This research examines formal planning systems as an aspect of control processes in five major international organisations. The sample organisations are in the oil and chemical industries, and represent a variety of ownership (state and private) and of Head Office locations (North America, Europe and East Asia). Study was undertaken at the Head Office location of each organisation, and in some cases, in foreign sub-units also. The study was conducted in three phases: I Detailed case studies, based on in-depth interviews. The basic conceptual framework for the case studies was drawn from normative and descriptive theory in the area of Formal Planning Systems and the Contingency Theory of Management Control. II Based on the case studies, grounded hypotheses were developed. Some of these were tested using a large sample questionnaire survey in fifteen strategic business units drawn from three organisations. The samples spanned four countries in two continents. It was designed to replicate and extend the classic methodology of Hofstede for investigating national culture, and interesting points of agreement and disagreement with Hofstede's method and his results were found. III To clarify the results of the questionnaire, and to generate further hypotheses, a small sample of follow up interviews was undertaken in the three organisations. The main findings are as follows: a) Some technical aspects of Hofstede's method have been clarified, and his statistical method improved on. b) Some of Hofstede's findings have been replicated. In the case of one country in East Asia, they have been shown to apply only to a specific racial group within the country. c) A new instrument has been piloted, which measures attitudes to a number of process issues that have been omitted from most previous research in Planning and Management Control (ie. conflict resolution, uncertainty absorption, degree of decentralisation, signs of dysfunctional behaviour, etc).
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:625126 |
| Date | January 1991 |
| Creators | Taib, Zakaria |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0018 seconds