise des variables à partir de données qualitatives. Ce travail se conclut par des préconisations qui nous ont permis de conforter les recommandations de la littérature. / Our research project relies on the study of the construction, using a fractal approach, of a resistance prevision and change conducing model. We started with a theoretical exploration based on a transdisciplinary literature, at the confluence of mathematics and management sciences. Then, we chose a hybrid exploration, of which the first phase, exploratory, based on an interventional research, allowed us to elaborate a model in complete accord with our theoretical exploration and our research project. Then, we have tested the external validity of our model, using it in other organizations. This verification phase showed the limits of the mathematical modeling of organizational change, particularly to evaluate precisely the variables from qualitative data. We concluded this research with recommendations that allowed us to comfort the literature.

This thesis reports the results of a case study conducted in a Portuguese manufacturing organisation, a part of a large group, which endured profound organisational changes. The initial objective of the research was to explore, in a processual way, the long-term interactions between an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, the consultants that implemented it and management accounting and control, in this organisation. However, during the fieldwork, the researcher was confronted with an apparent puzzle: in the past, formally powerful ‘central’ actors had been confronted with important limitations – including in their relations with formally less powerful actors, particularly ‘local’ actors at the plant level. At the time of the fieldwork, however, the situation had substantially changed. The researcher was therefore confronted with a puzzle, which seemed to be about the distribution of power in the organisation, about who the powerful actors were and, more fundamentally, what caused (or limited) actors’ relational power. Three innovations introduced by central actors appeared to have played an important role in this fundamental change in the organisation and in the distribution of power within it. At stake were a technological innovation – the adoption of the financial module of an ERP system (SAP FI) – and two organisational innovations: the relocation of the Corporate Centre (CC); and the creation of a Shared Services Centre (SSC), in the same location of the group headquarters and of the Chairman and majority shareholder. Clegg’s (1989) framework of ‘Circuits of Power’, based on a Foucauldian and Actor-Network Theory (ANT) approach, was drawn upon as interpretive lenses to address the empirical puzzle about power. The researcher’s mobilisation of the framework facilitated the understanding of what caused (or limited) actors’ relational power, not only in the past but, particularly, at the time of the fieldwork, when the ongoing repercussions of the three innovations were taking place. Such in-depth understanding was constructed through a qualitative, interpretive and processual research, adopting the method of an explanatory case study combining both retrospective and longitudinal components. During the three-year’ fieldwork, 54 interviews with 29 respondents, lasting more than 90 hours, were supplemented by other information generating techniques, such as documentation analysis and observation of meetings, presentations and artefacts in numerous socio-technicalinteractions. The researcher’s interpretation of the case study insights highlighted that the previous power limitations perceived by the formally powerful, ‘central’ actors could be traced to characteristics of the circuit of social integration (rules of meaning and membership across the organisation, as interpreted, accepted and enacted by actors) and of the circuit of system integration (techniques of discipline and production). The three technical and organisational innovations – SAP FI, the CC and the SSC - introduced by central actors in the circuit of system integration (conceptualised, in ANT terms, as nonhuman and collective actors, respectively) had significant repercussions across the various circuits of power. These repercussions had a structural nature, since the innovations collectively succeeded in giving rise to a network of complementary, mutually dependent and mutually reinforcing Obligatory Passage Points. The emerging network of Obligatory Passage Points was essential in promoting the introduction, interpretation, acceptance and enactment of rules across the organisation as desired by central actors. This thesis proposes several contributions concerning the repercussions of the collective of innovations across the circuits of power. Some examples are embedding rules in technology (Volkoff et al., 2007) and organisational processes, redefining the scope of agencies, creating non-zero sum outcomes, and the emergence of the perception of control inevitability and naturalness within organisational normalcy. Collectively, these innovations promoted rules enactment (by both human and nonhuman actors) in ways that benefited the interests of central actors. In addition, this thesis proposes contributions related with the two theoretical frameworks and literatures framing the research. It proposes several refinements to Clegg’s (1989) framework, comprising changes in its graphical layout, linkages and even concepts. The second contribution is an ANT-inspired, OIE model of rule-based action. This model draws on Burns and Scapens’ (2000) macro structure and concepts, but it proposes additional structures and substantially different perspectives, mechanisms and even concepts. It adopts a wide definition of rules, also viewing them as internal structures orienting actors. Thus defined, rules underlie routines and fill a gap in routines-focused frameworks – in particular, when there are no established routines as regards particular issues.The model acknowledges intra-organisational diversity and focuses on the processes of introduction, interpretation, acceptance and enactment of rules. It also relates rules with material conditions, in particular since rules may be technologically and organisationally embedded. Finally, the model highlights that rules may be enacted by both human actors (individual and collective) and nonhuman actors. The model provides a novel way to conceptualise how actors’ interests may be achieved through the various intersections between rules and material conditions, and by the ultimate enactment of rules by both human and non-human actors.

Organizational change often involves the creation of work teams. This research examines how the creation of self-managed work teams within a particular organization affects perceived communication. Previous research suggests that self-managed teams would socially construct a different view of the organization especially as it relates to power than would those in traditional organizational departments. Attitudes about communication and power within the organization are analyzed in nine self-managed teams and five traditional departments. This analysis is conducted through both qualitative and quantitative means. Group comments and discussions are used in a qualitative analysis. Multidimensional scaling is used to reveal underlying attitudinal differences the self-managed teams and traditional departments may have about others within the organization. Two different scales are used to measure perceived attitudes about relationships to management and others within the organization. The first scale is modified from a family communication patterns instrument and is used to measure the analogous equivalent of the supervisor/subordinate (parent/child) relationship within the organizational family. The second scale explores the perceptions of cooperativeness, competitiveness, and independence between groups. Finally, a value ranking is used to measure perceptual differences the groups have about the organization's view of the customer. The results of this research suggest some differences exist between the two groups regarding perceptions of power and management Differences about perceptions related to boundaries suggests self-managed teams will construct a different reality as a function of their group. Results regarding perceptions of others and perceptions of the organization's view of customers were mixed. It cannot be strongly concluded that these differences exist as a function of the self-managing teams or because of the types of jobs members in self-managing teams hold. Due to a number of constraints researching in this particular organization, further examination and validation of findings were not possible. Most of the teams, for example, had been together for only two months. A possibility for future research may include some longitudinal studies.