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This thesis is about how systems thinking might contribute to the successful management of change (MOC). The motivation is the increasing importance of MOC in an environment where competition and internationalisation of markets are ever intensifying: organisations either "change or die", yet MOC suffers adversely with unacceptably high failure rates. A critique of MOC literature shows that current MOe methodology is characterised by reductionist approaches with a diversity of confusing and contradictory suggestions and recipes. This is seen to be impoverished where different types of organisational change are interacting. All these suggest that MOC methodology itself needs to be improved and a systemic approach is more appropriate. In search of methodological underpinnings for proposing a systemic approach to MOC, literature on systems thinking is reviewed, indicating that systems approaches, especially critical systems thinking, are potentially powerful to inform the development of MOC. Nevertheless, important questions are raised about applying systems ideas to MOC. Further research is needed. And this has been done by triangulating data, theory and method to develop a fuller understanding of systems perspectives and their relevance to MOC. By combining MOC and systems thinking together in a theoretically informed way, a systemic MOC framework is suggested and revised. This framework is seen to provide a characterisation of MOC by identifying the conceptual components, a coherent theoretical structure by specifying and ordering the relationships between these components, and a way of helping understand and manage the diversity in organisational change systemically. This framework is theoretically underpinned and applied to a case study where different types of organisational change and their interactions are surfaced. The outcomes firmly support the view that MOe is characterised by different types of organisational change and their interactions, for which systemic approaches are more appropriate; thus the systemic MOC framework developed is seen to be useful in helping understand and manage organisational change more effectively. The findings are critiqued within the study, and from this come out the conclusions, and recommendations for future research.

This thesis examines the implications of the alleged rise of the `knowledge economy' for regional economic change in Europe. In particular, it is concerned with `postindustrial' trajectories of less-favoured regions, in both the Western and Eastern parts of the `New Europe'. In doing so, the thesis critically engages with the `new regionalism' economic geography approaches that draw on institutional/evolutionary economics, and on the `knowledge economy' or 'learning economy' discourses. These approaches invariably identify localised forms of knowledge production and learning and various supporting institutions as key factors behind regional prosperity. Considered as the most important organisational units of contemporary global knowledge-intensive capitalism, economically successful regions are understood as `learning regions' acting as collectors and repositories of knowledge, and displaying the ability to learn and innovate, while being supported by regional `institutional thickness'. Less-favoured regions are themselves claimed to have a capacity to improve their own economic fortunes by becoming `learning regions'. These claims are exposed to a theoretical scrutiny that reveals serious conceptual weaknesses in the `knowledge economy' and `learning region' paradigms and the thesis suggests an alternative conceptualisation of regional economic change. This alternative conceptualisation places emphasis on the `socio-spatial divisions of labour' and the accompanying `socio-spatial value chains/networks' as a useful prism through which increasingly uneven regional development in Europe can be understood. The case studies of two former industrial region-states are then presented - one in the `Western' periphery (Scotland) and one in the `Eastern' post-socialist periphery (Slovakia) of the `New Europe' - both attempting a transformation to the high value-added `knowledge-based' economy. The empirical evidence supports the view that, although institutions can play an important role in economic development of regions, their room for manoeuvre is nevertheless significantly constrained by their own historical legacies and the wider neo-liberal political economy.

Marine phytoplankton produce the vast majority of primary production in the world’s oceans and sustain virtually all marine ecosystems. Despite this importance, it is currently unclear how global marine phytoplankton concentrations have been changing over the available oceanographic record, and what the causes and consequences of any such changes may be. In this thesis I use observational datasets, statistical modeling, theory, and experiments, to estimate how the global standing stock of marine phytoplankton (referenced by chlorophyll) has changed over the past century, and what the causes and consequences of any changes may be. I inter-calibrated shipboard measurements of upper ocean chlorophyll, transparency, and colour to generate a publicly-available global chlorophyll database spanning from 1890 to 2010. Generalized additive models and multi-model inference were used to estimate the magnitude and nature of changes over the available record, and to explore the effects of multiple oceanographic and climatic variables on these changes. Finally, I worked collaboratively to design and run a mesocosm experiment to test the mechanisms by which rising ocean temperatures influence phytoplankton and plankton community structure. I observed declining trends in upper ocean chlorophyll concentrations at local, regional, and global scales over the past century. Increasing trends were observed closer to coastlines, and were possibly related to increased land-based nutrient deposition there. I also observed inter-annual to multi-decadal fluctuations overlying the longterm trends, which were partly related to climate variability. Sea surface temperature was a consistently strong driver of observed chlorophyll trends. Strong negative effects of rising ocean temperatures on chlorophyll concentration were observed at mid, and low latitudes, and positive effects were observed at high latitudes. The overall effect of increasing temperature on chlorophyll was negative, yet the mesocosm experiment revealed that the primary mechanisms explaining this effect depend on the nature of the ecosystem. Under nutrient limitation, the physically-mediated effects (stratification) of increasing SST were dominant, while under nutrient saturation, the biologically-mediated effects (trophic) were dominant. This thesis provides new evidence that sustained declines in marine phytoplankton over the past century have occurred across multiple spatial scales and that rising ocean temperatures have contributed to this trend. The possible implications of this sustained decline are wide-ranging, with likely impacts on climate, geochemical cycling, fisheries, and ecosystem structure.

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1978. / Bibliography: leaves [237]-243. / Microfiche. / xiii, 243 leaves ill., maps

This research presents a qualitative case study based on grounded theory to address the research question: What can harness and release the subconscious creative potentials of people multi-individuals for responsible organizational transformation of a church? The case concerns a church in need of an organizational transformation (OT) to provide long term homogenizing and internal organizational adjustment effects. Being a religious organization, spirituality is a key variable for its OT. / Thesis (PhDBusinessandManagement)--University of South Australia.

The extensive development of change management has offered organizations appropriate strategies, effective approaches and useful concepts to realise the anticipated change. The latest change manifestation that is being given major attention by public organizations is Electronic Government, which is realised through the expansion of Information Technology and the evolution of the Internet. / This research has found that the Electronic Government initiative has affected organisational change, particularly in the areas of Strategy, Structure and People. As a result, the performance of the organization has also improved. Therefore, the Electronic Government initiative has had an impact on organisational performance. The results of this research show that Electronic Government intervenes in and affects these three variables independently or/and collectively. Any change in one variable will influence the others and this change can take place in two ways. A model framework is proposed to illustrate this interdependency of all three variables of Strategy, Structure and People within an organization, and the intervention of Electronic Government. The new theoretical framework could contribute to the overall understanding of the intervention of Electronic Government in the organisational change process and its impact on organizational performance. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2005

The aim of this research was to identify environmental factors and relationships affecting employees that relate to successful privatisation in Australian organisations. The ultimate goal was to give organisations, boards and governments, valuable insights into how they might better manage employees through significant change initiatives. / Three studies were conducted. The first involved semi-structured interviews with seven steering committee members to ascertain their views on what variables contribute to successful privatisation. / The second utilised a questionnaire to poll privatisation survivors opinions on what assisted them personally with the change process. Selected participants from eight organisations undergoing privatisation were invited to complete a survey designed to measure the impact of eleven key factors. Of 120 invited participants, 78 responded. Following a simultaneous and stepwise multiple regression analysis three emerged as significant and independent predictors of employees perception of successful privatisation. These were Leadership, Positive Change and Organisational Culture and Values. These three variables accounted for 43% of the variance in employee scores of a perceived successful change process. / A follow up study was conducted to ascertain how the organisations were performing 10 years on from privatisation. / Thesis ([PhD(BusinessandManagement]))--University of South Australia, 2005

This research is designed to explore factors that influence success and failure of organisational change management as perceived by managers in Malaysia. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2004.

Thesis (MBus)--University of South Australia, 2000