Melbourne Business School - Theses
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ItemGay print media’s golden era: Australian magazines and newspapers 1970-2000( 2015)The late 20th century was a golden era for Australian gay print media: more than five million copies annually of gay and lesbian publications were printed at its peak, with revenues of nearly eight million dollars a year. Yet there was not even a leaflet before 1969 because homosexuals then did not dare to publish in the climate of active oppression. Growing liberal attitudes within sections of broader society, and, at a practical level, reform of censorship laws made gay publishing possible. The remarkable growth of this industry stands as testimony to the dramatic change in mainstream society’s attitudes towards homosexuality, and changes within the gay community itself, during the final decades of last century. From 1970 to 2000 nearly 100 significant magazines and newspapers were produced around the country. Publishers used print media to advance gay movement aims, despite pursuing a variety of visions and goals for how they saw a better world for gay and lesbian people. Their publications allowed discussion of what it meant to be gay or lesbian in Australia; provided an arena to present positive viewpoints regarding homosexuality that countered dominant mainstream attitudes; and brought people together through personal classifieds and information about bars and other community activities. In order to sustain their businesses, publishers took commercial opportunities presented to them. And they needed to expand their operation to attract readers and advertisers. This offered economic viability to the publications, and allowed publishers to sustain a reliable workforce and improve their product. All publishers were forced to deal with the business side of their operation, which often caused tension between their initial goals for a better world and the need to run the business. A key resolution of this tension came through adopting the promotion and defence of community as a primary political project. This allowed publishers to freely develop synergies with advertisers that helped build and develop community infrastructure, such as venues, festivals, and small businesses. Expansion of the sector magnified the impact of this synergy on the community’s growth. It allowed movement ideas and information on community activities to reach and influence a much wider audience, and the day-to-day pursuit of business activity, in particular advertising revenue and distribution outlets led to a myriad of direct relationships with mainstream society that challenged prejudice and helped normalise homosexuality.
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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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ItemSymbolic meanings of green consumption practices among young environmentalists( 2012)This thesis explores green consumption practices among young environmentalists in an Australian city. It argues that subjective experiences and socially constructed symbolic meanings of green consumption practices explain how and why young environmentalists engage in green consumption practices in connection with the emerging green consumer movement. This thesis aims to extend theoretical underpinnings of green consumption by postulating a theoretical framework of symbolic meanings of green consumption practices. This framework is built on an investigation of what consumers do when they engage in green consumption as opposed to antecedents of intentional green consumption. The main research problem was articulated as: In relation to the emerging green consumer movement, what symbolic meanings of green consumption practices are shared among young environmentalists in Australia? Symbolic meanings of green consumption were investigated by adopting an interpretive approach and using photo-elicited in-depth interviews with young environmentalists. A skeletal theoretical framework guided the investigation, which was built on several sensitising concepts including meanings of green consumption, ways of engaging in green consumption practices, consumer identity expressions, and social connections and differentiations through engaging in green consumption practices. The postulated theoretical framework of the thesis is built on several thematic categories: 1) green consumption seen as keeping an eye on producers and sellers, 2) “naturally greened” personal habits, 3) emotional affiliations with green procurements, 4) green prosumers to replace commodities, 5) empowered and shared consumption: signs of the connection with the emerging green consumer movement, challenging the dominant social paradigm, 6) redefined environmental paradigm, 7) unperceived local risk of climate change, and 8) I, we, and others in the emerging green consumer movement. This thesis concludes that the meanings of green consumption practices among young environmentalists are built on having needed to disassociate from the dominant market systems and mainstream consumer practices of presumably green-ignorant mainstream consumers. The young environmentalists seek alternative and enjoyable means of consumption while taking part in the emerging green consumer movement. Positive connotations seem to be more prominent among the environmentalists’ green consumption practices than negative connotations such as limiting, restricting or controlling consumption or imminent, local danger of climate change. This leads to the formation and expression of green consumer identities through social connections and differentiations. This thesis has potential implications for developing theoretical underpinnings and methodological approaches of green consumption, designing promotional campaigns of green consumption practices among young consumers, and for the future research on green consumption.
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ItemBest practice, employee performance and manufacturing performance( 1996)This research is concerned with the relationships between various technological, organisational and human resource investments, commonly termed Best Practices, and employee performance and manufacturing performance. Best Practices considered include: Total Quality Management (TOM), Just In Time (JIT), Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT), Strategic Planning, Leadership, Teams, Benchmarking and Training. The research uses two major pieces of field work. First, it analyses the practices and performance of 1024 Australian and New Zealand Manufacturing firms with a view to identifying "what works". This element of the research project tests a range of propositions concerned with the associations between Best Practices and measures of employee and manufacturing performance. Second, a detailed suite of case studies describing the Best Practice experiences of twelve Australian Manufacturers are analysed to assess "how it works". In particular, this area of research seeks to gain insights into how Best Practices relate to improvements in performance. Key findings include: • a moderated to strong association between employee performance and manufacturing performance, • TQM, JIT and leadership are key differentiators of employee performance and manufacturing performance, • AMT is positively associated with manufacturing performance but only in a strong TQM environment, • the strength of the associations between TQM, JIT and manufacturing performance increases with strength of AMT environment, • TQM explains approximately twice the variance in performance in weak manufacturing performance environments compared to strong manufacturing performance environments. The implications of these findings for existing conceptual theories, current research methodologies, theory development and practitioners are discussed in considerable detail. Although the research concludes that firms investing in Best Practices generally outperform those which do not, it also provides a number of salient notes of caution. In particular, it was found that firms need to introduce these investments within a strategic context that provides a demonstrable link to competitive and performance requirements otherwise, investments risk becoming “flavours of the month” rather than building blocks that contribute to the development of key organisational capabilities. This approach also helps to ensure that firms introduce interventions using a structured planning process, thereby avoiding resource crises and the confusion that can be created by an excessive number of fragmented interventions.