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This is a study of the organisational change to self-managed team working in UK-based manufacturing organisations. There are few models to guide research into the organisational change to team working and this study focuses on the under-researched area of the implementation process. Descriptions of team development models imply a smooth, linear change process. Yet this strategic change involves major restructuring at an operational level and in reality is a complex and political transition process that unfolds in unpredictable directions. This research proposes a processual framework to explore team development and to increase understanding of the ways in which this transition is shaped at critical junctures. This research was based on case study data collected over periods of up to five years in four brownfield, manufacturing organisations. This data provided detailed illustrations of the major challenges facing organisations in the transition to self-management. Specifically, the research findings indicated that the change to self-managed team working was an unfolding, non-linear process and that its success was shaped not only by the congruence between team design and production setting, but also by the congruence between new work structures and supporting organisational arrangements. Senior management commitment was pivotal to the success of the change process, as were clear definitions of operational roles and required actions and behaviours. Finally, the research indicated the importance of key players adopting appropriate change-driver roles and of paying attention to political tensions and perceived threats associated with changes to traditional role demarcations. This research increases understanding of the implementation and development of self managed work teams at an operational level and the results may be of considerable practical use for organisations in determining their strategies for organisational change and development.

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Effective team working across disciplines is essential to solve the technological and managerial problems associated with construction projects. However, while it is widely accepted that this method of working is critical to the achievement organisational goals, it is a poorly understood process. Generic best practice recipes on how to improve team work in collaborative projects appears to have had limited impact on performance. Unless the realities of implementing and managing such joint endeavours are conceptualised and articulated in a manner that reflects the actual processes and patterns of behaviour, multi-disciplinary team working will remain a poorly understood working model. The goal of this work was to develop a conceptual framework that visualises the real success factors of multi-disciplinary working so that practitioners can apply a new understanding of predictable processes and patterns of behaviours to improve collaborative project outcomes. To achieve this, the project started with an exploration of critical success factors in multi-disciplinary design projects, encompassing extensive interviewing, workshops and a survey followed by a grounded theory (GT) study of collaborative working in six multi-disciplinary design projects. The switch to GT methodology offered possibilities to further probe into the dynamics of multi-disciplinary team working from the perspective of the team members. The findings show that team working in multi-disciplinary design projects can be explained through the social process of informalising. Informalising refers to the strategies practitioners use to cope with the multiple pressures and unforeseen demands that pervade the collaborative design environments. It portrays the relevance of managing of expectations and value-judging to remain effective and efficient in the face of change and uncertainty. These are critical factors that influence the project trajectory and experience of those involved. Alongside these results the work also demonstrates the importance of so called super soft factors such as shared values, creativity and innovation and passion and enthusiasm to achieve positive project outcomes. Overall, recognising that the process of informalising forms an essential part of cultivating collaboration, and hence getting the work done, more attention should be given to understand such activity in today s turbulent and transient project organisations. Knowledge and understanding of this form of emergent and improvisational strategy may enable managers to predict and control patterns of behaviour inherent in the management of collaborative design projects, and positively influence project outcomes in terms of perceived value and profit.

Purpose: To critically investigate the effect/impact the implementation of both team and individual based pay has when responses are measured in terms of teamworking, job satisfaction, culture and commitment in 2 Nigerian financial institutions. Design/methodology/approach: The study presents the first empirical case-study research carried out in Nigeria. The data are based on 2 Nigerian financial institutions surveys from 2002 to 2006. The analysis addresses the impact of the introduction of PRP within these institutions. Questionnaires were sent out to the 226 employees. Interviews and focus groups were also carried out with both managers and employees across both organisations. Findings: The findings indicate the importance of valence for monetary incentives, the instrumentality of performance for the monetary incentives and clear individual and group objectives for improving performance. On the basis of the analysis of the data from employees covered by the scheme, the results suggests that there are clear indications that it has raised motivational levels, though employees prefer working with individual performance related pay than in teams, but would not mind working in teams if it is linked to a reward, but the responses indicate that individual performance related pay has damaged the concept of team working. The results indicated a positive link of PRP having a positive effect with employees on higher grade levels; this result support other results from a number of earlier UK studies. The results also indicate that the introduction of PRP can enhance culture change and enhanced performance but may not ultimately lead to commitment from employees. The findings also indicate a positive link between PRP, improved individual and organisational performance, change in culture and job satisfaction. Though the research indicates positive outcomes from one organisation it also indicates negative outcomes from the other organisation. Why would that occur, as both organisations operate the same form of individual PRP? It leads the researcher to conclude that PRP must be modified to take into account the cultural (national & organisational) implications of the transference western management practices into non-western organisations. The research finishes by listing out implications for management and recommendations. Research limitations: As this study utilises data from Nigerian financial institutions only, its results cannot be generalised to other sectors and countries characterised by different cultures and contexts. However, what is critical though is that the approach used to finding these results can be applied in a wide variety of situations, thus enabling the examination of external validity. ORIGINALITY/VALUE – This study is one of the first to explore the effect/impact of the introduction of performance related pay in Nigerian financial institutions and reflecting on the historic cultural context of gift giving and culture within organisations and the impact this has on the success or failure of PRP schemes. It also provides a new empirical evidence on the use of performance related pay. The results also show a link between the introduction of performance related pay and a change in the psychological contract from a relational contract to a transactional psychological contract, where commitment (bought) and loyalty is based on the monetary aspects of the relationship. The results supports an interpretation of incentive pay as motivated by expectancy theory and provides new evidence on the relationship between the success of performance related and its use by employees as a bargaining tool for salary increases and new job roles. Its implications should be of interest to human resource managers when designing reward strategies for their organisations.

Aim: The existing literature on the experiences of individuals who have undertaken Problem-Based Learning (PBL) as part of their doctoral Clinical Psychology training in the UK is scarce, particularly from the perspective of qualitative peer research. The aim of the present study was to construct and articulate a deeper account of such experiences, and in particular, to explore how individuals make sense of these experiences. It is hoped that the findings of the present study will increase awareness within Clinical Psychology training programmes of the experiences, perspectives and needs of trainees who undertake PBL. Method: A qualitative approach was adopted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight Trainee Clinical Psychologists who have undertaken PBL at a Clinical Psychology training programme in South-East England. Their accounts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), which endeavours to illuminate the lived experiences of small samples of individuals who have experienced a particular phenomenon. Results: The analytic procedure highlighted four main themes emerging within participants’ accounts: Intensity of the experience; Striving towards connection versus fear of disconnection; Responses to manage the experience(s) can be unhelpful and helpful; and Trying to make sense of PBL. Implications: Participants characterised PBL as a challenging yet invaluable process through which they made significant gains, both professionally and personally. Facilitators were noted to play a key role in helping to create safe spaces in which trainees are supported to engage with issues that may arise for them in relation to their professional and personal development. Implications and recommendations are outlined for the benefit of Clinical Psychology training programmes that may wish to incorporate or alter PBL within their syllabuses.

Work process knowledge (WPK) is a concept for systems-level knowledge of the workplace and has been shown to be most important in organisations requiring multi-functional working. Most of the previous body of knowledge on WPK has focussed mainly on manufacturing industries; there has been less investigation of WPK in the service sector and none in the visitor attraction (VA) industry, an important employer in Scotland. The VA industry is extremely dynamic and many businesses are rapidly moving towards multi-functional team working, driven by an urgent need to develop quality, customer-focussed strategies to survive in an over-supplied and very competitive market. This study identifies the nature of WPK in Scottish VAs, what relationship WPK has to customer service, how WPK in this service sector differs from selected published studies in manufacturing and other service sector contexts and what factors affect the development of WPK in VAs. Following recruitment of a number of VAs using an online questionnaire and subsequent site visits, six sites were selected for case study, on the basis that they demonstrated most evidence of multi-functional working and staff with developed WPK. The research design was comparative case studies of the work processes and knowledge within these six VAs, based on a social constructivist framework, using the methods of key informant interviews and shadowing. Although these six sites represent a cross-spread of attractions in terms of types, location and size, they nonetheless show strong similarities in their basic business structure. The data show that WPK is an essential element of workers’ roles and a vital requirement in providing good customer service. Although VA managers do not use the term ‘work process knowledge’, they nonetheless recognise the importance of having staff with a wider view of their business and are actively encouraging its rapid development. Multi-functionality and job rotation are main ways of developing WPK but sites also use key workers with job roles that help develop high levels of WPK, who are then used as a staff resource. The main factor contributing to the development of WPK is communication, especially of systems-level information. Cultural information-sharing is an essential pre-condition for the development of WPK in this context. Other determining factors are flexibility, employee biographies, seasonality issues, how weddings and functions are handled on-site and the size and complexity of the site. WPK is the foundation on which good customer service is based and elements of it deliver customer service. It is the closely integrated nature of the employee-customer relationship that has such a profound effect on WPK development in this service sector industry and is essentially what differentiates it from previously published studies. The identification of the customer as a hitherto unrecognised key driver of WPK is the most important contribution to knowledge made by this work.

La recherche économique considère le médecin généraliste comme un agent offrant à l’échange information et services intellectuels en santé à des principaux. L’imparfaite convergence entre leurs objectifs, comme la présence d’incertitudes et d’asymétries d’information, conduisent le médecin à « fixer » les quantités, l’effort fourni et la qualité des soins et services rendus. Cette thèse vise à identifier le rôle des caractéristiques des généralistes, de leur mode d’exercice ou d’organisation, sur la performance de leur activité, en s’appuyant sur trois articles. Le premier analyse les déterminants de la variabilité de prescription d’antibiotiques pour rhinopharyngite aiguë, le second évalue l’impact du travail en équipe avec des infirmières sur la qualité et l’efficience des soins pour les patients diabétiques, et le troisième évalue l’impact de l’exercice regroupé pluriprofessionnel sur l’activité et l’efficience productive des généralistes et l’efficience des recours aux soins ambulatoires de leurs patients. Ces travaux de recherche permettent d’interroger la faiblesse relative de la régulation de l’offre de soins ambulatoire en France en matière de politique de maîtrise de l’évolution des dépenses de santé en comparaison de celle portant sur la demande. / According to economic research, the general practitioner is considered as an agent that offered information and intellectual services in health to principals. Imperfect convergence between their objectives, like the presence of uncertainties and information asymmetries, lead the physician “to fix” the quantities, the effort and the quality of the care and services delivered. Based on three articles, this thesis aims at identifying the role of the characteristics of the general practitioners and of their practice organization, on activity performance. The first articles analyzes the determinants of the antibiotic prescription for acute rhinopharyngitis variability, the second evaluates the impact of team working with nurses on the quality and the efficiency of the care for diabetic patients, and the third evaluates the impact of multi-professional group practices on the activity and the productive efficiency of GPs and on the utilization of ambulatory health care and by their patients. These researches question the relative weakness of the ambulatory health care regulation in France in terms of health care expenditure containment policies in comparison with that bearing on demand.