published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Business / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Modern Languages and Cultures / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis provides a comparative study of managerial practices in Europe. Patterns of behaviour and preferred modes of organisation are identified in four countries, based on an in-depth case study of a chosen/specific European company. While the corporate culture and industry remain constant, national context manifests itself as the essential variable between the different operations. The thesis proposes/argues that this factor — national context — is a powerful variable which frames the activity of management. Europe is a continent of diversity; each nation has unique traditions, particular historical and cultural roots as well as its own institutional framework. This diversity means that managers learn to operate in a manner that suits their particular context. The thesis documents such national divergence in terms of managerial practices and behaviour. The processes of integration of European Union member States and of globalisation also contribute towards the shaping of management. The case study company, as a leading provider of Information Technology services, is among the avant-garde pioneers of a technological, borderless world. Common pressures affecting managers across the board — and thus regardless of national context — are also identified: these include the pressure to achieve profit and efficiency. In addition, a degree of convergence between human resource management policies and practices also makes itself visible. The thesis demonstrates, above all, the influence of national culture and national environment vis-à-vis management; an argument which may be reaffirmed given the context of globalisation. In brief, a European company is a cultural kaleidoscope

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Temos problema ir aktualumas. Daugelis organizacijų tyrėjų bei sociologų atliko tyrimų, susijusių su organizacijos kultūros suvokimu, jos įtaka verslo sėkmei, darbuotojų pasitenkinimui darbu ir kita. Tačiau, analizuodami naujausią literatūrą ir ypatingai apžvelgę Lietuvoje atliktus organizacijos kultūros tyrimus, atrandame tik keletą skirtingų organizacijos kultūros vertinimų, o tai rodo, kad ši sritis nėra visapusiškai ištirta ir kiekvienas naujas tyrimas yra vertingas. Taip pat, atsižvelgiant į tai, kad iki šių dienų teigiama ar neigiama konfliktų reikšmė, išlieka vienu prieštaringiausių dalykų, naudinga yra apjungti organizacijos kultūros ir konfliktų valdymo studijas į vieną ir pažiūrėti ar egzistuoja abipusis ryšys tarp jų. Darbo tikslas - Nustatyti organizacijos kultūros ir konfliktų valdymo tarpusavio sąsajas. Darbo uždaviniai: 1. Remiantis moksline literatūra atskleisti organizacijos kultūros sampratą bei skirstymą į tipus ; 2. Atskleisti konfliktų valdymo organizacijoje strategijas ir ypatumus; 3. Remiantis organizacijos kultūros ir konfliktų valdymo teoriniais darbais bei atliktų empirinių tyrimų analizės duomenimis, sudaryti organizacijos kultūros ir konfliktų valdymo sąsajos tyrimo modelį; 4. Atlikti organizacijos kultūros ir konfliktų valdymo empirinio tyrimo įvertinimą bei nustatyti egzistuojančias organizacijos kultūros ir konfliktų valdymo sąsajas. 5. Atlikti organizacijos kultūros ir konfliktų valdymo empirinio tyrimo įvertinimą bei nustatyti egzistuojančias... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / GVILDYTE, Birute. (2010) The Relationship Between Organization Culture and Conflict Management. MBA Graduation Paper. Kaunas: Kaunas Faculty of Humanities, Vilnius University. 64 p. SUMMARY Theme relevance and necessity of its decision. Many organization researchers and social scientists conducted studies on the perception of the organization's culture. However, in analyzing the recent literature and particularly a survey carried out in the organization of cultural studies in Lithuania, we find only a few different organizational culture assessments, which indicates that this area is not fully investigated and every new study is valuable. Also, given the fact, that, until these days, positive and negative conflict values remains controversial subjects, it is useful to combine the organizational culture and conflict management training and see if there is a mutual relationship between them. The aim of the research: Define the relationship between organization culture and conflict management. The tasks of the research: 1. According to the scientific literature reveal the concept of organization culture and the differentiation of its types. 2. Disclose the conflict management features and it‘s strategies. 3. According to theoretical work and empirical research carried out by analysis on organizational culture and management of conflicts compose an empirical research model to identify existing interfaces of organization culture and conflict management. 4. Perform empirical... [to full text]

Problem: The great interest towards the company’s values has contributed to it becoming more common for individuals to seek out organizations that have a strong corporate culture. Where you work and whom you work for has thus become the dominant factors instead of what you are working with. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how the corporate culture, the rational and emotional benefits are experienced by the employees of the company. The aim is also to examine whether the corporate culture can become a management control measure by good communication between employees within the organization. Methodology: The essay is based on a qualitative research method and empirical data were collected through interviews from the company MTR Stockholm. Theoretical Frame of reference, Edgar Schein, Three Levels of Culture, Seven dimensions. Results: The study has shown that there are different cultures within the company. But also that there is a strong corporate culture within the business, the respondents feel an affinity with working within the underground rather than working for the company MTR Stockholm.

Following the pioneering work of Kohli and Jaworski, Narver and Slater, and other academic researchers during the 1990s, the concept of ‘market orientation’ has evolved as an important area of study within the marketing discipline. This work has initiated a large number of empirical studies that have been undertaken during the last two decades. Despite its importance and the attention that this concept has received during the last two decades, most of these studies have conceptualized market orientation and measured its levels within only the Western contexts where it has been developed. Although other studies have been undertaken within newly developed and developing economies, there has been little focus on exploring the concept, its constructs and implementation in less developed and resource-based economies. In order to address this research gap, a mixed-method design was adopted that consisted of two phases. Following a literature survey, the first phase involved a qualitative study to gain better understanding of the notion of market-orientation within a resource-based context and refine the preliminarily conceptual framework based on existing literature and Deshpandé’s definition of market-orientation. In the second phase, this framework was tested by means of a survey of both financial services providers and their customers. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) were employed to analyse the survey responses. The models showed a good fit to the data and good convergent, nomological and discriminant validity, reliability and stability, demonstrating improvement to existing scales by the addition of further salient items elicited from the qualitative phase. The findings of this study identified four constructs of market-orientation in financial services providers within a resource-based economy, viz. market-oriented corporate culture, strategy formulated and implemented, structure and systems employed, and market-oriented activities. Those dimensions (constructs) were consistent with various previous works in the market-orientation literature. Additionally, the study found that a market-oriented corporate culture had a mediating role in facilitating the business organizations’ responses through the strategy formulated and implemented.A key contribution of this research was to offer a robust model that explained market-orientation within a resource-based economy and demonstrated that a market-oriented corporate culture had a mediating effect on facilitating financial services providers’ responses to satisfying customer needs and expectations. The use of a qualitative approach to identify market-orientation dimensions in this context was also considered a methodological contribution in this area of marketing research. Moreover, the present study added a novel perspective to the body of market-orientation literature and suggested directions for future research. Finally, the study provided managerial implications for financial services managers to identify what they should do to become more market-oriented businesses or to enhance their level of market-orientation in order to meet their businesses’ needs and customers’ expectations.

Companies from across the globe move from traditional towards virtual organisations to be able to respond effectively to developments and changes in the global economy. As a consequence, the leadership of virtual teams will evolve as one of the major challenges future leaders will have to face. Hence, this triggers a growing demand in knowledge and understanding of virtual teams from both science and practice. So far, there is only basic research available on key elements of virtual teaming and limited literature on the leadership of virtual teams. With the increasing significance of a corporate culture in organisations, science will want to investigate its impact on virtual team leadership. Shedding light into this matter is hence this dissertation\'s main objective. After a thorough literature review and a pre-study, a leading EURO STOXX 50 company which has rolled out a global corporate culture in the past years was investigated using interviews with experienced virtual team leaders. Their experiences from before and after the introduction of a global corporate culture were assessed and analysed. Finally, focus groups were conducted to validate the results. In order to provide a holistic picture of the influence of a global corporate culture on the leaders of virtual teams, each empirical component follows a three phase sequence. First, it seeks to understand the environment of a virtual team leader, aiming specifically at investigating how the corporate culture shifts the behaviour of virtual team members. In the next phase, it focuses on how virtual leaders then react to the shift in team member behaviour. The last phase focuses on how the leaders are directly influenced by the global corporate culture themselves. The results of the study show that a common global corporate culture positively influences the collaboration of virtual team members and increases harmony between them. This leads to higher team performance. In response to this shift in team behaviour as well as due to the direct impact of the corporate culture, the leader himself switches gradually from a transactional towards a transformational leadership style, thereby again increasing the performance of the team. The results of the empirical research are channelled into a final product, namely detailed best practices for virtual team leaders on how to develop themselves and their team into effective virtual collaborators. This model uses corporate culture as a catalyst.

Companies from across the globe move from traditional towards virtual organisations to be able to respond effectively to developments and changes in the global economy. As a consequence, the leadership of virtual teams will evolve as one of the major challenges future leaders will have to face. Hence, this triggers a growing demand in knowledge and understanding of virtual teams from both science and practice. So far, there is only basic research available on key elements of virtual teaming and limited literature on the leadership of virtual teams. With the increasing significance of a corporate culture in organisations, science will want to investigate its impact on virtual team leadership. Shedding light into this matter is hence this dissertation\'s main objective. After a thorough literature review and a pre-study, a leading EURO STOXX 50 company which has rolled out a global corporate culture in the past years was investigated using interviews with experienced virtual team leaders. Their experiences from before and after the introduction of a global corporate culture were assessed and analysed. Finally, focus groups were conducted to validate the results. In order to provide a holistic picture of the influence of a global corporate culture on the leaders of virtual teams, each empirical component follows a three phase sequence. First, it seeks to understand the environment of a virtual team leader, aiming specifically at investigating how the corporate culture shifts the behaviour of virtual team members. In the next phase, it focuses on how virtual leaders then react to the shift in team member behaviour. The last phase focuses on how the leaders are directly influenced by the global corporate culture themselves. The results of the study show that a common global corporate culture positively influences the collaboration of virtual team members and increases harmony between them. This leads to higher team performance. In response to this shift in team behaviour as well as due to the direct impact of the corporate culture, the leader himself switches gradually from a transactional towards a transformational leadership style, thereby again increasing the performance of the team. The results of the empirical research are channelled into a final product, namely detailed best practices for virtual team leaders on how to develop themselves and their team into effective virtual collaborators. This model uses corporate culture as a catalyst.