The quest towards sustainable development, both nationally and globally, puts the construction industry in the foreground as the main consumer of natural resources. The industry has profound economic, social and environmental impacts. Sustainable construction is one of the most important challenges faced by the construction industry today. In the UK, sustainability is being driven and enforced by the government through stringent fiscal policies and regulations, voluntary initiatives combined with naming and shaming strategies. Stakeholders are becoming more aware of the global challenges and are using their power to exert pressure on companies. Increasingly, construction clients are demanding that their business partners submit: their corporate sustainability policies with tender packages to demonstrate their performance in dealing with opportunities and risks stemming from economic, environmental and social aspect of sustainability. However, the lack of understanding of the concept and its practical application has been a recurrent problem. The conceptual confusion; its vagueness and ambiguity, the complexity of the myriad of challenges and fluidity of the sustainability concept, compounded with the myopic attitude of the industry, lack of clear-cut and practical framework are causing frustration in the construction industry. Consequently, a number of sustainability management frameworks have been proposed. There are probably more than one hundred frameworks for sustainable business strategy. However, the majority of these are either complicated to implement or lack sound theoretical base, effective change management and completeness. These, therefore, do not make the situation any easier. Many are still baffled as to what they should do and how they should go about affecting change. Corporate sustainability in the construction industry is a challenge to many companies. The industry is still under-performing in each of the key themes of sustainable construction and this has lead to a 'blame culture' where each sector of the industry allocates responsibility for its current failings to others (CIRIA C563, 2001). Such a situation poses a need for a comprehensive, practical and easy to use tool that would aid the implementation and management of sustainability at the core of business process. The tool will complement the existing frameworks, which breaks down the strategic and management issues into manageable components. This will enable companies to focus on individual areas and identify actions needed to facilitate change. The problem is that such a tool is virtually non-existent. The main focal point of this research is the development of a tool to facilitate the implementation, management and integration of sustainability issues at the strategic level and promote wider uptake of the concept in the construction industry. This requires a thorough understanding of the concepts of sustainable development, sustainable construction and related issues as well as drivers, benefits, barriers and enablers for achieving corporate sustainability. It also demands an examination of existing management frameworks and collation of case studies from the early adopters to establish critical factors for strategic and management issues involved in achieving corporate sustainability. Through, diverse research epistemologies (quantitative, qualitative and triangulation methods), the research established four main critical factors and thirty-six sub-critical factors for achieving corporate sustainability. These factors underpinned the development of a web-based prototype software (ConPass). This thesis presents the development and evaluation ConPass Model and the prototype software.

Bakgrund och problem: Intresset för organisationen som ett socialt system har ökat uppmärksamheten av organisationens inre förhållanden och kommunikationen internt. I många organisationer avsätter ledning ofta mycket tid åt formulering av strategiska frågor, som inte kommuniceras ut tillräckligt och därmed inte används av medarbetare. För att medarbetare inte ska uppfatta strategier som innehållslösa är det viktigt att kommunikationsprocessen preciserar och konkretiserar strategin. Arbetsprocessen har utvecklats och idag ställs det höga krav på kunskap hos medarbetare, vilket i sin tur ställer krav på ökad information. Det innebär att det har blivit allt viktigare att medarbetare är involverade i organisationens mål och förhållningssätt till olika frågor. De flesta organisationer klagar på dålig kommunikationsförmåga, chefer klagar på att informationen inte når fram till medarbetare och att dessa inte följer riktlinjerna, medan medarbetare klagar på att beslut och information inte kommuniceras tillräckligt till dem. Synen på kommunikation ger ofta en bild av att kommunikation är något enkelt, där det sända och det mottagna meddelandet är identiska med varandra. Detta leder till en övertro på den egna kommunikationseffektiviteten i organisationen. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att beskriva den interna kommunikationsprocessen av strategiska frågor samt att bedöma dess effektivitet. Metod: Det här är en studie av fyra storbanker, som bygger på kvalitativ metod, där fyra intervjuer har ägt rum på ledningsnivå och fyra intervjuer på lokalnivå. Slutsatser: Studien har kommit fram till att väldigt lite ansträngningar läggs ned på att kommunicera strategiska frågor från ledningsnivå till lokalnivå. Kommunikationen sker via enkla kanaler, främst via intranätet, med förutsättning att medarbetare korrekt ska förstå budskapet. På grund av budskapets komplexitet och de enkla kanaler som används, finns det risk att budskapet misstolkas på lokalnivå. Motivation i kommunikationsprocessen spelar en viktig roll, men tyvärr motiverar bankerna sina medarbetare i begränsad omfattning. Kommunikationsprocessen av strategiska frågor utgör idag en linjär kommunikation, som behöver effektiviseras. För att effektivisera kommunikationsprocessen behövs andra kommunikationskanaler, klarare budskap och mer motivation. Det krävs en nätverksbetonad syn på kommunikation. / Background and problem: The interest of the organization as a social system has increased the attention of the organization's internal relationships and internal communication. In many organizations management often spend much time on formulation strategic issues, which is not communicated sufficiently and thus not used by employees. In order that employees shall not perceive strategies as vacuous, it is important that the communication process clarifies and concretes the strategy. The process of work has been developed and today there is a high demand of knowledge among employees, which in turn need increased information. This means that it has become increasingly important that employees are involved in the organization's goals and approaches to different issues. Most organizations are complaining of poor communication ability, managers are complaining that the information does not reach the employees and that these do not follow the guidelines, while employees are complaining that decisions and information are not sufficiently communicated to them. The view of communication often gives a picture of communication being something simple, where the send and the received message is identical to one another. This leads to an over-reliance of the communication effectiveness in the organization. Objective: The aim of this study is to describe the internal communication process of strategic issues and to assess its effectiveness. Method: This is a study of four universal banks, which is based on a qualitative approach, where four interviews have taken place at management level and four interviews at local level. Conclusion: The study has concluded that very little attempt is made to communicate strategic issues from management level to local level. Communication takes place through simple channels, primarily through the intranet, with the condition that employees will correctly understand the message. Because of the complexity of the message and the channels used, there is a risk that the message will be misinterpreted at the local level. Motivation in the communication process plays an important role, but unfortunately the banks motivate their employees to a limited extent. The communication process of strategic issues represents today a linear communication, which needs to be more effective. To make the communication process more effective requires other communication channels, clearer message and more motivation. A network approach of communication is needed.

Le Tribunal spécial pour le Liban (TSL) est établi en vertu d’un accord bilatéral conclu entre l’ONU et le Gouvernement libanais; mais ses instruments constitutifs ne sont entrés en vigueur qu’en vertu de la résolution 1757 (2007) du Conseil de sécurité adoptée sur la base du Chapitre VII de la Charte. Le TSL, siégeant aux Pays-Bas, composé de juges étrangers et libanais, s’avère un tribunal pénal internationalisé sui generis. Son mandat principal consiste à poursuivre les responsables de l’attentat du 14 février 2005 ôtant la vie à l’ancien Premier Ministre libanais Rafic HARIRI et de 22 autres personnes ; toutefois la compétence du TSL peut être élargie pour couvrir des attentats connexes. Plusieurs caractéristiques distinguent le TSL du fait qu’il est le premier tribunal pénal créé sous les auspices des Nations Unies, sans appartenir à la discipline du droit international humanitaire, et qui ne juge que des crimes de terrorisme en temps de paix à la lumière du droit national libanais ; comme il est le premier tribunal pénal international qui mène des procès in absentia; et le premier qui est doté d’un Bureau pour la Défense - comme organe autonome du TSL – sur un même pied d’égalité avec le Bureau du Procureur en conférant des pouvoirs larges aux conseils de la Défense. Le TSL fonctionne selon son propre Règlement de procédure et de preuve - adopté par ses juges - associant à la fois le système romano-germanique et le système anglo-saxon. Le fonctionnement du TSL confronte des défis juridiques, de par son financement mixte assuré à travers la contribution conventionnelle du Gouvernement libanais et les contributions volontaires des États membres, ou de par sa primauté restreinte qui est juste limitée aux juridictions libanaises, générant une coopération problématique avec les États tiers et hésitante avec le Liban. Également, le Statut du Tribunal est réticent sur la question des immunités. La mise en place du TSL a créé une grande polémique politique au Liban, son fonctionnement au cœur d’un cadre géopolitique instable provoque des enjeux stratégiques pertinents ayant des impacts sur la scène politique au Liban et au Moyen-Orient. Le TSL encourt des enjeux stratégiques du fait que son premier acte d’accusation incrimine des membres appartenant au Hezbollah - une résistance armée contre Israël - allié de l’Iran et de la Syrie. Le Printemps arabe et ses implications sur la révolte syrienne générèrent une instabilité politique et sécuritaire au Liban, alertant une nouvelle série d’attentats terroristes. La mission principale du TSL consiste à mettre fin à l’impunité au Liban, principalement celle relative aux assassinats politiques. Du fait que le TSL est établi juste pour juger un seul attentat et un nombre restreint de crimes connexes dans un cadre temporel et spatial restreints, alors qu’un grand nombre de crimes graves de droit international humanitaire et de crimes politiques et terroristes restent impunis au Liban, le TSL est conçu comme un instrument de justice sélective. Pour ses détracteurs, le TSL concrétise le dilemme entre « paix civile » et « justice internationale », bien que sa finalité consiste à consolider la réconciliation nationale à travers la découverte de la vérité. / The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) is created through a bilateral agreement concluded between the UN and the Lebanese Government; but its essential instruments didn’t come into force until the adoption of the binding resolution 1757 (2007) of the Security Council adopted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. The STL, sitting in the Netherlands, composed of foreign and Lebanese judges, is an internationalized criminal tribunal sui generis. Its primary mandate consists on prosecuting those responsible for the 14th February 2005 attempt which caused the death of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic HARIRI and 22 other people; nevertheless the STL’s jurisdiction can be extended to cover connected attacks. Many features distinguish the STL, since it is the first criminal tribunal that was created under the UN’s framework outside of the International humanitarian law’s discipline; it judges terrorism crimes in peace time under the Lebanese domestic law; moreover, it is the first international criminal tribunal which holds trials in absentia, establishes an Office for the Defense as an autonomous organ equally with the Office of the Prosecutor giving the defense counsel large powers. The STL works according to its proper Rules of Procedure and Evidence – adopted by its judges – associating the civil law system and the common law system. The STL’s functioning confronts legal challenges due to its combined funding mechanism, assured by the conventional contribution of the Lebanese Government as by the voluntary contributions of member States; or due to its restricted primacy limited only to Lebanese courts, arising a problematical horizontal cooperation. In addition, the STL’s Statute expresses reluctance on the immunities’ question. The implementation of the STL has created a large political controversy in Lebanon; its work in an unstable geopolitical framework triggers relevant strategic issues having impacts on the political scene in Lebanon and Middle-East. The STL incurs strategic challenges since its first indictment incriminates Hezbollah members – an armed resistance against Israel – ally of Iran and Syria. The Arab spring and its implications on the Syrian revolution generate instability to the political and security conditions of Lebanon, alerting a new series of terrorist attempts. The main mission of the STL consists to end impunity in Lebanon related first and foremost to political assassinations. The STL is considered as an instrument of selective justice since it is established only to judge a single attempt and a small number of connected crimes in a restricted spatiotemporal framework, whereas a large number of serious crimes of International humanitarian law and political crimes perpetrated in Lebanon are still unpunished. For its detractors, the STL embodies the dilemma between "civil peace" and "international justice", although its finality seeks to consolidate the national reconciliation through the discovery of the truth.