Culture plays an integral role in shaping Human Resource Management (HRM) practices and policies within any organisation. This role is manifested through determining the norms and accepted behaviours in any given society. However, the extent of this societal cultural influence has been deemed to be greatly unexplored among researchers. Societal culture has been defined by Prasad and Babbar (2000) as the compilation of values and ideologies that are shared among an assembly of individuals in a certain country or region. Researchers have been concerned by the relationship between societal culture and HRM practices in developing countries; HRM practices are defined by Armstrong (2006) as all aspects associated with the management of people within the organisation. Therefore, this research represents an investigation of the link between Saudi Arabian societal culture and existing HRM practices within the public and private sectors. Taking into consideration elements affecting Saudi societal culture, such as changing economy and globalisation, these elements impact organisations in Saudi Arabia on two levels. First, the local level, where public organisations are gradually transforming into private organisations with a focus on profitability. Second, the global level, represented through multinational organisations adapting to societal culture elements in order to achieve success. As a result of both levels, HRM practices are changing in order to be effective. Therefore, the aim of this research is to explore this particular development and discover how Saudi societal culture impacts five specific HRM practices – highlighted following a comprehensive review of literature – and the role they play in shaping those practices. These practices are: job desirability, recruitment sources, performance appraisal, compensation and rewards, and training programmes. For the purposes of this research, a case study has been conducted in order to provide an in-depth examination. This benefits from a unique opportunity to investigate an ongoing privatisation process within a leading organisation in the Middle East. Saudi Arabian Airlines (SAA) represents an ideal candidate for this study, as the technical services section of the company, SAEI, is going through a privatisation process; this started in 2009 with expected completion in 2015. As the research data collection took place over seven weeks in 2013, this timeline allowed the examination of the transition from public to private sector within one organisation with the same workplace environment. Furthermore, having both sectors within the same organisation creates the possibility of making comparisons between them, as it would have been impossible to find two organisations from each sector possessing the same organisational structure, financial level and operational levels. Moreover, this study involved adopting a mixed-methods approach to incorporate qualitative and quantitative methods. This approach included semi-structured type interviews with eight senior HR managers as well as non-HR managers, and disseminating questionnaires among 200 engineers within the SAEI department. The findings and results of this case study have shown the extent to which each HRM practice interacts with Saudi societal culture. There have been HRM themes greatly influenced by the societal element, while other themes remained neutral and did not reflect any cultural influence. Furthermore, the findings produced mixed results when compared to those in the existing literature. As for the HRM practices affected by societal culture, three were affected based on the collected data: compensation and rewards, job desirability, and training programmes. These practices show clear indication they were influenced by Saudi Arabian societal culture. As for the HRM practices that remained neutral – performance appraisal and recruitment sources – they remained independent of any societal influence. However, after concluding the study and its discussion, this research provides several contributions to the field of HRM practices in Saudi Arabia on two main levels. On the theoretical level, the outcomes confirm a link between Saudi Arabian societal culture and compensation and rewards, training programmes, and job desirability practices. On the other hand, recruitment sources and performance appraisal practices are not greatly influenced. A further contribution is the up-to-date investigation of the impact that Saudi Arabian societal culture has on HRM practices, which helps to address well-known and documented gaps in the literature. As for practical contributions, one contribution is providing a first-hand review of the ongoing transition using primary and secondary research methods for SAA. This is 00considered beneficial for practitioners and multi-national corporations, as this study provides an action guide and insight into preferred HRM practices in Saudi Arabia. Further practical contribution is associated with the developed framework utilised in this research, where this particular framework can be used in the future to accommodate similar privatisation processes or make comparisons with international organisations.

Context: Despite a long history of reforms, Pakistan‘s public sector (PS) is still considered cumbersome, corrupt, and inefficient by its citizens, government and international development community. Recent reforms were operationalised in 2001 under a new economic policy called the Poverty Reduction Programme (PRP) designed to facilitate the New Public Management (NPM) influenced transformation. The overarching objectives of these reforms were to strengthen the market and public sector simultaneously and so that they complemented each other. The PS reform actions taken under this strategy were mainly based on the World Bank‘s (WB) experience of developing countries which identified the state‘s weak institutional capacity as bottleneck to this transformation. Therefore, with the view to removing these impediments, actions to train the public servants, improve their salaries, and enhanced the use of information technology (IT) were included. However, many recent reports and indicators confirm the situation in Pakistan has remained unchanged. Various generic explanations of these compromised results have been provided; however, the concrete reasons in a Pakistani setting are still unknown. Research Questions: This study aims to investigate the reasons why Pakistan‘s PS organisations appear to be resistant to reform and why the repeated attempts at reform appear to have had so little impact. It addresses the following questions: What effects, if any, have NPM-inspired reform attempts had on the way that public sector organisations function? What have been the intended and unintended consequences of reform attempts? Research approach: This case study aims to bridge this gap through analysing the effects of administrative reforms in the federal tax agency where these actions have been revived as a part of the comprehensive reform programme. This study is qualitative and adopts a social constructionist approach. This case study is ethnographically oriented and works within pragmatist criteria of truth and validity; the case study organisation has been conceptualised as negotiated order (Strauss, 1978); and the initiatives of training, salaries and information technology are understood as managerial attempts to reshape organisational structures, processes, and the employment relationship with employees in line with the requirements of NPM. This research mainly depends on the interpretation and analysis of data gathered through 22 semi-structured interviews, participant observation and documentary sources of information including public and classified reports from donors and government repositories as well as published scholarly articles. The data were analysed in two stages: 1. abstract analysis took place during data collection, arranging, cleaning, and extraction of themes and patterns; and 2. firm analysis happened through an iterative process of comparing these themes, patterns, and field notes to make the sense of data. Findings: The findings suggest that the desired results of efficiency, transparency, fairness, and controlling corruption could not be achieved due to the takeover of prevalent contextual corrupt practices of nepotism, favouritism and recommendation at the time of its implementation. Moreover, this content-focused approach has also ignored the context and processes that led to compromised results. I have supported these findings through the identification of these contextual problems at the organisational and national levels. Contribution: This research contributed to a greater understanding of the initiation and implementation processes of the NPM-inspired PSR in Pakistan through the identification of factors limiting its results at organisational and national levels. In turn, it helped to highlight the problems behind reformer‘s taken for granted assumptions of quick-fixing the institutions through rapid dosage of reform. The results will also be valuable to reformers as they will not only help reformers to understand the reasons affecting its intended results but also help them to include these in the list of safeguard.

Inledning I arbetet besvaras forskningsfrågan ”hur definierar Stadsledningskontoret innovation idag och hur kan de skapa en gemensam grund för deras framtida innovationsarbete”. Metod Under rubriken metod redogörs det hur utförandet av arbetet gått till samt motivering till vald metod. Anledningen till detta avsnitt är för att ge en uppfattning till hur författarna tänkt kring arbetets uppbyggnad. De valda metoderna är kvalitativ metod i kombination med aktionsforskning. Teori Här beskrivs den teori som behandlas, genom den här rubriken kan det ges en förståelse för vilka områden som kommer att beröras i arbetet. Teorin presenteras i tre teman, Innovation, Förutsättningar för ett innovativt arbete i grupp, och Gemensam grund. Empiri Under rubriken empiri presenteras data från tre intervjuer, en workshop samt en enkät. All empirisk data har samlats in hos Stadsledningskontoret i Västerås stad. Empirin visar på en splittrad organisation som saknar tidliga riktlinjer för deras innovationsarbete. Det visar sig också att medarbetarna saknar ett tillåtande klimat och det råder delade meningar om vad innovation egentligen innebär för Stadsledningskontoret. Analys Under den här rubriken sammanställs den teoretiska referensramen samt empirin tillsammans, för att ge en förståelse för hur de olika områdena hänger samman. Analysen tyder på att Stadsledningskontoret saknar en tydlig grund och riktlinje för deras innovativa arbete, de har även svårt att se innovation som något internt. De saknar också en gemensam syn på vad innovation är vilket är en av grundförutsättningarna för innovation. Diskussion I detta avsnitt diskuteras hur Stadsledningskontoret kan gå tillväga för att skapa en gemensam grund för deras framtida innovationsarbete. De med mandat i organisationen bör etablera en tydlig vision med Stadsledningskontorets innovationsarbete, där det tydlig framgår vad innovation innebär. De bör även till detta skapa tydliga mål och strategier för att uppnå denna vision och hur de skall gå tillväga för att implementera denna vision i hela avdelningen. Detta för att alla inom organisationen skall sträva efter ett gemensamt och tydligt mål. Slutsats Under rubriken slutsats kommer analysen mynna ut i hur Stadsledningskontoret kan arbeta vidare för framtida innovationsarbeten. Stadsledningskontoret behöver höja kunskapsnivån om vad för kontext innovation kan uppstå i, att det inte enbart är externt. De bör också fastställa var innovation skall betyda för dem och arbeta för att gemensamt etablera en gemensam grund internt för vad innovation skall vara för Stadsledningskontoret. Vidare bör de också arbeta med klimatet på avdelningen. / Introduction This essay answer the research question how the City Executive of Västerås City define innovation today and how they can create a common ground for their future innovation. Method The heading methodology describes how the performance of work have been done and justification for the selected method. The used methodology is qualitative method combined with action research. Theory The theory are presented under this heading and will generate an understanding on which areas are involved in the essay. The theory presented in three themes, innovation, prerequisites for an innovative group work, and common ground. Empiricism Under the heading empirical the data from three interviews are presented, a workshop and a questionnaire. All empirical data has been collected at the City Executive of the City of Västerås. Empirical data show a divided organization that lacks guidelines for their innovative efforts. It shows that employees do not have a tolerant climate and there is disagreement about what innovation actually means for the City Executive Office. Analysis This heading compiled the theoretical framework and empirical data together, to give an understanding of how the different areas are linked. The analysis suggests that the City Executive Office lacks a clear basis and guideline for their innovative work, they have difficult to see innovation as something internally and they also lack a shared vision of what innovation is, which is one of the basic conditions for innovation. Discussion This section discusses how the City Executive can proceed to create a common ground for their future innovation. Those with a mandate in the organization should establish a clear vision with the City Executive Office work on innovation, where it clearly states what innovation means. They should also be found to create clear goals and strategies to achieve this vision and how to go about implementing this vision of the entire department. This is to everyone in the organization should seek a common and clearly defined goal. Conclusion Under the headline conclusion, this analysis will culminate in the City Executive to work on for future innovation projects. City Executive Office needs to raise the level of knowledge about what the context of innovation can arise in, which is not only externally. They should also establish what innovation will mean for them and work jointly to establish a common basis internally what innovation will be for the City Executive Office. Furthermore, they should also work with the climate in the department.

This research study explores the perceptions and experiences of individuals involved in the business collaborations of the Coal Authority (TCA) with other public and private sector organisations. The study offers two major contributions to professional knowledge and practice. The first is that the social and behavioural activities associated with the business collaboration process are of as much concern as the economic and structural aspects. The second is a conceptual model and framework which makes sense of the public sector business collaborating process, and identifies behaviours and practices which are perceived by the participants to positively contribute to successful business collaborating and to minimise the risk of inter-organisational collaboration failure. The research accounts underpinning the study are based on the researcher's direct observation, interviews, accounts and life experiences of over fifty individuals that he engaged with during his thirty months involvement within the research process. This was complemented by his reflective diary recording in real time the thought processes from the participants in both the public and private sector involved in business collaborating on a day-to-day basis, as he immersed himself in a purposeful way in the research setting. Twenty-four of the collaborators work for public sector organisations, twenty-nine work in the private sector. Thematic discourse analysis was used to interpret their life experiences and develop the framework around the four perspectives that emerged. The four perspectives are: • The context perspective • The business and strategy perspective • The delivery perspective • The people perspective Personal reflections on the research process and the framework are based on the Kirkpatrick (1967) four level theoretical model for the evaluation of learning and development outcomes. The researcher also describes the changes in behaviour and practices within TCA with regard to the way the people within TCA interact and collaborate with people from other organisations as a result of the study and its findings. Finally, the researcher demonstrates his achievement of the six learning outcomes of his DBA doctoral programme.

<p><strong>Background:</strong> Kaplan and Norton developed the Balanced Scorecard in 1992. This framework has given the management the opportunity to better understand how the organization is functioning. Communication is the vital factor for success with the Balanced Scorecard and the organization. Nowadays, in a world of rapid change and competition the organizations face an untold quantity of leadership challenges, and by applying the Balanced Scorecard the management will get the chance to achieve results by putting their strategies into action. The Jönköping County Council is responsible for the healthcare within its area, and is one of numerous organizations that have implemented the Balanced Scorecard.</p><p><strong>Purpose:</strong> The purpose of this study is to investigate the reasons the healthcare department within Jönköping County Council applied the Balanced Scorecard, how they use it, and to understand from their perspective how it benefits them. In addition to this we will present advice from employees to the management that is considering implementing the tool.</p><p><strong>Method:</strong> This is a qualitative study with an abductive approach, where we used both primary and secondary data in this research paper. The primary data was gathered through interviews with different departments at Jönköping County Council, which contributed to different views on the use of the Balanced Scorecard. Theories about the Balanced Scorecard were gathered through secondary data.</p><p><strong>Results/conclusions:</strong> Overall the management at Jönköping County Council are pleased and satisfied with the Balanced Scorecard. In addition to this they are all motivated and engaged in using the framework. However, they believe that the main drawbacks with the Balanced Scorecard are to make employees understand and connect the daily work to the framework, as well as finding the “correct” numerical values that reflects the organization. The benefits according to the management are the multidimensional view of the organization through the four perspectives in the Balanced Scorecard, and also the fact that they now have a framework which encourage the staff to strive to achieve a unison vision through action plans. The nursing staff was not aware of the term ‘Balanced Scorecard’ or the four perspectives, and therefore wanted to get more information about it from their executives, since they are expected to work in accordance with the framework. Through interviews with the upper- and middle management and the nursing staff we can draw the conclusion that the Jönköping County Council implemented the Balanced Scorecard since they wanted to have a system that could be used at all levels within the organization, this to get an overview and a better control of what is happening within the business.</p>

Det pågår stora förändringar i världen gällande begreppet design och rapporter har kommit både iSverige och Europa om hur design kan lösa samhällsproblem. Design kan användas som ettverktyg för problemlösning i en arbetsprocess eller som konkurrensfördel i en strategi för attutveckla produkter och tjänster utifrån användarens behov.Forskning finns om hur privata vinstdrivna företag använder design som konkurrensmedel.Syftet med vår studie är att undersöka hur vi med hjälp av design kan skapa en strategi för enorganisation i den offentliga sektorn som kan lösa kommunikationsproblem med fokus påkundtillfredsställelse. Undersökningen syftar till att svara på hur den offentliga sektorn arbetarmed design och hur en designstrategi inom den offentliga sektorn kan se ut, samt om det finnsnågra hinder vid implementering av design.Studien baseras på en kvalitativ metod i form av djupintervjuer, samt en kvantitativenkätundersökning utifrån en fallstudie på Arbetsförmedlingen. Datainsamling av det empiriskamaterialet har gjorts på fallföretaget samt på tre ytterligare tjänsteorienterade organisationer somär finansierade av staten och ett produktorienterat företag. Empirin har analyserats utifrånföretagsekonomiska teorier samt designteorier och den privata sektorn har ställts mot denoffentliga sektorn för att hitta likheter och skillnader dem emellan.Resultatet av studien visar på att design används inom den offentliga sektorn och resultatet visaratt det inte finns några hinder för den offentliga sektorn att jobba med design, men att det iblandkan vara mer svårimplementerat på grund av komplexa organisationer och en målgrupp som ärhela den svenska befolkningen. För att implementera design behöver organisationer i denoffentliga sektorn integrera med sina kunder, förenkla kundresan och inom organisationen arbetamot samma mål och vision där kunden alltid är i fokus. / There are major ongoing changes in the world regarding to the term design and reports havecome both from Sweden and Europe how design can solve social problems. Design can be usedas a tool for problem solving in a work process or as a competitive advantage in a strategy todevelop products and services based on user requirements.The purpose of this study is to examine how we can use design to create a strategy that can solvecommunication problems with a focus on customer satisfaction within an organization workingin the public sector. The study aims to answer how the public sector work with design and how adesign strategy will look like and whether there are any barriers to implement design.The study is based on a qualitative method through interviews and a quantitative survey based ona case study of the Swedish employment authority Arbetsförmedlingen. Data of the empiricalmaterial has been collected from the case company and from three other service-orientatedorganizations funded by the state and a private product-orientated company. The empirical datahas been analyzed with business economic and design theories and the private and the publicsector organizations have been compared to find similarities and differences them between.The results of the study shows that design is used in the public sector but is somewhat difficult toimplement because of its complex organizations and the broad target group containing the entirepopulation of Sweden. To implement design, organizations in the public sector need to integratewith their customers, simplifying the customer journey and internal in the organization worktowards the same goals and vision of where the customer always is in focus.

Over the past decade, rapid progress in ICT has encouraged many governments to incorporate new technology into their national economic development strategies. Egovernment is an important application within ICT and has become more significant in the agenda of policy and decision makers the world over. E-government created a new medium that changed the nature of the whole public sector and its relationship with its constituencies. It has had a profound effect on various socioeconomic and political aspects of society. E-government provides delivery of public services in a much more convenient and cost-effective way, offering huge opportunities to improve public sector efficiency. However, the process of change also gives rise to new challenges and difficulties, especially in developing countries, where many initiatives have not been successful. This is as a result of the massive deficiencies in basic infrastructure, human capacity and financial resources, along with the attendant political and cultural constraints. These factors are crucial and impede the adoption of egovernment and the building of an information based society and economy. Egovernment initiatives must therefore account for the specific government systems, technological infrastructure and environmental conditions of the host country. Many of the models and frameworks built to assist in the adoption process in developing countries have been adapted from e-government implementation experiences in Western developed countries. While there are important lessons to be learnt, these frameworks have limited application in Africa and developing countries in other regions. Previously it was difficult to investigate e-government in developing countries due to their low levels of development. Recent advances in e-government in these countries have made it possible to conduct studies and analyse their experiences and practices. This research empirically examined the adoption of e-government at a national and organisational level, taking the public sector in Sudan as a case study. A qualitative approach was followed and data was collected from Sudan using interviews with key officials and top managers; supported by published documents in the public domain.The data was analysed using content analysis and the results verified with experts from a Sudanese public organisation. The findings of the research contributed to the identification of the critical factors in Sudan, and to the development of an e-government adoption framework. The framework combines elements from the Technological, Organisational and Environmental (TOE) model; guiding decision makers to better manage issues related to the adoption process regarding the development of the technical infrastructure, management systems, values and strategies. The use of the proposed framework can help integrate e-government into the public sector in order to accelerate social and economic progress in developing countries.

The research study set out to establish whether the balanced scorecard suitably adapted and supported by a relevant costing system could improve the focus on outputs and thereby improve governance processes of public sector bodies. What was established from this review was that strategic planning has a role to play in achieving the agreed strategy but without engaging all of the stakeholders in the formulation process there was little chance of success. Moreover, it was indicated that frameworks would encourage greater coherence of planning effort and staff alignment and could be of significant benefit to the formulation processes. The solution developed in this case study involved novel managerial constructions which significantly adapted the Balanced Scorecard specifically for the RBGE. Lessons were taken from the literature review, paying particular attention to the identified weaknesses. The RBGE scorecard’s perspectives were not only adapted but a fifth perspective (the principal external stakeholder: Scottish Government) was included. A new accounting model (Strategic Objective Costing and Budgeting) was developed which identified staff effort allocated to completing activities that directly supported the strategic objectives. The key attribute required of management is strong leadership if these constructions are to be implemented successfully. The constructive approach to management accounting research was strengthened by including a literature review to inform analysis of the identified problem in the framework and by engaging external knowledgeable audiences to test the ideas being developed for the constructs. The constructions passed the “weak market test” and therefore were validated as suitable models.

Public sector organizations are in need of new approaches to development and innovation. There is a need to develop a capability to better understand priorities, needs and wishes of public sector service users and become more proactive, in order to meet the demands on keeping costs down and quality high. Design is increasingly put forward as a potential answer to this need and there are many initiatives taken across the world to encourage the use of a design approach to development and innovation within public sector. In relation to this trend there is a need to improve the understanding of how public sector organizations develop ability to exploit design; how they develop design capability. This is the focus of this thesis, which through an exploratory study has observed the two initiatives aiming to introduce design and develop design capability within healthcare and social service organizations. One main contribution of this work is an understanding of the design capability concept based on a structured review of the use of the design capability concept in the literature. The concept has previously been used in relation to different aspects of designs in organizations. Another important contribution is the development of an understanding for how design capability is developed based on interpretations founded in the organizational learning perspective of absorptive capacity. The study has identified how different antecedents to development of design capability have influenced this development in the two cases. The findings have identified aspects that both support and impede the development of design capability which are important to acknowledge and address when aiming to develop design capability within a public sector organization. In both cases, the set up of the knowledge transferring efforts focus mainly on developing awareness of design. Similar patterns are seen in other prior and parallel initiatives. The findings however suggest that it is also important to ensure that the organization have access to design competence and that structures like routines, processes and culture support and enable the use of design practice, in order to make design a natural part of the continuous development work.

This thesis focuses on eGovernance – the use of ICT as a means to improve public sector practice. Previous research has shown that there is a lack of long-term discussion on the purposes and directions of eGovernance development, often outlining it as unequivocally positive, while missing to consider the complexities and conflicts involved in this process. In order to understand the complexities of eGovernance a future-oriented perspective is needed. In other words a perspective that not only focuses on using ICT to be responsive to present needs but also making it possible to discuss which goals public sector ICT initiatives should strive for and how these correspond to goals and means in the public sector as a whole. In order to do this I employ a sustainability perspective. The aim of this thesis is to understand how eGovernance can be sustainable in such a complex organizational environment. This is approached in four papers; based on two case studies, situated in the public sector of Sweden, and a structured literature review of the use of the sustainability concept in eGovernance research. The findings of this thesis include a framework of sustainable eGovernance, including an outline of the different dimensions of sustainability: social, economic, environmental and technical. These dimensions are seen as carriers of different values and goals which are in a process of continuous dialogue and conflict. Cutting across these four dimensions are two themes: decision making and information infrastructure, which make up the backbone of how ICT can be used in order to improve public practice. The theoretical lens of sustainability widens our understanding and helps in the questioning of motivations, directions and implications of eGovernance initiatives. This thesis thus contributes with a theoretically and empirically founded framework, which is suitable as a foundation for sustainable eGovernance development and further research into that area.