No description available.

While change seems to have become a feature of contemporary organizations, the success rate of change initiatives is admittedly very poor, not only when initiating the change, but even after the successful implementation of a well-planned change, as employees are likely to return to their old habits; thus most change efforts do not persist. Organizations however need to ensure that their change initiatives, which in most cases come at a heavy cost in terms of investment, last long enough to attain their goals. Given the lack of change management research in the Middle Eastern context, particularly with respect to the institutionalization of change, this study explores how best to institutionalize change interventions in the Middle East. The research employs a mixed-methods approach, combining semi-structured interviews with 17 senior managers and a questionnaire survey of 312 employees, in order to gather data from the case study of the Abu Dhabi Police. The quantitative data is assessed using descriptive and inferential statistical analysis, while the independent samples t-test is used to explore variations between groups. The findings reveal the significant role of communication in creating shared meanings, perceptions and interpretations; the language-based approach is thus recommended as an additional conversational instrument to enlighten managers and enrich their interventions. This study identifies four categories of factors that are critical to institutionalization; the characteristics of these critical factors and associated issues are also highlighted as a contribution to the design and implementation of institutionalization strategies. The study concludes by developing a framework incorporating three basic conceptual elements that should be considered as a whole during any attempt to institutionalize change; it comprehensively integrates the institutionalization strategies and the critical factors, in order to convey a change message that shapes the enactment of institutionalization processes.

No / Although various firms adopt and implement multiple human resource practices as best practices (means), a substantial number of firms fail to realize their objectives (ends). The practices of firms are frequently decoupled from their intended outcomes. By leveraging the concept of means-ends decoupling, which refers to the gap between practices and outcomes, our research examines this important but underexplored phenomenon, which the traditional concept of policy-practice decoupling fails to fully account for. Hence, organizational agency is both conceptualized and measured as consistency and competence. The manner in which this variable affects the implementation and performance of human resource practices is tested with the effect of means-ends decoupling on firm performance. Our results add new evidence that organizational agency has an important role in the process of implementing practices and that it provides additional insights into the relationships between adoption and implementation, which are two distinct institutional dimensions of practices, as well as their different firm consequences.

This research is a study of how practices emerge and become established within an organisation. Institutional studies present different process models, however few have considered how they emerge and become established, other than by means of legitimacy and diffusion. Tolbert and Zucker (1996) defined institutionalisation as a sequential model of three processes, each had its own focus and was described within the context of certain institutional dimensions and outcomes. They indicated that similar processes could be played out between as well as within organisations. Based on this assumption the research aimed to extend this framework and develop a processual analysis of the institutionalisation of a practice at the intra-organisational level. To gain an understanding of these changes, the research positioned the study within the context of a practice. This was defined as knowledge management, a phenomenon which represented a set of practices which have been adopted by organisations over recent years. The methodology required a structured approach. This led to the development of the reference framework, which defined the inter-relationship between processes, practice, the intraorganisational context and time. It also provided the means to explore certain institutional dimensions and outcomes based on: theorisation, diffusion, formulisation and internalisation. Based on a sample of organisations across different industries, the research design consisted of three phases. The first was exploratory, the second was based on a mixed methods approach; the final explored the processual outcomes in terms of institutional dimensions and the different levels of change. The second and third phases were used to frame the intra-organisational processes of institutionalisation of a practice. The results showed that through studying practice within the intra-organisational context, this had generated important insights into the processes of institutionalisation. The research found that theorisation activity lay very much at the hands of the leader and their knowledge and willingness to champion the practices. Examples were found of the different pressures upon organisations to adopt the practices. Variations in formalisation related not only to the different stages of change but also to the many different approaches of implementation. It was found that internalisation was affected by people understanding the value of the practices not the concept of knowledge management. Finally, the process analysis defined expands the narrow focus on intra-organisational dynamics, as well as providing a bridge between practice and institutionalisation.

This research is a study of how practices emerge and become established within an organisation. Institutional studies present different process models, however few have considered how they emerge and become established, other than by means of legitimacy and diffusion. Tolbert and Zucker (1996) defined institutionalisation as a sequential model of three processes, each had its own focus and was described within the context of certain institutional dimensions and outcomes. They indicated that similar processes could be played out between as well as within organisations. Based on this assumption the research aimed to extend this framework and develop a processual analysis of the institutionalisation of a practice at the intra-organisational level. To gain an understanding of these changes, the research positioned the study within the context of a practice. This was defined as knowledge management, a phenomenon which represented a set of practices which have been adopted by organisations over recent years. The methodology required a structured approach. This led to the development of the reference framework, which defined the inter-relationship between processes, practice, the intraorganisational context and time. It also provided the means to explore certain institutional dimensions and outcomes based on: theorisation, diffusion, formulisation and internalisation. Based on a sample of organisations across different industries, the research design consisted of three phases. The first was exploratory, the second was based on a mixed methods approach; the final explored the processual outcomes in terms of institutional dimensions and the different levels of change. The second and third phases were used to frame the intra-organisational processes of institutionalisation of a practice. The results showed that through studying practice within the intra-organisational context, this had generated important insights into the processes of institutionalisation. The research found that theorisation activity lay very much at the hands of the leader and their knowledge and willingness to champion the practices. Examples were found of the different pressures upon organisations to adopt the practices. Variations in formalisation related not only to the different stages of change but also to the many different approaches of implementation. It was found that internalisation was affected by people understanding the value of the practices not the concept of knowledge management. Finally, the process analysis defined expands the narrow focus on intra-organisational dynamics, as well as providing a bridge between practice and institutionalisation.

The scope of the research is limited to the organisational development and adaptive trajectory of Eskom, from its origins to present day. It focuses specifically on understanding how the organisation became an institution, how it was deinstitutionalised and the attempts to convert the organisation back into an institution that supports the country’s developmental objectives. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

No description available.

This study explores the development of a discharge programme in one learning disability hospital in Scotland. The aim of the study is to explore professionals’ perceptions of how the discharge programme developed with a focus on capturing professionals’ experience and knowledge so as to reach an understanding of how best to facilitate a discharge programme and help professionals make the transition from the institution to the community. Different groups of professionals were interviewed and different views and perspectives regarding the progress of de-institutionalisation were collected. Based on the professionals’ perceptions and with a particular emphasis on those of social workers, the following issues were identified as the key points which have to be taken into account for facilitating stable progress in a discharge programme: the creation of a consortium with centralized authority which includes the establishment of a formal process and joint working between health and social work, the setting up of a socalled “stakeholder” management model, the implementation of specific practices and policies with regard to the actual discharges and arrangements for enhancing professionals’ adaptability.

No / It is now well accepted that there are significant challenges to realizing the wide-spread and self-sustaining implementation of sustainable urban water management. It is argued that these challenges are entrenched within the broader socio-political framework, yet often unsuccessfully addressed within the more narrow scope of improving technical knowledge and design capacity. This hypothesis is investigated through a comparative analysis of three independent research projects investigating different dimensions of the water cycle including stormwater management in Australia, and sanitary waste management and implementation of innovative technologies in the UK. The analysis reveals significant and common socio-political impediments to improved practice. It was evident that the administrative regime, including implementing professionals and institutions, appears to be largely driven by an implicit expectation that there is a technical solution to solve water management issues. This is in contrast to addressing the issues through broader strategies such as political leadership, institutional reform and social change. It is recognised that this technocratic culture is inadvertently underpinned by the need to demonstrate implementation success within short-term political cycles that conflict with both urban renewal and ecological cycles. Addressing this dilemma demands dedicated socio-technical research programs to enable the much needed shift towards a more sustainable regime.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements of degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Sociology) Johannesburg, 2015 / This dissertation explores the shifting patterns of institutionalisation of industrial relations and violence in strikes over a period of thirty years, shaped by the transition from apartheid to democracy. It draws from an ethnographic study of Impala Platinum mine between 1982 and 2012 and some analysis of the Lonmin Platinum strike in 2012. It traces the trajectory of institutionalisation from the period of apartheid despotism, the transition to inclusive and participatory industrial relations system, through to the second decade after the democratic transition. The overriding aim of this study which is informed by theories of institutionalisation of industrial relations is to understand how workplace order is attained, sustained, challenged and change overtime. This dissertation argues that the institutionalisation of industrial relations is highly unstable, precarious and generates new forms of conflict and worker solidarity. It is continuously being (re)configured, and violence is part of this making, remaking and unmaking of order. This cycle informs the nature and repertoires of strike violence. This thesis shows the ambiguity of institutionalisation of industrial relations as a source of power. It simultaneously empowers and dis-empowers. It confers rights and at the same time constrains how the rights may be exercised. The broader context shaping the South African labour relations before the democratic transition was informed by apartheid which produced a despotic labour regime and an insurgent trade unionism characterised by various forms of violence. This resulted in institutionalisation of negotiations and recognition of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) at Impala Platinum in Rustenburg. This process of institutionalising industrial relations and bureaucratisation of the union happened in the context of broader national democratic transition and shift to an industrial democracy. The NUM evolved into a dominant and highly institutionalised union at Impala Platinum and nationally. The industrial relations shifted from non-hegemonic to a hegemonic system in which class relations were sustained through consent. Consequently, insurgent trade unionism was institutionalised but ironically crystallised into a class compromise which undermined the attainment of union goals. This simultaneously generated some elements of insurgent trade unionism from below by 2009. The study observed that insurgent trade unionism characterised by informal structures and networks challenging the institutionalisation of industrial relations was renewed or reinvigorated reasserting resistance to the co-option of the union by 2012. The primary contribution of this thesis is that it develops a typology explicating the variations of institutionalisation of industrial relations and violence in strikes over time, capturing different and complex power relations: ‘ideal institutionalisation’, ‘de-institutionalisation’ and ‘re-institutionalisation’. Ideal institutionalisation of industrial relations crystallizes a particular balance of organisational and institutional power and when this is disturbed it may be (re)configured. Ideal institutionalisation is attained and sustained where organisational power commensurate with institutional power. Moreover, if the balance dissipates and or is not sustained, there is bound to be a shift/backlash towards de-institutionalisation or unmaking of institutionalisation of industrial relations. The transition of institutionalisation of industrial relations is a function of power play between capital and labour mediated by the state and tied to worker agency. This thesis sheds light on how worker agency continually changes shaping the industrial relations and how a diverse workforce attempts to overcome divisions and fragmentation through forging solidarity including utilising coercive means, conceptualised as a ‘violent solidarity’. Key words: institutionalisation, strike violence, industrial relations, trade union, insurgent unionism, violence.