The dissertation proposes that the economics of the crisis of capital accumulation and the extraordinary pace of technological and market change have led to new corporate strategies and industry structures in the high tech electronics industry. The research, survey of management in fourteen leading computer and semiconductor multinationals, was designed to integrate and explore the usefulness of theories on industrial structure and labour markets. The product life cycle model cannot solve the problems of diversified and increasingly competitive global markets and their ever more sophisticated demand for customised products. Similarly rigid barriers between differentiated and non-competing labour markets in dual labour market theory cannot account for new associations of labour and technologies or for the new importance of non-wage differences in global labour supplies. The research demonstrated the necessity of linking both demand and supply conditions in explaining contemporary industrial structure. The data persuasively supports the view that the supply conditions in local labour markets not only are critical to the global distribution of capital, but more importantly shape those investments. Scotland provided the industry with an annual labour supply and appropriate skills and a training/education sector responsive to industry needs, offering unique ways for corporations to minimise the cost of reshaping and retaining their workforce. Combining with significant state support of capital investment, the region provided cost - and risk-minimising opportunities for using expensive advanced technologies, expanding and extending their effectiveness in rapidly changing markets. Further, gender was a major factor in the emergence structure of work and the speed of industry adjustment. Rising male unemployment, shrinking employment vacancies for men, and the support of the region's women worker led to the industry's hiring men as the new production workforce, allowing new job design, recruitment criteria, employment expectations and worker commitment, necessary to increase the productivity of new investments.

This study explores through a mixed methods qualitative-oriented case study investigation the training policies, plans, and practices of the public sector Social Security Fund Investments Company (SSFIC), which owns the major hotels in several Libyan cities. The Only internationally owned hotel in the country when the research commenced in 2007, the Corinthia Bab Africa Hotel (CBAH), provides a private sector comparison. It is the first such review of training activities within a country aiming to become an internationally competitive tourism destination. A case study approach using different data sources is well adapted to situations where previous theoretical studies are few and field experience is still limited (Yin, 2003). During three field trips to Libya a) documents including training policies and plans were collected; b) Three different surveys were distributed to three target groups in the two hotel businesses compared: trainees, training managers, and trainers; c) Semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers responsible for training to obtain clarifying comments and operational observations; d) On-site personal observations were noted. The questionnaire design and overall analysis was based on an operational framework that followed the pre-training, during- training and post-training stages of the systematic training cycle. The supporting theoretical framework was derived from the ADDIE model but with greater focus being given to transfer of training. Cultural considerations within Libya and the Arab world, as well as findings from other studies within the sector, were also taken into account when interpreting the data and drawing conclusions. Cultural aspects include: the influence of Islamic values; the poor image of work in hotels, especially for women; and the role of wasta on decision-making. Despite the majority of SSFIC staff attending training courses over the period of the study, major issues are identified, many of which also face the whole Libyan hotel sector. Sector-based issues include: skills shortages; lack of qualified local trainers; low employee salaries and lack of cooperation between public, private and governmental sectors. SSFIC training specific issues include: insufficient training needs analysis; absence of review of course relevance to trainees; inadequate practical training; lack of post-course training incentives;. To overcome these difficulties, the study proposes a number of focused recommendations. In conclusion the study draws upon the evidence collected to suggest the Libyan approach to National Human Resource Development (NHRD). It corroborates most of the findings of a recent parallel study done into the Libyan banking sector and provides additional categories to support the conclusion that Libya is moving towards a centralised-transitional approach.

This thesis is a qualitative frame analysis approach investigating gender equality management in UNDP/UNFPA country offices in Jordan and Egypt. Moreover, this thesis conducted Nvivo (8) as an assisting approach in the analysis. Unlike other gender equality studies, this thesis is taking gender equality further than gender mainstreaming and equal opportunities and diversity. The systematic approach of the thesis is based on analyzing three sets of data, gender equality country analysis of Jordan and Egypt, UNDP/UNFPA perspectives of managing gender equality through selected policy reports, and finally the perspectives of the participants working within these offices towards managing gender equality. The field work consisted of nineteen semi-structured interviews in the selected country offices. The study limitations are centered on the researcher identity as an outsider of the UN and on the very limited literature on gender equality management especially within the UN. Alongside producing academic literature, this thesis suggested a systematic understanding to managing gender equality in UNDP/UNFPA selected country offices.

The literature suggests that there are several stakeholders who influence postgraduate study for social and personal benefits. These stakeholders comprise governments, employers, HEIs, families and individuals. The findings from this research study suggest that fathers from Indian middle class families play a significant motivational role in the lives of their offspring by encouraging them to develop their cultural capital through postgraduate business programmes. Parents expect that higher level academic study will improve their offspring’s symbolic and social capitals and result in good social and career outcomes (Bourdieu, 1986). Many of these Indian middle class parents who have access to and are willing to use their economic capital, also influence and support their children to gain ‘exposure’ in new environments for example in the USA and the UK . The aim of this parental competitive strategy is to ensure ‘positional advantage’ (Brown, 2003, p3) in the labour market and in some cases to gain experience foreign study that they did not have the opportunity to do. As more Indian nationals undertake postgraduate business programmes there is evidence to suggest that credentialism is resulting in what Brown, Lauder & Ashton (2011) argue is a ‘global auction’, bringing more rewards only for the very best or the educated elite. This perception was found from the respondents in this study. Brown, Lauder & Ashton (2011) further argue that this is perpetuating social divisions in different societies as the labour market becomes more competitive due to economic trends and corporate restructuring. The findings from this study suggest that most Indian respondents who have postgraduate business qualifications achieve some of their expectations, but not at the management level, nor in other areas that they had expected e.g. they achieve a lower than expected salary. To ensure graduates career expectations are realistic, the findings suggest that UK and Indian higher education institutions, should report in an ethical and honest way, the destinations and career outcomes of all their Indian business postgraduates. The findings also suggest that UK and Indian institutions should improve their alumni services and forge closer links with Indian employers to support graduates’ career opportunities. Evidence was also found which suggests that there is a perception of greater symbolic capital from UK credentials, which may add value to an individual’s employment opportunities and to their marriage capital and where it occurs, their dowry/gift capital.

Graduate employability is a current and high profile concept, which has received much attention over recent decades. This attention however, has mostly centred on employer perspectives and their views regarding skill demands or shortfalls. Where the graduate viewpoint has been sought, this has largely involved the mass collection of career destination and employment outcome information (Woodley & Brennan, 2000; Tomlinson, 2007; Holmes, 2013). This career destination approach however, has been criticised for its simplicity, with arguments that it is not an accurate measure of employability (Harvey, 2001; Tymon, 2011). As a consequence, the graduate perspective of their employability enhancement is an under-researched and largely neglected area, resulting in a lack of understanding of this particular viewpoint (Nabi & Bagley, 1999; Harvey, 1999; Nabi, 2003; Shah et al. 2004; Sleep & Reed, 2006; Rothwell et al. 2009). To address this situation, the overall aim of this research is to investigate employability from the graduate perspective, and to research this within the context of the current economic climate. The critical realist philosophy was adopted for this research, which supports the implementation of a multiple case study methodology, utilising mixed data collection methods. Employing this approach, three key employability stakeholder perspectives were collected and analysed: graduates, curriculum developers and employers. A fourth stakeholder view, the policy makers, was obtained from secondary sources comprising of recent policy documents. Addressing the four stakeholder perspectives assists in the acquisition of a holistic understanding of the graduate employability concept. This facilitates the connection of the graduate perspective to those of the other stakeholders, which is currently lacking in the employability literature (Andrews & Higson, 2008). A range of interesting employability perspectives were produced, which most notably highlighted the importance of the type of institution attended, employer focuses upon behaviours over skills, and the significance of the prevailing economic climate. These fresh insights were incorporated into a revised model of graduate employability. The original contribution to knowledge is threefold. Firstly, a deeper understanding of the graduate perspective has been obtained. Secondly, clarity over employer requirements has been produced, and thirdly, the economic climate and labour market conditions have increased awareness of the effect these have upon stakeholder perceptions of graduate employability.

There is no end to the brands that lend themselves to anthropomorphic comparison. As an area under researched, the ultimate aim of this thesis is to improve our understanding of the phenomenon of brand anthropomorphism via focusing on one of the most prominent tactics currently being used by industry – the use of marketing mascots. This research begins by theoretically positioning the topic in a rich body of literature. Drawing on branding literature, the multidimensional nature of brands is explored as a starting point for understanding brand mascots. The fundamental theories referred to are integrated to form the Brand Puzzle. Next, the phenomenon of anthropomorphism is examined by referring to literatures from the disciplines of anthropology, animal behaviour, English literature and religion. To complete the extensive literature review, this thesis draws on marketing, advertising, psychology and consumer behaviour literature to reveal any existing classifications for brand anthropomorphism prior to introducing a new typology. Additionally, an investigation into the use of mascots is carried out paying particular attention to their conceptual development and their ‘humanity’. By designing an interpretive case study methodology that relies on a variety of research techniques, including netnography, interviews and photo-essays, as well as a provocative style of presentation, this thesis sets out firstly to explore the development of three marketing mascots on the social media site of Facebook: Aleksandr Orlov mascot for price comparison website CompareTheMarket.com; The M&M’s Spokescandies mascots for Mars’ M&M’s chocolate; and Mr Peanut mascot for Planters peanuts. A literary approach was adopted when tackling this mysterious process of creating marketing mascots. Secondly, this thesis sets out to analyse consumer engagement with the brands via their engagement with the selected marketing mascots. Six forms of consumer engagement were identified which were perceived to have an effect on the narrative of marketing mascots. The discussion section of this thesis creatively links the empirical evidence presented in the findings chapters and the insights from the literature with novels, storytelling and genre reading. The prominence of these have led to the development of a Literary Wheel model that has scope for use by industry and offers a direction for future research. In conclusion, this research contributes to knowledge in the field of brand anthropomorphism. It provides a formula for the creation of captivating marketing mascots that fulfil the needs of our increasingly communication hungry culture, encouraging elevated consumer engagement and the development of stronger consumer-brand relationships.

Saudi Arabia is experiencing a transformative period in its economic history, as its market has been opened up for foreign investment. The last 5 years have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of foreign investment into Saudi Arabia particularly through International Joint Ventures. The managers in these IJVs come from various cultures that can be categorised as collectivist or individualist societies. This study to investigate the relationship between national culture and employee commitment within Western-Saudi IJV environments in contrast to the commitment forms found within domestic (monoculture) organisations. In this study, Western and Saudi managers were compared as to their levels of organisational commitment and professional commitment, while a second survey focused on individualism/collectivism among respondents. This study found that Western managers working in Saudi IJVs had significantly higher levels of professional commitment than did their Saudi counterparts. Similarly, Saudi managers working in Saudi IJVs had significantly higher levels of organisational commitment than did their Western counterparts. This study also found that Saudi managers working in Saudi IJVs experienced higher levels of professional commitment than did their Saudi counterparts working in purely Saudi firms, and that Western managers who had previously worked in collectivist cultures had higher levels of organisational commitment than did Western managers who had not previously worked in collectivist cultures. In addition, significant differences were found between respondent groups with regard to individualism/collectivism. The results support a correlation between individualism and professional commitment, as well as between collectivism and organisational commitment. The results found that an employee’s cultural orientation can be modified through exposure to employees from other cultures. The knowledge contributed from the study findings will enrich the existing scholarly theories of employee commitment and individualism/collectivism values within IJVs setting in Saudi Arabia. Also, this knowledge will contribute to facilitate foreign investors and HRM practitioners in developing strategies to maximise the benefits from different forms of employee commitment.

This thesis studied the slack - performance relationship under different external environments by taking advantage of the financial crisis of 2008-09, which provides a natural experiment opportunity for the study. Besides the management of slack, adaptation profiles are also examined by building the two-stage adaptation process model in concordance with different period of financial crisis. Based on empirical analysis and theoretical research, this thesis finds that slack management impacts the firms' performance as well as firms' adaptation to respond to financial crisis. Another novelty of this thesis is to examine ambidexterity in detail by employing constructs of alignment and adaptability from the perspective of organizational slack. Thesis tries to evidence that European manufacturing firms have various adaptation processes, profiles and risk-taking behaviors with varying performance implications based on their slack management in response to financial crisis. To that end, this study investigates empirically, publicly-held 671 western European manufacturing firms, by comparatively examining their organizational slack management and performance characteristics before, during and after the recent financial crisis period 2007-8 . This research employs longitudinal panel data. The data was drawn from Thomson one banker database for the period of2004-2013.

Over the last few decades, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have become an integral part of the organisational landscape playing an intermediary role between donors and beneficiaries. To ensure the efficient utilisation of resources, NGOs are required to be accountable to the two main stakeholders: donors and beneficiaries (in what is termed upward and downward accountability respectively). Multiple institutional and environmental pressures have shaped and changed the face of NGOs’ response to accountability as a coping strategy, yet this dimension is inchoate in the literature. Therefore, the study examined the dimensions of accountability systems within an NGO in Ghana. Extending the new institutional sociology theory, particularly the normative forces elements to include the media and the other identified bodies, the study adopted an in-depth interpretive case study approach using a single community based organisation in Ghana. Data was gathered by way of interviews and documentary review. In total 35 interviews were conducted with diverse groups both within and outside the case organisation. The findings of the study are analysed and interpreted through the lens of institutional theory, particularly the new institutional sociology. It was found that the dominant accountability systems in the studied NGOs are upward towards donors. Generally, downward accountability is not given much prominence by NGOs in Ghana, largely due to lack of commitment by donors. It is clear from the study that institutional pressures shape accountability systems of NGOs in Ghana. The result has implications for understanding the operations and reporting systems of NGOs, particularly, in developing countries like Ghana. It is argued that NGOs can strategically and actively respond to these institutional pressures for legitimacy.

This research reviewed the history of motivation and performance modelling, with particular regards to the performance of employees in a work environment. The evolution of motivational theories was discussed before the motivational models arising from these theories were examined and critiqued. The wide range of, often conflicting, studies and theories in this area has led to a situation where no single model has been able to capture all the complexities of the internal and external influences on human motivation and performance. Models have broadly fallen into one of two categories: cognitive, focusing on the individual’s thought processes and social-cognitive, focusing on the influences from social and contextual variables. Bong [1996] suggested that a broader model of motivation may be developed by adopting either an integrative approach, whereby a general model is built that incorporates the wide range of potential motivational variables, or by building several models that focus on each dimension separately. Needs based and process based motivational theories, which will provide the foundation of any model of motivation, were reviewed in Chapter Three. Chapter Four then introduced the two existing models of motivation models that are the main focus of this study, Hackman and Oldham’s Job Characteristics model and Porter and Lawler’s Expectancy model. Each model was reviewed and critiqued before being amended and expanded to more fully explain the social and cognitive motivational processes and satisfy the criticisms identified. Although there are no obvious areas of overlap between the largely social-cognitive Job Characteristics model and the largely cognitive Expectancy model, Chapter Five explains that by changing the terms used to describe the variables in each model the similarities between them may be identified. Identifying the areas of overlap allows the two models to be integrated into one. This new model of motivation expands upon the original models in that it combines both the social-cognitive and cognitive approaches and also incorporates more of the motivational theories discussed in Chapter Three than either of the two original models. The new model of motivation was tested via a data survey in four organisations. In each case, the level of correlation between the levels of the recorded variables, such as satisfaction and motivation, and those predicted by the model were generally high. The results of the data survey and the performance of the model were discussed in Chapter Six. One of the main aims of this thesis was to produce a model of motivation that was of practical use to the management of an organisation. Such a model should go beyond the existing theoretical models and allow those responsible for motivating a workforce to experiment with alternative job design strategies and evaluate their likely effects upon motivation and performance. Chapter Seven describes the spreadsheet-based model that was built in this study.