Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / Namakwa Sands experienced a severe breakdown in labour relations resulting in a protected strike in 2006. During the ensuing strike, conditions deteriorated to such an extent that the mass action spiralled out of control and led to destruction of company property and subsequently the dismissal of employees. Following this, the company further underwent a dramatic organisational change during the latter quarter of 2008 and through 2009 when Anglo American Public Limited Company (PLC) divested its share of mineral sands business to Exxaro Resources. This study investigated the successes and failures encountered during this change management programme, taking cognisance of the poor labour relations prior to the acquisition by Exxaro Resources. Change management is a systemic and structured approach to move people from a state of dissatisfaction to a future position of satisfaction that benefits the organisation. Various models and well-defined literature currently exist to guide management during a successful process of change management. The focus of this research report is on the change management process followed during the transition period of change of ownership from Anglo American to Exxaro Resources, determining the successes and failures during this period as measured by the “Best Company to Work for” (BC2W4) surveys conducted by Deloitte and Touche. A further comparison is done between the process followed by Namakwa Sands and that of subject literature and two existing, well-recognised change management models generally in use, namely the ADKAR Model and John Kotter’s eight-step change management process model. “Overall, change management is about helping people through change. It is the process, tools and techniques for proactively managing the people side of change in order to achieve the desired business results” (Hiatt & Creasy, 2003: 10).

The thesis examines life within large Danish companies affected by the global financial downturn. It does so from phenomenological-relational perspectives, as a counterpoint to the traditional, mechanical (Cartesian) ways of viewing structures, problems and processes leading to resolutions. In particular, the thesis dwells on the differences between “aboutness” and “withness” as criteria for judging how people behave in such companies, particularly at times when a CEO suddenly announces major and rapid change. The thesis attempts to shape some of the contours of a relational landscape - with different understandings of life and living. In that respect, it looks beyond models, tools and recipes as the only ways of evolving as companies move towards future survival.

The “University” is under pressure to address both local and general requirements from society towards a phenomenon called globalisation. In Brazil, the Ministry of Education has tried, without success, to promote institutional change. Confronted by this situation a process initiated by an internal change agent and based upon the introduction of Action Research was itself the subject of this AR Study by the change agent. This thesis draws upon the findings of that AR and uses it to critically examine the potential to foster change within the higher education context in Brazil using AR. The research was designed in two synchronous processes taking place at two different levels. The first is the facilitation of the uptake of Action Research by a group of academic staff, and the second is the research into that process as a piece of Action Research in its own right by the change agent/facilitator. Facilitation of change has been described as taking place in three phases: a) Mobilization; b) Implementation; and c) Continuation. Throughout such phases in this case data were systematically gathered by the use of five instruments of data collection: 1) Observation; 2) Diary; 3) Questionnaires; 4) Interviews; and 5) Sociogram. Results show my personal learning in facilitating this process of change and two main contributions to knowledge. The first is one which, though local and specific, may nevertheless speak to the challenges faced by other practitioners. Exemplified in this study by the critical exploration of the ‘Daisy Model’ of introducing AR that led to its modification into the ‘Flower Model’. The second is that new knowledge which appears to be more generalisable and for which a case can be made for its wider applicability. Again exemplified in the continuous and disruptive process of change that unfolded to reveal a suitable framework for the use of Action Research as a vehicle of change in a rural university in Brazil where all actions were based on four central principles that emerged from the research: neutrality, voluntary participation, time and motivation. The future success and sustainability of the change processes begun are contingent upon the reaction of the current management of the institution. Five scenarios are examined and a second phase for this AR project is suggested that attempts to address the issues raised.

<p> </p><p>Vasakronan AB är ett statligt ägt fastighetsföretag som regeringen planerar att sälja ut. Med denna typ av organisationsförändring så kan oro och stress bland de anställda förekomma. I och med detta så kan ett motstånd till förändringen uppstå. Motstånd kan leda till ett misslyckande av förändringsarbetet. Stress och oro gör de anställda mindre arbetsföra och istället för att genomföra det dagliga arbetet så lägger de energi på spekulationer om framtiden. Denna oro och stress kan man förhindra till stora delar om ledningen i företaget utför en korrekt anpassning till förändringen. Information, kommunikation, kunskap och erfarenhet är alla viktiga delar av ett förändringsarbete. Författarna har intervjuat marknadsansvarig på Vasakronan i Uppsala för att ta del av hans arbete med att informera och kommunicera eventuella förändringar inom företaget. Två av de anställda har också intervjuats för att få deras syn på organisationsförändringen. Några slutsatser som kan dras av denna fallstudie är att alla typer information är viktig för att minska oro, den ska helst finnas från början och vara konkret. Egna erfarenheter och kollegors erfarenheter spelar en viktig roll för att påverka de anställdas uppfattning om framtiden.</p><p> </p>

<p>Most organizations of today are more or less influenced by the globalization. This phenomenon has led to that changes belong to the everyday concern of companies in order to be ahead of the competition. Simultaneously, when it comes to discussions about change failures and successes, it mainly is the top management standing in the spotlight. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to take a glance backstage of organizational changes while focusing on middle management. The purpose of this research is to examine how the middle manager can become a change agent and what contributions this new role can bring to the company. A glimpse on the historical evolution of the middle manager´s role and status helps to identify the underlying causes for the existing stereotype of this management group as well as the reasons for why middle management seems to belong to the ‘forgotten breed’ in organizations. Furthermore, the concept of changes and change management is outlined in order to clarify why changes fail and how those failures can be prevented with the help of a change agent. Based on this theoretical framework, the potential of middle managers acting as change agents is discussed. Additionally, due to the fact that the middle manager’s role as a change agent is not fully recognized yet, an own developed concept is outlined. This model is created as a result of empirical research in terms of interviews with consultants as well as extensive literature studies within this research area. The concept demonstrates how a middle manager can become a change agent and which contributions this new role can bring to the organization. Overall, it can be concluded from the research that it is time for organizations to recognize the potential of middle managers; they are the ones who can make changes happen.</p>

Current concepts of environmental waste focus on the total production of waste from a production plant or industrial setting and the subsequent consequences on the natural environment. Hence, there is an emphasis on containing waste within the industrial boundaries and applying a post-production process to clean it up. However, waste is generated by individual processes within the production system and can be more effectively treated at this individual site level. Therefore, focused management of environmental waste reduction requires that production engineers first know what the environmental waste is and where specifically it is being generated. However, this is often simply not known with any accuracy. In addition, production plants are controlled and improved by lean methods. Current environmental waste methods lack integration with lean methods and thus are not included in the continuous improvement cycles. Consequently, there is a need to include environmental waste impacts alongside the other primary lean wastes. This work develops just such an integrative method which includes both environmental waste and Value Stream Mapping (VSM). This method was developed and tested in a re-manufacturing setting (i.e. Christchurch Engine Centre, Pratt and Whitney) and is able to represent a variety of environmental wastes. Specifically, it integrates aspects from the generic environmental standard ISO14001 through to an organisational environmental risk register. It provides integration within the VSM process which ensures that the established lean improvement programme (through the use of Kaizen improvements) is focused on specific environmental improvement actions. While the example for this thesis used the factors of carbon footprinting, perceived impact, costs to remediate and waste volumes (both removed from process and residual); the method is capable of being generalised to nth dimension environmental factors. It is thus able to represent a customised environmental waste index for any particular industry. Ambiguous user estimation of waste quantities was accommodated through PERT beta distributions. Several ways to represent the multi-dimensional environmental waste impact data were explored via industry focus group reviews and the preferred representation was designed to completion. The resulting method can be used by production staff to quantify and represent environmental impacts at the level of the individual processes and aggregated to report wastes for the whole value stream. The method may also be used by executives to align organisational practices with strategic objectives for waste reduction.

Effective management of information about client requirements in construction projects lifecycle can contribute to high construction productivity; within budget and schedule, and improve the quality of built facilities and service delivery. Traditionally, requirements management has been focused at the early stages of the construction lifecycle process where elicited client requirements information is used as the basis for design. Management of client requirements does not extend to the later phases. Client requirements often evolve and change dramatically over a facility's life. Changing client requirements is one of the principal factors that contribute to delays and budget overruns of construction projects. This results in claims, disputes and client dissatisfaction. The problems of current requirements management process also include: lack of integrated and collaborative working with requirements; lack of integrated requirements information flow between the various heterogeneous systems used in the lifecycle processes, and between the multiple stakeholders; inefficient and ineffective coordination of changes within the lifecycle processes; manual checking of dependencies between changing requirements to facilitate assessment of cost and time impact of changes. The aim of the research is to specify a better approach to requirements information management to help construction organisations reduce operational cost and time in product development and service delivery; whilst increasing performance and productivity, and realising high quality of built facilities. In order to achieve the aim and the formulated objectives, firstly, a detailed review of literature on related work was conducted. Secondly, the research designed, developed and conducted three case studies to investigate the state-of-the-art of managing client requirements information. A combination of multiple data collection methods was applied which included observations, interviews, focus group and questionnaires. Following this, the data was analysed and problems were identified; the necessity for a lifecycle approach to managing the requirements information emerged. (Continues...).

Although emerging technologies offer the construction industry many opportunities for IT-enabled collaboration environments, the companies adopting these technologies usually fail. in achieving the full benefits from their implementations. The reason for this is found as focusing too much on the technical factors and ignoring or underestimating the factors related to change, implementation, human and organizational factors, and the roles of the management and end-users. Each new information technology implementation involves some change for the organization and the employees, and is therefore a source of resistance and confusion unless special attention is paid to managing this change. This research aims to find how to introduce collaboration environments to construction organizations and how to manage the changes required in order to obtain the full benefits from their implementation. In order to achieve this aim, the theoretical concepts and previous work on collaboration environment implementations in construction industry, and change management with a focus on organizational change management are reviewed. The perspective of the construction organizations on the implementation of collaboration environments are investigated conducting case studies. Based on the findings from the literature review and the case studies, an organizational change management framework is developed for implementing collaboration environments. A computer based prototype is also developed in order to automate the framework. The framework and the prototype are evaluated by the industry professionals.

The thesis is focused on developing a set of work standards or framework to the company, Isaberg Rapid which has changed its parent company and because of it lost many of its experienced employees. Subsequently a lot of implicit knowledge is lost along with the employees, which later became evident when challenges recurred in production. The aim of the research project is to create a proof methodology to avoid this loss by storing this tacit knowledge for any references, even if the employees involved with the product are lost.

Cette thèse porte sur l'externalisation des connaissances des acteurs de la conduite du changement à la SNCF en vue de leur partage explicitation, modélisation et formalisation). Notre approche a été de prendre en compte la nature non seulement "implicite", mais aussi et surtout "pré-réfléchie", des connaissances impliquées dans ce savoir-faire, ce qui nous a conduit à explorer la voie d'une "ingénierie des connaissances pré-réfléchies". Si actuellement, la gestion des connaissances préfère souvent résoudre le problème du partage du tacite par la voie de la socialisation plutôt que par celle de l'externalisation, il existe des recherches sur l'explicitation des connaissances, en particulier les techniques d’"entretien d'explicitation" (Vermersch), qui méritent d'être appliquées à ce problème. Notre recherche a suivi les phases suivantes : revue de la littérature sur la conduite du changement puis sur la gestion des connaissances et le pré-réfléchi, description du système de connaissances de conduite du changement à la SNCF, conception d'une ontologie de représentation de ces connaissances, qu’elles soient explicites, implicites ou pré-réfléchies, dans le formalisme des graphes conceptuels, réalisation d'un serveur pour le partage de ces connaissances, et enfin, explicitation et formalisation du savoir-faire d'animation de groupes de travail participatifs. D'un point de vue méthodologique, ce travail nous a permis de mettre au point une méthode de conception d'ontologie à partir de connaissances pré-réfléchies ainsi qu'une adaptation de la méthode de l'entretien d'explicitation à un contexte de gestion des connaissances. / This thesis deals with the externalization of change management knowledge in the National French Railways Company for sharing (elicitation, modelling and formalization). We have chosen to consider not only the «implicit» dimension of this know-how (which is not stated) but also its "pre-reflective" dimension (which is not immediately conscious for the subject who uses it). This approach has led us to investigate a "pre-reflective knowledge engineering". Currently, most knowledge management researchers and practitioners prefer to solve the problem of tacit sharing by socialization rather than by externalization. However there has been some research done on eliciting knowledge which could be applied to knowledge management. More precisely, we have focused on the contributions of the “explicitation interview” (Vermersch) to knowledge management problems. Our research went through the following stages: state of the art in change management, knowledge management and pre-reflective knowledge, description of the system constituted by the change management knowledge at the SNCF, design of an ontology in order to represent this explicit, implicit and pre-reflective knowledge through conceptual graphs, design and development of a server for this knowledge sharing and finally, the elicitation and formalization of the know-how which consists in leading participative working parties. Methodologically, this study has enabled us to develop on the one hand a method for building an ontology starting from pre-reflective knowledge, on the other hand an adaptation of the explicitation interview for the knowledge management domain