Management: thesis, antithesis, synthesis

Increasingly, managers live in a world of paradox. For instance, they are told that they must manage by surrendering control and that they must stay on top by continuing to learn, thus admitting that they do not fully know what they do. Paradox is becoming increasingly pervasive in and around organizations, increasing the need for an approach to management that allows both researchers and practitioners to address these paradoxes. A synthesis is required between such contradictory forces as efficiency and effectiveness, planning and action, and structure and freedom. A dialectical view of strategy and organizations, built from four identifiable principles of simultaneity, locality, minimality and generality, enables us to build the tools to achieve such synthesis. Put together, these principles offer new perspectives for researchers to look at management phenomena and provide practitioners with a means of addressing the increasingly paradoxical world that they confront.dialectics, improvisation, paradox, synthesis

Management: Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis

Increasingly, managers live in a world of paradox. For instance, they are told that they must manage by surrendering control and that they must stay on top by continuing to learn, thus admitting that they do not fully know what they do. Paradox is becoming increasingly pervasive in and around organizations, increasing the need for an approach to management that allows both researchers and practitioners to address these paradoxes. A synthesis is required between such contradictory forces as efficiency and effectiveness, planning and action, and structure and freedom. A dialectical view of strategy and organizations, built from four identifiable principles of simultaneity, locality, minimality and generality, enables us to build the tools to achieve such synthesis. Put together, these principles offer new perspectives for researchers to look at management phenomena and provide practitioners with a means of addressing the increasingly paradoxical world that they confront.N/

A conscious leadership model to achieve sustainable business practices

Business sustainability is a fundamental concern amongst business leaders and it is imperative that business defines an environmentally and socially sustainable path to financial prosperity. This focus on sustainable business practices has been caused by the perceived contribution of businesses to undesirable conditions such as environmental and social degradation including global warming and the global financial crises. This study suggests that a leadership style that differs from leadership that is currently causing business unsustainability is needed in order to achieve the goal of sustainable business practices. This study therefore proposes a new kind of leadership, called conscious leadership. The main contribution of the study is to increase the achievement of sustainable business practices by investigating the importance of conscious leadership in achieving this objective. Convenience sampling was used to select senior managers and directors from mainly JSE listed companies. This resulted in a total of 371 usable questionnaires (317 from listed companies and 54 from unlisted companies) being received. A quantitative approach was adopted to investigate whether conscious leadership would be related to increased sustainability competencies and more effective sustainability-related corporate governance and whether these in turn would increase sustainability behaviours which would generate sustainable business practices as measured by financial, social and environmental performance. Regression analyses were conducted to investigate the hypothesised relationships among these variables. Pearson correlations and descriptive statistics were also calculated. The empirical results showed that respondents in this study regarded conscious leadership, not as a separate construct, but as a way they governed their businesses. The empirical results showed that corporate governance and systems thinking competency had a strong interactive relationship and should therefore be cultivated within business firms. Corporate governance (including conscious leadership) and systems-thinking competency were positive influencers of employee relations, equal opportunities and workforce diversity. The empirical results however showed that corporate governance (including conscious leadership) had a negative influence on profitability. The present study cannot argue for the discouragement of corporate governance (including conscious leadership), as measured in this study, because reduced corporate governance would decrease healthy employee relations and the latter would decrease the achievement of equal opportunities and workforce diversity in these firms. A decrease in healthy employee relations would decrease profitability. The most important finding of this study is that senior managers and directors of big business firms, mostly JSE-listed companies, regarded conscious leadership as an important part of corporate governance. Corporate governance that includes conscious leadership must be developed to higher levels in business firms, so that the negative and not-significant relationships to profitability as viewed by lower and high conscious leaders respectively can be changed to positive relationships

The progress of Indonesian administrative reform : roles of administrative culture, readiness for change, and citizen trust in government

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Influence of knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) on firm innovation

The ability to innovate is recognized, internationally, as a key factor of competitiveness in the business world. In the services sector, the rapid growth of knowledge intensive business services (KIBS), has demonstrated that they have a very important role in innovation processes. The scientific community, increasingly, recognizes that service firms innovate alone, but, more importantly, innovation, in this sector, affects all sectors of the economy, due to the transfer of their innovation to other economic activities. The KIBS act as knowledge spreaders, contributing, in different ways, to the process of innovation of related firms: facilitators, carriers and/or sources of innovation. The literature also emphasizes its role as innovation co-producers. In this context, through inter-firm cooperation, it is possible to share and/or create knowledge. This provides a positive output for the firms involved, either in terms of technology, or by creating new products/services. In light with such arguments, approaching the influence of KIBS in firms with regard to innovation seems to be critical to knowledge. In order to achieve this goal, we developed a study mapping scientific publications, intellectual structure and research trends on the intensive business services in knowledge, highlighting the current mainstream approaches on the topic of innovation and knowledge, supported empirically, which identified the relationship between the dimensions that influence the processes of innovation and internationalization in Portuguese KIBS fims. The framework consists of five key dimensions: innovation, knowledge, cooperation, localization and internationalization. A first approach used qualitative data (interviews with KIBS’ CEOs and academic experts). Subsequently two quantitative studies used data gathered through investigation in KIBS firms listed statistics official on R & D in Portugal, produced from the Survey on Scientific and Technological Potential (IPCTN) Firms, yielding a total of 58 responses (approximately a response rate of 15%). To empirically test the research hypotheses, we used univariate and multivariate statistical analysis. The results obtained support the relationships between the selected key dimensions (innovation, knowledge, network, location and internationalisation) — proposed on the literature review. The results show that knowledge personalisation has a positive influence in proactive strategies of internationalization, such as, external innovation and new organizational methods. When KIBS cooperate with clients it has a positive impact in reactive and cost strategies of the internationalization process. Therefore, the results of this study indicate that high levels of cooperation with other firms and universities, urban location and social, institutional and technical knowledge of KIBS, favor both the firms’ innovation and their entry into new foreign markets – internationalisation.A capacidade de inovar é reconhecida, a nível internacional, como um fator fundamental de competitividade no mundo empresarial. No setor dos serviços, o rápido crescimento dos serviços empresariais intensivos em conhecimento (Knowledge- Intensive Business Services - KIBS), tem mostrado ter um papel muito importante nos processos de inovação. A comunidade científica cada vez mais reconhece que as empresas de serviços inovam por si próprias e, além disso, a inovação neste setor afeta todos os setores da economia, ao transferir a sua inovação para outras atividades económicas. Os KIBS funcionam como transmissores de conhecimento, contribuindo de diferentes formas para o processo de inovação das empresas com quem se relacionam: como facilitadores, transportadores e/ou fontes de inovação. A literatura sublinha mesmo o seu papel de co-produtores de inovação. Neste contexto, e através da cooperação entre empresas, é possível partilhar e/ou criar conhecimento. Daqui resultará algum output favorável para as empresas envolvidas, seja em termos tecnológicos, seja através da criação de novos produtos/serviços. Perante este cenário, faz todo o sentido abordar a influência dos KIBS nas empresas, no que respeita à inovação. De forma a alcançar este objetivo, desenvolveu-se um estudo assente num mapeamento das publicações científicas, estrutura intelectual e tendências de investigação relacionadas com os serviços empresariais intensivos em conhecimento, destacando-se as abordagens atuais de referência sobre a temática da inovação e do conhecimento, corroborado por um suporte empírico que permitiu identificar as relações entre a dimensões que influenciam os processos de inovação e internacionalização nas empresas KIBS portuguesas. O quadro de referência é composto por cinco dimensões chave: inovação, conhecimento; cooperação, localização e internacionalização. Numa primeira abordagem desenrolou-se um estudo qualitativo, que consistiu na realização de entrevistas a CEOs de KIBS e a especialistas académicos, e que culminou em dois estudos quantitativos, os quais utilizaram dados recolhidos, através de inquérito, em empresas KIBS que constam das estatísticas oficiais sobre I&D em Portugal, produzidas a partir do Inquérito ao Potencial Científico e Tecnológico Nacional (IPCTN) às Empresas, tendo-se obtido um total de 58 respostas (taxa de resposta de cerca de 15%). Para testar empiricamente as hipóteses de investigação, recorreu-se à análise estatística, univariada e multivariada. Os resultados obtidos permitem apoiar as relações entre as dimensões chave selecionadas (inovação, conhecimento, redes, localização e internacionalização) - propostas na literatura. Os resultados mostram que a personalização do conhecimento tem uma influência positiva em estratégias pró-ativas de internacionalização, tais como, a inovação externa e os novos métodos de organização. Quando os KIBS cooperam com os clientes há um impacto positivo nas estratégias reativas e de custo da internacionalização. Por outro lado, as estratégias reativas e de custos de internacionalização são influenciadas negativamente pela personalização do conhecimento, partilha de conhecimentos e pela inovação interna. Os resultados deste estudo indicam, também, que os altos níveis de cooperação com outras empresas e universidades, a localização urbana e o conhecimento social, institucional e técnico de KIBS, favorecerem a inovação e a entrada de ambas as empresas em novos mercados estrangeiros – internacionalização

Managing knowledge in IT-based innovation: the case of business-to-business electronic commerce implementation

This thesis is concerned with understanding the way in which knowledge is managed in IT-based innovations. Although there is a growing body of research on how to leverage knowledge to improve organisational performance, particularly in the field of "knowledge management", most studies divorce knowledge from its context and fail to consider the purpose for which knowledge is managed. One such purpose is the integration of IT-based innovations, during which knowledge about complex IT is integrated with context-specific organisational knowledge, in order to develop firm-specific solutions. However, existing research in IS implementation and IT-based innovation tends to be fragmented and falls short of providing a comprehensive analytical framework for understanding the management of knowledge in IT-based innovations. An analytical framework based on the processes of knowledge creation, sharing and retention is developed by reviewing literature in the area of knowledge management, IS implementation, IT-based innovation and organisational knowledge. As this research adopts a constructivist view of IT and knowledge, an interpretive case study approach was selected for the empirical investigation. The implementation of B2B e-commerce was selected, as it has been commonly described as knowledge-intensive. This research provides both a chronological and thematic description guided by the analytical framework of the integration of B2B e-commerce at ComCo and AutoCo, two large original equipment manufacturers in the vehicle manufacturing sector. One major contribution of this research is the development of an analytical framework that focuses specifically on understanding the management of knowledge in the integration of IT-based innovations. The analysis has revealed the existence of "knowledge phases" - periods of time in which the relationship between knowledge creation, sharing and retention is based on a stable pattern of organisational activities in order to serve a specific purpose

The growth of 'connected' firms: a re-appraisal of Penrosian theory and its application to artisanal firms operating in contemporary business networks

This thesis is concerned with the growth of ‘connected’ firms, characterised as small firms that are engaged in stable spatial and vertical network relationships, involving a variety of actors, including larger firms. It locates these firms within the landscape of the ‘New Competition’, (Best 1990, 2001), highlighting the relatively unexplored region occupied by connected artisanal firms. The literature review is constructed around a detailed re-appraisal of Edith Penrose’s (1959) study, The Theory of the Growth of the Firm, which traces its antecedents, re-constructs its interconnections and calibrates its explanatory potential against the work of contemporaries, successors and opponents. The review provides the basis for development of a modified Penrosian framework, designed to embrace a multi-level analysis of growth processes that span the ‘blurred boundaries’ of the connected firm. An empirical study of the growth of connected artisanal firms demonstrates the application of this modified framework. The study is presented in the form of an analytically structured narrative, illustrated by network mapping sequences and informed by a qualified critical realist perspective. The final chapters reflect on the theoretical, methodological and practical policy implications of the study, highlighting the broader implications for researching the growth of other forms of connected firm

Information systems evaluation : a post-dualist interpretation

This thesis explores the problem of information systems evaluation by conceptualising it as a process in which the manager comes to an understanding about a system. In other words, information systems evaluation is a hermeneutic process. The thesis explicates this notion through an argument that is itself hermeneutic in its development, beginning with the mainstream functionalist view of information systems evaluation, and then considering an interpretive view of IS evaluation, each of which points to one of two stereotypes of IS evaluation and the manager engaged in this process: the objective/rational manager utilising objective/rational methods versus the subjective/political manager engaged in political manoeuvring, utilising objective/rational methods only as ritual or symbolism. Neither of these opposing stereotypes is satisfactory. Instead, this thesis proposes a dialectic view of information systems evaluation, in terms of which, rather than being a decision maker, the manager is in-the-world, evaluating systems in order to get the job done, on the basis of her thrownness in-the-world. This conceptualisation provides an intuitively appropriate account of evaluation on the part of an individual manager, but we must still consider how managers as members of the organisation, reach a common understanding about a system. This they do through a process of organisational learning as encultured knowing, in terms of which a narrative, situated, pragmatic knowledge is most useful in evaluation. Evaluation, in other words, happens in the course of skilful conversation. Such conversation is, however, not always skilful because the organisation is not just a collection of individuals but also a network of power relations. Conversations as generators of meaning are never held outside of power: systems evaluations as conversations cannot take place outside of a regime of truth. A post-dualist view of action as both constituted by and constituting structure, however, suggests that there is always the potential for genuinely hermeneutic and ethical conversation, provided it is both improvisatory and deconstructive. Having understood the requirement for improvisation and deconstruction, it is possible to suggest some heuristics for information systems evaluation based on these ideas.Dissertation (Phd (Information Technology))--University of Pretoria, 2003.Informaticsunrestricte

Florida's A++ Plan: An Expansion and Expression of Neoliberal and Neoconservative Tenets in State Educational Policy

Thesis advisor: Curt Dudley-MarlingThis critical policy analysis, informed by a qualitative content analysis, examines the ideological orientation of Florida’s A++ Plan (2006), and its incumbent impact upon social reproduction in the state. Utilizing a theoretical framework that fuses together critical theory (Horkheimer, 1937; Marcuse, 1964; Marshall, 1997), Bernstein’s (1971, 1977) three message systems of education and dual concepts of classification and frame, and Collins‘ (1979, 2000, 2002) notion of the Credential Society, the study examines the ideological underpinnings of the A++ Plan’s statutory requirements, and their effects on various school constituencies, including students, teachers, and the schools themselves. The study’s findings show that neoliberal and neoconservative ideological tenets buttress much of the A++ legislation, advancing four particular ideological imperatives: an allegiance to workforce readiness, a burgeoning system of standardization and accountability, the elevation of traditional values and nationalism, and the championing of individual responsibility. Through the control of Bernstein’s three message systems of education, these ideological imperatives deeply impact public education in Florida, and in particular have a disproportionately negative impact upon schools serving high-poverty, high-minority student populations. New initiatives such as the Major Areas of Interest mandate and the Ready-to- Work Program, both of which are heavily influenced by corporate interests, elevate an ethic of economy that commodifies students. At the same time, the legislation ushers in unprecedented levels of curricular and pedagogical standardization that makes comparisons between students and teachers a reality, while commensurately creating a more competitive climate between schools as a means of promoting school choice throughout the state. Further, the legislation advances a vision of society that is strikingly conservative in tenor through the deliberate manipulation of the state’s History and Health curricula, while simultaneously creating programs such as the Character Development Program that espouse a narrowly construed vision of character. Finally, each of the legislative moves described above are undergirded by an increasing reliance not upon the state, but upon the individual who comes to see her or his choices as the sole arbiters of her or his success or failure, absent any possible mitigating, external factor(s). The study concludes with recommendations for further research addressing the manifest effects of neoliberal and neoconservative axioms in education, and a call to action targeted at progressive educators to confront these types of “reforms.” It further recommends that policymakers acknowledge that handing the governance of schools and the curriculum therein over to neoliberal and neoconservative ideologues will result in schools that both overtly value instrumental, corporatist outcomes, and purposefully advance a myopic vision of our nation’s collective memory and system of governing values. The marriage of neoliberalism and neoconservatism is positioned as antithetical to progressive education, and stands to turn back the clock on issues of equity, social justice, and social mobility.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction