Continuous Improvement processes are commonly used by many organizations facing competitive pressure. By implementing continuous incremental changes, it allows optimizing resources while maintaining flexibility. However, it requires significant resources and involvement from all levels of management, as well as field workers. Continuous Improvement is based on the study of processes and the identification of recurrent problems; therefore it is particularly adapted to manufacturing activities and other repetitive processes. R&D (Research and Development) activities are less repetitive and tend to be iterative, which make them more difficult to study. Yet these activities represent a strong competitive asset and an early mistake or misunderstanding might have a significant cost. The objective of this project was to study the deployment of Continuous Improvement for R&D processes through a literature review and a case study in the pharmaceutical industry. Action research has been the research method that has been employed; the particularity of this method is that the researcher participates actively to the studied change. It resulted in the identification of some characteristics that have to be taken into account in the deployment of improvement activities. First the culture is based on problem-solving, which increase the efficiency of data study and analytical method whilst formalization tools are less efficient, as well as performance indicators related to improvement activities. Besides, the need of customers (both internal and external) is difficult to define and is subject to evolution; this issue tends to be aggravated by a lack of communication. Moreover, development projects being unique and highly iterative, it is recommended to study processes at a more conceptual level, although no specific mapping tool seems particularly adapted. Finally, beside the study of general processes, the study of each individual project (project reviews) allows individual and collective learning. This project also propose a tool allowing the study of information flows between activities and teams in order to reduce mismatch between need and reality (and thus communication issues). This tool relies on the use of local SIPOC diagrams to represent activities and the mapping of flows between each of them.

In the past fourteen years, South African business has experienced a period of significant transformation. The absorption of previously disadvantaged employees into higher skilled jobs is being nudged by measures such as employment equity legislation and affirmative action. Even though previously excluded racial and ethnic groups are being empowered and incorporated into management structures, overall progress has been slow. The research organisation seems to be a microcosm of the macro-environment with regard to the advancement of previously disadvantaged employees, consisting primarily of white employees (66%). Designated employees are represented in much smaller numbers: Indian (15%), African (15%) and Coloured (4%).The objective of this research was to gain an understanding of how designated employees experience working in a predominantly white business unit. Applying a qualitative research design, anecdote circles were used to facilitate the informal sharing of experiences amongst peers. Twelve individuals partook in the anecdote circles and 59 anecdotes were gathered. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to extract themes. Thirty-two themes were identified in the anecdotes that were grouped into seven super-ordinate themes: A debilitating organisational culture; A constructive work environment; Poor orientation and integration into the business unit; Demanding consultant role; Dissatisfaction with careers: Difficulty in handling the typical demanding client profile and Involved management style. Results indicate that designated employees find the organisational culture restrictive due to the bureaucratic nature of the organisation, the insensitivity towards cultural differences, the impersonal atmosphere in the organisation; the excessive use of acronyms; poor communication and ineffective support structures. In contrast they have a positive view of their work environment which is seen as flexible, with plenty opportunities for development and high standards of work. Good teamwork exists with designated employees receiving a lot of support from their project team members. Results show that designated employees experience poor orientation in the business unit, which results in a lack of knowledge regarding processes, tools, and ideal behaviour. They are left to find this information out for themselves and this leads to poor integration into the business unit. Designated employees find their role as consultant very demanding. They experience a lot of pressure on projects and are concerned about others' impression of them. They feel empowered in certain areas of their work life and enjoy taking responsibility for their work and development. Designated employees are dissatisfied with the direction that their careers are taking and feel frustrated by the lack of career advancement. They do not believe their managers have the power to address their concerns regarding their career. Furthermore they equate career progression with financial gain and this adds to their frustration regarding their careers. Designated employees are struggling to deal with difficult and demanding clients who neglect responsibilities and can be unreasonable. They admit that they are not sure how to handle these clients. Designated employees are satisfied with the level of interaction with their managers and the recognition they receive when a job is well done. Some indicate that they would prefer more guidance and support from their managers and they stress the importance of performance management and providing regular feedback. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

In spite of the vast technological progress and improvement in the standard of management systems within hazardous industries around the world, occupational health and safety incidents and fatalities continue to devastate thousands of lives each year. Throughout the last decade, significant improvement has been achieved in the reduction of health and safety incident rates across the South African petrochemical environment. However, a persistent roller-coaster fatality rate still prevails. Recent studies have shown that in order to conquer the relentless battle in realizing sustainable world-class health and safety performance, an organisation has to move beyond the traditional compliance orientated safety focus towards an interdependent safety culture in which safety is ubiquitous and embedded in the hearts of all employees. The root causes of more and more occupational health and safety incidents are no longer as a result of mechanical or systems failure, but instead originate from the attitude, values and beliefs of management and employees with regard to the significance of safety, also known as the safety culture. This has ignited a rising interest in the concept of safety culture among organisations because of the positive impact on occupational health and safety in reducing the potential for fatalities, injuries and workplace incidents. Hence the primary objective of this study is to determine the maturity of the current safety culture in the South African petrochemical environment by identifying particular culture shortfalls which could lead to hesitant progress towards the desired interdependent state. In order to reach this objective, three secondary objectives have also been set. Firstly, an understanding of the concept of organisational culture and safety culture is crucial. In simple terms, organisational culture can be described as the shared values, assumptions and beliefs in an organisation that ultimately direct employee behaviour. Organisational culture is characterised by three layers known as artefacts, espoused values and basic assumptions. These layers represent the manifestation of the organisational culture and vary in terms of outward visibility and resistance to change. Understanding and analysing these layers provide the reasons why employees behave in certain ways. Safety culture is a subset of organisational culture; in other words, it is the manifestation of the organisation?s attitude, values and commitment in regard to the importance of health and safety. Companies which have developed effective safety cultures have demonstrated unequivocal results in closing the elusive health and safety performance gap. Secondly, the fundamental components conducive of an effective safety culture were explored. These components include management and employee commitment to health and safety, accountability and involvement, communication and trust, risk awareness and compliance, competency and learning and finally recognition. Most of the components can be assigned to the artefact level or a combination of the level of artefacts and espoused values with only a small number more appropriately associated with the level of basic assumptions. The effectiveness within each of these areas ultimately dictates the nature of the safety culture and the success in preventing health and safety incidents. The focus of the last secondary objective was to determine the development stages leading to an effective safety culture known as an interdependent safety culture. Each of these stages represents the degree of maturity of the attitudes and commitment of management and employees in relation to the ongoing health and safety improvement in the organisation. The DuPont model suggests that in a reactive safety culture, safety is merely a natural instinct with no real perceived value for the individual or organisation. Moving towards a dependent safety culture, employees start to value safety but only so they do not get caught. The next stage called an independent safety culture is characterised by self preservation. In this stage, the mindset of employees changed towards an attitude of ?I do things safe so I do not get hurt?. In the final stage known as interdependent safety culture, employees embrace safety as a personal virtue not only for their own safety but also in contribution to the safety of their peers. In such a culture it is employees? desire to do things safely so that no-one gets hurt. An empirical study was conducted through a quantitative research approach in the form of a safety climate questionnaire. The target population consisted of first-line managers and non-managerial personnel within the production; maintenance; laboratory; technical, and the safety, health and environment departments in a petrochemical organisation. In light of the results emanating from the empirical study it can be concluded that an overall positive perception was observed towards the selected safety culture components indicative through the mean response scores above the neutral scale of 3. Older and more experienced employees demonstrated a more positive response to the safety compared to younger employees. However, several distinctive safety culture shortcomings were also identified. In the current safety culture, health and safety is sometimes overlooked due to productivity or cost implications. Employees tend to withhold safety related information to themselves as a culture of guilt prevails and mere compliance to safety standards is considered adequate. Solutions to health and safety problems are most of a short-term nature and do not address the root cause. It therefore provides evidence that the organisation under evaluation has not yet reached the desired safety culture maturity stage of interdependence. Although the study population is limited to a single organisation, the shortfalls identified could relate to the larger petrochemical environment and thus could explain the recent fluctuating health and safety performance. This assumption, however, can only be validated through further research within a much greater sample size inclusive of more than one organisation in the petrochemical environment. It is thus clear that the existing safety culture within the petrochemical organisation could lead to potential health and safety incidents if the shortcomings are not appropriately addressed. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Multiculturalism has emerged to challenge liberalism as an ideological solution in coping with ethnic diversity. Inter–ethnic group contact amongst individuals of different cultures is defined as acculturation. Acculturation is an experience from different cultural encounters between employees and their work environments where organisational socialization is a prerequisite to becoming accustomed to different cultural conditions. Acculturation orientation is related to well–being and involves social identification techniques of a minority group within the workplace. Acculturation thus becomes a factor on which to focus when cultural differences are experienced by employees in an organisation of differing cultural values. For purposes of this particular study, the focus will be placed on integration as a mediating role in the relation between positive acculturation conditions and work outcomes. Intergroup relations and adaptation to host culture will be measured directly as per the responses from participants. For the purpose of this study, a quantitative approach is adopted by using a five point Likert scale questionnaire adapted from the model designed by Arends–Toth and Van de Vijver (2006). Predictors in the adapted model include mainstream multiculturalism factors (norms and practices), tolerance, ethnic integration demands and ethnic vitality and outcomes of acculturation, subjective work success, work commitment and job satisfaction. The results indicated that a workplace culture that promotes ethnic cultural maintenance of people from a diverse background coupled with encouragement to participate in the mainstream by ethnic members at home and at work would contribute to the experience of higher levels of subjective work success (Jackson, van de Vijver & Ali, submitted). Multiculturalism practices and ethnic vitality have indirect and significant effects on psychological and socio cultural acculturation outcomes (job satisfaction and organisational commitment as well as subjective experience of work success), while multicultural norms only have indirect and significant effects on psychological acculturation outcomes (job satisfaction and organisational commitment). / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

In the past fourteen years, South African business has experienced a period of significant transformation. The absorption of previously disadvantaged employees into higher skilled jobs is being nudged by measures such as employment equity legislation and affirmative action. Even though previously excluded racial and ethnic groups are being empowered and incorporated into management structures, overall progress has been slow. The research organisation seems to be a microcosm of the macro-environment with regard to the advancement of previously disadvantaged employees, consisting primarily of white employees (66%). Designated employees are represented in much smaller numbers: Indian (15%), African (15%) and Coloured (4%).The objective of this research was to gain an understanding of how designated employees experience working in a predominantly white business unit. Applying a qualitative research design, anecdote circles were used to facilitate the informal sharing of experiences amongst peers. Twelve individuals partook in the anecdote circles and 59 anecdotes were gathered. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to extract themes. Thirty-two themes were identified in the anecdotes that were grouped into seven super-ordinate themes: A debilitating organisational culture; A constructive work environment; Poor orientation and integration into the business unit; Demanding consultant role; Dissatisfaction with careers: Difficulty in handling the typical demanding client profile and Involved management style. Results indicate that designated employees find the organisational culture restrictive due to the bureaucratic nature of the organisation, the insensitivity towards cultural differences, the impersonal atmosphere in the organisation; the excessive use of acronyms; poor communication and ineffective support structures. In contrast they have a positive view of their work environment which is seen as flexible, with plenty opportunities for development and high standards of work. Good teamwork exists with designated employees receiving a lot of support from their project team members. Results show that designated employees experience poor orientation in the business unit, which results in a lack of knowledge regarding processes, tools, and ideal behaviour. They are left to find this information out for themselves and this leads to poor integration into the business unit. Designated employees find their role as consultant very demanding. They experience a lot of pressure on projects and are concerned about others' impression of them. They feel empowered in certain areas of their work life and enjoy taking responsibility for their work and development. Designated employees are dissatisfied with the direction that their careers are taking and feel frustrated by the lack of career advancement. They do not believe their managers have the power to address their concerns regarding their career. Furthermore they equate career progression with financial gain and this adds to their frustration regarding their careers. Designated employees are struggling to deal with difficult and demanding clients who neglect responsibilities and can be unreasonable. They admit that they are not sure how to handle these clients. Designated employees are satisfied with the level of interaction with their managers and the recognition they receive when a job is well done. Some indicate that they would prefer more guidance and support from their managers and they stress the importance of performance management and providing regular feedback. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

In spite of the vast technological progress and improvement in the standard of management systems within hazardous industries around the world, occupational health and safety incidents and fatalities continue to devastate thousands of lives each year. Throughout the last decade, significant improvement has been achieved in the reduction of health and safety incident rates across the South African petrochemical environment. However, a persistent roller-coaster fatality rate still prevails. Recent studies have shown that in order to conquer the relentless battle in realizing sustainable world-class health and safety performance, an organisation has to move beyond the traditional compliance orientated safety focus towards an interdependent safety culture in which safety is ubiquitous and embedded in the hearts of all employees. The root causes of more and more occupational health and safety incidents are no longer as a result of mechanical or systems failure, but instead originate from the attitude, values and beliefs of management and employees with regard to the significance of safety, also known as the safety culture. This has ignited a rising interest in the concept of safety culture among organisations because of the positive impact on occupational health and safety in reducing the potential for fatalities, injuries and workplace incidents. Hence the primary objective of this study is to determine the maturity of the current safety culture in the South African petrochemical environment by identifying particular culture shortfalls which could lead to hesitant progress towards the desired interdependent state. In order to reach this objective, three secondary objectives have also been set. Firstly, an understanding of the concept of organisational culture and safety culture is crucial. In simple terms, organisational culture can be described as the shared values, assumptions and beliefs in an organisation that ultimately direct employee behaviour. Organisational culture is characterised by three layers known as artefacts, espoused values and basic assumptions. These layers represent the manifestation of the organisational culture and vary in terms of outward visibility and resistance to change. Understanding and analysing these layers provide the reasons why employees behave in certain ways. Safety culture is a subset of organisational culture; in other words, it is the manifestation of the organisation?s attitude, values and commitment in regard to the importance of health and safety. Companies which have developed effective safety cultures have demonstrated unequivocal results in closing the elusive health and safety performance gap. Secondly, the fundamental components conducive of an effective safety culture were explored. These components include management and employee commitment to health and safety, accountability and involvement, communication and trust, risk awareness and compliance, competency and learning and finally recognition. Most of the components can be assigned to the artefact level or a combination of the level of artefacts and espoused values with only a small number more appropriately associated with the level of basic assumptions. The effectiveness within each of these areas ultimately dictates the nature of the safety culture and the success in preventing health and safety incidents. The focus of the last secondary objective was to determine the development stages leading to an effective safety culture known as an interdependent safety culture. Each of these stages represents the degree of maturity of the attitudes and commitment of management and employees in relation to the ongoing health and safety improvement in the organisation. The DuPont model suggests that in a reactive safety culture, safety is merely a natural instinct with no real perceived value for the individual or organisation. Moving towards a dependent safety culture, employees start to value safety but only so they do not get caught. The next stage called an independent safety culture is characterised by self preservation. In this stage, the mindset of employees changed towards an attitude of ?I do things safe so I do not get hurt?. In the final stage known as interdependent safety culture, employees embrace safety as a personal virtue not only for their own safety but also in contribution to the safety of their peers. In such a culture it is employees? desire to do things safely so that no-one gets hurt. An empirical study was conducted through a quantitative research approach in the form of a safety climate questionnaire. The target population consisted of first-line managers and non-managerial personnel within the production; maintenance; laboratory; technical, and the safety, health and environment departments in a petrochemical organisation. In light of the results emanating from the empirical study it can be concluded that an overall positive perception was observed towards the selected safety culture components indicative through the mean response scores above the neutral scale of 3. Older and more experienced employees demonstrated a more positive response to the safety compared to younger employees. However, several distinctive safety culture shortcomings were also identified. In the current safety culture, health and safety is sometimes overlooked due to productivity or cost implications. Employees tend to withhold safety related information to themselves as a culture of guilt prevails and mere compliance to safety standards is considered adequate. Solutions to health and safety problems are most of a short-term nature and do not address the root cause. It therefore provides evidence that the organisation under evaluation has not yet reached the desired safety culture maturity stage of interdependence. Although the study population is limited to a single organisation, the shortfalls identified could relate to the larger petrochemical environment and thus could explain the recent fluctuating health and safety performance. This assumption, however, can only be validated through further research within a much greater sample size inclusive of more than one organisation in the petrochemical environment. It is thus clear that the existing safety culture within the petrochemical organisation could lead to potential health and safety incidents if the shortcomings are not appropriately addressed. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Multiculturalism has emerged to challenge liberalism as an ideological solution in coping with ethnic diversity. Inter–ethnic group contact amongst individuals of different cultures is defined as acculturation. Acculturation is an experience from different cultural encounters between employees and their work environments where organisational socialization is a prerequisite to becoming accustomed to different cultural conditions. Acculturation orientation is related to well–being and involves social identification techniques of a minority group within the workplace. Acculturation thus becomes a factor on which to focus when cultural differences are experienced by employees in an organisation of differing cultural values. For purposes of this particular study, the focus will be placed on integration as a mediating role in the relation between positive acculturation conditions and work outcomes. Intergroup relations and adaptation to host culture will be measured directly as per the responses from participants. For the purpose of this study, a quantitative approach is adopted by using a five point Likert scale questionnaire adapted from the model designed by Arends–Toth and Van de Vijver (2006). Predictors in the adapted model include mainstream multiculturalism factors (norms and practices), tolerance, ethnic integration demands and ethnic vitality and outcomes of acculturation, subjective work success, work commitment and job satisfaction. The results indicated that a workplace culture that promotes ethnic cultural maintenance of people from a diverse background coupled with encouragement to participate in the mainstream by ethnic members at home and at work would contribute to the experience of higher levels of subjective work success (Jackson, van de Vijver & Ali, submitted). Multiculturalism practices and ethnic vitality have indirect and significant effects on psychological and socio cultural acculturation outcomes (job satisfaction and organisational commitment as well as subjective experience of work success), while multicultural norms only have indirect and significant effects on psychological acculturation outcomes (job satisfaction and organisational commitment). / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Organisational research in English-speaking countries has long been focused on two main areas. Studies on micro-level have been concerned with the socio-psychological explanation of organisational phenomena, mostly on the level of the individual and groups. Macro-level studies have been concerned with structure for the explanation of organisational phenomena. Macro-level theories have mostly bracketed the individual, and neglected the psychological component or regarded the individual as an actor playing roles. Only recently has the study of organisations been extended to attempt a meso-level analysis of organisational phenomena (Rousseau 1991, 1995). These meso-level attempts have, in the eyes of the author, run into explanatory problems. These problems are mainly due to the 'new' approach being based principally on existing macro-and micro-level theory, merely marrying the two approaches and thus inheriting the apparent difficulties of the existing theory to account for the individual. Althusser and Levi-Strauss are prominent representatives of both micro-and macro-level theory. This author agrees with the notion that organisational research benefits from a meso-level approach to organisational theory. It is in the light of this approach that the author turned to a widely unknown source of theory (in the English-speaking countries) to address the existing explanatory problems in organisational research and contribute so to the field. The underlying fundamental belief of the author is that any institution can be more successfully understood in the sociological context that defines the institution. Introducing the metaphor of 'social resonance' and linking it to the social theory of Pierre Bourdieu, especially the notion of agents and fields, the author attempts to cross-fertilise the academic fields of sociological research in mainland Europe (namely France and Germany with their strong philosophical tradition) with the academic fields of organisational research in the English-speaking countries (namely Britain and the US). This thesis will discuss the organisational research literature and social theory, introduce Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice, develop the metaphor of 'social resonance', and test the new construct in an empirical research setting. The main objective of this study is thus to explore the value of Bourdieu's theory of practice for the explanation of organisational phenomena, and to operationalise it in the metaphor of 'social resonance'. To this end, a research framework has been developed which is explained in more detail in this report.

This research examines the structure of safety climate in the manufacturing sector. It does so by examining and comparing attitudes to, and perceptions of, safety issues in two manufacturing organisations and one organisation involved in the supply of construction materials. The concept of safety climate, and the associated concept of safety culture, have been the subject of much research and theory building in recent years and this thesis builds on previous work. The research framework used here employed a mainly quantitative methodology in order to investigate the architecture of safety climate using structural modelling. Statistical modelling has been applied in other safety studies, often involving safety climate as one variable in a global description of safety systems. However it has rarely been used to model and describe the structure of safety climate as an indicator of safety culture, as in this research. The structure of safety climate described in this research is characterised by the interaction of organisational, group interaction, work environment and individual variables, which provide indicators of influences on individual levels of safety activity. Structural models of the data from all three participating organisations fitted the broad pattern of organisational variables influencing group and work environment variables, which, in turn influence individual variables. A more detailed comparison of organisational structures, however, highlighted slight differences between the two manufacturing organisations and more pronounced differences between these and the construction material supply organisation, suggesting that most elements in the structure of attitudes to safety described here are industry specific. These results are explained in terms of working environments. Differences in structure, consistent with job roles, were also apparent between occupational levels. The research, in line with previous work in the field, has highlighted the importance of management commitment to, and actions for, safety, as well as the role of individual responsibility in the promotion of safety activity. The work reported here has emphasised their importance in developing and maintaining an organisational culture for safety.

When a leader changes to a new post in another kind of organisational culture, what happens then? Could a leader use the same kind of leadership when leading different kinds of groups? Different cultures have different needs and ways to handle things and in the end it all comes to situational leadership. Both leaders and theorists claim that the leader must adjust to what the organisation and its members needs. This paper contains an inquiry of how officers have handled their new assignments as leaders in the civilian world of the municipality. The research shows that a former military leader must also be able to lead another kind of group if they change to a civilian career. A heterogeneous group demands more of the leader. It is necessary that the leader has the ability to use situational leadership, as a military approach often is not welcome in other parts of the community. The leaders must therefore adjust to the organisational culture in the environment where they work. The conclusion of the inquiry is that the officers have been well educated and have an ability to use situational leadership successful also in a civilian working environment. / Då Försvarsmakten avvecklat många av sina förband, så har därmed de officerare som velat kvarstanna på hemorten fått söka sig till den civila arbetsmarknaden. Av de officerare som stannade på Gotland efter nedläggningen av de gotländska förbanden var det många som blev chefer i civila organisationer. Undersökningen för denna uppsats har fokuserats kring några av dessa chefer, som nu arbetar inom Gotlandskommun, och deras ledarskap. Organisationskulturen påverkar ledarskapet och en ledare som kommer till en nymiljö måste anpassa sig till den nya kulturen och till hur medlemmarna hanterar saker i denna. Uppsatsen undersöker hur före detta officerare använder sig av sitt ledarskap från den militära miljön när de blir chefer inom den offentliga sektorn och tvåfrågor ställs: Hur organisationen och dess kultur påverkar den nya ledaren och hans ledarskap respektive hur ledarna uppfattar den nya organisationens förväntningar på dem. Syftet med undersökningen är att synliggöra för- och nackdelar den militära bakgrunden har vad gäller att leda en mer heterogen grupp samt att ge en bild av hur ledarens egen uppfattning om hur detta ledarskap tas emot av den civila organisationen. Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ fallstudie som baserats på intervjuer med sex personer där analysens fokus har lagts på ledaren och organisationskultur. Analysen har gjorts genom kodning av intervjumaterialet där generella åsikter tagits fram. De teoretiska referensramarna pekar på att det är skillnader på olika organisationer och deras kulturer. Även de intervjuade cheferna anser att de märker stor skillnad mellan de olika organisationstyperna och deras kulturer. Centrala lärdomar som återkommer i uppsatsen är att ledaren måste anpassa sig till den nya kulturen samt att ledaren måste klara av att behärska ett situationsanpassat ledarskap. Resultatet är tänkt att kunna vara en vägledning för personer som exempelvis kommer att byta arbetsmiljö till nya organisationskulturer eller som är chefer och kommer att få in nya personer från annorlunda organisationskulturer till sin egen organisation.