Magister Commercii - MCom / This study focused on understanding inter-organizational relationships (IOR) of a dynamic nature. A dynamic process that has repetitive sequences of negotiation, commitment, and execution stages is central to inter-organizational relationships. The dynamic process is a tool that is used by management through collaboration, co-operation, and coordination to engender formation, governance, and performance of inter-organizational relationships. This report looked into how the resource-dependency theory gives insight into the formation of an inter-organizational relationships and how the transaction-cost theory contributes to the understanding ofinter-organizational relationships governance. / South Africa

Please read the abstract in the 00front of this document / Dissertation (MA (Industrial Sociology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Sociology / unrestricted

A study of the available literature on Psychological WellQBeing and Positive Organisational Scholarship revealed that enormous potential existed for further research. This is a relatively new field with limited literature and research evidence available. It became very clear from the beginning that the relationships between these constructs could successfully be researched. It was therefore decided to embark on an academic research journey in order to contribute to the existing knowledge available on these constructs within the South African Private Healthcare Industry. This quantitative research was used to obtain more clarity about the relationships between the two constructs and to gather the responses from the research population. The research sample consisted of 152 nursing staff. Two questionnaires were integrated to develop the Nursing Psychological WellQBeing Questionnaire and consisted of i) PsyCap Questionnaire developed by Luthans, Youssef and Avolio2007, and ii) Psychological WellQBeing Questionnaire developed by Ryff 2000. A total of 152 nursing staff responded to an 87–item paperQbased questionnaire. Four research questions were formulated and covered the following: •The content, validity and portability of the measuring instruments; •The configuration of the various constructs; • Relationships between some of the variables . The content and the structure of the measuring instruments were assessed by means of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and) Exploratory Factor Analyses (EFA). These assessments showed that the original measuring instruments are not portable to a culture which is different to the one where they were originally developed. The relationship between dimensions of Psychological WellQBeing and PsyCap sense of achievement and optimism is a significant finding. The significance of the findings of this study and the contribution that it makes to the existing theory is seen in the importance of the portability of measuring instruments. Recommendations in this regard have been made in Chapter 5. Various findings have also highlighted the relationships between Psychological WellQBeing and PsyCap. The importance of future research topics has been recommended.

In today’s increasingly diverse workforce, inclusive leadership has become an important focus for organizations. Inclusive leadership is the extent to which leaders foster a sense of belonging among group members and show that their uniqueness is valued. Researchers have shown that inclusive leadership positively affects subordinate outcomes, such as psychological safety, work engagement, and innovation. However, there is little research on the individual and situational characteristics that predict leaders acting in an inclusive manner. The current research analyzes the extent to which inclusive leadership is predicted by individual characteristics (e.g., personality, diversity beliefs), developmental experiences (e.g., leader training, mentorship), and organizational factors (e.g., organizational inclusive climate, senior leadership behavior). Findings revealed two personality traits to be significantly associated with inclusive leadership: Extraversion and Openness. Specifically, Extraversion was positively related to inclusive leadership, while Openness was negatively related to inclusive leadership. Furthermore, the current research demonstrated that inclusive leadership was positively related to subordinate affective organizational commitment, and negatively related to subordinate intention to quit. This research helps advance theory on inclusive leadership and suggests how organizations may increase inclusive leadership among their ranks. Implications for theory and practice, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

This dissertation study seeks to better understand two main ideas around institutional advancement in higher education: the knowledge and evidence that informs practice and the structures and systems are set up for the sharing of this knowledge and evidence within and across these organizations. I use a conceptual framework based on organizational systems, learning, and culture theories along with the tenants of evidence-informed policy and practice (EIPP) to delve deeper into my research questions. These research questions include: 1) To what extent do advancement divisions value certain types of evidence and knowledge? 2) What types of evidence and knowledge do advancement divisions utilize to inform their practice and policies? 2a) What organizational practices and individual and organizational characteristics, if any, affect which knowledge guides the work of advancement organizations? 3) What organizational learning systems and structures are in place both within and outside advancement organizations that guide practice and internal policy making? 4) What sociodemographic and organizational characteristics, if any, show a relationship with systems and structures of knowledge management and mobilization of institutional advancement shops? I draw on an original data set that combines responses from survey methodology and data from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) AMAtlas Data Miner and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) (n=1,826). Using a combination of descriptive statistics, ordinal logistic regression (OLR), and linear regression, I add to the literature base on philanthropy in higher education and gain insight into my research questions. The field of institutional advancement is understudied and often relies on anecdotal evidence versus more theory-based understanding of how work is carried out (Drezner, 2011; Drezner & Huehls, 2014; Walton, 2019). These findings push the field’s understanding of what knowledge, evidence, and learning systems and structures drive and guide the work of advancement. Advancement organizations value all types of knowledge and evidence in their work, including tacit, explicit, embedded, and research based. However, there is an incongruency between this valuing of all knowledge and evidence types and day-to-day practice. Practitioners are more likely to use and share tacit, explicit, embedded knowledge and evidence sources than research based. In addition to these findings, I find that advancement practitioners share knowledge and evidence using a multitude of different learning structures and systems both within their organization and across the broader field of institutional advancement. My study uses organizational theory and tenants of EIPP to highlight the ways that advancement practice can be further understood and improved. These improvements are critical to ensure that the field works towards a model of equity and inclusion for all alumni, donors, and stakeholders. In addition, with changing demographics and decreased alumni participation rates, the findings from my study are more important than ever to ensure the sustainability of these organizations for generations to come.

The thesis examines the coordination of public police organizations in an intra-national setting through interviews and observations with police officers and managers in multiple organizations in the Lower Mainland, BC, Canada, alongside documentary analysis of local, national and provincial law, policy and protocols relating to coordination. It produces a qualitative and inductive analysis of how police coordinate both within and between agencies, examining ‘interstices’ between police units and using recent ‘integration’ initiatives between public police organizations in the Lower Mainland as a focal point. It develops a recent local history of police activity and organizational change in the region; a novel typology of police organizational boundaries grounded in open-systems organizational theory; and an account of the dynamics of inter-unit coordination based on empirical findings. The thesis then sets out a governance problem for police coordination, developing the argument that coordination work is unique work and needs to be treated as such for purposes of accountability, transparency and equity of police practice in a democratic society. This governance problem is applied to broader developments in police work in Anglo-American societies, and an intellectual framework for assessing police governance under coordination is advanced.

Pesquisas da Bain & Company (2013, 2015) indicam que Práticas de Contabilidade Gerencial (PCG) são usadas largamente pelas organizações; entretanto, de 2004 até hoje as companhias reduziram em 50% a quantidade de práticas usadas simultaneamente, daí ser relevante conhecer o comportamento do uso das PCG. Os objetivos deste estudo foram: conhecer a percepção dos gestores sobre o comportamento do uso da PCG mais utilizada na organização (uso cerimonial e/ou instrumental), em resposta às pressões institucionais a que está submetida; e conhecer os fatores que levam ao uso cerimonial e/ou instrumental da PCG mais usada pela organização, com base nas pressões institucionais e no contexto relacional do processo de institucionalização. Adotando a teoria institucional como teoria de base, que tem uma perspectiva interpretativa, que considera que as práticas sociais não são um fenômeno natural, mas socialmente construídas, e considerando que o processo de institucionalização é recursivo, como resultado da ação humana e de um contexto de forças que não pode ser totalmente controlado ou conhecido pelos atores, tem-se a base para a caracterização do comportamento de uso na dicotomia cerimonial versus instrumental. Foi realizada a pesquisa empírica, por meio de survey, do qual participaram 102 gestores (controllers, gerentes, diretores e superintendentes) de empresas de grande porte não financeiras, que atuam no Brasil. Os dados foram submetidos a análises estatísticas, utilizando equações estruturais (PLS) e técnicas de análise de correspondência (ANACOR e HOMALS). Foram estruturados e testados oito constructos para a pesquisa transversal em Teoria Institucional, e feita ampla revisão desta teoria em suas vertentes NIS (New Institutional Sociology) e OIE (Old Institutional Economics), visando sua integração, como forma de compreender os estágios transitórios de mudança institucional identificados por Bush (1983; 1987), como encapsulamento cerimonial progressivo (dos tipos \"voltado para o passado\" e voltado para o futuro\"), o que gerou uma abordagem metodológica que sustenta a pesquisa empírica. Como contribuição teórica, é proposta uma extensão do framework desenvolvido por Tolbert e Zucker (1999, p. 211), especificamente para o estágio de total institucionalização, que possibilitou identificar cinco diferentes comportamentos de uso para PCG (ou instituições de forma genérica). A pesquisa empírica constatou que 69% dos gestores percebem as PCG sendo usadas com o comportamento instrumental, 26% as percebem sendo usadas com o comportamento misto (cerimonial e instrumental simultaneamente) e 5% as percebem com o comportamento exclusivamente cerimonial. Também é possível afirmar que o comportamento instrumental do uso das PCG está diretamente associado com as pressões miméticas e coercitivas externas à organização, e negativamente associado com o ímpeto para difusão das PCG (interno à organização). Também é possível afirmar que o valor dado ao uso da PCG está diretamente associado ao \"Fundo de Conhecimento\", aquele que sustenta a base de valores organizacionais. Com isso, pode-se concluir, empiricamente, que o Valor é o responsável por conferir significado ao uso das PCG. / Bain & Company studies (2013, 2015) indicate that Management Accounting Practices (PCG) are largely used by organizations; however, since 2004 companies have reduced by 50% the number of practices used simultaneously. Hence, understanding the usage behavior of PCG is a relevant subject. The study objectives were: to know the managers\' perception about the usage behavior regarding the most used PCG in the organization (ceremonial or instrumental use), in response to the institutional pressures it suffers; and to know the factors that lead to the ceremonial or instrumental use of the preferred PCG, based on institutional pressures and on the relational context of the institutionalization process. By adopting the institutional theory as a basic theory, which has an interpretive perspective, which considers that social practices are not a natural phenomenon, instead they are socially built, and taking into account that the institutionalization process is recursive, as a result of human action and of a context of forces that cannot be completely controlled or known by the players, we have the basis for characterizing the usage behavior in the ceremonial versus instrumental dichotomy. As empirical research, a survey included 102 executives (controllers, managers, directors and superintendents) of large non-financial companies operating in Brazil. The collected data were investigated by means of statistical analysis that used structural equations (PLS) and correspondence analysis techniques (ANACOR and HOMALS). We structured and tested eight constructs for the cross-sectional research on Institutional Theory, and did a comprehensive review of the theory\'s two tracks - NIS (New Institutional Sociology) and OIE (Old Institutional Economics) - aiming at their integration in order to understand the transitional stages of institutional change identified by Bush (1983, 1987), such as progressive ceremonial encapsulation (of the types \"facing the past\" and facing the future \"), which generated a methodological approach that supports the empirical research. As a theoretical contribution, we propose an extension of the framework developed by Tolbert and Zucker (1999, p. 211), specifically for the total institutionalization stage, which enabled the identification of five different usage behaviors of PCG (or institutions, generically). Empirical research found that 69% of managers perceive that PCG are being used with the instrumental behavior, 26% perceive them as being used with mixed behavior (ceremonial and instrumental simultaneously) and 5% perceive them with an exclusively ceremonial behavior. It is also possible to state that the instrumental behavior of PCG usage is directly associated with the mimetic and coercive pressures external to the organization, and negatively associated with the impetus for PCG diffusion (internal to the organization). We may also say that the value given to the use of PCG is directly associated with the \"Knowledge Fund\", which supports the base of organizational values. Therefore, we can empirically conclude that Value is responsible for giving meaning to PCG use.

Esta tese busca investigar como o controle gerencial pode apoiar o gerenciamento do relacionamento com empresas terceirizadas. A literatura oferece pouca evidência empírica sobre o papel do controle gerencial no relacionamento entre empresas, vindo esta pesquisa a ampliar o conhecimento sobre relacionamento entre empresas por meio do uso da Teoria Institucional e da Análise do Discurso. Esta tese adota uma abordagem interpretativa e conduz uma pesquisa qualitativa baseada em um único estudo de caso em uma empresa de distribuição do setor elétrico. Buscou-se analisar não apenas se existe o controle gerencial, mas de que forma este influencia o relacionamento entre empresas. Dentre os resultados apresentados está o fato de que, embora a existência da controladoria não necessariamente contribua para apoiar o gerenciamento das empresas terceirizadas, a existência da sua estrutura, em decorrência do seu uso, trouxe impacto e gerou aperfeiçoamento ao processo, como por exemplo, o uso do Balanced Scorecard para criação de indicadores financeiros na avaliação de fornecedores. Não foram encontradas muitas das ferramentas apregoadas pela literatura como apropriadas ao gerenciamento do relacionamento entre empresas, tais como custo-alvo, open-book, contabilidade da cadeia de valor, sistemas de informação integrada e custo total da propriedade. No entanto, foram encontrados diversos mecanismos de controle informais, não financeiros e qualitativos. Isto porque a empresa pesquisada optou por estabelecer o controle nas atividades e não nas informações financeiras, como se percebe no discurso da realização de fiscalizações e auditorias para controle da qualidade. Assim, enquanto as demais formas de controle atuam constantemente no dia a dia da empresa, os controles contábeis são empregados apenas esporadicamente para determinadas avaliações. A motivação para isso é explicada pela Teoria Institucional, uma vez que este tipo de acompanhamento é capaz de promover incentivo, comunicação, controle e estabilidade nas relações, sendo mais prático, fácil e aceitável politicamente. No entanto, a tentativa de inclusão de medidas financeiras se trata de uma melhoria. Ainda como resultados desta pesquisa, foram identificados diversos discursos relacionados entre si. Alguns são contraditórios, como é o caso dos discursos da contratação com base na avaliação financeira dos fornecedores e com base no menor preço, sendo que o discurso da avaliação financeira é relativamente recente e surgiu em função de problemas e prejuízos financeiros ocorridos com fornecedores e espera-se que, no futuro, tal discurso se sobreponha ao discurso do menor preço. É interessante observar, ainda, o relacionamento entre dois outros discursos: controle e confiança. Observou-se que a confiança em terceirizados que prestam serviços há mais de duas décadas oferece resistência à implementação de um novo sistema de avaliação de fornecedores, fazendo com que a classificação e a premiação dos fornecedores não tenham trazido implicações práticas na contratação dos mesmos. Isto corrobora com a ideia de que quanto maior a confiança, menor o controle. Por outro lado, certas ferramentas de controle gerencial, como o open-book, não são implementadas, justamente porque não há confiança nas informações financeiras prestadas pelas empresas terceirizadas. Ferramentas de controle gerencial poderiam aumentar a confiança entre as partes do relacionamento. Como conclusão, pode-se dizer que os valores e crenças influenciam desde a decisão de terceirizar ou não as atividades e quais atividades terceirizar, até a forma como as empresas terceirizadas serão selecionadas, contratadas, avaliadas e acompanhadas. Todo o processo de mudanças políticas, econômicas e administrativas permeou a forma como a empresa pesquisada se relaciona com seus fornecedores e como o controle gerencial pode auxiliar o gerenciamento deste relacionamento. / This thesis investigates how management controls can support the management of relationships with third-party companies. There is little empirical evidence in the accounting literature regarding the role of management controls in the relationship between companies; this research aims to expand knowledge about this relationship, through the use of Institutional Theory and discourse analysis. This thesis adopts an interpretative approach and conducts a qualitative research based on a single case study in a distribution company of the electric sector. This study examines not only which management controls are used, but also how they affect the relationship between companies. The findings show that, although the existence of the Controllership department does not necessarily contribute to supporting the management of third-party companies, the existence of its structure, impacted and improved the process. One example of this was the use of the Balanced Scorecard for creating financial indicators in evaluating suppliers. It was also found that many of the tools, which appear frequently in the literature, are appropriate to the management of business-to-business relationships. Examples are target costing, open-book accounting, value chain accounting, integrated information systems and total cost of ownership. In addition, this study found evidence of several informal, non-financial and qualitative control mechanisms. This is because the case company focused on establishing control on the activities instead of the financial information. This was observed in the discourse about quality control fiscalisation and audit checks. Thus, while other forms of control act constantly in the company\'s day-today; accounting controls are employed only sporadically for certain reviews. The motivation for this is explained by institutional theory, since this type of monitoring is able to promote encouragement, communication, control, and stability in relationships, being more practical, easier, and more politically acceptable. However, the attempt to include financial measures was an improvement. Moreover, this research also identified that several discourses were related to each another. In fact, some of them are contradictory, for example the discourses about hiring based on the financial assessment of suppliers, or based on the lowest price. The discourse of financial evaluation is relatively recent and has emerged in light of problems and financial losses which happened with suppliers. It is expected that, in the future, such a discourse replaces the idea of choosing according to the lowest price. It is interesting to note the relationship between two other discourses: control and trust. It was observed that the trust on contractors providing services for more than two decades creates resistance to the implementation of the new system of evaluation of suppliers. This makes the ranking and the rewards of the suppliers to have brought practical implications in hiring them. This corroborates with the idea that the greater the trust the less the control. On the contrary, certain tools of managerial control, such as the open-book, are not implemented, because there is no confidence in the financial information provided by third-party companies. Managerial control tools could enhance trust and confidence among the parties of the relationship. As a conclusion, it can be argued that the values and beliefs influence the decision to outsource activities and which activities, and also the way companies selected will be hired, evaluated and monitored. The whole process of changing political, economic and administrative influenced the way this company relates to its suppliers and the managerial control can help the management of this relationship.

Professional service entrepreneurs (PSEs) paradoxically practice their profession in highly institutionalized contexts which require significant socialization, while at the same time enacting their role as an entrepreneur. Some activities consistent with entrepreneurship may be unnecessary for—and possibly even contradictory with— activities consistent with professional roles. In this dissertation, I addressed the questions of how two highly central role identities (professional and entrepreneurial) related to entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in professional service practices, and how EO influences performance in the context of professional practices. Using a sample of 139 physicians, I examined the relationships between the role identity centrality of two primary roles (professional and entrepreneurial) that PSEs occupy, the EO of their firms, and firm performance. This study utilized a mixed methods design, consisting of both a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews administered to a sample of professionals who own professional practice firms in the southeastern region of Florida. Findings suggest a significant and positive relationship between entrepreneurial role identity centrality and entrepreneurial orientation and a marginally significant and negative moderation of entrepreneurial role identity centrality upon the relationship between professional role identity centrality and EO. A qualitative study served to elaborate on the findings of the quantitative study, and revealed the potential of very unique understandings of the intersection of entrepreneurship and professional practice across a selection of physicians. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This dissertation uses an organizational approach to examine how new ideas are mobilized in order to become radical innovations. I consider the case of elBulli, an avant-garde, three-Michelin star restaurant that has pioneered the "molecular" or "experimental" cuisine movement in the gastronomic field, to inductively study how innovation is made to work. Based on ethnographic data collected over a period of 16-months in Spain and in the United States, my research proposes that systematic and radical innovation is the result of concrete practices and collective efforts that enable new ideas and epistemic practices to be recognized, understood, and legitimated by the public. The research advances a new distinction in innovation studies between new final products and conceptual innovations and proposes that this distinction can contribute to clarify the dynamics behind the advancement of knowledge within a field. Also, I argue that this distinction can serve as a basis for the future development of a general framework of the different dimensions involved in the production of innovation. Throughout the research, I draw comparisons with different fields such as religion, politics, business, art and music to explore the potential applicability of the main insights obtained from my case study to illuminate innovation processes in general.