Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Intrapreneurship expresses organisational activities aimed at increasing quality of products, reducing production cost, capture or creates new product markets, and/or improving processes and services. This research study covers the investigation of potential influences on the intrapreneurial activity within an established organisation, and the possible outcome on financial performance. In the rapidly changing business environment of today, it has become necessary for the organisations to move from boundary-oriented thinking to continuous improvement in order to provide the disruptive competitive advantages necessary to survive and thrive in an environment where the ‘rules of the game’ change quickly in almost all companies and industries (Voelpel, Leibold and Tekie, 2005). Moreover, the automotive industry is no exception to this rule. In general, established companies deal with two significant challenges. First, they have to adapt to the external challenges of constantly changing and developing markets to keep pace with rapid technological evolution, globalisation, and progressively sophisticated competitors (Kemelgor, 2002; Kuratko, Hornsby and Goldsby, 2004). Second, they must deal with the internal challenges of modernising bureaucratic structures and processes, which can lead to slow development, decision-making and an inability to adapt easily to new situations (Hammer and Champy, 1994). In today's context of increasing market globalisation, companies wishing to maintain their competitiveness must innovate constantly (Carrier, 2001). Recognising the importance of meeting these challenges, organisational leaders must create high performance organisations in order to compete in a global mega-economic world. The old ways of doing business as usual and overwhelmed policies and procedures must be rooted out in order for the organisation to compete by identifying and sustaining diversified employees within a global economy (Kennedy, 2010). Companies generally engage in innovation for achieving an increase in quality of products, a reduction in production cost, capture or create new product markets, and reduce the firm’s reliance upon unreliable factors of production (Webster, 2004). There is a growing consensus that established companies must nurture intrapreneurial activity throughout their operations to continue to compete successfully (Sathe, 2003). Numerous authors have suggested intrapreneurship as a method of stimulating innovation and using the creative energy of employees by giving them the resources and independence they need to innovate within the firm (Carrier, 2001; Amo and Kolvereid, 2005). However, there is a certain amount of ambiguity around the concept of intrapreneurship, and this may lead to questions about the difference between intrapreneurship and intrapreneurship (Carrier, 2001). It is therefore important, before introducing the object of this research, to look more closely at the concept on which intrapreneurship is based, and to examine the trends in the research on intrapreneurship. The research conducted by Eesley and Longenecker (2006) suggest that intrapreneurship is a practice of creating new business products and opportunities in an organisation through proactive empowerment and risk-taking. This is considered a key component to organisational success; especially in organisations that operate in rapidly changing industries (Eesley and Longenecker, 2006). Intrapreneurship can manifest itself at every level of the company and regardless of the nature of the position held. Hence, we could have intrapreneurs in technical or non-technical functions; senior, middle or junior management levels; line or staff functions, and manufacturing or service related roles. Beyond this wide perspective, other authors have suggested that intrapreneurship requires a culture built around emotional commitment, autonomy, empowerment, earned respect, and a strong work ethic (Axtell, Holman, Unsworth, Wall, Waterson and Harrington, 2000). They believed intrapreneurship is inseparably connected with leadership, since it involves mobilising teams of people towards a cause much greater than the individuals involved often in the face of significant resistance from status quo preserving forces within and outside the organisation (Seshadri and Tripathy, 2006). Therefore, the failure of organisations to take members inputs on organisational improvement; sanction, promote and encourage risk-taking, empowerment, and improvement actions; give clear organisational direction, priorities, and objectives; and lack of top management support in risk-taking and improvement initiatives, could stifle intrapreneurship (Eesley and Longenecker, 2006). In light of the scope and the group target, intrapreneurship can be considered beneficial for the revitalisation and performance of companies, both large corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises. Previous research conceptualised intrapreneurship in terms of four dimensions that were somewhat distinct in terms of their activities and orientations (Antoncic and Hisrich, 2001): New business venturing; Innovativeness; Self-renewal; and, Proactiveness. The intended contribution of this study is to make use of a self-constructed measuring instrument to demonstrate that intrapreneurship has had a positive influence on corporate performance within an established organisation, in the automotive industry of South Africa. This study can be viewed as a reciprocal contribution to companies seeking to create an intrapreneurial climate aimed, on the other hand at creating high performance organisation and on the other hand to motivate professionals in these companies requiring a wider portfolio of significant knowledge and skills development.

There have been suggestions in recent times that the traditional criteria for defining professions is outmoded and inappropriate particularly in relation to the new professions, such as Human Resource Management (HRM). Evans (2008b) has suggested that a more appropriate evaluation is in terms of a commitment to professional development and has identified that this commitment be referred to as ‘developmentalism’. There are a number of ways in which professional development can occur and while traditionally this involved almost exclusively, formal experiences, such as courses, current thinking is now moving towards utilising more accessible, practice based, non-formal mechanisms. The research presented in this thesis investigates how non-formal learning is used to contribute to a climate of developmentalism by Human Resource (HR) practitioners. For this purpose, 17 in-depth semi-structured-interviews with a purposively selected sample of HR practitioners were conducted. The transcripts were analysed based on the four step process of phenomenographic analysis suggested by Marton (1994) cited by Schroder et al (2005) and Soon and Barnard (2002), to discover the qualitatively different ways in which HR practitioners describe, experience, understand and analyse their professional development and the use of non-formal learning in that development. What emerged from the analysis were two sets of categories of description; one for each of the phenomena namely professional development and non-formal learning. In addition, an outcome space for each of the phenomena emerged, illustrating the hierarchical relationship within each set of categories of description as well as the dimensions of variation relating to the phenomena. Also emerging from the analysis was a conceptualised model for professional development comprising non-formal learning using a heutagogical approach in conjunction with the empirically developed HR professionality continuum as a record of achievement. This model is offered as a means of encouraging HR practitioners to participate in professional development. Several recommendations arose from this research, and it is anticipated that these recommendations will be of interest to HR practitioners, their employers, HR educators, and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

Missing from extant conflict literature is an examination of both symmetric and asymmetric conflict ties. To address this void, network analysis was utilized to examine the responses (both symmetric and asymmetric conflict ties) of 140 employees and managers in four divisions of a large agency of the Federal Government. The study was limited to conflict over scarce resources. Conflict management methods were examined as well as the perceptions of how respondents both cope with and feel about conflict. The results indicate that when two people in a conflict setting are structurally equivalent they both report actions and feelings that are opposite from those of- the other person. This finding, an inverse contagion effect, has been termed diffusion resistance.

In recent years, organizations have sought to address historic inequities by adopting ameliorative policies ranging from providing merit-based avenues of entry and promotion to members of underrepresented and disadvantaged groups to creating a new organizational function that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion (hereafter DEI). My dissertation comprises three case studies of the implementation and unanticipated consequences of such policies. I find that in all three cases, even the most far-reaching attempts at reform tend to reproduce existing ethnoracial and class barriers, thereby illustrating the dynamic of “reproduction through change” (Bourdieu 1988). The first paper is a case study of what happens when a relatively limited form of inclusion is introduced into a context marked by firm class boundaries. The analysis is based on interviews and participant observation with administrators and recipients of a prestigious and merit-based scholarship to an elite university in Peru. While administrators described themselves as committed to inclusion, their message to scholarship recipients was ambiguous, often counseling them to hide their scholarship status. This more insidious form of gatekeeping, together with evident class boundaries, entailed enormous social-psychological and interactional costs for scholarship recipients and transformed their pride in winning the scholarship into shame. The second paper describes a similar dynamic but in a different and more surprising context. Drawing from in-depth interviews conducted with current and former Foreign Service Officers to explain how recipients of the Pickering Fellowship, a U.S. Department of State fellowship, learn to accept a devaluing status belief about this accolade once they enter the Foreign Service. Within this organizational context, there is an established belief that Foreign Service Officers who are not the prototypical “Male, Pale, and Yale” workers must be “diversity hires” who entered the U.S. Department of State through a “back door” and have a “leg up” because of their race. This racialized negative evaluation gets linked to the Pickering fellowship and affects all fellows. This paper offers insights into the intersection of racial diversity and status processes in organizations. The third paper analyzes the structural tension concentrated in the position of Black DEI workers, explicitly hired as part of an organizational effort to implement a more thoroughgoing set of reforms addressing historical inequities. The case study examines the work lives of DEI workers in an elite public university. Between 2019 and 2021, we conducted in-depth interviews with DEI workers, students, and high-status organizational actors. The analysis suggests that DEI workers and their organizational colleagues envision the prototypical DEI worker as a member of a minoritized racial group. This race-typed prototype dictated (1) how colleagues and organizational leaders evaluated the expertise of DEI workers who belong to different racial groups and (2) how DEI workers of color intertwined their life narratives in accounts of their expertise, while White DEI workers did not do so. The development of this form of racialized expertise leads to a (3) racial task segregation among DEI workers of different groups. Even as the organization seeks to implement a far-reaching form of inclusion, minority DEI workers are assigned the task of managing internal and external organizational boundaries.

Do gender stereotype threat and racioethnic stereotype threat combine to adversely impact American women of African descents’ likelihood to approach financial rewards in a job-negotiation context? This experimental study used a 2 (gender stereotype threat: high, low) x 2 (racioethnic stereotype threat: high, low) between-subject’s factorial design in order to investigate this question. Measures of salary expectations and affect were collected using previously validated scales. Key findings include a significant interaction between sense of power and racioethnic stereotype threat on anticipated backlash, and a main effect of sense of power on approach-avoidance, positive affect, and negative affect. Post hoc analyses show that implicit power moderates the effects of racioethnic stereotype threat on negotiation behavior, that is, having a situational sense of power mitigates the impact of being under fear of confirming a negative stereotype about a group in which you hold membership in. Implications for theory and practice are discussed along with future research directions in organizational behavior and social psychology.

No description available.

A pesquisa teve como objetivo investigar as deduções e inferências que podem ser extraídas acerca da adoção, implementação e uso do Custeio Alvo à luz da Teoria da Contingência e da Nova Sociologia Institucional. Como estratégia de pesquisa utilizou-se estudo de caso interpretativo em uma subsidiária denominada Alfa, usando técnicas de pesquisa documental e entrevista semi-estruturada, sendo o discurso tratado via análise de conteúdo. Em relação à Teoria da Contingência os achados evidenciaram que o processo do Custeio Alvo é aplicado em todos os projetos de desenvolvimento de produtos, que é uma atividade chave para a Alfa de acordo com suas estratégias, para controlar os custos variáveis considerando o preço de mercado e a margem objetivada pela organização. Quando o produto começa a ser fabricado é feito o acompanhamento entre o esperado e o realizado (com rígido controle de custos via custo padrão, integrado com a avaliação de desempenho e o sistema de compensação), fornecendo evidências da integração e coordenação entre planos, ações e resultados. Poucos dos fatores contingentes presentes na Alfa apresentaram diferença em relação ao que a literatura trata como adequado (estes envolveram a baixa incerteza ambiental, a padronização de produtos e a combinação de estratégias encontrada) e nenhum deles foi considerado inadequado ou com possibilidade de inibir a utilização do Custeio Alvo. Foi verificado o uso do tipo interativo, a satisfação com o Custeio Alvo e a percepção de sua utilidade. As Conclusões foram: o Custeio Alvo é uma prática gerencial compatível com posturas estratégicas conservadoras, como defensora e mantenedora, e que essa opção não conflita com a postura de diferenciação; é difícil senão impossível estabelecer, a priori, correlações, biunívocas ou não, entre o uso de determinadas práticas de Controle Gerencial e determinadas posturas estratégicas; necessidade de analisar o fator incerteza ambiental juntamente com outros fatores. Em relação à Nova Sociologia Institucional as análises indicaram que o mecanismo coercitivo foi o responsável pela adoção do Custeio Alvo na Alfa e as evidências mostraram uma associação entre a estrutura e as ações (resposta do tipo coupling) ressaltando o perfil cognitivo, indicando uma estreita relação entre meios e fins e uma consistência da prática com os valores e crenças da organização. As evidências apontaram que o aspecto econômico embasou a forma de interpretação resultando na crença sobre a validade técnica do Custeio Alvo. Uma das conclusões relacionadas à investigação do processo de institucionalização foi que nos casos em que a difusão se apresenta eminentemente da forma coercitiva, os mitos, as regras e as normas institucionais podem determinar a estrutura, mas não necessariamente as rotinas. As evidências apontaram que a mudança nas rotinas depende da interpretação que os atores fazem das mesmas, construindo as respostas de modo a acomodar as conveniências e interesses tanto do ambiente externo quanto interno. Esta conclusão difere dos estudos de Nor-Aziah e Scapens (2007) e Siti-Nabiha e Scapens (2005). Os resultados na Alfa sugerem que a rotina (e não a estrutura) parece ser alvo de mudança quando a interpretação da instituição levar ao entendimento e à significação com base em sua validade técnica e não em sua validade simbólica. Por isso, o significado das instituições em contextos específicos depende da interpretação e da agência dos atores envolvendo os interesses e pressões sofridas. Uma das implicações desse raciocínio é que mesmo tendo suas bases fundamentadas na obtenção de eficiência, as práticas da Contabilidade podem não ser entendidas e significadas dessa forma em todas as organizações e outros fatores como os institucionais e as características da organização podem influenciar essa interpretação. Em relação aos achados com base na Nova Sociologia Institucional, destaca-se a originalidade do uso da abordagem recursiva nos estudos sobre os Sistemas de Controle Gerenciais, e mais especificamente da Contabilidade Gerencial e do Custeio Alvo, tanto no Brasil quanto no exterior. / The objective of the research was to investigate the assumptions and inferences that can be made regarding the adoption, implementation and use of Target Costing in light of the Contingency Theory and New Institutional Sociology. The research strategy consisted of an interpretive case study at a subsidiary named Alfa, using document research techniques and semi-structured interviews; discourse was treated using content analysis. With regard to Contingency Theory, the findings evidenced that the process of Target Costing is applied in all product development projects, which are a key activity for Alfa according to its strategies, in order to control variable costs considering market price and the margin desired by the organization. As product manufacture begins, there is monitoring of expected and actually realized results (with strict cost control through standard cost, integrated with performance evaluation and the compensation system), thus evidencing the integration and coordination between plans, actions and results. Few of the contingency factors present in Alfa showed differences from what the literature regards as adequate (they involved low environmental uncertainty, product standardization, and the combination of strategies found herein) and none were considered inadequate or capable of inhibiting the use of Target Costing. The study assessed the use of interactive typing, satisfaction with Target Costing and the perception of its usefulness. As conclusions: Target Costing is a management practice consistent with conservative strategic postures as defender and hold, and this option does not conflict with the posture of differentiation; it is difficult if not impossible to establish a priori correlations, biunivocal or not, between the use of certain Management Control practices and certain strategic postures; it´s necessary to analyze the environmental uncertainty factor along with other factors. With regard to New Institutional Sociology, the analyses indicated that the coercive mechanism was responsible for the adoption of Target Costing at Alfa, and evidence showed an association between structure and actions (coupling-like response), highlighting the cognitive profile, indicating a close relationship between means and ends, as well as a consistency of practice with the values and beliefs of the organization. Evidence indicated that the economic aspect was the basis for the manner of interpretation, resulting in belief towards the technical validity of Target Costing. One of the conclusions related to the investigation into the institutionalization process was that in the cases in which diffusion is presented eminently in a coercive fashion, institutional myths, rules and norms can determine the structure but not necessarily the routines. Evidence showed that changes in routine depend on the interpretation the actors make about them, building their responses so as to accommodate the conveniences and interests of both inner and outer environments. This conclusion differs from the studies by Nor-Aziah & Scapens (2007) and Siti-Nabiha & Scapens (2005). The results obtained at Alfa suggest that the routine (and not the structure) seems to be the target for change whenever the interpretation by the institution leads to understanding and signification based on technical rather than symbolic validity. Therefore, the meaning of institutions within specific contexts depends on the interpretation and agency of the actors involving the interests and pressures they withstand. One of the implications of this reasoning is that even though Accounting practices are based on achieving efficiency, they may not be understood and signified as such in all organizations, and that other factors (such as institutional ones and characteristics of each organization) can influence that interpretation. With regard to the findings based on New Institutional Sociology, highlight is given to the originality of using the recursive approach in studies on Management Control Systems, and more specifically in Managerial Accounting and Target Costing, both in Brazil and overseas.

A pesquisa teve como objetivo investigar as deduções e inferências que podem ser extraídas acerca da adoção, implementação e uso do Custeio Alvo à luz da Teoria da Contingência e da Nova Sociologia Institucional. Como estratégia de pesquisa utilizou-se estudo de caso interpretativo em uma subsidiária denominada Alfa, usando técnicas de pesquisa documental e entrevista semi-estruturada, sendo o discurso tratado via análise de conteúdo. Em relação à Teoria da Contingência os achados evidenciaram que o processo do Custeio Alvo é aplicado em todos os projetos de desenvolvimento de produtos, que é uma atividade chave para a Alfa de acordo com suas estratégias, para controlar os custos variáveis considerando o preço de mercado e a margem objetivada pela organização. Quando o produto começa a ser fabricado é feito o acompanhamento entre o esperado e o realizado (com rígido controle de custos via custo padrão, integrado com a avaliação de desempenho e o sistema de compensação), fornecendo evidências da integração e coordenação entre planos, ações e resultados. Poucos dos fatores contingentes presentes na Alfa apresentaram diferença em relação ao que a literatura trata como adequado (estes envolveram a baixa incerteza ambiental, a padronização de produtos e a combinação de estratégias encontrada) e nenhum deles foi considerado inadequado ou com possibilidade de inibir a utilização do Custeio Alvo. Foi verificado o uso do tipo interativo, a satisfação com o Custeio Alvo e a percepção de sua utilidade. As Conclusões foram: o Custeio Alvo é uma prática gerencial compatível com posturas estratégicas conservadoras, como defensora e mantenedora, e que essa opção não conflita com a postura de diferenciação; é difícil senão impossível estabelecer, a priori, correlações, biunívocas ou não, entre o uso de determinadas práticas de Controle Gerencial e determinadas posturas estratégicas; necessidade de analisar o fator incerteza ambiental juntamente com outros fatores. Em relação à Nova Sociologia Institucional as análises indicaram que o mecanismo coercitivo foi o responsável pela adoção do Custeio Alvo na Alfa e as evidências mostraram uma associação entre a estrutura e as ações (resposta do tipo coupling) ressaltando o perfil cognitivo, indicando uma estreita relação entre meios e fins e uma consistência da prática com os valores e crenças da organização. As evidências apontaram que o aspecto econômico embasou a forma de interpretação resultando na crença sobre a validade técnica do Custeio Alvo. Uma das conclusões relacionadas à investigação do processo de institucionalização foi que nos casos em que a difusão se apresenta eminentemente da forma coercitiva, os mitos, as regras e as normas institucionais podem determinar a estrutura, mas não necessariamente as rotinas. As evidências apontaram que a mudança nas rotinas depende da interpretação que os atores fazem das mesmas, construindo as respostas de modo a acomodar as conveniências e interesses tanto do ambiente externo quanto interno. Esta conclusão difere dos estudos de Nor-Aziah e Scapens (2007) e Siti-Nabiha e Scapens (2005). Os resultados na Alfa sugerem que a rotina (e não a estrutura) parece ser alvo de mudança quando a interpretação da instituição levar ao entendimento e à significação com base em sua validade técnica e não em sua validade simbólica. Por isso, o significado das instituições em contextos específicos depende da interpretação e da agência dos atores envolvendo os interesses e pressões sofridas. Uma das implicações desse raciocínio é que mesmo tendo suas bases fundamentadas na obtenção de eficiência, as práticas da Contabilidade podem não ser entendidas e significadas dessa forma em todas as organizações e outros fatores como os institucionais e as características da organização podem influenciar essa interpretação. Em relação aos achados com base na Nova Sociologia Institucional, destaca-se a originalidade do uso da abordagem recursiva nos estudos sobre os Sistemas de Controle Gerenciais, e mais especificamente da Contabilidade Gerencial e do Custeio Alvo, tanto no Brasil quanto no exterior. / The objective of the research was to investigate the assumptions and inferences that can be made regarding the adoption, implementation and use of Target Costing in light of the Contingency Theory and New Institutional Sociology. The research strategy consisted of an interpretive case study at a subsidiary named Alfa, using document research techniques and semi-structured interviews; discourse was treated using content analysis. With regard to Contingency Theory, the findings evidenced that the process of Target Costing is applied in all product development projects, which are a key activity for Alfa according to its strategies, in order to control variable costs considering market price and the margin desired by the organization. As product manufacture begins, there is monitoring of expected and actually realized results (with strict cost control through standard cost, integrated with performance evaluation and the compensation system), thus evidencing the integration and coordination between plans, actions and results. Few of the contingency factors present in Alfa showed differences from what the literature regards as adequate (they involved low environmental uncertainty, product standardization, and the combination of strategies found herein) and none were considered inadequate or capable of inhibiting the use of Target Costing. The study assessed the use of interactive typing, satisfaction with Target Costing and the perception of its usefulness. As conclusions: Target Costing is a management practice consistent with conservative strategic postures as defender and hold, and this option does not conflict with the posture of differentiation; it is difficult if not impossible to establish a priori correlations, biunivocal or not, between the use of certain Management Control practices and certain strategic postures; it´s necessary to analyze the environmental uncertainty factor along with other factors. With regard to New Institutional Sociology, the analyses indicated that the coercive mechanism was responsible for the adoption of Target Costing at Alfa, and evidence showed an association between structure and actions (coupling-like response), highlighting the cognitive profile, indicating a close relationship between means and ends, as well as a consistency of practice with the values and beliefs of the organization. Evidence indicated that the economic aspect was the basis for the manner of interpretation, resulting in belief towards the technical validity of Target Costing. One of the conclusions related to the investigation into the institutionalization process was that in the cases in which diffusion is presented eminently in a coercive fashion, institutional myths, rules and norms can determine the structure but not necessarily the routines. Evidence showed that changes in routine depend on the interpretation the actors make about them, building their responses so as to accommodate the conveniences and interests of both inner and outer environments. This conclusion differs from the studies by Nor-Aziah & Scapens (2007) and Siti-Nabiha & Scapens (2005). The results obtained at Alfa suggest that the routine (and not the structure) seems to be the target for change whenever the interpretation by the institution leads to understanding and signification based on technical rather than symbolic validity. Therefore, the meaning of institutions within specific contexts depends on the interpretation and agency of the actors involving the interests and pressures they withstand. One of the implications of this reasoning is that even though Accounting practices are based on achieving efficiency, they may not be understood and signified as such in all organizations, and that other factors (such as institutional ones and characteristics of each organization) can influence that interpretation. With regard to the findings based on New Institutional Sociology, highlight is given to the originality of using the recursive approach in studies on Management Control Systems, and more specifically in Managerial Accounting and Target Costing, both in Brazil and overseas.

This research is based on the premise that employees respond to dissatisfaction in general and organizational injustice in particular in two primary ways: by speaking up and/or by staying silent. This qualitative, theory-generating study examines the phenomenon of organizational injustice (including its antecedents and consequences) and employees' responses toward three research goals: 1) greater understanding of organizational injustice; 2) greater conceptual consensus through concept development of voice and silence; 3) a process model of organizational injustice, voice and silence. Also, new knowledge about voice and silence is linked to organizational practice by examining the availability of various voice systems and perceptions of their efficacy. The research design is influenced by several organizational research streams, as well as grounded theory and clinical methods. Thirty-two employees, each representing different organizations and occupying both managerial/professional positions and clerical/line positions participated in semi-structured, open-ended interviews in which they described 33 cases of workplace injustice. The interview design includes two methods: 1) a retrospective critical incident technique to discuss a workplace experience which participants defined as unjust; and 2) a projective exercise in which participants were asked to imagine that they could speak with impunity to the person(s) involved or responsible for their perceived injustice. Interview cases were supplemented by 30 archival cases of employees' voicing of discontent through a government-sponsored voice system. Significant results concerning the phenomenon of organizational injustice included the introduction of a four-category typology which departs from traditional classifications with its inclusion of interactional injustice (interpersonal mistreatment by a boss) as a distinct category, the systematic delineation and description of interactional injustice according to eight emergent behavioural dimensions, the identification of organizational antecedents to workplace injustice according to four emergent groupings (i.e., structural, procedural, cultural and global) and the identification of individual- and organizational-level consequences. In addition, the concepts of voice and silence emerged as forms of resistance to organizational injustice. Voice was found to encompass two distinct but related constructs: formal and informal voice. Specific strategies by which participants resisted injustice were identified for voice (formal and informal) and silence. A process model of voice and silence in organizational injustice was also introduced.