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Extant literature identified the value of innovative firm behavior for organizational success for manufacturers and service providers (Christensen, 1998; Damanpour, 1991; de Brentani, 1993; Easingwood, 1986; Schumpeter, 1939; Senge, 1994). Increasing complexity of consumer markets, information technologies and an economic environment that forces organizations to rethink their business strategies are especially characteristic for service providers, making the development of new services an essential, but also risky task. A series of organizational conditions, such as a formalized new products/service development process, managerial support for innovation and a culture that encourages innovation were identified as critical for the successful development of innovations. Little research, however, has been done to understand the role of partners for the development of new service, and in particular to evaluate which aspects of new service development benefit the most from partner involvement. To understand the link between organizational settings for innovation and inter-organizational relationships in the new service development process, this study incorporates three areas of research: innovation, supply chain management and inter-organizational relationships. This study was framed within tourism destinations, especially destination marketing organizations (DMOs). They are responsible to market and develop a destination and, due to their role as information intermediaries, their need to collaborate with destination businesses to deliver a seamless tourism experience. This study consists of two major phases. First, a national study among the population of American DMOs was conducted to identify the extent of innovation, the drivers of partner integration in new service development as well as their impact on new services. Second, the value of organizational innovation settings on partnership integration was identified. Study results provide insight into the current status of innovation development and partner integration in the new service development process. The results also indicate that the nature of DMOs was changing from pure marketing organizations to management organizations that actively participate in destination development through innovation. In this study innovation was measured by three core elements: orientation towards demand, strategic and corporate fit as well as newness. DMOs do collaborate with partners to develop new tourism products and services. Partner integration was driven by top management support, as well as a strategic and long-term perspective towards partnerships. Furthermore, partner integration was found to have a positive effect on the strategic and corporate fit as well as market orientation. Lastly, DMOs that organize for the development of new services were found to achieve a more positive effect on innovation. This study concluded that organizations strategically need to engage in inter-organizational relationships with the goal to incorporate partners in the new service development process. Furthermore, organizational strategies towards innovation are critical as they enable the organization to achieve better results. Partnerships, thus, are critical for innovation, whereby innovation can be programmed given that it is supported through organizational settings. / Business Administration

This thesis investigates related organizations perceptions and coordination in response to legal changes governing packaging waste collection (PWC) in Gotland, Sweden, utilizing Sensemaking theory, Interorganizational Coordination (IOC) theory, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) theory. Through qualitative research methods, including interviews with key participants from public and private sectors involved in waste management, this study explores how individuals from different organizations make sense of and adapt to the new regulatory framework. The research identifies diverse organization views towards the legal changes, highlighting challenges related to ambiguity and clarity in regulatory details. Sensemaking processes influence organizational interpretations of the regulations, shaping their actions and collaborative efforts. IOC dynamics play a crucial role in waste management coordination, with task breakdown and coordination among multiple organizations proving more effective than centralized approaches. CSR illustrates the dilemma of private sectors’ contribution to broader sustainability goals due to competition concern in a market-driven business context. The study underscores the significance of public sector entities in waste management governance compared to private organizations. This research contributes to advancing understanding of waste management policy implementation and coordination dynamics within a regional context, leveraging sensemaking, IOC and CSR theories.

The purpose of this thesis was to analyze how the length of the supply chain and theinterorganizational relation between the suppliers within a construction project affects theoutcome of social sustainability with a focus on workplace safety and accidents. A qualitativestudy was conducted through semi-structured interviews with nine respondents from differentparts of the supply chain. An analytical model was created based on the theoretical framework ofinterorganizational relation factors (communication, collaboration, coordination and cooperation,organizational culture, and knowledge sharing) and sustainable supply chain management tounderstand how the length and the relationships affect safety on construction projects. The thesisidentified that the multiple tiers of subcontractors, increases the complexity of implementing aneffective interorganizational relation and sustainable supply chain management. Therefore, thelength of the supply chain and the interorganizational relations influence the degree of safety.Other findings included how the changing workforce, with increased foreign workers, is a newchallenge for the industry, and the long supply chain makes the safety work more difficult. Thefindings could be of interest to actors in the construction industry since it adds aninterorganizational perspective to the long supply chain's influence on workplace safety

The Swedish Public Employment Service's reform based on the so-called January agreement from 2019 has since its initiation been an ongoing issue in the Swedish public debate. As a result of the reform, several municipalities have expressed experiences that the operational cooperation in individual cases has deteriorated. The experiences are significant, as cooperation between the Swedish Public Employment Service, municipalities and other actors has been described as a prerequisite for realizing labor market policy. The purpose of the thesis is therefore to study what the operational labor market policy cooperation in individual cases looks like in four Swedish municipalities and how municipal officials perceive that the conditions for this cooperation are affected by the Public Employment Service's reform. This through a qualitative interview study, with a strategic selection of municipalities. The study is thus based on a local perspective and the selection of municipalities is made in order to cover several contextual factors that could potentially affect the municipal experiences. The theoretical starting points are taken from the theory of interorganizational cooperation. The result shows consistent experience in all the municipalities interviewed that the conditions for the interorganizational operational cooperation in individual cases at the local level being negatively affected by the Swedish Public Employment Service's reform. Both in terms of cooperation between the municipalities and the Public Employment Service as well as between the municipalities and independent actors (in cases where they cooperated before the reform). The main reason for the deteriorating cooperation is described as a changed local presence, reduced contact areas and reduced personal relationships at the administrator level. These factors have also been identified by the municipal representatives as the most important factors to address in order for there to be an appropriate and well-functioning cooperation. / Arbetsförmedlingens reformering med utgångspunkt i den så kallade Januariöverenskommelsen från 2019 har sedan dess initiering varit en pågående fråga i den svenska samhällsdebatten. Till följd av reformen har flera kommuner uttryckt erfarenheter av att det operativa samverkan i individärenden försämrats. Erfarenheterna är betydelsefulla eftersom samverkan mellan Arbetsförmedlingen, kommuner och andra aktörer beskrivits som en förutsättning för att realisera arbetsmarknadspolitiken. Syftet med uppsatsen är därför att studera hur den operativa arbetsmarknadspolitiska samverkan i individärenden ser ut i fyra svenska kommuner samt hur kommunala tjänstepersoner uppfattar att förutsättningarna för denna samverkan påverkats av Arbetsförmedlingens reformering. Detta genom en kvalitativ intervjustudie, med ett strategiskt urval av kommuner utifrån kommunernas geografiska position och hur Arbetsförmedlingen valt att arrangera myndighetens lokala närvaro. Studien utgår därmed från ett lokalt perspektiv och urvalet av kommuner görs i syfte att täcka in flera kontextuella faktorer som potentiellt kan påverka de kommunala erfarenheterna. Studiens resultat visar på samstämmiga erfarenheter hos de intervjudade kommunföreträdarna om att förutsättningarna för den interorganisatoriska operativa samverkan i individärenden på lokal nivå påverkats negativt av Arbetsförmedlingens reformering. Både när det gäller samverkan mellan kommunerna och Arbetsförmedlingen samt mellan kommunerna och fristående aktörer (i de fall de samverkat innan reformen). De främsta orsakerna till den försämrade samverkan beskrivs vara Arbetsförmedlingens förändrade lokala närvaro, minskade kontaktytor och minskade personliga relationer på handläggarnivå. Faktorerna har utifrån de intervjuade kommunföreträdarna identifierats som viktiga för att främja en ändamålsenlig och välfungerande samverkan.

Bakgrund: Projektverksamhet står för 30% av all affärsverksamhet och har idag kommit att bli en viktig del i det svenska näringslivet. Det är vanligt att projektbaserade organisationer erbjuder unika lösningar som produceras och levereras i projektform. Temporära organisationer kan därför bildas internt eller interorganisatoriskt mellan flera organisationer för att samverka och organisera en tillfälligt utvald projektgrupp som ska genomföra ett projekt. Tre kännetecken för projekt är att de har en tydlig början och slut, varje projekt är unikt och genomförs med hjälp av nya processer och tillvägagångssätt.  Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera ett interorganisatoriskt projekt för att bidra till kunskap kring styrning i projekt. Det är även intressant att undersöka hur likheter och skillnader i de två fallföretagens styrfilosofier har påverkat verksamheten i den interorganisatoriska organisationen. Syftet är också att identifiera brister och förbättringsmöjligheter för att dra lärdomar och utveckla projektstyrningen i kommande projekt.  Metod: Studien är en enfallsstudie där två företag undersökts utifrån en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi. Det empiriska materialet har samlats in med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer och en mindre genomgång av dokument.  Slutsats: Studien har identifierat att det finns skillnader i de två fallföretagens styrfilosofier, men på grund av projektets unika egenskaper har styrningen gått ut på att hantera risker och problem som dykt upp under projektets gång. Projektet har stött på ett antal utmaningar under projektets gång där projektgruppen fått samarbeta genom regelbundna möten och uppföljningar för att driva projektet i rätt riktning. Projektets utmaningar har påverkat styrningen i den mån att det lett till en tidsbrist till att följa upp och utvärdera projektet med hjälp av nyckeltal, för att förbättra och effektivisera processer. / Background: Project operations stands for 30% of all business operations and have today become an important part of Swedish business life. It is common for project based organizations to offer unique solutions that are produced and delivered in project form. Temporary organizations can therefore be formed internally or interorganizational between several organizations to collaborate and organize a temporarily selected project group that will accomplish a project. Projects usually have three characteristics. Every project has a clear beginning and end, is unique and are carried out using new processes and approaches. Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to study an interorganizational project to increase the knowledge regarding management in projects. It is also interesting to investigate how similarities and differences in the management philosophies of the two companies have affected the operations of the interorganizational organization. The purpose is also to identify shortcomings and opportunities for improvement in order to gain insights and develop project management in future projects. Method: The study is a single-case study where two companies have been examined using a qualitative research methodology. The empirical data has been collected through semi-structured interviews and minor reviews of documents.  Conclusion: The study has identified that there are differences in the case companies management philosophies, but due to the project's unique characteristics, the project management has focused on managing risk and problems that emerged during the case study. The project encountered a number of challenges during the case study where the project group had to collaborate through regular meetings and follow-ups, to manage the project in the right direction. The challengers have affected the management to lack of time in follow-ups and evaluate the project using key performance indicators, in order to improve and streamline processes.

This qualitative research addressed systems psychodynamic consultation to boundary management. The systemic, dynamic and chaotic aspects of organisational life formed the backdrop against which the research was conducted. The general objective of the research was to describe a relevant consulting model for organisational consulting psychologists related to boundary management. Literature was reviewed in order to describe organisational consulting and organisational boundaries from the systems psychodynamic perspective. Key principles for boundary management consulting were also described. The objectives of the empirical study were to apply psychodynamic consulting to boundary management and to describe the process. A further objective was to produce research hypotheses about boundary management from both an organisational and a consulting perspective. A case study design was followed. Descriptive data was gathered by means of a participative observer. The data was analysed by means of systems psychodynamic discourse analysis. Ten working hypothesis were produced. These hypotheses culminated into two research hypotheses, describing the primary task of boundary management and boundary management consulting. The first research hypothesis was that the primary task of boundary management is to hold the polarities of integration and differentiation, not allowing the system to become fragmented or overly integrated. The second research hypothesis was that the primary task of the consultant in boundary management consulting is to help the organisation’s managing its own boundaries. This is carried out through taking up the role of organisational consultant, performing the consulting tasks and by applying a consulting process. The researcher concluded that boundary management is an activity of the whole organisation. Boundary management consulting facilitates or supports this organisational activity.

The public tends to think of war memorials as fixed monuments, but I argue that the American and Canadian Legions served as living memorials that acknowledged veterans’ war-time service by providing service to veterans and to the public. This dissertation focuses on how Legionnaires interacted with one another and with their local communities during the interwar years to construct memories of the First World War. By analyzing local chapter records from Michigan, New York, and Ontario, Canada, this case study highlights the contrast between the organizations’ national and local activities. The local posts’ and branches’ wide range of activities complicated the national organizations’ collective memories of the First World War. A new way to construct a holistic depiction of veterans’ organizations is to study them as living memorials. From this perspective, all of their day-to-day activities fulfill the larger purpose of preserving and perpetuating the memory of their war experiences. At the national level, the American and Canadian Legions advocated for legislation to benefit veterans, but it was primarily at the local level where rank-and-file members shaped the Legions’ collective memories of the war. This study explores elements of those memories, including sacrifice, service, and camaraderie, through the tensions that sometimes arose between the national leadership and the local chapters and compares the American and Canadian Legionnaires’ experiences.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: For more than a decade there has been an economic need to mitigate the negative effects of the air transport industry's innate sensitivity to cyclical developments as well as the effects of its inherent lack of substantial profits. The past 20 years were additionally marked by a change in policy that prompted various countries to liberalise and privatise their civil passenger air transportation industry. At the same time, airlines' business ambitions became more global, tapping into markets beyond countries' or continents' main gateways. All three aspects started to change the pattern of airline competition and required new business models. Key features of airlines' novel business models are geographic expansion and thus market development. Global expansion strategies and market development activities in passenger air transportation are, however, not easily and fluidly executable. The airline industry is, to some extent, still nationally regulated, thus impeding passenger airlines from fully participating in the global market-scene and from freely entering promising geographies. Concomitantly, the competitive landscape in which scheduled passenger airlines operate changed drastically, with travel value chains occasionally undergoing revolutionary transformations on both the supply and the demand side. Finally, the air transport service reveals several peculiarities that impact its production, distribution and consummation. These characteristics have inspired the execution of novel forms of competitive strategies that are described and critically discussed in this dissertation. Within this context, a main root cause for passenger airline partnerships appears to be its continued regulation and the circumvention thereof through the horizontal joining of forces, thus emulating concentration tendencies that have long been a fixture in other globalising industries. Consequently, horizontal interairline partnerships were induced and identified as a key competitive device with which to weather the challenges of the new air transport rivalry structures, the increasingly deregulated environment, and the impediments of sustained market regulation. All major airlines are now involved in some type of horizontal collaboration. The spectrum of these linkages is wide and ranges from loose, unattached, operative agreements to long-term, far-reaching, strategic ones, the most salient forms and instruments of which are thoroughly scrutinised in this dissertation. This dissertation additionally presents the general core inducing economic drivers of carrier interrelationship, which are cost reduction, revenue generation and corporate power considerations. While these aspects offer a multitude of possible partnership forms and instruments, the bulk of airline linkages, however, is presently constituted of joint revenue generation and, consequently, jointly pursued marketing and market expansion goals. In view of these causes, the present dissertation engages in a profound discussion of the rationales behind interairline partnerships, their likely evolution and effects on management practice. Essentially, the key importance of airline partnerships in meeting basic economic imperatives on the one hand, while circumventing persistent regulation on the other, questions the sustainability of incumbent carriers' current business models. There are clear indications that a structured sequence of events in establishing interairline linkages is a key success factor for horizontal airline partnerships. However, the empirical examination of contemporary partnerships' governance structures and managerial practice strongly points to a lack of ample tools with which to establish airline partnerships, select the appropriate match between alliance goals and intensity, and govern alliances during their entire life-cycles. This drawback seems particularly unacceptable in view of the urgent requirement for more appropriate managerial practice in today's discontinuous air transport business environment, and speaks loudly of the need for a framework with which to enhance airline partnership output. Most ideally, a coherent, structured sequence of events should be followed in partnership formation, organisational set-up and management in order to bring an alliance to fruition. On this basis, the establishment of a collaboration governance organisation, adequately mirroring the specific partnership type and meeting the specific demands of all partners involved, is equally identified and described as a fundamental success driver in this dissertation. Further structural, organisational and functional issues thereafter need to be considered in order to transform the joint business venture of two horizontally allied carriers into a venture for mutual success. The most essential of these are introduced in this dissertation. Synergy plays a central role in this context. Synergy, as the overreaching intention and result of working together towards a common goal, must be anchored as a prime objective of all forms of partnership activities. Synergy through interfirm linkages can be derived from various collaborative areas and is greatly influenced by both internal and external factors. One gauge for synergy, in particular for the transformation of synergy potentials into synergy effects, is partnership intensity. The measurement of partnership intensity can be used to perpetually monitor the benefits of partnership activities. At the same time, inconsistent or uneven partnership intensity can indicate the existence of dissynergies or frailties in the alliance. The underlying theories of collaborative synergy generation, its main drivers and impediments, with particular reference to horizontal partnerships of scheduled passenger airlines, are explored in this dissertation. In recognition of the theoretical and practical background of airline partnerships and the acknowledged problems associated with their establishment and operation, the present dissertation proposes a novel model dynamically supporting the quest for synergy in airline interrelationships. Incorporating the goals of synergy generation and its continual measurement in interairline partnerships, the synergy audit is designed as a dynamic managerial tool. The synergy audit functions as a recurring device for unleashing all the positive partnership benefits of collaborative scope and width. It aids airline alliance management in transforming the desired benefits of partnership activities - synergy potentials - into real, tangible synergy effects during the entire partnership life cycle. The tool A.PIE (Airline Partnership Intensity Evaluator) supports the synergy audit and, which idiosyncratic to the airline industry, multidimensionally applies the deduced relationship of partnership intensity and synergy to the most salient partnership areas and functions. The present dissertation shapes understanding of the true drivers and complexities of today's airline partnerships. It proposes a circular, multidimensional and dynamic model, thus attempting to enhance the set-up, performance and output of horizontal airline collaboration. From this point of view it endeavours to fill the gap identified in contemporary airline partnership management and practice. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Sien asb volteks vir opsomming

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work