This study explored the possible connection between organizational culture and worldview and the narratives professional associations use to sell these perspectives to external audiences. Burke's pentad and ratio analysis were utilized to identify the dominant terms in nineteen narratives featured in a promotional booklet published by the National Business Incubation Association. In eleven of the stories, the "agent" elements were most prevalent in these stories, signaling an idealistic worldview. The remaining eight narratives were agency-dominant and provided an underlying pragmatism to the highly idealistic outlook of the agent-focused stories. In addition to providing a philosophical label for the narrative messages, analyzing the pentad elements gave clues as to this association's value system toward incubation clients and the business incubation industry in general. The implications of this professional association's influence on an emerging industry were also discussed. / Department of Communication Studies

This case study describes the organizational culture of a small, private Midwestern university (SPMU). Specifically, the study employs the Competing Values Framework (CVF) (Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1981) and the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) (Cameron & Quinn, 1999) to diagnose overall institutional culture and identify distinctive subcultures along representative demographic criterion. The cultural diagnosis achieved with OCAI is expanded through data analysis and used to investigate and demonstrate the utility of the Three-perspective Theory (TPT) of culture offered by Martin (2002).The results of this investigation support the ability of the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) data to demonstrate simultaneously the three perspectives offered by Martin (2002): integration, differentiation and fragmentation. The integrationist bias of CVF and OCAI is shown to be overly narrow given its ability to quantitatively demonstrate multiple perspectives of culture with appropriate analysis. The intersection of OCAI data with the Three-perspective Theory is shown to expand the implementation and interpretation of both approaches to cultural investigation. This is the first time the OCAI has been used in intersection with the Martin (2002) Three-perspective Theory and the second time the OCAI has been used to test for subcultures in higher education as indicated by Paparone (2003) and available research published to date. This is the first published account of subcultural testing with OCAI in a traditional, comprehensive institution of higher education along demographic parameters. / Department of Educational Studies

<p>Organisational culture has been one of the most studied and theorised concepts in organisational development. New ways of working, globalisation, increased competition and change in technology have created a greater need for strategic innovation and co-ordination and integration across units (Schein, 1992). Culture is the single most important factor for success or failure and has the greatest potential to effect organisational improvements or hold it back (Deal &amp / Kennedy, 1982 / Fowler, 2002). Research suggests that organisational culture, its assessment and management is increasingly viewed as a necessary part of healthcare improvements (Scott, Mannion, Davies &amp / Marshall, 2003). In the health care environment, organisational culture has been associated with several elements of organisational experience and initiatives that contribute to quality, such as nursing care, job satisfaction and patient safety (Boan &amp / Funderburk, 2003).</p> <p>In order to implement strategic initiatives or performance improvement interventions, it is important that an organisation understands the current status of its organisational culture. The best way to gain understanding of the culture is by assessing it (Davidson, 2004).&nbsp / he aim of the research was to assess the organisational culture of a private hospital in the Western Cape. For the purpose of this study a quantitative methodology adopted used utilising purposive sampling. The sample (n = 221) was inclusive of males and females and comprised of permanent and contract employees extending across the following departments: Human Resources, Patient Administration, Pharmacy, Technical, Support Services and Nursing. The nursing department was the largest representative group of the sample. The sample also included of medi-staff, management and an additional small hospital that reports to the management team. The Denison Organisational Culture Survey was used to gather data for the study. The Survey measures four culture traits, namely, involvement, consistency, adaptability and mission. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. Results indicated that employees perceived involvement, consistency, adaptability and mission positively. Furthermore, there were no significant differences found for consistency and sense of mission by employees in different departments. There were several limitations of the study. Amongst others, the results cannot be generalised to the broader population of all private hospitals as the findings are unique to the particular organisation. Secondly, the Denison Organisational Culture Survey has only been validated in a financial organisation in South Africa. A recommendation for further research would be to utilise quantitative as well as qualitative methodology to add to the existing body of knowledge.</p>

<p>This study focused on understanding inter-organizational relationships (IOR) of a dynamic nature. A dynamic process that has repetitive sequences of negotiation, commitment, and execution stages is central to inter-organizational relationships. The dynamic process is a tool that is used by management through collaboration, co-operation, and coordination to engender formation, governance, and performance of inter-organizational relationships. This report looked into how the resource-dependency theory gives insight into the formation of an inter-organizational relationships and how the transaction-cost theory contributes to the understanding ofinter-organizational relationships governance.</p>

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.

Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2002.

Thesis (MBus)--University of South Australia, 1995

Thesis (M Ed)--University of South Australia, 1995

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

Safety culture and safety climate are terms that are used often in the context of safety management but are not very well defined or differentiated. This research concentrates on safety climate, a summary concept of employee perceptions of safety management practices within their organisation. There is a common assumption that a positive safety climate results in better safety performance outcomes, yet there is little research evidence to support this notion. / Despite being defined as a summary concept, much of the research on safety climate has been empirically driven and has concentrated on identifying the number and content of the dimensions/factors that contribute to the safety climate. Due to a lack of theoretical input in the field, the use of proprietary instruments which are unavailable in the public domain and varied developmental histories of these tools, the findings of past research has been mixed. / This research addresses several of the limitations in the literature on safety climate by using the National Safety Council of Australia’s Safety Climate Survey. The research centres around two main issues; the dimensionality and factor structure of safety climate; and investigation of the applicability of a framework linking safety climate to safety performance. / The project was divided into two studies. Study I is based on archival data collected by the National Safety Council of Australia (NSCA) (N=215, N=127, N=90). Study II utilises data collected specifically for the purposes pf this research (N=226). The survey instrument was further developed for Study II to include scales that allow for a more complete investigation of a framework linking safety climate to safety performance. / A comprehensive validation of the NSCA safety climate survey was conducted. Structural Equation Modelling was utilised to examine various models of the factor structure of safety climate. It was found that safety climate is best understood as a second order concept comprised of several specific first order factors. The factor structure remained consistent across several samples however the strength of the individual factors varied in each sample. / Structural Equation Modelling was also used to investigate the framework of the relationship between safety climate and safety performance. Evidence in support of his model was obtained however some variations to the model were necessary to achieve this support. Reinforcement for the influence of general organisational climate in providing a context for safety climate was revealed. Given that it was not possible to include all aspects of the framework within the statistical model these findings provide a good impetus for further research in this field.