Malgré un récent regain d’intérêt pour l’artisanat, la sociologie française semble déprise de cet objet polymorphe qui demeure en proie au doute concernant sa nature et sa capacité à se maintenir. Pour lever ces ambiguïtés, des statistiques portant sur l’emploi ont été produites en lien avec le réseau consulaire, des chiffres sur l’entrepreneuriat ont été traités et des données qualitatives ont été recueillies au sein de la boucherie et de la réparation automobile via des observations et des entretiens menés en France et au Maroc. L’immersion durant trois années au sein de la Chambre Régionale de Métiers et de l'Artisanat en Rhône-Alpes avec un financement CIFRE (2007-2010) a permis de mener à bien cette recherche. La thèse montre l’entreprise artisanale comme un incubateur des savoir-faire qui s’incarnent dans une division ad hoc du travail faite de routines et de créativité. Celle-ci s’actualise en s’ajustant aux situations productives et marchandes. Enracinée localement, la dimension relationnelle façonne la performance organisationnelle et marchande, amenant davantage d’efficience. Cette dimension transparaît dans l’offre marchande, les stratégies de captation des clients et les rapports concurrentiels entre pairs. Cette thèse vise aussi à étudier l'artisanat rhônalpin comme catégorie sociale. Elle montre que les ressorts de sa cohésion et de son élasticité sont au principe du marché professionnel ouvert et dynamique qu’est l’artisanat et dans lequel sont enchâssés le marché du travail artisanal et une constellation de groupes professionnels réunissant un noyau d’artisans-indépendants et une population mobile, qui gravite autour, partageant leur expérience et leurs qualifications. / French research in sociology seems to have detached itself from artisanship as a field of study in spite of a recent regain of interest in it. As a polymorphous object, artisanship still remains subject to doubt as far as its definition and sustainability are concerned. To characterise it, we based our work on employment statistics produced within the consular network in Rhône-Alpes and entrepreneurship data that we processed. Together with qualitative material collected in butcheries and mechanic businesses through observations and interviews conducted in France and Morocco. We spent three years of full-time work within the Regional Chamber of Trades and Crafts with a research funding (CIFRE 2007-2010) to carry out this study. This thesis reveals the craft business as an incubator of skills which are embedded in an ad hoc work division based on routines and creativity which are an updated response to production and market situations. Adding up to this efficiency, the locally rooted relational dimension leads to organizational and market performance. This dimension appears in the artisans offers, their customers capture strategies and the competitive relationships between peers. This thesis also aims at studying the Rhône-Alpes artisanship as a social category. The main finding here is that artisanship cohesion and its elasticity reveal an open and dynamic occupational market built on the labor market and on a constellation of occupational groups that gather independent-craftsmen as their core and a mobile population that revolves around sharing the same qualifications and experience

No description available.

With the financial crisis, many firms suffered from liquidity shortages and needed to quickly change their way of working to release capital from the operations. Scholars argue that firms should handle immediate crisis with short-term measures first, and then change the underlying organizational routines to prevent recurrence. The management of working capital has received increased attention amongst corporate managers as a result of the crisis, whereby it is interesting to understand how firms can reduce their working capital in a sustainable way. By using the problem-finding and problem-solving approach, this study explores how successful firms have found and solved problems to make them sustainable. To answer the research question a multiple-case study is performed, where five firms are explored through interviews with key respondents. The study indicates that urgency is the main driver for both introducing and increasing the focus on working capital management. Different strategies for obtaining sustainable working capital management are found, where focus and commitment from the top management is suggested to be the glue that makes it last. It is furthermore suggested that managers have two main tools for creating and sustaining desired routines and practices; communication and control.

The research in this thesis was motivated by an interest in understanding the work and effort that goes into organising family homes, with the aim of informing the design of novel information technology for the home. It was undertaken to address a notable absence of in-depth research into domestic information and communication technology in the fields of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). To that end, this thesis presents an ethnographic study of everyday routines in thirteen family homes. Following an established tradition within HCI and CSCW, the study applies qualitative fieldwork methods as a means to investigate and interpret the empirical materials. Periods of extended observation and semi-structured interviews with the thirteen families over a three-year period form the basis of the empirical material. The materials are analysed using a hybrid perspective composed of a combination of influences from the study of material culture, to interaction analysis and ethnography. The hybrid analytical perspective draws out insights regarding the families’ mundane practices and the artfully devised solutions they use to organise daily life. Four household activities and artefacts are given specific focus: (i) household list making, (ii) the display qualities of refrigerator doors, (iii) the organisation of household clutter, and (iv) the devising of bespoke solutions in organising home life. Broader findings include the observations that people tailor solutions to meet their needs, that optimum efficiency is not the pre-eminent determinant in what method or artefact people choose to organise themselves and their homes, and that homes determine their individual characters in part by how everyday tasks and organisation are accomplished. In short, the personal qualities of these mundane practices are part of what makes a home a home. These findings are used to elicit implications for information technology design, with the aim of encouraging designers of domestic technology to be aware of and respectful towards the idiosyncratic nature of the home, and, wherever possible, to design in such a way as to allow the technology to be appropriated for families’ bespoke tailoring. To evaluate and address this point, two design projects, one on augmented magnets and another on a “media bowl”, are used to develop and test out this approach. Both projects are critically examined to reflect on the efficacy of the design approach and what lessons might be learnt for future studies and design exercises. The combination of detailed ethnographic fieldwork on family homes combined with the development of experimental design projects is intended to deepen the understanding of the mundane behaviours and everyday routines of family homes, in order to better inform the design of information technology for the home.

This thesis studies the change process of risk management practices associated with the implementation of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and the extent to which it can lead to changes in capital allocation practices. The study develops a theoretical framework to study risk management changes, which draws on structuration theory (Giddens, 1979, 1984) and institutional theory, particularly the institutional framework of Burns and Scapens (2000), as well as new institutional sociology theory. A two-stage empirical study was undertaken in non-life insurance companies. The first stage was a field study of 10 listed non-life insurance companies, while the second stage was a case study of a large non-life insurance company. Multiple data collection methods were used including semi-structured interviews, documentary evidence, annual reports, and publicly available data. Findings show internal, coercive, and normative pressures have mainly driven the ERM adoption decision. The literature supports the impact of coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures on the trend toward ERM in financial industries. However, the study finds that internal pressures related to achieving the company's objectives are either equal to or surpass the external pressures. The study also provides empirical evidence of the changes in risk management practices, which include capital allocation change process associated with ERM implementation. Effective capital allocation requires the incorporation of ERM elements in the whole process of allocating capital. Furthermore, new capital allocation routines and institutions are produced. The study shows that the risk-based capital allocation method is intra- and extra-institutionalised at the company level. The main contribution of this thesis is to identify the nature of ERM adoption and implementation in insurance companies. More specifically, this study provides a better understanding of the institutional forces driving ERM adoption and offers empirical evidence on ERM implementation and the change in risk management practices (routines) within nonlife insurance companies. Moreover, this study avoids the limitations of previous research that was based on surveys, and it does so by conducting an exploratory field study and explanatory case study to address the changes in risk management practices. Practices and process need to be located in their institutional context and hence cannot be reflected in surveys.

This paper is addressed to the problem of how it is possible to conduct coherent, purposeful conversations. It describes a computer model of a conversation between two robots, each robot being represented by a section of program. The conversation is conducted in a small subset of English, and is a mixed-initiative dialogue which can involve interruptions and the nesting of one segment of dialogue in another. The conversation is meant to arise naturally from a well defined setting, so that it is clear whether or not the robots are saying appropriate things. They are placed in a simple world of a few objects, and co-operate in order to achieve a practical goal in this world. Their conversation arises out of this common aim; they have to agree on a plan, exchange information, discuss the consequences of their actions, and so on. In previous language-using programs, the conversation has been conducted by a robot and a human operator, rather than by two robots. In these systems, it is almost always the human operator who takes the initiative and determines the overall structure of the dialogue, and the processes by which he does so are hidden away in his mind. The aim of our program is to make these processes totally explicit, and it is for this reason that we have used two robots and avoided human participation. Thus the main focus of interest is not the structuring of individual utterances, but the higher-level organisation of the dialogue, and how the dialogue is related to the private thoughts which underlie it. The program has two kinds of procedure, which we call ROUTINES and GAMES, the Games being used to conduct sections of conversation and the Routines to conduct the underlying thoughts. These procedures can call each other in the normal way. Thus the occurrence of a section of dialogue will be caused by the call of a Game by a Routine; and when the section of dialogue ends, the Game will exit, returning control to the Routine which called it. There are several Games, each corresponding to a common conversational pattern, such as a question and its answer, or a plan suggestion and the response to it. The Games determine what can be said, who will say it, how each remark will be analysed, and how it will be responded to. They are thus joint procedures, in which the instructions are divided up between the robots. When a section of dialogue occurs, the relevant Game will be loaded in the minds of both robots, but they will have adopted different roles in the Game, and will consequently perform different instructions and make different utterances.

<p>This dissertation explores the complex process of organizational change, applying a behavioral lens to understand change in processes, products, and search behaviors. Chapter 1 examines new practice adoption, exploring factors that predict the extent to which routines are adopted “as designed” within the organization. Using medical record data obtained from the hospital’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) system I develop a novel measure of the “gap” between routine “as designed” and routine “as realized.” I link this to a survey administered to the hospital’s professional staff following the adoption of a new EHR system and find that beliefs about the expected impact of the change shape fidelity of the adopted practice to its design. This relationship is more pronounced in care units with experienced professionals and less pronounced when the care unit includes departmental leadership. This research offers new insights into the determinants of routine change in organizations, in particular suggesting the beliefs held by rank-and-file members of an organization are critical in new routine adoption. Chapter 2 explores changes to products, specifically examining culling behaviors in the mobile device industry. Using a panel of quarterly mobile device sales in Germany from 2004-2009, this chapter suggests that the organization’s response to performance feedback is conditional upon the degree to which decisions are centralized. While much of the research on product exit has pointed to economic drivers or prior experience, these central finding of this chapter—that performance below aspirations decreases the rate of phase-out—suggests that firms seek local solutions when doing poorly, which is consistent with behavioral explanations of organizational action. Chapter 3 uses a novel text analysis approach to examine how the allocation of attention within organizational subunits shapes adaptation in the form of search behaviors in Motorola from 1974-1997. It develops a theory that links organizational attention to search, and the results suggest a trade-off between both attentional specialization and coupling on search scope and depth. Specifically, specialized unit attention to a more narrow set of problems increases search scope but reduces search depth; increased attentional coupling also increases search scope at the cost of depth. This novel approach and these findings help clarify extant research on the behavioral outcomes of attention allocation, which have offered mixed results.</p> / Dissertation

This study investigates behaviour in seeking and giving advice in Australian English and Indonesian. It seeks to determine the crosscultural similarities and differences in seeking and giving advice in both languages in the areas of (i) the use of language routines and strategies (ii) the influences of cultural and social aspects. Data were collected from two preliminary questionnaires and a Discourse Completion Test (DCT). The DCT was completed by Australian and Indonesian native speakers in their first language. Analysis focussed on both qualitative and quantitative aspects. Findings reveal that speakers of both languages use similar strategies in terms of politeness, directness or indirectness and Speaker-or-Hearer Oriented utterances. The realization of the language routines of advice seeking and giving in both languages is, however, different. The influence of socio-cultural features is noticeable in both languages in terms of formality, relationship of interlocutors, age and gender. The results are not always consistent with the hypotheses posed in the study. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the Study and Chapter 2 presents the theoretical background and discusses the concept of advice. In Chapter 3 the methodology of the Study is described and the hypotheses are stated. Chapter 4 presents the results of the analysis of data and Chapter 5 sets out conclusions and recommendations.

組織例規是組織行為的重要基石(Nelson and Winter, 1982; Becker, Lazaric, Nelson, and Winter, 2005)。組織例規一方面反映組織內重複做事的方式，是組織穩定性的來源(Simon, 1945; Cyert and March, 1963; Nelson and Winter, 1982)。另一方面，近期學者主張組織例規必須具有內部動態性，組織方能有彈性地回應環境的變化(Feldman, 2000; Feldman and Pentland, 2003; Pentland and Feldman, 2005; Becker, Lazaric, Nelson, and Winter, 2005)。 雖然學術界與實務界對於組織例規帶來的穩定性已有共識，對於組織例規如何幫助組織快速、有效地回應環境變異性 (彈性) (Sethi , Khamba, and Kiran, 2007)，學者的看法紛紜 (e.g., Adler, Goldoftas, and Levine, 1999; Pentland, 1995; Pentland and Rueter, 1994; Feldman and Pentland, 2000; Feldman, 2000; Feldman and Rafaeli, 2002; Feldman and Pentland, 2003; Pentland and Feldman, 2005; Becker, Lazaric, Nelson, and Winter; 2005)。Feldman and Pentland (2003) 主張在探討組織例規與彈性關聯性時，應將組織例規重概念化，認為主張組織例規除了包含組織例規的結構層面 (ostensive/structure aspects)，也包含組織成員實際執行例規之代理層面 (performative/agency aspects)。Feldman and Pentland (2003) 並主張組織成員實際執行例規的代理層面是促成彈性的來源。 本論文主張，除了可藉由組織成員選擇例規執行的方式成為彈性的來源 (e.g., Feldman, 2000; Feldman and Pentland, 2003) 外，組織也可能透過結構面組織例規的設計來影響組織成員的決策行為 (代理面組織例規)，進而達到彈性的目的。 本論文探討之研究問題包括：(一) 因應環境變異性，組織傾向發展哪些結構面的組織例規? (二) 結構面的組織例規如何影響組織個人決策行為，以幫助組織快速、有效地回應環境變異性，進而達到彈性的目的？ 本論文的研究設計採Eisenhardt (1989) 之歸納性個案研究法。選取的個案公司包含5家在台灣市場成立20年以上之行銷研究公司，個案公司的篩選是依循理論抽樣的原則 (Glass and Strauss, 1967; Eisenhardt, 1989)，挑選的個案公司包含在台灣之本國行銷研究公司及多國行銷研究公司。資料蒐集方法上，本論文蒐集多重來源之資料，並進行三角驗證 (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 2003)。資料來源包括：初級資料和次級資料。初級資料包含研究者與行銷研究公司參與客製化量化研究專案之不同活動、不同階層的不同人員所進行之面對面深入訪談，以及研究者實地觀察經驗，此外，研究者同時也非正式的訪談兩位客戶端與行銷研究公司合作的窗口，瞭解客戶對各個專案活動之需求；次級資料則包含行銷研究公司的網站資訊、報章雜誌報導、公司簡介、宣傳文件，以及部份公司內部之文件資料與電子郵件資料。本論文的分析單位是行銷研究公司執行量化研究專案時的活動 (activities)。 針對研究問題一，本論文發現對知識密集之新式專業服務公司 (neo professional service firms) 而言，為了回應異質之任務環境變異性，標準作業程序對於彈性的影響並不明顯，取而代之的是具可塑性的組織例規。面對異質/穩定的任務環境變異性，組織傾向發展內容樣板、檢查樣板、書面原則、及文法行動例規。而面對異質/變動的任務環境變異性，組織傾向發展資訊搜尋例規、互動式經驗學習例規、書面原則、及劇本。 針對研究問題二，本論文發現不同特性之具可塑性組織例規可能影響組織成員決策判斷面，以及/或決策行動面，進而影響組織成員回應環境變異性的品質/速度 (彈性)。 / Organizational routines are fundamental constituents of organizational behavior (Nelson and Winter, 1982; Becker, Lazaric, Nelson, and Winter, 2005). On one hand, organizational routines reflect repetitious “ways of doing things” in an organization, which signify stability (Simon, 1945; Cyert and March, 1963; Nelson and Winter, 1982). On the other, organizational routines embrace “endogenous changes”, which help organizations respond flexibly to environmental changes (Feldman, 2000; Feldman and Pentland, 2003; Pentland and Feldman, 2005; Becker, Lazaric, Nelson, and Winter, 2005). While there is a consensus in literature that organizational routines serve as major sources of stability, discussions on how organizational routines embrace “endogenous changes” have just started in recent years (e.g., Pentland and Reuter, 1994; Feldman, 2000; Feldman and Pentland, 2003; Becker, Lazaric, Nelson, and Winter, 2005; Becker and Zirpoli, 2008). Among the discussions, Feldman and Pentland (2003) propose a distinction between ostensive/structural routines and performative routines in order to understand endogenous dynamics of organizational routines. This research seeks to extend the discussions on endogenous dynamics of organizational routines. In particular, two research questions are investigated. First, in order to respond to task environment dynamisms, what types of ostensive routines are designed in practice? Second, how do different ostensive routines affect individual’s decision-making behavior (performative routines) and thus influence flexibility. Three links are explored in this research, including a link of task environment dynamisms to the design of ostensive routines, a link of ostensive routines to performative routines, and a link of performative routines to flexibility. The first link reveals that different task environment dynamisms may require different design of ostensive routines. The second and third links show how assorted ostensive routines influence different components of individual’s decision-making behavior (performative routines) and thus influence flexibility. In this research, flexibility is defined as the ability to respond effectively to the ever-changing needs of customers and is composed of two dimensions, the quality of response and the speed of response (Sethi, Khamba, and Kiran, 2007). In order to explore the linkages, this research employs a multiple-case design (Eisenhardt, 1989; Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). Five marketing research firms, including three local marketing research firms and two subsidiaries of multinational marketing research firms, are selected for field studies. I conducted field observations in one case firm and initiated field in-depth interviews with a diversity of people from different functions and different levels at each case firm. Within each firm, nine research activities/processes, which require flexible performance, are selected as units of analysis. The result first shows that across the nine research processes studied, all processes face heterogeneous task environment, including heterogeneous-stable environment and heterogeneous-shifting environment. In order to respond to task environment that is heterogeneous in nature, marketing research firms develop a collection of ostensive routines or routine artifacts, such as standard operating procedures, content templates, checklist templates, written rules, grammars of action, information-search routines, interactive experiential learning routines, and scripts. Among the ostensive routines, standard operating procedures are steady in nature and mainly assist in achieving efficiency. Other ostensive routines, such as content templates, checklist templates, written rules, grammars of action, information-search routines, interactive experiential learning routines, and scripts, are ‘flexible’ in nature and play an important role in influencing flexibility. In other words, these ‘flexible’ ostensive routines or routine artifacts are designed to be “live routines” (Cohen, 2007; Pentland and Feldman, 2008). In this thesis, the focus is on the presence of these ‘flexible’ ostensive routines and the influence of these ‘flexible’ ostensive routines on individual’s decision-making, which in turn influence the quality of response or the speed of response, the two important dimensions of flexibility (Sethi, Khamba, and Kiran, 2007). This research discovers that facing heterogeneous-stable task environment, content templates, checklist templates, grammars of action, and written rules are important ostensive routines. Content templates specify alternatives or rationales for selection of alternatives in decision-making; checklist templates specify considering factors for decision-making; written rules specify heuristics for complex decision-making; grammars of action specify logics of action. Responding to heterogeneous-stable task environment, content templates that specify alternatives guide individual’s action to specific direction and influence the speed of response consequently. Content templates that specify rationales for selection of alternatives provide individuals with logics of selection, which in turn affect the quality of response. Besides, checklist templates remind individuals with factors to be considered; written rules provide individuals with heuristics for making complex decision; grammars of action indicate logics of action to individuals. The quality of response may be influenced in consequence. Additionally, this research also discovers that facing heterogeneous-shifting task environment, information-search routines, interactive experiential learning routines, written rules, and scripts are viable designs of ostensive routines. Information-search routines exist to facilitate knowing-who, knowing-what, and knowing-how search behavior. Interactive experiential learning routines represent drilling activities “for maintaining infrequently exercised capabilities” (Nelson and Winter, 1982: 107). Written rules provide “tips” for making complex decisions. Scripts provide stories about working examples or best practices (Szulanski and Jensen, 2004). Responding to heterogeneous-shifting task environment, information-search routines, which facilitate knowing-who search behavior, provide individuals with specific direction of asking whom. The speed of response may be affected as a result. In addition, if there is a trust between the question sender and the receiver (Moorman, Deshpande, and Zaltman 1993), the receiver is willing to share his/her experience, and the sender’s judgment repertoire is likely to be influenced. Therefore, the quality of response may be affected. Information-search routines, which facilitate knowing-what search behavior, supply individuals with general market information and may impact individual’s judgment about factor considerations; information-search routines, which facilitate knowing-how search behavior, provide individuals with the logic of action to solve problems. The quality of response may be affected as a result. Besides, interactive experiential learning routines urge individuals to share and learn from each other; written rules provide heuristics for complex decision-making; scripts provide stories of working examples or best practices (Szulanski and Jensen, 2004). Through these routines, individual’s judgment repertoire may be influenced. The quality of response may be influenced consequently. The discovery from this research is in line with the recent theoretical argument that there is endogenous dynamics of organizational routines (Becker, Lazaric, Nelson, and Winter, 2005) and organizational routines can be sources of flexibility (e.g., Feldman, 2000; Feldman and Pentland, 2003). While recent scholars mainly argue that individuals who decide the way to perform routines serve as the key sources of flexibility, this thesis propose that the design of ‘flexible’ ostensive routines or routine artifacts may also influence individual’s decision-making and therefore contribute to the achievement of flexibility. The discovery not only extend theoretical discussions on endogenous dynamics of organizational routines (e.g., Feldman and Pentland, 2003; Pentland and Feldman, 2005; Becker, Lazaric, Nelson and Winter, 2005; Pentland and Feldman, 2008), but also provide some implications to the theory of organizations in action (e.g., Thompson, 1967), the micro-foundations of organizational capabilities/dynamic capabilities (e.g., Felin and Foss, 2005; Teece, 2007; Abell, Felin, and Foss, 2008; Foss, Husted, and Michailova, 2010), and the design of processes (e.g., Hall and Johnson, 2009).

This paper examines the processing of visual information beyond the creation of the early representations. A fundamental requirement at this level is the capacity to establish visually abstract shape properties and spatial relations. This capacity plays a major role in object recognition, visually guided manipulation, and more abstract visual thinking. For the human visual system, the perception of spatial properties and relations that are complex from a computational standpoint, nevertheless often appears immediate and effortless. This apparent immediateness and ease of perceiving spatial relations is, however, deceiving. It conceals in fact a complex array of processes highly specialized for the task. The proficiency of the human system in analyzing spatial information far surpasses the capacities of current artificial systems. The study of the computations that underlie this competence may therefore lead to the development of new more efficient processors for the spatial analysis of visual information. It is suggested that the perception of spatial relations is achieved by the application to the base representations of visual routines that are composed of sequences of elemental operations. Routines for different properties and relations share elemental operations. Using a fixed set of basic operations, the visual system can assemble different routines to extract an unbounded variety of shape properties and spatial relations. At a more detailed level, a number of plausible basic operations are suggested, based primarily on their potential usefulness, and supported in part by empirical evidence. The operations discussed include shifting of the processing focus, indexing to an odd-man-out location, bounded activation, boundary tracing, and marking. The problem of assembling such elemental operations into meaningful visual routines is discussed briefly.