Organizations are continuously confronted with decision-making in their daily business practice. Information technology plays a key role, supporting and automating decision-making processes, enabling the flow and distribution of information and knowledge and enhancing collaboration and exchange across the entire organization. Both, decision-making and information technology combine social and technological aspects of collaboration and collective action within a socio-economic system. Social media technologies such as corporate social networks, collaborative projects, instant messengers, content sharing platforms, blogs, micro-blogs, rating and voting systems, influence how human beings collaborate, build communities, exchange information, and jointly create content. This thesis combines aspects of social and behavioural science, collective decision-making and information technology into a qualitative research project. The main objective of this thesis was to explore and to gain a deep understanding of the implications of the integration of social media technologies to enhance collective judgement and the complex decision-making processes within corporate and less formal contexts. Therefore, this research identified real, potential and perceived benefits, disadvantages and barriers of social media integration in collective decision-making processes. The outcome focusses on evidence to establish whether social media technologies are capable of advancing the collective decision-making process. This study applied an exploratory qualitative research approach, which incorporated semi-structured interviews, multiple case studies and documentary data. Three case studies built the foundation of the field research conducted over a period of nine months, resulting in thirty semi-structured interviews. For each investigated site, ten individuals from various departments and different roles participated in thirty to forty minutes, semi-structured interviews recorded at their premises. Documents shared by the interviewees such as internal presentations, videos, meeting minutes and communication notes added to the overall data set. The key findings can be divided into three focus areas, (a) social media within a business environment and organizational readiness, (b) social media and collective action in business such as mass collaboration and problem solving and (c) social media integrated in collective decision-making derived from the benefits, disadvantages and barriers identified. Real benefits surfaced in the area of communication, interaction, involvement, reproducibility, aggregation and the independence of physical presence. From a communication perspective, the decision-making process benefits from utilizing different channels to convey and present information. These communication channels facilitate synchronous and asynchronous interaction, engaging different parties such as stakeholders, committees, experts, management and other participants in the process. Since the information created is continuously captured and stored, social media adds the benefit of reproducibility to the collective decision-making process. Rating and voting functions aggregate thoughts, opinions, and monitor, at an early stage of the process, tendencies and reflective developments in the group. Finally, rating and voting mechanisms build a collective choice acknowledged by a majority of a business collective. Social media relieves the requirement of physical presence in a collective decision-making process utilizing the corporate Intranet and the Internet. This adds flexibility to the selection of the participants and provides a basis of employee engagement from small to large-scale endeavours. Potential benefits relate to some extent to the explored real benefits. They focus on motivation of social interaction and collaboration, building relationships, enhancing the flow of information and fostering a reflective culture capable of collectively solving problems. From an organizational behaviour perspective, these benefits are capable of stimulating employees to engage in organizational topics, and utilizing organizational intelligence by sharing knowledge and experience to support collective decision-making. Perceived benefits include enhanced communication, interaction, involvement, and acceptance, variety of opinions, engaging employees in collective actions and integrating experts. Perceived disadvantages concentrated around social interaction. They manifested as distraction, losing focus on objectives, biased information, and loss of control, opinion manipulation, information overload and a less formal nature of the process. Barriers were identified in the area of abuse of personal information, additional workload in the daily business, unclear benefits, refusal to share knowledge, lack of trust about the information created and presented, manipulation of opinions, and continuous availability. The results of the thesis provided the evidence that utilization and integration of social media in the collective decision-making process depend on organizational readiness, which relates to the context. Social media application differs from the application in the Internet since social conformity, cohesion and internal competition influence participation and outcome. This means, the ability to integrate employees in collective action and the utilization of social media requires, besides acceptance of the new technology, a culture of openness, and willingness to share, engage and contribute. Therefore, this research suggests, from a managerial perspective, focussing on collective action capabilities, utilizing social media as an enabler to connect employees, to stimulate interaction, participation, and capture and support the information flow during a decision-making process. Recommendations for future research suggest analysing organizations in longitudinal studies to explore how they gain advantage of collective action concerning aggregation of knowledge using social media as a platform.

V této práci se zabývám firemní komunikací. Pro její plánování a rozvoj je třeba udržovat aktuální komunikační a informační strategii. Pro zjednodušení jsem systém firemní komunikace rozdělil na 4 subsystémy: Kultura, informační systém, komerční komunikace a firemní styl, z nichž každým se podrobně zabývám. Společným působením těchto čtyř disciplín vzniká unikátní identita organizace a toto jsou její základní kameny. Jedním ze způsobů, jak docílit silné identity, je budování promyšleného a stabilního firemního stylu. Firemní styl je úžeji vymezen jako vizuální tvář podniku, tzv. Corporate Design. Jeho základními elementy jsou: logotyp, barevnost a typografie. Přestože firmy si mohou být v těchto základních elementech podobné, odlišují se jejich aplikacemi na komunikační aktivity. Každá vizuální identita se stává unikátním otiskem složitého firemního organismu. Účelem aplikací není pouze marketingový úspěch či vizuální dokonalost; ten spočívá v jejich funkčnosti. Proto je při jejich tvorbě nutné respektovat daleko více kritérií.

This thesis focuses on the complex topic of managing multicultural teams in Hilti -- specifically Market Organization Czech Republic. The main goal is to chose a suitable theoretical model, which could be implemented as a part of the corporate culture of Hilti. It should increase the awareness and tolerance while working as a part of a multicultural team. As a result, the efficiency of multicultural teams in Hilti should increase. The first part focuses on theoretical background -- especially on culture, teams and communication. It also presents several approaches to managing multicultural teams. The second part reveals the current situation in the company through observation and individual discussions. As a result, model based on theory and the results of my observations, is presented.

Guanxi literally means a �special personal relationship� in Chinese social and business life. It is commonly considered a cultural barrier for many foreign entrants in China due to its exclusiveness, complexity and dynamics. This research study aims to understand the constraints and dilemmas in Chinese-Western intercultural business contexts. Specific questions addressed in this study are: (a) What are the constraints and dilemmas in Chinese-Western intercultural relationships in marketing? (b) How do business actors manage these constraints and dilemmas? (c) What new insights can be developed in order to improve Chinese-Western intercultural marketing relationships? These questions are important because most theoretical understandings of business relationships are developed in Western contexts. Furthermore, the emergence of China as a major global trading nation gives weight to these questions. A case study strategy is adopted with a focus on Chinese-Western intercultural marketing relationships. This study follows the International/Industrial Marketing & Purchasing Group (IMP)�s research tradition that views relationship building as the consequence of interaction among networks of actors. The research methodology is both qualitative and interpretive. A hermeneutical approach under the constructivist paradigm is adopted to interpret empirical findings from interviews with 58 Chinese and Western business managers. Analysis was conducted in three hermeneutical stages. Each stage progressed and revealed new sources of understanding. The first stage provided a contextual understanding of Chinese-Western intercultural business relationship by identifying �three circles� of relationship development activity based on behavioural norms, respectively the insider (guanxi) circle, an emerging intercultural circle and an outsider circle. This allowed me to develop a bridging perspective of guanxi ties in the emerging intercultural �middle� circle. The second stage revealed three types of guanxi dilemmas for outsiders. The second stage also disclosed seven kinds of perceived risk derived from Confucian ideology. The third stage developed a new concept of guanxi gatekeeper. These guanxi gatekeepers play vital roles in managing outsiders� dilemmas and the risks perceived by insiders in developing intercultural (interpersonal) relationships. They engage two gatekeeping processes: reciprocal gatekeeping and symbolic gatekeeping. It is my conclusion that the gatekeeping view of guanxi processes provides an improved understanding of relationship development in Chinese-Western intercultural business contexts. This study contributes to the marketing literature by identifying a new interpersonal network perspective and also the network position of guanxi gatekeeper in emerging Chinese-Western intercultural business networks. Thus, indirectly connected actors are seen to work independently but also interdependently through the involvement of gatekeepers. This study has an important strategic implication for Western entrants in China: Western firms and managers can avoid la guanxi (forcing direct relationships with innermost guanxi insiders) and instead operate through the facilitation of a middle force - guanxi gatekeepers.

The globalisation of the world economy and world markets has had far reaching effects on national economies as governments try to allocate funding to potentially profitable market areas. Rapid technological change has accompanied the expansion and diversification of the higher education market in an environment of global competitiveness, as universities try to claim their market share. Universities now view themselves as businesses, with strong implications for university staff, who are subject to new forms of organisational controls which emphasise the importance of corporate goals. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2000

This thesis is concerned with cross-cultural consulting. The research examines how a multinational consulting team worked with a multinational client. The consultants were from Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, USA and Australia and the client was a multinational oil company located on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. The study employs the narrative theory of Ricoeur together with the research findings on culture of Hofstede, Trompenaars, Hall, Kluckhorn and Strodtbeck. The study relies on a comparison of national cultural characteristics as they were enacted duringthe conduct of a consulting project. The research emphasises the roles of the consultants, the consulting process and the consulting outcomes.

This thesis assumes that the real essence of an organisation is its connectedness to the primary task. Hence the metaphor of 'soul' and the notion that passion for the task must be present to create 'soul'. It therefore follows that the nature of the primary task is central to the type of organisations that is created. The past decade of downsizing and the rise of the 'high performance culture' have developed their own narrative about delivering shareholder value. Alongside this, too often, exists the feeling that "this place has lost it soul". From that perspective, this thesis addresses the question: how does an increased focus on shareholder value impact on the organisation's passion for its primary task? In a qualitative study based on semi-structured interview data, the characteristics of the task of shareholder value delivery and its impact on customer service delivery are described in this thesis as have been reported by the informants of three large business units from The Australian Banking Corporation, Plc. (ABC), the fictionalised organization which forms the case study for this research. Drawing on a psycho-analytic theoretical frame of organisational theory, the dynamic that this shift in task has created is identified and interpreted. From this phenomenological position, the findings clearly reveal that shareholder value is identified as the current primary task of the organisation, and has become deeply embedded through a business model promoting separated specialist businesses within the umbrella of ABC. The findings show that the tension between delivering service to the customer as stakeholder, the initial primary task, and the current task of delivering shareholder value is unconsciously contained through a process of splitting and projection to establish an idealised customer. The concept of social defense is applied to interpret this dynamic as it enables ABC to engage in the fantasy that it remains customer focussed. In order to replace the primary task of customer service with the task of delivering shareholder value, a process of substitution and mutation developed unconsciously from fear for the survival of ABC which, equally unconsciously connected the notion of service with the desire to serve the shareholder. The pain and anxiety produced by downsizing and continual attention to cost reduction, highly characteristic of the shareholder value model, substantially reduced organisational morale and, in this context, ABC embraced a genuine desire to create a new set of values and a healthy culture. However, what emerged was a religious fundamentalist culture that protects and reinforces the task of delivering shareholder value. Weber's protestant fundamentalism model promoted the creation of financial wealth through hard work while generating feelings of inclusion to render the task of shareholder value more palatable in the organisation. These two systems became symbiotic though the task values intrinsic in delivering shareholder value were recognised as being devoid of altruism. The dogma driven by the system is fundamentalist, the culture is divisively individualistic and passion for the newly accepted primary task is apparently impossible. Hence, it is concluded, the organisational 'soul' of ABC has been corroded. The implications of these findings for practice are concerned with the impact of the task of pursuing shareholder value, and the system it creates as they impact on ABC's ability to change and adapt so that: - Short-termism and risk aversion appear to be affecting the capacity of the CEO to lead the organisation into a growth phase. - Adoption of the specialisation model at ABC, supported by the CEO with a competitive individual reward program, appears to have reduced the potential for ABC to institute change in response to market evolution. - The preparedness of the CEO to risk investment in the medium to long term for growth while managing the short-term expectations of the market has been diminished. - The heroic CEO that the shareholder value model attracts is now concerned about his own legacy, which is impacting on his preparedness to promote a vision for the medium to longer term. - The culture supports the status quo and is now promoted by ABC as part of what differentiates it from its competitors. To change this, it will need to look outside ABC. This, however, appears to have become a blind spot.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

<p>In this thesis the authors strive to investigate the risk management phenomena in the banking sector by conducting a longitudinal comparative study in two different banks i.e. Handelsbanken and Swedbank. In a broader perspective to understand the phenomena the authors depart from theoretical framework that recognizes the social and cultural elements of risk. However, to be more specific the thesis narrows down its analysis to three main variables that come under the realm of this discussion which are; how banks organizing for risk, how they measure it and the role of IT and human judgment. This study contributes to the banking sector by providing a road map of how successful banks manage risk. It highlights that the risk question should be addressed strategically and deemed to be a continuous phenomenon.</p>

The purpose of this study was to describe the level to which a target work culture based on core organizational values was shared in one lumber manufacturing plant. The organization under study perceived that their culture was a source of competitive advantage and was key to their success in safety, product quality, and labor-relations. The organization had actively managed their culture through operations management and human resource policies. The study addressed three research questions (1) to what extent were the core values of the organization shared, (2) were there any inconsistent values, and (3) did organizational members perceive their culture as helping or hurting their plant's performance outcomes. The study found eight of the nine values were shared across the organization. The values of safety and customer satisfaction were strongly shared. The value of environmental stewardship was not apparent in the organization. The organization perceived that its culture helped the mill success in key performance outcomes by promoting teamwork, participation, and communication. For the values of communication, involvement, trust, and respect there were perceptions of inconsistency between the target culture's definition of the value and its actual practice. The study provides support that culture may have an influence on organizational effectiveness. / Graduation date: 2002