Melbourne Business School - Theses
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ItemRetail marketing at Golden Fleece(University of Melbourne, 1976)
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ItemThe task force approach to rationalisation(University of Melbourne, 1975)
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ItemManagement and investment companies: events leading up to the Espie Report and subsequent developments( 1986)On 22 May, 1984 seven Management and Investment Companies (MICs) were each granted a licence by the MIC Licensing Board (MICLB). The Licensed MICs were: Austech Ventures Limited; Australian Pacific Technology Limited; B. T. Innovation Limited; Hambro-Grantham Limited; Techniche Limited; Western Pacific Management Company Pty Limited; Westintech Innovation Corporation Limited. On 1 November, 1984 another three Licences were granted, one each to: Continental Venture Capital Limited; C P Ventures Limited; Samic Limited. Thus the Australian MIC-based Venture Capital Industry was launched. The MIC Venture Capital realisation in the late Industry grew from an increasing 1970s and early 1980s, in both government and business circles, that Australia's high technology sector had underperformed and was not competing with international rivals. Such a sector was seen to be a key element in the prospective creation of wealth for Australia by virtue of the potential for high employment and export earnings. (From Introduction)
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ItemThe relationship between quality management strategies and organisational performance in manufacturing firms( 1997)Higher requirements for improved quality of products and services have led to three important changes in international business over the last decade. These changes include: • The growing recognition of the strategic importance of Total Quality Management (TQM) philosophy and methods. • A major push by organisations worldwide to seek certification to the ISO 9000 quality standards. • The growing recognition and application of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA), the Australian Quality Award (AQA), and the European Quality Award (EQA). Although there are many cases where the above quality strategies have been successfully applied, there is still considerable confusion, frustration and uncertainty surrounding the applied role and business value of TQM and ISO 9000 certification. For example, many managers believe that gaining certification to the ISO 9000 standards is synonymous with adopting the TQM philosophy or winning a quality award. Anecdotal evidence and the limited number of empirical studies in the literature suggest considerable variability in the performance of TQM, ranging from unprecedented successes to abandonment of TQM, and even bankruptcy. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to address the gaps and contradictions in the literature. This was achieved by investigating the relationship between TQM philosophy and ISO 9000 certification (individually and in combination) with organisational performance. An Integrated Continuous Improvement Framework (ICIF) was developed from the literature to show the theoretical relationship between TQM, ISO 9000 certification, and organisational performance. The TQM component of the framework was developed as a surrogate MBNQA (S-MBNQA) model. This model allowed comparison of the S-MBNQA scoring criteria with the 1995 MBNQA criteria. Hypotheses were developed based on relationships within the integrated framework. The relationships were tested using a large data base consisting of 962 responses from Australian manufacturing firms and 379 responses from New Zealand manufacturing firms. The tested hypotheses were further explained by utilising six case studies of Australian manufacturing organisations that had been implementing TQM and ISO 9000 certification as part of the Australian Best Practice Demonstration Program. The first major finding of the study was that the MBNQA criteria are a generally valid and reliable model for measuring and predicting the relationship between TQM practice and organisational performance. For example, specific dimensions of the TQM philosophy: leadership commitment, people management, and customer focus, were significantly related to organisational performance. These dimensions were also significant differentiators between high, medium, and low performing firms. The second major finding was that ISO 9000 certification was not significantly related to organisational performance. Both high and low performing firms seek ISO 9000 certification in roughly equal proportions, within strong and weak TQM environments, without any significant effect on performance outcomes. The study concluded that adopting TQM philosophy and gaining ISO 9000 certification are not synonymous. However, ISO 9000 certification and TQM can complement each other as part of an Integrated Quality Strategy. The limitations of the study and the implications of the research findings are reviewed, along with the directions for future research.
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ItemThe relationship between team communication and R&D project performance: a five factor model of team communication( 1999)While the importance of sound communication for achieving excellent research and development (R&D) performance is widely recognised, previous research has not identified which aspects of team communication are most important for effective project performance. The thesis examined dimensions of team communication, drawing upon a five factor team model of communication, in order to determine the key communication factors for effective R&D project team performance. The model comprised the following factors: supportive leadership; team boundary spanning; adaptive problem solving; team reflexivity and project clarity. Supportive leadership refers to the leader's role performance as a feedback provider, director, facilitator and boundary spanner. Team boundary spanning refers to the activity of the team in connecting with stakeholders or experts and other sources of information and support from within and outside the organization. Adaptive problem solving refers to open discussion, participative decision making and the absence of power conflict in the team. Team reflexivity refers to the activity of team members reflecting on the team's tasks and processes. Finally project clarity refers to quality of information flow in regards to the performance of project tasks. To test the model of team communication a longitudinal study design was used, studying teams at regular four-month intervals for one year. Data analyses were based on team member ratings of team communication and multiple stakeholders' ratings of project performance. Fifty-six teams were surveyed, comprising 56 project leaders and 238 team members, as well as 32 research managers and 27 project customers. The results provided broad support for the five factor team communication model, which explained a large proportion of the variance in project performance over time. However, different stakeholders' ratings of performance indicated that different communication factors are associated with effective project performance. Based upon team ratings, project clarity followed by supportive leadership, adaptive problem solving and team reflexivity were the most significant predictors of project performance. Based upon research managers' ratings, project clarity, followed by supportive leadership, were the strongest correlates of project performance. Adaptive problem solving was the strongest, most consistent correlate of customer ratings of project performance. Additional analyses were conducted to extend the model of team communication by examining the effects of project team design (i.e. task interdependence, single or multi-site location and proportion of time assigned to project work) and team composition (i.e. team tenure, membership change and team size) on the two most important communication factors identified in the first analysis (viz. adaptive problem solving and project clarity). For interdependent teams, the time assigned to project work was significantly correlated with project clarity. Team size and membership change were negatively correlated with adaptive problem solving. Long serving teams with stable membership displayed high ratings of adaptive problem solving and team performance, while long serving teams with changing membership displayed low ratings of adaptive problem solving and team performance. New teams displayed no effects of stable or changing membership on their ratings of team communication and project performance. The results are discussed in relation to theory, practical implications and directions for future research.
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ItemMoney: a personal and private currency( 1996)This thesis confronts the ‘taken-for-granted’ nature of money. It explores the word ‘money’ itself, contrasting the way it is used/defined in the economics discourse with the way it has been approached in the psychological discourse. The thesis crosses disciplinary boundaries in an attempt to come closer to the everyday, personal experience of money. It unwraps the childhood history of money, showing how adult money attitudes emerge from unconscious predispositions and childhood experience. It demonstrates the importance of ‘control’ as a variable and the lifelong balancing act which takes place between spending and saving. Today, the form of money is in the process of change. It has undergone significant changes before: the nineteenth century adoption of paper money upset the bullionists as much as plastic or virtual money can unsettle traditionalists at the end of the twentieth century. Attitudes to the underlying substance 'money' remain relevant, whatever physical form the currency takes. Thus, gold and silver coins, the treasure of childhood pirate stories, may retain mental currency long after their demise as physical currency. Indeed, the more money becomes abstracted from something tangible, the more it is necessary to understand the primal nature of the underpinning attitudes that are affected.
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ItemThe alignment of business and information strategies( 1990)The aim of this study was to explore the nature and extent of the alignment of business and information strategies, and organisational factors which might be related to that alignment. The study was undertaken in two parts: an extensive literature analysis to identify possible factors and models of alignment, followed by empirical case study based research examining factors which might be related to the alignment of business and information strategy in some large information intensive organizations. The conceptual frameworks for the study were drawn from the literatures of strategy development, organizational design, and theories and practices of information systems and services. The literature review and analysis for this study was purposely extensive in order to encompass a wide range of conceptual and research based literatures about the management of information systems and services which inform the study. the literature review revealed burgeoning interest in the area of business and information strategy alignment from different, though often narrow, paradigms. At the same time there was plenty of rigorous, empirically based and cumulative studies of direct relevance to the research question. Areas of potential importance to the alignment of business and information strategy, drawn from the conceptual and research based literature, were examined in a hypothesis-generating empirical case study analysis of four of Australia’s five largest firms in the financial services sector.
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ItemEffects of physical environmental factors and individual differences on role stress, environmental stressors, workspace satisfaction and work behaviour of office employees( 1989)An integrative model of effects of office characteristics and individual differences on workspace satisfaction and work behaviour was developed and tested using survey data from 139 office employees working for four organisations. Workspace experiences, role stress, environmental stressors, and interpersonal interaction were treated as intermediary variables. The variables employed in this study were derived from previous research as well as self-developed, and were divided into seven group variables. The group labels and their respective variables are: (1) office characteristics: office openness, shared office, and number of people sharing; (2) individual differences: job level, organisation tenure, and Type-A behaviour pattern; (3) workspace experience: privacy and distraction; (4) role stress and environmental stressors: role ambiguity, role conflict, superior stressor, co-worker stressor, and physical stressor; (5) interpersonal interaction: attention, social relation, and listening; (6) workspace satisfaction; (7) work behaviour: task performance and friendliness.
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ItemThe financial impact of top management groups in Australian banking coprorations( 1998)This thesis examines the link between the top management group and company financial performance in Australian banks, and identifies some of the most important demographic characteristics involved in the relationship. A number of scholars have studied the link between the top management group’s demographic characteristics and various organisational outcomes, such as financial performance, diversification strategy, competitive moves, strategic conformity and persistence and organisational innovation (Bantel and Jackson, 1989; Finkelstein and Hambrick, 1990; Hambrick and D’Aveni 1992, Hambrick, Cho and Chen, 1996; Wiersema and Bantel, 1992). This research is different from previous studies of top management group effectiveness because it combines several methodological features found separately in these studies. The present study uses an inclusive, self nominated, definition of the top management group and a systematic, conceptual approach for selecting the demographic characteristics used to describe the top group. It also collects longitudinal data directly from the field, and is one of few studies of top management effectiveness conducted on organisations outside the USA. (For complete abstract open document)