This thesis focuses on the impacts of privatisation on the relevant industrial structure of the economy. Standard tools of industrial organisation theory are applied to examine these impacts and, thereby, shed light on relevant welfare issues. The focus of this thesis is to examine the ramifications of privatisation in imperfectly competitive markets. Simple Cournot-Nash types of games have been developed, where the market is a duopoly containing a privatised firm with the other firm being a new entrant. These games examine the efficacy and impacts of privatisation, and the role of government in this duopoly. The thesis endrogenously derives multiple equilibria in the duopolistic market; examines decontrolling/deregulating a vertical market; looks at the potential competition in vertical markets and examines potential collusion among existing firms to forestall entry; and addresses issues of privatisation in successive duopolies with cooperative investments. Results show that whether privatisation is beneficial to the community will rely on the astute role of government intervention. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The research investigated the impact of cultural change on the professional identity and practices of social workers in the Australian Defence Organisation (ADO). The researcher sought to understand both the nature and impact of change. The literature was reviewed with regard to the research and understanding of the concept of profession. The review highlighted the ideological nature of profession and the way in which the dominant culture impacts on professionals’ understanding of their identity and practice. The culture impacts on the development of the professionals’ relationship with clients, professional values and practices, practice boundaries, autonomy and status, accountability and knowledge and skills. The analysis of the literature illustrated that professionalism reflected the cultural impact of industrial capitalism while the emerging new professionalism reflected the impact of late capitalism. The research was undertaken from 1995 to 2004, a time of significant reform and change in Australia. The changes were reflected in changing relationships in the political economy and subsequent government and societal reforms. The cultural hegemony or dominant discourse changed from industrial capitalism to late capitalism and this change challenges professional identity and practice. The thesis argues that, an analysis of the case of ADO social work, particularly ADO social workers’understanding of their identity and practice demonstrates the impact of professionalism from 1957 to the mid-1980s. From the mid-1980s to 1996, it is further argued, it is possible to discern the impact of new professionalism as ADO social workers pursued their identity and understanding of practice in terms of the cultural reforms, that is, the emerging new professionalism. The thesis identifies six areas in which both professionalism and new professionalism impact on professionals, their identity and practice together with six features of both professionalism and new professionalism. These features are reflected in the professional projects. A case study of ADO social work was undertaken. The case study was constructed so that it satisfied the tenets of the qualitative method: describing, understanding and explaining. The case data was analysed in terms of the framework established. This framework identified six features of professionalism and new professionalism. Documentary data was analysed, that is, the public statements, reports and evidence given by ADO social workers, which articulated their understanding of their professional identity and practice. The case study confirmed the impact of professionalism on ADO social workers’ identity and practice. However, the data did not demonstrate that ADO social workers pursued their professional project in terms of the emerging new professionalism. Three explanations are suggested as to why ADO social workers resist cultural change and continue to pursue professionalism. The first reason is the finding that the profession of arms, the dominant profession in the organisation, resisted many of the reforms. This enabled ADO social workers to continue to understand their professional identity and practice in terms of professionalism. A second reason is ADO social workers’ focus on the organisational restructuring of ADO social work services, a project pursued by many ADO social workers from 1973. The organisational restructuring is understood to be part of ADO social workers’ professionalisation project in terms of professionalism. A third reason is that ADO social workers view the changing culture as a significant threat to their understanding of their professional identity and practice. Bureaucracy, hierarchy, the state, service, tradition, monopoly, institutions, authority, supervising were giving way to market, flexibility, outcomes, performance, competition, teams, entrepreneurialism and choice. Along with many professional colleagues ADO social workers view the changes as the ‘deprofessionalisation’ of professionals in the ADO. The thesis argues that new professionalism will increasingly impact on the identity and practice of ADO social workers as members of a socially constructed occupation. Attempts by ADO social workers to continue to develop and maintain a professional identity and practice in terms of professionalism will mean that social workers will become irrelevant to the needs of the ADO and its Members and families. Professionalism is no longer part of the hegemony of the dominant culture. The thesis argues that the future for ADO social work lies in the pursuit of a critical professional project in terms of the emerging new professionalism, understanding that new professionalism like professionalism ‘masks’ the oppressive nature of the capitalist project.

In 1995 a Federal Government Report, Enterprising Nation: Renewing Australia?s Managers to Meet the Challenges of the Asia-Pacific Century (Karpin, 1995) was published. One of the key themes of this report was that "The "learning organisation" will be standard philosophy for many Australian enterprises and a major way they cope with change and turbulence. Managers will create conditions conducive to learning for both individuals and the enterprise as a whole, within and between groups, across individual business units and between enterprises and their external environments." There is a dearth of published literature internationally, not only on clubs and the degree to which they are learning organizations but organizations in general. A systematic search of the literature identified only one published report in which there was an in-depth exploration of an organization to determine if it was a learning organization. Therefore, this study has a dual purpose. Firstly, it provides an in-depth study of a specific industry; and secondly it helps to fill a knowledge gap in the study of organizations. This study has used as its theoretical framework Marquardt?s (2002) learning organization model to determine the extent to which the characteristics of the learning organization are perceived to apply to a group of clubs in a regional area of Australia. The study has used a survey method utilising the Learning Organization Profile (LOP) questionnaire developed by Marquardt (1996) and validated by Griego, Geroy and Wright (2000) and interviews with the CEOs and Human Resource Managers from four clubs. The LOP was distributed to permanent staff working in these clubs resulting in 36% of the LOPs being returned. Statistical analysis of the returned LOPs indicated that the clubs had not adopted the characteristics of the learning organization to any great extent. The clubs divided into two groups. The perceptions of staff from two clubs were that the clubs had adopted learning organization characteristics to a minor extent. The perceptions of staff from the other two clubs was that the two clubs had adopted learning organization characteristics to a moderate extent. In all cases the pattern of perceptions of staff represented differences of degree rather than fundamental differences. When the data obtained from the managers were examined, managers perceptions were that the clubs had adopted the characteristics of a learning organization to a moderate extent. These results compare favourably with the results of the Byers study (1999), which found that the perceptions of senior managers in Australian organizations were that the characteristics of a learning organization applied to a moderate extent. The perceptions of non-managers were that the characteristics applied to a minor extent. Statistical analysis of the data indicated that there were no significant differences between managers and non-managers, with the differences being in the degree rather than there being any fundamental differences.

Observation has been made of an amalgamation of two Catholic Girls' Schools with the twofold aim of: i) identifying the elements that have contributed positively to the functional organisation, and ii) formulating guidelines to assist future amalgamation planners. The three core elements of High Morale, Effective Communication and Efficient Decision-making were found to be strongly operative and apparently - as evidence indicated - were facilitated by: i) principal's attitude and behaviour towards Staff, ii) administration being open to query and advice, iii) principal-staff commitment to the task and expressed goals of the school. While these factors contributed to the success of the organisation functionally, specific activities, in some cases exclusive to Catholic schools, were seen as valuable also. Opportunities for spiritual support and community building were used positively and effectively. The findings indicated that the organisational procedures employed were sound and, that in distinguishing amalgamation planning from single-school planning, the basic need is to foster a unity of purpose and mutual acceptance of persons with persons' rights.

An original project for a taxonomy of organisation-technology became over time an exploration of some of the meanings and contexts of technology. The exploration began with the critique of selected instances of landmark theorising and empirical research on the technology concept. The critique raised issues in epistemology and methodology which caused this writer to address the philosophy of the social sciences and the philosophy of technology at certain points: the question of technological determinism; language and metaphor; ideology; construct validity. Chapters One and Two of this thesis reflect the quest for connections in meta-theory, as the remaining chapters reflect the quest for meanings and contexts of technology in organisation and society. The case studies of landmark theory and research on technology led into more of a generic enquiry into the nature and claims of a contingency theory of organisation and management. An analysis of landmark cases and of contingency theory suggested that a formalist or empiricist approach to technology and organisation had produced no clear conceptualisation of technology, nor of any other contextual or performance factors. No panacea for organisation-design has emerged from this quarter. A rather broader arena of the division and re-combination of labour was then approached. Analysis suggested that technology and the division of labour are not mere surrogates of managerial control but arenas continually contested by organisation and society participants. They are not givens with resident characteristics to be read out but occasions of choice ongoingly negotiated. Whereas the thesis began with notions of a static and cognitivist taxonomy it developed into a study of certain images of technology, with the valencies of technology deriving from its various contexts of meanings and matrices of values. The thesis concludes with the view that formalism of much contemporary organisation-theory needs to be amplified by a broadly phenomenological understanding.

This study approaches the study of organisational communication in the Australian public sector by focussing on the gendered nature of the organisation, and presenting results from the grass roots or 'native' level (Gregory, 1983). The theoretical framework of this study draws on a diverse range of philosophical viewpoints, ranging from organisational communication and culture approaches, sociological perspectives, public sector research, and uniquely Australian conceptualisations of gender within the public sphere. This study introduces a new way of conceiving feminist bureaucrats (femocrats), in terms of their relationships with 'natives' within public sector organisations. Difficulties in identifying a distinctly Australian organisational communication arena result from both the paucity of organisational communication, grass roots, and public sector research, and because of the problematic task of assimilating 'bits' of divergent theories, with often incompatible views to inform one comprehensive theoretical framework. The results of focus group and individual interviews suggest that a 'managerial' culture exists both within and externally to public sector organisations. This managerialism originates from within patriarchal and masculine organisational structures, and from a shift of workplace practices where a public service model has been replaced by a more private sector, bottom line, results orientation. While the 'natives' in this study are not representative of all public sector employees, their discourse provides a glimpse into the concerns of grass roots members of organisations, a view that is significant in its absence from organisational communication research, particularly in the Australian context.

Zugl.: Duisburg, Essen, Univ., Diss., 2004

Zugl.: Neuchâtel, Univ., Diss., 2006

<p>Ledarskapsforskning utifrån ett inlärningsteoretiskt perspektiv</p><p>fokuserar på de observerbara beteenden som ledare uppvisar, i arbetet</p><p>med att vägleda medarbetare.  Att tillämpa beteendeanalys i</p><p>organisationer, kallas Organizational Behavior Management (OBM).</p><p>Observationsstudier har visat att feedback och monitorering är</p><p>beteenden som karakteriserar framgångsrika ledare. Experimentella</p><p>studier har visat samband mellan monitorering och ökad prestation,</p><p>samt mellan feedback och ökat effektivitet i organisationer. Syftet</p><p>med studien var att undersöka hur en OBM-utbildning påverkade</p><p>ledares feedback- och monitoreringsbeteenden, samt hur förtroendet</p><p>för deras ledarskapsförmåga påverkades. Inga signifikanta</p><p>förändringar av beteende uppmättes under utbildningens första tre</p><p>månader. Förtroendet för ledarnas förmåga förändrades inte heller</p><p>signifikant, dock finns en förbättring vid jämförelser med</p><p>referensvärden. Regressionsanalys visade att feedback och</p><p>monitoreringsbeteenden är mycket starkt relaterat till förtroende för</p><p>ledarnas ledarskapsförmåga. Studien har vissa metodologiska brister,</p><p>bl.a. stort bortfall, kort tid mellan mätningarna och takeffekter, vilket</p><p>minskar möjligheten att dra slutsatser om utbildningens effekt.</p>

<p>Studien ämnade undersöka vilka faktorer som till störst del påverkade tjänstemäns arbetstrivsel. Genom att dela in sex faktorer i tre grupper kunde mer kunskap förvärvas om vilket område av individ, chef eller organisation som har störst inverkan på arbetstrivsel. Undersökningsdeltagarna bestod av 196 stycken kommunalarbetare som besvarade en enkät. Resultatet visade att faktorer kopplade till chef hade störst inverkan, därefter organisationsfaktorer och minst inverkan på arbetstrivsel hade individfaktorer. De enskilda faktorerna som påverkade trivsel mest var feedback och delaktighet. Att individfaktorer hade så liten inverkan kan förklaras med att de endast är kopplade till individen. Individfaktorerna är således avskilda från en informationsgemenskap eller samverkan som chefsfaktorer och organisationsfaktorer till större del representerar.</p>