Boats, caves, spies and stories: A narrative study of outdoor management development programmes in the United Kingdom

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The thesis develops new understanding in relation to Outdoor Management Development (OMD). The argument is in three parts. Part One reviews notions of management development within which OMD is conventionally located. It underlines the powerful influence of a modernistic positivistic-objectivist methodological paradigm in much of the OMD commentary, manifesting itself as an objectivised corporate imperative of optimum effectiveness and efficiency. Complementary critical perspective paradigms are introduced including comments on narrative and social construction. In relation to this context, the argument presents a contemporary set of images sourced from prima facie conceptualisations of the OMD domain. Part Two considers possibilities for revisiting the contextualisation of OMD. This is undertaken through a contemporaneous and diachronic look at OMD. This involves a novel debate on the "origins" of OMD and comments on the neglected influences important to how individuals construct narrative. Certain narrative accounts in OMD writing are reviewed. These are shown to be very influenced by the predominant positivist paradigm. The third and final Part of the argument presents: Methodology, Stories and Conclusion. The debate develops a qualitative participant observer approach that facilitates the writing of narratives that underline the reflexive and deeply personal experience that the research involves. The Stories are accompanied by reflective commentaries. The argument concludes and contributes a number of points. The contemporaneous conceptualisation of OMD is positivistic and this is a consequence of its close association with modernistic perspectives of management thinking. Also, modernistic meta-narratives have been apparent in the historical accounts in the field. Consequently, stoned and narrative accounts have been marginalised but where written they are imbued with positivism also. Bearing the above in mind the thesis writes fresh socially constructive accounts of experiences in OMD contexts and provides reflective commentary on them

Efficiency in project networks : the role of inter-organizational relationships in project implementation

In many project-based industries such as construction and shipbuilding, the delivery of projects requires the participation of multiple heterogeneous firms. The objective of this dissertation is to explore how inter-organizational relationships influence the efficiency of the implementation phase in project networks. Project networks are defined as temporary inter-organizational networks set up for delivering a project to a client. Furthermore, it is examined how project implementation influences the development of inter-organizational relationships between firms involved in project networks. Based on a review of literature on project business, inter-organizational relationships, transaction cost economics, and critical incidents, a conceptual framework is developed to guide the multiple case study involving four project networks from the Finnish shipbuilding industry. Altogether, the empirical data analyzed in this study consists of a total of 40 personal interviews with individuals representing 13 different organizations, and a broad range of documentation including contracts, meeting memorandums and project plans. The results of this study demonstrate evidence of a relation between inter-organizational relationships and the efficiency of project implementation. Critical incidents unforeseen by the participating actors were analyzed in the four project networks. A part of these critical incidents was found to be related to inter-organizational relationships and to contribute to the efficiency of project implementation by affecting the ex post transaction costs of monitoring, planning, and adapting transactions between involved firms. Furthermore, the contribution of critical incidents on the efficiency of project implementation was found to be predominantly unfavorable as increases, as opposed to decreases, in transaction costs were found as frequent. In two studied project networks, in which inter-organizational relationships between project network actors were characterized by high degrees of trust and dependence, inter-organizational relationships were found to frequently constitute strengths which reduced the unfavorable contribution of critical incidents to the efficiency of project implementation. In all four studied project networks, inter-organizational relationships were also found to frequently constitute weaknesses which increased the unfavorable contribution of critical incidents to efficiency of project implementation. The results of this study also illustrate that the influence of project implementation on the development of inter-organizational relationships between project network actors can often be characterized as modest, as inter-organizational relationships in three studied project networks were rather stable across the observed one year period. However, when project network actors assess the responses of each other to critical incidents as unacceptable, even highly established inter-organizational relationships may deteriorate rapidly as occurred in one of the four studied project networks. This dissertation complements existing knowledge concerning the relatedness of inter-organizational relationships and efficiency of economic transactions by describing how critical incidents function as a mechanism relating these two concepts in project network contexts. In addition, this study contributes to our understanding of how inter-organizational relationships develop between firms operating in project-based industries. Further, this dissertation sheds new light to our understanding of the factors that contribute to the efficiency of work carried out in project contexts by emphasizing the importance of transaction costs that incur between involved firms during the implementation phase of the project life cycle. The results of this study have also implications for practitioners responsible for marketing and managing inter-firm projects who can be considered, to a considerable extent, accountable for both the development of inter-organizational relationships between firms they are employed by and other firms in the surrounding business environment, and the efficiency of work carried out in projects in which their employing firms participate

The concept rationality in the work of Jurgen Habermas

Bibliography: pages 256-266.This study attempts to answer the question of how Habermas "re-thinks" or "reformulates" the concept of rationality and rationalization processes. The method is analytical. The early, later and most recent works of Habermas are analysed with the aim of showing that he approaches the c6ncept of rationality from an unusual perspective which has not been discussed in the secondary literature. Namely, the perspective of human agency and communicative judgment which is gleaned from the work of Arendt. Arendt's reconstruction of the Aristotelian concepts of "praxis" and "poiesis" is central to the concept of human agency in the work of Habermas. Habermas, like Arendt, distinguishes between action as a making process and action as a communicative process. Throughout his work he attempts to relate these two aspects of human agency to the concepts of rationality, knowledge, and autonomy. Arendt's reconstruction of Kant's concept of reflective judgement is fundamental to Habermas' most recent argument for grounding the concept of rationality in general. Here Habermas links Arendt's concept of communicative judgement, men/women's capacity for saying "Yes/No" with the accompanying reasons, to universal validity claims which are recognized and redeemed through dialogue between at least two subjects. Another closely related theme which is internal to the concept of human agency and which permeates the fabric of Habermas' work is Arendt's concept of plurality. The concept of plurality is fundamental to the concept of intersubjective recognition and consensus formation in Habermas' work. I show how Habermas uses the concept of intersubjectivity to clarify his concept of practical rationality in his later work and how intersubjective recognition is central to his most recent argument for grounding the concept of rationality in general. Habermas moves beyond the work of Arendt in his efforts to appropriate and re-formulate the Enlightenment concept of reason in the light of the works of Marx, Freud, Weber, Horkheimer, Adorno, and Lukacs. The concept of reflection is revised from the viewpoint of reflective, communicative judgement. The concept of rationality is distinguished from the attitudes which actors adopt in apprehending their world. Piaget's decentration thesis is shown to be central to the concept of communicative rationality