Organisational Design, Behaviour, Structure

Purpose -This paper attempts to examine the issue concerning human resource (HR) structures and the transfer of HR knowledge to discover whether and how HR structure facilitates the transfer of HR knowledge between subsidiaries of an MNC in China. Design/methodology/approach -The investigation, being of an exploratory nature, follows the tradition of a grounded approach. The paper is based on an empirical study of 22 individual HR professionals from 21 Chinese subsidiaries of MNCs. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted between January and April 2004 and a grounded analysis was carried out with the assistance of Nvivo software. Findings -The forms of HR structures, especially China centre-led HR structures, have created an opportunity for developing HR learning networks for sharing HR knowledge amongst sister-subsidiaries and between the subsidiary and the China centre. These forms of HR structure have also provided an essential foundation for wide collaboration between subsidiaries, and further for creating a knowledge-sharing culture to facilitate HR knowledge transfer.

The philosophy of people management based on the belief that human resource is uniquely important to sustained business success. An organization will gain its competitive advantage using people effectively, drawing on their expertise and ingenuity to meet clearly defined objectives. Leadership is the process of directing the behavior of others towards the accomplishment of the organization's goals. It involves taking the lead to bridge the gap between the formulating plans and reaching goals, therefore translating plans into reality. Leadership is an elusive concept and difficult to define precisely as it involves elements of influencing people, giving orders, motivating people, managing conflict and communicating with subordinates. 21st Century Leaders practices situational leadership which enables them to adapt their leadership style to advance the organizations mission and vision.

The development of “new” media and the financial investment in football since the early 1990s have dramatically changed the football club–media relationship. A number of clubs changed ownership and organizational structure for financial gain or financial survival while the increasing demand for immediate information led to clubs’ recognizing the importance of external communication. Drawing on 47 semistructured interviews with media personnel and 827 questionnaires completed by supporters at 4 football clubs, this article assesses the organizational structure of clubs in dealing with the media and supporters and the level of dependence between clubs and the external media. The results highlight changes in the
organizational structure of clubs and their strategies for external communication, as well as the contrasting relationships between football clubs and the external media. As ownership and personnel changes occur, clubs should remember the
importance of the 2-way relationships they are in with supporters and the media.

The present paper intends to get a closer approach to the theories of thinking behind Service Design practices in the context of the Organisational Development field. It tries to comprehend the dynamics of their relationship and analyse it through specific concepts.
The contribution relies on the fact that there is some, although very limited, literature on Service Design and Organisational Transformation. Recently, a few papers have been published yet, since the area is not totally defined, its literature usually analyses the reflections of successful case studies of design practitioners. It is not thought of as a part of a theoretical framework and therefore, it seems to be not totally defined and strongly questioned.
The purpose of this research project is to suggest potential ways in which the discipline could contribute to a deeper comprehension of Organisational Development and identify some of its limitations in practice.

This paper gives a theoretical and empirical overview of modern organizational trends in design with a special accent given to outsourcing and downsizing. Outsourcing and downsizing have been seen as an instrument that can help organizations to deal with new business environment and as such they are becoming one of the basic issues and modern trends of organizational design. In order to investigate the state and perspectives of those modern organizational trends in Croatian companies, a research was undertaken. Results of the research show the dynamic of outsourcing activities in different types of ownership and different types if industries, as well as the relationship between application of modern organizational trends and different aspects of companies competitive position.

Paper THE MARKETING ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURES TOWARDS THINK-FEEL-DO MODEL, page 326. The authors wanted to present the Think - Feel - Do management model as a potentially appropriate base for a new model of managing tasks and production processes in a marketing - oriented companies that operate in accordance to the digital age market demands, where the user‘s experience has become a centre of business, and the speed of the reaction has become the key for the business survival. Internet and accompanied technology have accelerated this pace of doing business, so the place of doing business is no longer important, because the global market is available from every corner of the world and imposes virtual skills when managing tasks, projects and in organisations in general. All this requires rapid flow of in- formation’s, quick adaptation, and also multiplying channels of communication and participation in the execution of various tasks. The key of the success lies in the people, so the successful team management has become obligate task to follow.

Firms involve users in innovation because of the unique knowledge users have developed about the firms' products through their usage experience. However, users' innovation-related knowledge is not easily accessible and transferred. Not much insight is provided in user innovation literature to allow firms and researchers to understand the firm's internal methods and mechanism involved in converting user input to product innovation. Based on the knowledge-based view and innovation management perspective, we argue that internal mechanisms facilitate such knowledge coordination. Following a qualitative multiple case study design, we collected data from three New Zealand and Australian firms operating in farm management and steel casting industries. We conclude that firms require four organisational mechanisms that support the access and integration of user inputs. Our work provides insight into the coordination mechanisms firms use to access and integrate user knowledge. Findings would help firms understand and implement necessary mechanisms to coordinate user innovation activities.

Abstract
The traditional approach to the management of projects in the construction industry is constantly challenged, in particular the implementation of processes and the application of the project management knowledge base in complex projects. These challenges require a nonlinear approach, a transformation from the control to the behavioural paradigm and a better understanding of how complexity in projects can be managed.

Interconnections between the various project parties, from individuals to companies, have always been identified as an area which requires attention. Indeed, project management sub-processes that have to consider interconnections, such as selection of project team members, structuring the project teams as well as the management style adopted, are either not
implemented or the execution remains subjective, despite the existence of appropriate techniques. Considering that complexity occurs in non-linear systems and interconnections, the lack of appropriate means affects the implementation of such sub-processes and consequently performance. Investigating the complexity of the interconnections for the two sub-processes and the management style adopted and enabling the management of its effects must enhance implementation and thus project outcome. Therefore, the development of a framework is proposed which, by using existing knowledge and complexity characteristics, will allow project management (PM) practitioners the multiple implementation of actions for the management of the effects of the complexity of interconnections on construction projects through the two sub-processes and the management style adopted.

The rationale of this investigation is that interconnections, formed between and affected by social entities in projects, give rise to complexity, which can be managed by improving the project organisation and the management style followed. A research strategy was established which encompassed a survey, interviews and case studies with both UK client and construction PM practitioners. The survey results confirmed previous findings and indicated that, although PM practitioners are aware of techniques and are given guidance, these are neither implemented nor considered. Consequently, project management outcome remains only at acceptable levels. Interviews confirmed that the complexity of interconnections is not considered and very limited actions are taken to manage its effects when organising project teams or considering the management style to be followed. Indeed the effect of complexity of interconnections on project performance is dramatic as established through the case studies.

Therefore, consideration should be given to means for managing complexity of interconnections when selecting team members, structuring the project teams and when deciding on the management style to be adopted. Awareness and guidance on processes currently given to PMs has to materialise, and this can be achieved through the use of the framework for managing the complexity of interconnections.

Key Words: Complexity, Interconnections, Project Management, Selecting Team Members,
Structuring Teams, Management Style

There are numerous papers and researches on organisational structure and culture showing how cooperation between departments plays vital role in improving business performance. Also, anyone who worked in a company that has marketing and sales departments or at least has experienced contact with marketers and sellers knows that such relationship is contentious. The authors wanted to present the Smarketing-integration of sales and marketing as potentially best model of putting the client in the centre of company's attention in the age of digital market where the speed of the reaction has become the key, reaching revenue goals in the era of experiential economy and make teams' collaboration work smoothly. A company has an integrated marketing and sales program when the sales and marketing teams work together to take a prospective customer from initial awareness all the way to becoming a loyal customer. This paper emphasises importance of technology as information sharing tool that can help revenue growth and offers a guideline how to make integration of sales and marketing well, through activities, processes and systems, organisational culture and structure in order to make lead process more efficient, company more customer oriented with easier monitoring of performance metrics and having satisfied teams talking the same language.

These research notes collect input from academic and business research on enterprise ontologies, reference models and business frameworks to propose an enterprise ontology appropriate for creating a reference enterprise model. Such an ontology will be a subset of an enterprise ontology specifically to include elements and relationships that are reference in nature rather than specific to a business or modelling objective.

In this paper I explore a case study of a large professional services firm employing over 50,000 staff across the globe. My focus is on the emotional connectedness at work of those staff members who live in the Australia-New Zealand region of the firm. The multi-matrix structure of the organisation is aimed at connecting people through group membership, but the reality is that few staff members experience these groups as real. Additionally, these groups are designed to provide containment for work aspects, such as professional development, service delivery and sales. Staff members experience these aspects as being contained by personal relationships with individuals, rather than in the relatedness within or between groups. The paper considers the importance of emotional connectedness to work, the importance of groups as a container for emotional connectedness, and the role of management. The research has surfaced a dynamic of disconnection, manifest in experiences of isolation, nominal groups and starkly different mental maps between management and staff. I conclude that the health and vitality of the organisation is affected by an unconscious fear of not surviving which generates a dynamic of disconnectedness from the emotional experiences of others. The capacity to engage with others experiences of working in the organisation is not fully available and therefore cannot be worked with in the service of the organisation.