Management and Marketing - Theses
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ItemConsumed by consumption: exploring healthy eating addiction( 2018)Limited understanding exists about when and how do seemingly benign and even beneficial everyday consumption behaviors transform into an addiction. Taking the lens of consumer fanaticism, this thesis aims to understand the pre-addiction process of healthy eating addiction by investigating how consumers’ adoption of clean eating diets, can turn addictive and detrimental to their overall well-being. Specifically, I aim to 1) understand the experiences of consumers’ clean eating diets and 2) examine the process through which healthy eating addiction develops among health fanatics. I design a research project founded on an interpretative epistemology and undertake data collection by conducting non-participant observation and in-depth interviews to interpret the underlying meanings that health fanatics ascribe to their food consumption. Findings reveal three phases of clean eating experiences illustrating consumer’s increasing commitment and intensity towards healthy eating. Fanatic consumers can find healthy eating so entrenched into one’s sense of self that it becomes impossible to disentangle the two. Further, these phases underlie the transcending process through which a sacred relationship is formed between consumption object and fanatic’s sense of self. Findings contribute to the literature on both addictive consumption and fanatic consumer research. It provides theoretical insights into understanding the relationship between self and healthy food consumption. It also explains why attitude and addictive consumption behavior varies among consumers. From the managerial standpoint, the insights may help the marketers and policymakers in developing effective communication strategies to prevent such behavior.
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ItemAchieving sustainability goals through environmental, health and safety management systems in manufacturing plants( 2015)This study focuses on how manufacturing plants can achieve sustainability goals through installation and use of environmental management system (EMS) and occupational, health and safety (OHS) system. The study proposes that the installation and usage of EMS and OHS systems lead not only to direct outcomes in their respective domains, but also exhibit spillover and crossover effects such that EMS practices affect OHS outcomes and vice versa. In addition, an argument is made that contextual factors such as plant size and age could be differentially affecting the proposed effects. Empirical data from the Global Manufacturing Research Group (GMRG) survey study was used to test a set of hypotheses based on these contentions. Practice, performance and contextual data from 525 manufacturing plants located in 14 different countries was analysed with structural equation modelling technique. Results showed support for both the direct effects as well as for the spillover and crossover effects. Results also showed that the proposed effects were stronger in larger and older plants when compared to smaller and newer plants, suggesting support for both the plant size and age acting as significant contextual factors. The study makes several theoretical contributions and offers managerial implications. It shows that manufacturing plants can achieve sustainability through installation and use of formal EMS and OHS systems. The way that they work is not just directly, but through each other as suggested by the spillover-crossover model. The findings also suggest that contextual factors have a role to play, indicating that there may not be universal applicability to EMS and OHS systems. Together, the results of the study contribute to a better understanding of how manufacturing plants can achieve sustainability related outcomes through the installation and use of formal environmental, occupational, health and safety management programs and systems.
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ItemAre you the only one laughing?: The influence of leader humour during feedback in determining leader-member exchange quality( 2014)This project examined the influence of leader humour during feedback and how this impacted upon the leader-member exchange from the perspective of the subordinate. Humour has previously been shown to be a potentially useful and powerful tool for management however it has also been shown to be an event which can work both for the advantage and disadvantage of the leader. Using the leader-member exchange, affective events theory and organisational justice frameworks, this study identified that leader humour is valuable in determining the quality of the leader-member exchange. The use of humour in this context can cause emotional reactions for its recipients that translate into affective events at work. Humour was distinguished between positive and negative types of humour. Humour fit was developed as a measure of humour compatibility between a leader and member dyad. Interactional justice was split into its components of interpersonal justice and informational justice. Survey-based research was used to quantitatively test the proposed hypotheses. This was achieved via a survey-based field study and its findings provide further understanding on the benefits and, indeed, the hazards associated with humour in the context of the leader-member exchange. Key findings identified that humour was mediated by affect in relation to the quality of the leader-member exchange thus providing support in viewing the use of humour as an event that produces an emotional reaction. It was also identified that informational and interpersonal justice moderated the relationship between leader humour use and affect. The findings suggest that the use of positive humour by the leader during feedback improved the leader member-exchange quality, while the use of negative humour by the leader during feedback attenuated the leader-member exchange quality. These findings provide implications for management practice. Humour was empirically demonstrated to be an important tool in the context of feedback and a means by which leaders can improve their relationships with subordinates.
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ItemPlaying and fun in the workplace( 2012)This thesis examines the equivocal outcomes of fun in the workplace and establishes that playing and fun in the workplace can be investigated within three schools of thought: the developmental school, the interactionist school, and the political school. Drawing on the literature of workplace fun, appraisal theory, and service employee management literature, a model has been developed. The model consists of four core elements. First, the model uses the contingency approach and establishes that workplace fun may lead to both positive and negative employee emotions depending on contextual factors. The framework suggests some potentially important contextual factors at the individual, group and organisational level. Second, the model differentiates between fun as an episodic activity and fun as a climate. Third, I contribute to the appraisal theory of emotions by explaining how episodic emotions are provoked as a result of fun activities. Fourth, I consider the emotions that service employees display to customers, suggesting that positive or negative emotions of service employees that are caused by fun activities can influence customer satisfaction.
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ItemAn analysis of international lean plant manufacturing practices and performance( 2010)Lean manufacturing is an integrated system that is intended to maximize the performance of the production and delivery processes in providing customer value while minimizing waste. Lean is an ongoing philosophy of continuous improvement with operational and performance dimensions. This research project had the primary aim to conduct an international analysis of actual lean manufacturing practices to determine the extent these practices have been adopted and how they may influence plant performance. An international study of lean manufacturing will assist in the better understanding of the evolving nature of lean by providing a global perspective and analysis of actual lean practices, contextual factors and their relationship to plant performance. Lean has a dynamic nature and may mean different things to different firms. The underlying elements and principles of lean can be adapted to local conditions by managers to meet individual circumstances. In recent years there have been a number of studies of lean manufacturing techniques and how they have been applied at the firm level for different industries in numerous countries. Few studies have analyzed multiple industries across a number of countries. An understanding how actual lean practices influence plant performance and which practices have the greatest impact on particular areas of plant performance may assist managers to better allocate resources in response to competitive priorities. The importance of operations management at the plant level in implementing lean practices to build capabilities is of continuing interest. The influence of seven actual practices identified as lean indicators on the performance dimensions of quality, cost, flexibility and delivery was examined. The impact of four contextual factors, plant size, equipment age, investment in new equipment, and international ownership was assessed. The analysis considered whether lean plants have characteristically better performance than No-Lean plants and the implications of different levels of commitment to lean on plant performance. The study used data from the Global Manufacturing Research Group dataset covering 1295 plants across twenty two countries.