The Mediating Role of Distributive Fairness in the Relationship Between Performance-Based Pay, Career Incentive Organizational Benefits and Employee Performance

This work aims to examine the relationship between performance-based pay, career incentives, organizational benefits and employee performance. It also aims to test the mediating role of distributive fairness in these relationships. Nigerian working class students in Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) were sampled. A total number of 140 respondents were given questionnaires to fill but 116 questionnaires were good enough for analysis. Descriptive analysis, correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were used to analyze data and to test the hypotheses. The overall findings indicated that there are relationships between performance-based pay, career incentives, organizational benefits and employee performance. Moreover, it was also found that distributive fairness partially mediated the relationships between performance-based pay, career incentives, organizational benefits and employee performance. This study is limited in the aspect of various organizational characteristics such as type, ownership, and size and the aspects of personal characteristics such as gender, position, length of service, and qualification. Therefore, future researches should examine the various aspects of organizational characteristics and personal characteristics in relation to performance-based pay, career incentives and organizational benefits within organizations. Organizations thrive through the instrumentality of people because they possess the required skills, knowledge and competencies needed for the execution of organizational strategy and planning. Hence, organizations should entrench a competitive total remuneration package that consists of properly-handled performance-based pay system, career incentives and various organizational benefits based on the principle of distributive fairness. In addition, management should build up an effective pay design and management systems in organizations. Openness in communication and employee participation in the pay design and management help in achieving this goa

An analytical framework for workflow technology adoption in local government authorities

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The focus of the study is to develop a novel framework of workflow technology adoption (WAF) for public policy making. Workflow technology (WfT) has emerged to support both technological and economic importance for private and public organisations to meet competitive business and computational environment. Despite all the benefits of WfT, there has been limited adoption by policy makers. One of the reasons for this is the lack of a theoretical framework for researchers and a tool for decision makers that help in evaluating WfT adoption. Due to the limited knowledge on workflow adoption, from the socio-technical and organisational side, an academic challenge is to identify the key factors that influence adoption. To overcome these limitations, the proposed workflow adoption framework is based on the amalgamation of Technology, Organisation, Environment and Task Technology Fit theories that is evaluated and extended by using a qualitative multiple case study approach. Qualitative content analysis of the empirical data collected from three UK local government authorities resulted in a novel framework for WfT adoption, particularly for the policy making context, that has 17 factors, which influence adoption decisions. Findings revealed that attitude, organisation structure and competition did not have any influential role due to immense managerial support, constructive communication and thorough training provided to employees. Also, competition as an environmental factor had no influence over the adoption of WfT, since public services do not compete like in the private sector over market share, instead imitative pressure emerged due to close collaboration with neighbouring LGAs. It was also found that stakeholders and timescale had influence on the decisions and collection proved to be an important task characteristic of the LGAs. The major contribution of the framework is that it provides an understanding of the phenomenon by identifying key factors from the contextual perspective (i) technological set (complexity, relative advantage, compatibility and timescale), (ii) organisational set (managerial support, cost, information intensity and stakeholders), (iii) environmental set (government regulations and imitative pressure). In addition, it identifies functional fit of WfT with the task requirements by classifying functions (communication, information processing and process structuring) and policy making task characteristics (generation, choice, collection and combination) and then analysing the fit. Together it provides a holistic understanding of the phenomenon that aids informed decision making relevant to WfT adoption. Although, the literature has emphasised the technical aspects so far, this study contributes to future studies through organisational and managerial knowledge, classifying WfT’s functions and policy making task characteristics. Practical implications exist for the policy makers who can adopt the WAF as a recommendation tool to make informed decisions and achieve competitive advantage. Keywords: Workflow technology, IT adoption, decision making, policy making process and e-government

The New Urban World Economic-Geographical studies on the Performance of Urban Systems

Wydział Nauk Geograficznych i Geologicznych: IGSEiGP„Nowy Zurbanizowany świat” jest obecnie nowym zjawiskiem w bogatej historii miast. Współcześnie nie tylko więcej niż 50% ludności świata żyje w miastach, ale urbanizacja jest stałym i gwałtownie rosnącym trendem. Aglomeracje miejskie staną się najprawdopodobniej społeczno-ekonomiczną siłą napędową przyszłości. Niniejsza praca stanowi analityczno-kwantytatywne studium, którego celem jest głębsze zrozumienie sił kształtujących urbanizację. Wprowadza także i stosuje metaforę „ urban piazza” jako podstawę odniesienia dla analizy kreatywności , zróżnicowania oraz atrakcyjności współczesnych miast w ramach tej analitycznej podstawy cztery domeny aktywności miejskiej w zakresie od lokalnej do globalnej – są systematycznie rozpatrywane. Tj. przedsiębiorcza kreatywność, zróżnicowanie kulturowe, środowisko miejskie oraz konkurencyjność. Zatem ta praca identyfikuje ( wewnętrzne i zewnętrzne) charakterystyki i siły rozwoju przedmiotów (aktorów) aglomeracji i / lub miast w środowisku konkurencyjnym w świetle analizy komparatywnej odniesień do ich innowacyjnych oraz kreatywnych osiągnieć. Bogactwo empirycznych zastosowań ,od migracji do przedsiębiorczości i od dziedzictwa kulturowego do miast globalnych zawarte w pracy – uzasadnia pozycję współczesnych miast, także poprzez nowoczesną metodologię zastosowaną w tej dysertacjiThe „New Urban World” is a recent phenomenon in the rich history of cities. At the present, not only does more than 50 per cent of the world population live in cities, but also urbanization is still persistently an rapidly increasing. Urban agglomerations will most likely become the socio-economic powerhouses of the future. This collection of analytical and quantitative studies contributes to a deeper understanding of the forces at work. It does so by designing and employing the metaphor of the urban piazza as frame of reference for analysing the creativity, diversity and attractivity of modern cities. Within tis analytical framework four domains of urban activity – ranging from local to global – are systematically addressed, viz. entrepreneurial, creativity, cultural diversity, urban ambiance, and competitive urbanity. Thereby, this study aims to assess the (internal and external) characteristics and drivers of urban actors and/or cities in a competitive urban environment, with a view to a comparative analysis of their innovative and creative performance. A wealth of empirical applications – ranging from migration to entrepreneurship and from cultural heritage to global cities – is provided to illustrate the relevance of a solid research methodology for determining the position of modern cities