Master-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2008.

Bachelor-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2008.

Zugl.: Mannheim, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 2007.

Univ., Diss., 2008--Frankfurt (Main).

Berlin, Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2003.

Diss.--Wirtschafts- und sozialwissenschaftlichen Fakultät--Köln--Universität zu Köln, 1992. / Bibliogr. p. [383]-408. Index.

This thesis examines the size-growth relationship for banking and manufacturing firms. In particular it tests the Law of Proportionate Effect (LPE) which suggests that there is no relationship between firm size and growth. Tests of the LPE are carried out for eight European banking markets (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom) and for three bank types (commercial, co-operative and savings) over the period 1990 to 1994. Employing three measures of size (total assets, equity and off balance sheet business) models are estimated that test for size effects on growth, and the influences of previous growth, bank type and country membership. In the majority of cases, bank growth is independent of bank size, so the LPE holds. However, small banks grew faster than their larger counterparts (in terms of assets and equity) in France, Italy and Spain. The LPE is also investigated for a sample of European manufacturing firms drawn from five countries and eleven industry groups. In contrast to the banking industry there is less evidence that the LPE holds. In most cases small firms grew proportionately faster than their larger counterparts. Using stochastic simulation techniques, the effects of firm growth, entry, exit and merger activity on the evolution of bank sizes and market concentration is examined. Using a simulated industry in which the LPE holds as the benchmark, the implications of various alternative assumptions regarding bank growth were examined. Superimposition of entry leads to a lower mean bank size and lower levels of concentration. Exit leads to higher mean bank size and increased concentration. Mergers lead to increases in mean bank size and concentration in all simulated industries. Using the simulations methodology, hypothetical projections as to the future structure of the banking markets in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK are carried out. Overall, the simulations suggest that bank numbers are likely to decrease in all countries. The market shares of the largest banks are also projected to decline in all countries with the exception of the UK.

Cellular manufacturing is an important approach to the organisation of production. Large benefits are claimed over traditional functional organisation, and it is compatible with prominent manufacturing theories, such as just-in-time, total quality management, and computer integrated manufacturing. Several very successful applications of cellular manufacturing have been reported, but a wide range of performance improvements has also been observed. Many benefits ofcellular manufacturing do not arise directly from changing the organisation and layout ofdirect production resources, but from changes to the way the production process is operated, managed and controlled, that are made possible by the cellular organisation. Underachievement occurs when companies do not identify and exploit such opportunities. This research aims to address the problem by providing a system wide concept of cellular manufacturing and an improved process to support the design of a cellular manufacturing system based on this concept. A review of the theory and practice of cellular manufacturing is presented. A model is proposed, which comprises a general set of mutually compatible, production system wide, production system features for supporting or exploiting self-contained groupings of manufacturing resources. A subset of the features from the general model will be appropriate to a particular application of cellular manufacturing. Current processes for designing cellular manufacturing systems do not adequately support the application of such a concept. In particular, tailoring the general concept ofcellular manufacturing to a specific situation is identified to be an important but widely neglected design activity. A process is defined that makes concept design explicit, and a matrix-based tool developed to relate the features of cellular manufacturing to a company's performance improvement objectives. The value ofthis novel approach to designing cellular manufacturing systems is determined to be in facilitating the generation and communication of insight into the nature ofcellular manufacturing, encouraging a comprehensive appraisal of the concept and its impact throughout the production system, and focusing limited resources where they will be most effective.

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / After the 1994 elections South Africa had to undergo drastic changes for it to become a more just society to address past injustices experienced by various ethnic groups. Issues such as equality and social justice have frequently appeared on top of various organisations’ agenda. The South African Government realised legislation was of paramount importance to guide organisations in promoting justice in the workplace. These changes in the legislation have had several impacts on organisations operating in South Africa, namely turnover, recruitment and retention of employees in the workplace. Attempting to preside over the promotion of social justice and eliminate inequalities experienced in the workplace, Government realised it had to intercede, not only to prevent additional discrimination, but also to promote the employment and advancement of individuals who were disadvantaged by previous policies. The Government therefore in 1998 implemented the Employment Equity Act to fulfil a constitutional mandate to prohibit discrimination in the workplace and encourage Affirmative Action (AA) measures. Describing and explaining the role of fairness as a concern in the workplace, the term organisational justice was coined. Individuals will base fairness judgements by taking into consideration the actual decision or the procedures used to reach a decision. Organisational justice can be divided into distributive, procedural and interactional justice. Organisations in South Africa face the challenge of finding ways to implement EE strategies to gain competitive advantages without creating negative employee attitudes; attention will focus on how to overcome the barriers that hinder the successful implementation of EE practices and procedures.

The analysis of cultural and value-related differences and the development of a workable and effective leadership culture for business in South Africa takes place against the backdrop of a unique socio-political history. Since 1992 the process of political and social transformation that affects all organisations in South Africa, including the public service, is a process of radical change and involves the unification of individuals from many diverse cultures. The public service, directed by the principles of reconciliation, restructuring and development, finds itself within a process of both structural and cultural transformation. The culture change process of the SA Air Force, one of the Arms of Service and the organisation on which this study focussed, involve the transformation of policies, practices and behaviour (especially leadership practices) towards a culture being much more transformational and participative than what it was in the past. The question under study was whether a transformational leadership approach is suitable for the African social and work environment. South African organisations are still being conceptualised and structured in a largely Western mould. Yet, the appropriateness and application of Western-centric leadership and management theories and philosophies in all other cultures are increasingly being challenged. Through focussing on work-related values and locus of control orientation, the researcher wished to uncover the common ground between eurocentric and indigenous African philosophies, principles and practices (which underlie the SA reality) as part of the challenge to find a workable approach for effective leadership in South Africa. The research investigated the appropriateness of the elements of a transformational leadership approach (as opposed to the task focussed transactional approach) to fit the huge array of cultural identities in the African world of work. Self-administered questionnaires were used to obtain feedback from 509 respondents, all being leaders at different levels in the organisation. The survey data included preferences on work-related values as expressed by both the Survey of Work Values (Wollack, Goodale, Wijting&Smith, 1971) and the Value Survey Module (Hofstede, 1980), locus of control orientation as expressed by the Internal Control Index (Duttweiler, 1984)) and leadership behaviour as expressed by the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Bass&Avolio, 1997). Statistical methods for data analysis included analysis of variance, discriminant analysis, correlation statistics, non-parametric statistics, multiple regression and descriptive statistics. The research has shown that the answer for developing a workable, practical approach for effective leadership in Africa is neither singular, nor simplistic. The research findings do not support the argument of building a unique African leadership model which is purely based only on indigenous African values, thereby rejecting all tested and proven western principles and philosophies. The search for a suitable leadership model for a transforming South Africa should not run the risk of only focusing on either African- or Western-specific cultural value systems. Instead, the existence of culture-universal values impacting on effective leadership processes were confirmed. Many of the so-called humanistic African values proposed, are reported not to be truly African, but rather universal in nature. It was also found that many of these culture-universal characteristics could be associated with the principles of transformational leadership. The validity of adopting a transformational leadership culture for the military was also confirmed. Respondents have shown an awareness of a large power distance and a tendency towards high uncertainty avoidance as well as a strong collectivistic orientation. Support was also found for the fact that business success is not only achieved through masculine influence. In terms of Upward Striving, Pride in Work and Job Involvement as work value dimensions, employees across all culture groups were found to attach a high value to the intrinsic rewards of work in shaping work-related behaviour. Despite the general tendency towards internality, Africans provided significantly lower scores on internality than all the other population groups. However, the results in this study have firmly rejected the notion that most organisational behaviour theory is limited to only internals. Although internality predicts more natural transformational behaviours, the critical factor remains whether leaders have the ability to ensure the required outcomes of extra effort and follower satisfaction. This can be achieved by both internals and externals. The research established the fact that, also in the African context, leadership styles differ in terms of follower effectiveness and that higher levels of employee participation and involvement, inspirational motivation and individualised consideration (i.e. transformational behaviours) lead to higher levels of follower performance and effectiveness across all four culture groups. Copyright 2005, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Beukman, TL 2005, The effect of selected variables on leadership behaviour within the framework of a transformational organisation paradigm, DComm thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-11082005-083347 / > / Thesis (DCom (Human Resources Management))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted