This thesis aims to understand the relative influence of institutional, cultural and organizational factors on the adjustment of the United Nations’ (UN) and multinational companies’ expatriates in Egypt. The research makes a contribution to the field of expatriate research through its application of the institutional lens in examining the factors impacting on adjustment; and through testing a traditional adjustment model in an under-researched host context. As a result of the research this thesis proposes a new framework for understanding the factors impacting on adjustment which adopts a contingency perspective and incorporates a stronger focus on institutional determinants and the organisational infrastructure supporting the management of expatriates. The study relies, for its theoretical basis, on certain cultural and organizational factors borrowed from the expatriate literature, in addition to introducing other factors (mainly institutional factors) which have not been previously examined in the literature as predictors of adjustment. The research questions the utility of these organizational, cultural and institutional factors, especially those from traditional models, when applied to relatively new national and organizational contexts, the Egyptian national context and the United Nations organizational context. Both contexts are under-researched areas in the expatriate adjustment literature and in the international human resources management literature in general. The Arab cultural context introduces many differences to the Anglo-Saxon and European context, more traditionally the subject of research studies and thus it provides an opportunity for testing the wider application of expatriate models. Equally the UN is a highly multicultural organisational context with a socio-political mission which is highly distinct from the ‘for profit’ based multinational. Thus both these contextual factors offer fertile ground for the further development of a framework for understanding expatriate adjustment during contemporary times. In addition, the novelty of the context brings to the fore the opportunity for examining the utility of institutional theory as an alternative or complement to cultural theory as a way of understanding the factors influencing expatriate adjustment. In terms of the method, the research relies mainly on quantitative data obtained by surveying expatriates in multinational and United Nations organizations working in Egypt. In addition a qualitative technique (interviews) was used to aid questionnaire development and data contextualization. The results highlight the role of institutional measures in explaining expatriate adjustment. The evidence suggests that the institutional variables provide additional explanatory power beyond that provided by traditional factors studies. However, the research also demonstrates that the institutional measures do not replace the cultural measures and therefore there is not a substitution factor at work. Rather, we would argue that the institutional lens provides additional understanding and is tapping into other factors not already captured through measures of culture. The research puts forward a contingency model incorporating additional organisational and institutional variables which are often overlooked or underemphasised in some of the traditional organisational focused models.

This study examines the nature of learning organisations with a special focus on how these organisations manage to sustain and reinvent themselves despite changing contexts. In particular, the study focuses on one NGO operating in the South African education field. The intention of this research report is to determine how the specified organisation has been able to sustain and expand its operations while remaining effective and relevant despite changing political, economic and social contexts. The findings of the study have been drawn from interviews held with key personnel who presently work or previously worked for the organisation under study. Data from the interviews was triangulated with data extracted from the organisation’s annual reports. The data shows that the organisation grew from a regional entity to having offices all over South Africa. In order to do so, the organisation had to adapt to changing circumstances which it did by learning from experts and other organisations worldwide that were involved in similar pursuits. From these sources, the organisation learnt about innovative literacy materials and development strategies. The spearhead for many years behind these developments was a leader with a strong and charismatic personality and so, ultimately, it is difficult to distinguish between her personal learning and the organisational learning that took place.

L'expertise internationale joue un rôle important dans la mise à l’agenda d’enjeux environnementaux globaux. Ces évaluations sont souvent contestées, en particulier là où les faits et les valeurs sont fortement imbriqués. Cette thèse examine le cas du Groupe d'experts intergouvernemental sur l'évolution du climat (GIEC), une des organisations d’experts les plus contestées. Elle s'intéresse plus généralement à comment ces organisations maintiennent leur autorité, en croisant les apports théoriques des études des sciences et des techniques et de la sociologie des organisations internationales. Un argument central est que le GIEC, en partie à cause de l'univers controversé dans lequel il évolue, est devenu une bureaucratie internationale. La thèse identifie quatre arrangements institutionnels sur lesquels l'organisation s'est appuyée pour maintenir son autorité. Premièrement, elle s'est efforcée de maintenir une représentation équilibrée des États, principalement entre pays développés et pays en développement. Deuxièmement, il a mis en place des mécanismes de gouvernance qui permettent aux gouvernements de jouer un rôle dans le processus d'évaluation, encourageant la “reappropriation” de ses conclusions. Troisièmement, il a procéduralisé le processus d'évaluation pour formaliser le rôle de ses différentes parties et protéger l'organisation contre les critiques. Quatrièmement, il est plus attentif à la gestion de la communication. Ces arrangements sont régulièrement renégociés dans le contexte de nouveaux défis et controverses. Au-delà du GIEC, ils offrent de nouvelles perspectives pour observer l'imbrication de l'autorité politique et épistémique. / In the last decades, international expertise has been essential to put global environmental problems on the international agenda. These assessments are often contested, especially on issues where facts and values are profoundly entangled. This thesis investigates the case of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), one of the most authoritative, albeit contested expert organisation. It is more generally interested in how these organisations construct and maintain their authority, drawing on insights from Science and Technology Studies and sociological approaches to international organisations. A central argument is that, partly as a result of the controversial universe in which it has evolved, the IPCC has grown into an international bureaucracy. The thesis identifies four institutional arrangements on which the organisation has relied to maintain its authority. First, it has strived for a balanced representation of all nations, and in particular between developed and developing countries. Second, it has put in place governing mechanisms that allow governments to play a central role in the assessment process, encouraging the ‘ownership’ of its conclusions. Third, it has increasingly proceduralised the assessment, to formalise the role of its different parts and protect the organisation against criticism. Four, it has been more attentive to the management of the information displayed about its work. These arrangements are regularly renegotiated in the context of new challenges and controversies. Beyond the IPCC, they provide relevant lenses to observe the intertwining of political and epistemic authority at the international level.

No description available.

La présente thèse de doctorat porte sur la médiatisation de la religion et l'utilisation des réseaux sociaux numériques dans la culture professionnelle du clergé ainsi que sur l'intégration de l'innovation numérique dans les organisations religieuses semi-fermées. Stout (2012) aborde la problématique des systèmes ouverts versus fermés par rapport aux médias, suggérant que le clergé et les paroissiens devraient «développer des compétences critiques pour évaluer les messages religieux partout où ils apparaissent» (Stout, 2012, p.66). Il analyse la capacité et la volonté des communautés religieuses d'établir leurs propres médias, que ce soit les médias traditionnels ou les nouveaux médias, d'une part, et le degré d'ouverture en ce qui concerne l'exposition aux médias laïques, y compris les produits et contenu de la culture pop, mettant ainsi en place le cadre de discussion pour l'utilisation des médias dans les organisations religieuses semi-fermées.En outre, cette recherche est appliquée au cas du clergé et des croyants roumains de l'Église Adventiste du Septième Jour (SDAC) et vise à souligner comment l'Internet et les nouveaux médias sont vécus par les pasteurs adventistes dans leur activité religieuse ainsi que par les croyants adventistes. la vie religieuse quotidienne. La communication des doctrines, des enseignements religieux et spirituels, sous forme écrite ou verbale, sont les activités principales des groupes pastoraux et paroissiaux. La recherche montre également une mentalité pro-technologique significative du SDAC tout au long du siècle dernier, et sa motivation - liée à la possibilité de répandre le message évangélique / The present doctoral thesis is focused on the mediatisation of religion and the use of digital social networks in the professional culture of the clergy as well as on the integration of digital innovation in semi-closed religious organizations. The problematic of open versus closed systems in relation to media is approached by Stout (2012), who suggests that clergy and parishioners ought to “develop critical skills to assess religious messages wherever they appear” (Stout, 2012, p. 66). He analyses the capacity and willingness of religious communities to establish their own media, whether it’s traditional or new media, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the degree of openness when it comes to exposure to secular media, which includes products and content of pop culture, thus setting-up the frame of discussion for the use of media in semi-closed religious organizations.Furthermore, this research is applied to the case of the Romanian Seventh-Day Adventist Church (SDAC) clergy and believers and intends to highlight how the Internet and new media are experienced by Adventist pastors in their religious activity as well as by Adventist believers in their everyday religious life. Communication of doctrines, religious and spiritual teachings, in written or verbal form are the main activities of the both pastoral and parishioners’ groups. The research also shows a significant pro-technological mentality of the SDAC throughout the last century, and its motivation – related to the opportunity to spread the evangelical message.

Cette thèse porte sur la gestion des risques associés aux marchés financiers au sein des grandes organisations financières européennes. A partir d’un travail ethnographique approfondi et d’entretiens, elle vise à améliorer la compréhension de la gestion des risques de marchés financiers dans les banques et les compagnies d'assurance de la zone euro. Cette recherche montre que les gestionnaires de risque construisent leur connaissance et leur évaluation des risques avec un but premier : celui de satisfaire les exigences de d’acteurs extérieurs à l’organisation davantage que de couvrir les risques générés par les activités de celle-ci. Plusieurs acteurs ont en effet la possibilité de mettre en danger la santé de l’organisation, par exemple les régulateurs ou les actionnaires et les contreparties. Les gestionnaires de risque se préoccupent surtout de l’évaluation par le régulateur. Dans la limite de ce que leur permettent les possibilités de calcul et la comptabilité, ils essayent de répondre au mieux aux pressions de ces acteurs. Par une communication qui reflète ce qu’ils anticipent des souhaits des acteurs externes, les gestionnaires de risque essayent d’éviter des sanctions de la part de ces derniers. / Risks taken in the financial sector have been in the public eye since the financial crisis of 2008. This thesis explores the internal workings of the large organisations that take financial market risks, banks and insurance companies. It follows their risk managers, analysing their work and output. The thesis is based on an ethnography with 84 semi-structured interviews and two participant observations in risk management. EU regulation and literature on financial risk state that risk managers control risk taking of their organisations. This thesis shows that is not the case. The risk managers do not have the resources to make the control stick. They focus on another aspect, namely on keeping the organisation alive. The risk managers prevent negative consequences from happening to their organisation by handling the communications to resourceful outsiders. Regulators, shareholders and counterparties all have the power to bring down a financial organisation. The risk managers manage communications about the state of the organisation to these outsiders. With the help of their risk assessments, they want to avoid the negative effects an outsider could bring. Accounting rules and mathematical standards restrict the malleability of the risks, depending on enforcement of powerfull outsiders. The risk managers juggle the different limits to show an organisation in good health.

Pour assurer ses missions les États ont besoin de prélever l’impôt afin de s’assurer des ressources. Lacaractéristique des États en développement est, en matière de Finances Publiques, d’avoir des recettesbasées essentiellement sur les taxes prélevées en frontière sur les marchandises. Malheureusement dansces pays là, l’efficacité des Organisations Douanières est rarement au rendez-vous, notamment du faitd’une corruption très importante parmi les douaniers.Aussi les Organisations Internationales recommandent une privatisation partielle des missions afind’améliorer les recettes. Les sociétés privées se sont spécialisées dans cette forme de recouvrement etainsi la plupart des pays africains ont recours à l’une ou l’autre des sociétés dites de " pré-inspection ".Après des années de pratique peut-on évaluer l’efficience de cette privatisation ? L’exemple de la RCAest particulièrement pertinent pour étudier cela puisque d’une part ce pays a poussé la privatisation àl’ensemble des missions douanières, ce qui est unique au monde et d’autre part la situation actuelle de cepetit pays découle au moins en partie de l’absence d’une administration des douanes solide.Dans l’écroulement des structures administratives de ce pays, assisté depuis sa création par toutesles Organisations Internationales, ces dernières, sont-elles exemptes de reproches ? / STATES collect revenue from taxes to provide necessary financial resources to the accomplishmentof their missions. Developing states have a common characteristic namely to collect revenue mainly onimported goods. Unfortunately customs administrations of these countries are generally inefficient due toa very high level of corruption of their personnel.Faced to this situation, internationals organisations advised to outsource some of the customs func-tions in order to improve the collection of revenue. Private companies developed new activities in thisarea and today most African countries have contracted out one or several of these companies usuallycalled preshipment inspection companies. After several years is it feasable to assess the efficiency of thatoutsourcing ? CAR is an excellent and pertinent study case to perform this assessment. On one hand,this country has outsourced all of the customs fonctions, which is a unique exemple in the world. Onthe other hand, there is a strong link between the existing situation of this country and the lack of anefficient customs administration.Can we blame these international organisations, which have assisted CAR since it’s creation, for thecollapse of the administrative structures of this country ?

<p>The aim of this thesis emanated from a discussion whether voluntary associations have a choice or not regarding their democratic development. Robert Michels (1911/1983), one of the classic sociological thinkers, says no. The path towards oligarchy is inevitable. Nevertheless, maybe there are certain points, where the organizations face a certain democratic “dilemma” (Merton, 1966), forcing them more or less easily towards the oligarchic path? Seven counterarguments deriving from modern perspectives on participatory democracy (Pateman 1985; 1989) where used to find a way to avoid the oligarchic path and by that develop democracy in organizations. Since democracy also requires equality, the dissertation explored the question of power and influence in democratic organisations by studying the use of (spoken) language. Inspired by sociolinguistic theory (Milles, 2004) the aim was to identify dominance of the conversation: Who are taking part of the conversation? Are there differences between women and men in democratic organisations?</p><p>The main part of the study consists of group interviews. Members of the boards of six relatively small voluntary associations where chosen as units of analysis. Information around founding an association gathered from 75 homepages on Internet served as background data. The language as each one of the 27 board members where studied both separately and as conversation.</p><p>The conclusion is that formal structures build in hierarchal levels already when voluntary organisations take form. The dilemmas seem to revolve around the two fundamental criteria of democratic government, namely effectiveness and responsiveness are more or less explicitly stated. Awareness of dilemmas seems to be a possible way to avoid the determinism of oligarchy. The need for reinterpretation of the goals now and then could make it easier to find alternative actions. The associations have to strike a balance between effectiveness in relation to their goals and effectiveness in a democratic sense, a balance not always held. By clarifying the work and development processes of the voluntary organisations it is possible to identify (the lack of) democratic work within the organisations – a useful instrument in practice. The elite that runs the organisations is almost exclusively male and is preventing the members, especially women, from voicing their opinion. Democracy obstructs by structures demanded by society, socialised gender structures and the need of efficiency. The representatives are not always carrying out their task as elected representatives; self-interest puts before the common good.</p>

Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

The aim of this thesis emanated from a discussion whether voluntary associations have a choice or not regarding their democratic development. Robert Michels (1911/1983), one of the classic sociological thinkers, says no. The path towards oligarchy is inevitable. Nevertheless, maybe there are certain points, where the organizations face a certain democratic “dilemma” (Merton, 1966), forcing them more or less easily towards the oligarchic path? Seven counterarguments deriving from modern perspectives on participatory democracy (Pateman 1985; 1989) where used to find a way to avoid the oligarchic path and by that develop democracy in organizations. Since democracy also requires equality, the dissertation explored the question of power and influence in democratic organisations by studying the use of (spoken) language. Inspired by sociolinguistic theory (Milles, 2004) the aim was to identify dominance of the conversation: Who are taking part of the conversation? Are there differences between women and men in democratic organisations? The main part of the study consists of group interviews. Members of the boards of six relatively small voluntary associations where chosen as units of analysis. Information around founding an association gathered from 75 homepages on Internet served as background data. The language as each one of the 27 board members where studied both separately and as conversation. The conclusion is that formal structures build in hierarchal levels already when voluntary organisations take form. The dilemmas seem to revolve around the two fundamental criteria of democratic government, namely effectiveness and responsiveness are more or less explicitly stated. Awareness of dilemmas seems to be a possible way to avoid the determinism of oligarchy. The need for reinterpretation of the goals now and then could make it easier to find alternative actions. The associations have to strike a balance between effectiveness in relation to their goals and effectiveness in a democratic sense, a balance not always held. By clarifying the work and development processes of the voluntary organisations it is possible to identify (the lack of) democratic work within the organisations – a useful instrument in practice. The elite that runs the organisations is almost exclusively male and is preventing the members, especially women, from voicing their opinion. Democracy obstructs by structures demanded by society, socialised gender structures and the need of efficiency. The representatives are not always carrying out their task as elected representatives; self-interest puts before the common good.