Intersectionality is a much-debated concept within gender and race studies, but there are few empirical studies that operationalise the concept in examining work organisations and occupational careers. This thesis applies an intersectional analysis to a study of the UK construction and transport sectors exploring how gender, sexuality and occupational class shape women’s work experiences. Sexuality is one of the least explored intersections, in particular its interaction with class; additionally the thesis addresses gaps in research evidence concerning the experience of women in non-professional occupations in construction and transport. In seeking to avoid prioritising either structure or agency, the research employs a multilevel framework (Layder, 1993) that addresses several dimensions of women’s experience of male-dominated work: the current policy context; women’s choices and identifications in relation to traditionally male occupations; gendered, sexualised and classed workplace interactions; participation in separate support networks and trade union structures; and the interaction of domestic circumstances with work participation. The multi-strategy qualitative methodology includes 50 interviews with key experts and heterosexual and lesbian women working in professional/managerial and nonprofessional occupations in the construction and transport sectors, plus two focus groups with women workers in construction and observation of events to raise awareness of non-traditional work. This intersectional approach permits consideration of both advantage and disadvantage and questions cumulative conceptions that presume, for example, that gender and sexuality compound to disadvantage lesbians at work. The contribution of this thesis is to reveal the circumstances in which sexuality, occupational class or gender is most salient in shaping work identity or experience, together with the ways they interact. Thus sexualised workplace interactions could at times be avoided by open lesbians, but all women were at risk of sexual or homophobic harassment, although it was more prevalent in the workplaces of non-professional women. Interviewees also highlighted benefits of male-dominated occupations, including increased gendered self-confidence from doing ‘men’s work’, and material pay advantages, particularly for nonprofessionals, which in some cases produced a shift in the domestic division of labour within households.

This research focuses on the role of audit committees among publicly listed companies in Thailand, a non-Western context when overseeing their companies’ enterprise risk management systems. A mixed methods research approach, including quantitative and qualitative methods was used to gather and analyse the research data. The results reveal that just above a quarter of the participants in the sample believe that companies in which they had worked as part of the audit committee have mature and robust risk management systems in place, while more than half of the survey audit committee chairs/members indicate that their companies have implemented risk management systems, but they require substantial work. The findings demonstrate no significant impact of the perceived higher levels of oversight responsibility for enterprise risk management on audit committees’ judgement competence. However, this study finds that audit committees who perceived higher levels of oversight responsibility of enterprise risk management have a strong positive impact on their perceptions of the quality of enterprise risk management. The findings also show that the audit committees’ judgement competence mediates the association between the audit committees’ activities in overseeing the internal and external audit functions and the audit committees’ perceptions of the quality of enterprise risk management. The qualitative interview results of this study uncover 11 processes that audit committees utilised to perform the risk oversight task: (1) scope of risk oversight, (2) risk oversight as a collective process, (3) understanding of business and risks, (4) scepticism, (5) focus on high-risk, high-impact, (6) challenging and forcing, (7) use of specialists, (8) give advice and recommendations, (9) provide support and assistance, (10) informal processes, and (11) follow-ups. In addition, the findings show that all of interviewees perceived the risk oversight responsibility as important. Such positive perceptions of the risk oversight task influenced audit committee chairs/members of this study to get involve closer in the internal and external audit functions. The findings report that they made a holistic judgement based on two components: information and perception. However, in the last step of the decision-making process, they demonstrate a willingness to accept their decisions under unknown conditions.

Manufacturing firms have vigorously pursued opportunities for profitability and growth through service-led growth strategies. A major part of the existing literature has focused on such strategies and has shown that this phenomenon is prevalent and growing in most developed economies. However, very little systematic evidence regarding the extent or consequences of servitization, based on comprehensive survey research, yet exists. Furthermore, the current body of research presents contradictory findings regarding the impact of servitization on firm performance. Drawing on the theoretical framework of the resource-based view, this research seeks to shed some light on this question by exploring the effect of servitization on firm performance. Through a survey of 185 U.S. and European manufacturing firms, along with the use of secondary financial data, this thesis provides empirical evidence that servitization has a direct, positive effect on firm performance. The study also finds that for the vast majority of manufacturers, the development of learning capabilities has served as a significant driver of servitization. Furthermore, the relationship between servitization and firm performance is moderated by industry dynamism. The original contribution of this research to the field of knowledge is twofold, including a theoretical contribution through the validation of the theoretical model and its implications for the literature, and a pragmatic contribution through the managerial implications of the findings. The findings have significant managerial implications because achieving superior bottom-line results is contingent upon the integration of those learning-and service-specific capabilities that transform the nature of an offering. Such integration enables the manufacturing firm and its customers to achieve radically improved operation within their ecosystems.

The aim of this study is to investigate the role and implications of the customer orientation of service employees (COSE) in highly relational services (HRS) and its front-line employees. Customer orientation (CO) is considered a key pillar in the development of relationship marketing (RM). However, there are not COSE studies trying to fully exploit its potential by the use of highly relational settings and the introduction of new consequences from the original COSE model aligned with those of RM goals. Accordingly, the COSE model was adequately framed under the relationship marketing (RM) theory, compared with other different CO models and then assessed via a qualitative study. For this study, private banking (PB) was chosen as HRS due to its particular characteristics, namely; a dyadic relationship between customers and employees (private bankers), a high customisation of the service, a needed judgement of the employee, and a particular way of delivery. The qualitative study was comprised of 25 semi-structured interviews to PB practitioners in order to address different research questions regarding the importance and applicability of the COSE model. Additionally, this research questioned what changes to the COSE model should be introduced for it to be adapted to HRS. Furthermore, new potential outcomes of COSE were examined together with the current situation related to the application of measurements of COSE in practice. This analysis confirmed the validity of the construct. COSE was proved to be notably important in PB, as in any HRS. Regrettably, no PB firm has a standardised process for measuring COSE. Moreover, the four dimensions that make up COSE received different grades of importance. Social skills were agreed to be more important than technical skills. Motivation was also considered as less important than social skills. Likewise, decision-making authority generated some disagreement as it can eventually result in a worse performance of the service delivery. There is a risk of the private banker to lose his or the focus on the service delivery due to the close relationship with the customer. Therefore, the interests of the three parties (company, employee and customer) have to be calibrated and aligned. Regarding the different COSE outcomes, new consequences were elicited; trust, loyalty, word of mouth, and customer-oriented deviance, from which some of the consequences were confirmed to be outcomes of RM too. Finally, an improved and extended COSE model has been proposed, including the potential effect of some characteristics of the firm and the employee. This is as well as a questionnaire to use in a future quantitative study that is adapted to the reality of the PB service. Numerous academic and managerial implications have also been extracted; (1) an innovative application of a qualitative methodology to an area where quantitative studies are the norm, (2) the application of the COSE model to a HRS setting like PB, whose academic classification and characterisation was also provided, (3) the identification and validation of new consequences of COSE, and (4) the adaptation and improvement of the COSE model that was provided by the proposition of a new conceptual model and a new questionnaire.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

Motivational factors and bargaining power have been recognized by scholars and practitioners alike, as important elements for negotiation strategies. However, there has been little effort to date to empirically or theoretically study the effect of these factors in the context of auditor-client negotiation while adopting a decision-making process framework. We present a Throughput Model framework that describes the decision-making process of auditors when they make decisions about negotiation strategies. The model depicts how (a) perception of motivational factors and (b) bargaining power affect the choice of negotiation strategy and identifies different pathways auditors use in their decision about negotiation strategies. In our experiment, we manipulate engagement risk perception, client pressure, corporate mechanisms strength as well as financial information. We. investigate their effects on auditor decision making about the likelihood of accepting client's management alternative and on the negotiation strategies choice. We find that only engagement risk perception influences auditor's propensity to accept aggressive accounting treatments of the client. This in turn influences the use of all the negotiation strategies. On the other hand, client pressure only has effect on compromising strategies while bargaining power influences the concessionary strategy of auditors. Moreover, two dominant decision making pathways are used by auditors, i.e. P→J→D and P→D.

Globalisation, nowadays, has increased the need to comprehend how cultural differences affect leadership styles, especially given the potential impact on organisational performance. In the Middle East and Saudi Arabia in particular, organisational performance has been claimed to be held back by national cultural values, but it is currently unclear how leaders in Saudi organisations are negotiating the balance between national cultural values and modem influences, and how the values they uphold may influence their leadership roles and practices. In order to develop leadership in the Saudi context, there is a real need to understand better the relationship between culture and leadership. Therefore, this study investigates to what extent and how the national culture influences the leadership process. The study was conducted in the utilities sector, the organisations that provide the three main public services; telecommunications, water and electricity. Qualitative data were collected by means of a multiple holistic case study strategy, involving interviews with nine managers and eighteen subordinates, and subjected to interpretive thematic analysis. Seven influencing factors were identified, with tension between the traditional factors of social norms, tribalism, regional affiliation, and wasta, perceived as having negative impacts, and the modernising influences of education and technology, perceived as positive. Islamic values reflected an ambiguous position, theoretically positive but purportedly misunderstood or incorrectly applied. The outcomes challenge universal views of leadership and suggest a distinctive Arab leadership style, albeit one facing contestation. The outcomes are expected to contribute to theories of culture and leadership, and to leadership practice in Saudi organisations.

Globalisation, increasing competition, turbulent economic environments, and technological changes have shifted the significance of traditional assets as primary resources in sustaining competitive advantage for organisations. Whilst traditional assets remain valuable, knowledge sharing has become increasingly recognised as another critically important factor. Arguably, the use of knowledge sharing mechanisms (personal socialisation and electronic socialisation) and structural capital dimensions such as network ties, network configuration, network stability, and centrality will impact organisational performance. Thus hypothetically, knowledge sharing mechanisms are likely to affect organisational performance through the mediating role of structural capital dimensions. However, the existing literature has largely overlooked the association between knowledge sharing mechanisms, structural capital and organisational performance. Subsequently, the holistic integration of the above constructs remains under-explored. As a result, this study examines the direct and indirect effects between knowledge sharing mechanisms and structural capital on organisational performance. In addition, it validates a conceptual framework and tests a range of research hypotheses. Using a hypothetic-deductive approach, a research instrument was developed based on the existing literature. The piloted research instrument was administered to a census of the UK Top 500 companies listed in the FAME database. A useable response from 167 chief executives, chief operating officers and top managers surveyed resulted in a 33.4% response rate. Multivariate analysis results indicate the internal reliability (total Cronbach Alpha values) of retained factors ranging from .72 to .90. Structural equation modelling (SEM) show adequate goodness of fit indices: CMIN/DF=1.11, NFI=.97, GFI=.91, CFI=.98, TLI=.99, and RMSEA=.03. Results demonstrate that structural capital mediates the relationship between knowledge sharing mechanisms and organisational performance: the hypotheses were confirmed. Moreover, electronic socialisation was shown to have a positive significant effect on operations performance. This study successfully validated the conceptual framework derived from a range of relevant theories. The study provides unique insights into how knowledge sharing mechanisms interacted with structural capital which leads to organisational performance: In integrating the aforementioned research constructs this study fills theoretical gaps by broadening the conceptualisation of the structural capital dimensionality and organisational performance facets. As a result, this study advances our understanding of organisational performance determinants. Accordingly, it provides managerial implications based on the results obtained. Limitations of the methodological approach and avenues for further studies are discussed.