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    An investigation into factors relating to speaking up in the workplace : a thesis (90 credits) presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master's in Business Studies in Management at Massey University, Extramural, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Randhawa, Vardeep K
    This study investigates the factors that enable or prevent employees to speak up. Effective employee communication is vital in early detection of problems. Employee silence is defined as the deliberate withholding of information useful to the progress of an organization. Empowered employees will take personal accountability and ownership of issues. In an increasingly competitive market employee communication and reaction to change is vital for the success or failure of an organization. Previous research has found that failure of employees to speak up can have significant consequences, including decreased innovation and productivity; unreported health and safety incidents; stress; depression; and lower commitment and job satisfaction. This study (N = 240) has confirmed that employees may not speak up out of fear of being labelled in a negative manner. Employees are more likely to speak up when they feel it is safe and worthwhile. This study provides recommendations for managers for enabling and encouraging employees. The present study has found trust in supervisor, supervisor support and self-monitoring were found to be significant predictors of speaking up. Key words: Employee voice, employee silence, communication, management, speaking up
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    Listen to me : the relationship between an organisation's listening environment and employees' openness to change : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Business Studies (Communication) at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2016) McFaull, Nicola
    Change is a reality of organisational life. New technologies, globalisation, the vagaries of the economic climate, and internal organisational pressures drive change today faster than ever before. Yet failure rates for change can be up to 70%. Understanding the different drivers of change, and what promotes change success, is therefore critical. Researchers are recognising that change is essentially a human event, and that individuals have a major role in determining whether organisational change will be successful. Employees’ attitudes towards change determine whether they will support or resist it. The focus of this study is on employee’s openness to change, and the extent to which this variable is affected by the listening environment created in the organisation by the supervisor and also that created between team members. An online survey was carried out of 485 employees in one public sector organisation in New Zealand. Measures were taken of employee openness to change, team listening environment, supervisor listening environment and potential demographic contributors. Findings were that the supervisor listening environment had a moderate effect on employees’ openness to change. It also had a similar effect on the team listening environment. However, the team listening environment was found to have only a small little impact on openness to change. Four employee variables—position, tenure, age and gender—were considered, and all were found to influence the relationship between the supervisor listening environment and openness to change. This was especially so for managers, employees between 35 and 54 years of age, and female employees. The impact of employee characteristics on the openness to change variable was also looked at. The only demographic variable that had an impact on openness to change was the position an employee holds in the organisation. The implications of these findings for management is that the quality of the interpersonal relationship between an employee, and their supervisor, as demonstrated by how the supervisor listens to them, creates an environment where employees feel listened to, cared for and connected. This influences an employee’s willingness to support new and different things, that is, their openness to change. This contributes in turn to whether the employee will embrace change or resist it, and ultimately influences whether the organisational change will be successful.
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    An exploratory investigation of the relationship between the information gap and role conflict and ambiguity in organisations : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Studies in Human Resource Management at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1987) Campbell, Judith Ann
    The research on the information gap in organisations is very limited. This is partially due to the difficulties surrounding the theoretical definition and measurement of the construct. The aim of the current research was to explore the multi-dimensional nature of the information gap, and to investigate the relationship between the information gap and role conflict and ambiguity in an organisational setting. The dimensions that were considered were the size of the gap, and the position of information levels within that gap. Ten research questions provided a framework for the analysis of results. These objectives focussed on two areas. Firstly, the present and preferred use of various topics and sources of information, and the discrepancies resulting from this. This provided a replication of research done by Sligo (1986). The second focus of the research was an investigation of the relationship between the information gap and role conflict and ambiguity. In order to do this the methodology used by Sligo was refined to allow the position of information levels within the gap to be analysed. The results of the research suggest that participants perceived the largest information gap on topics which gave them feedback about their performance. They preferred to receive information from formal interpersonal sources. Generally interpersonal sources were preferred over print sources. Investigation of the information gap and role stressors found clear associations between the size and position of levels of information within the gap, and the levels of role ambiguity and conflict found. As the size of the gap increased, higher levels of role conflict and ambiguity were found. Where the information gap was small, lower levels of conflict and ambiguity were found. The implications of these relationships for management intervention was discussed. On the basis of the findings suggestions for future research were made. These included further investigation of the multi-dimensional nature of the information gap, and the need to look at other outcome variables for which the level of information gap may be an antecedent. It was also suggested that consideration be given to factors which may moderate the relationship between the gap and future outcome variables.
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    Sources of information for New Zealand knowledge workers : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Business Studies at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1986) Sligo, Frank
    Little is currently known about the ways in which knowledge workers in New Zealand organisations presently use and prefer to use both interpersonal and print sources of information. This study examined the sources employed by 318 knowledge workers in 17 organisations, comprising a mixture of private sector, public sector and quasi-governmental enterprises. Environmental and organisational, individual and source characteristics were explored in a review Of the literature relevant to information sources, and a wide variety of disparate points of view were found among previous writers on the subject. To accommodate the relatively undeveloped nature of the topic, an exploratory and descriptive study was designed in order to establish some basic findings. Research methods included, cluster analysis and communication network analysis (in the pilot studies); assessment of source rankings, crosstabulations of status and sources, breakdown of education and print sources, correlation coefficients of status, education and sources, and discrepancy analysis of sources presently used and preferred. Seven objectives were developed, which may be collapsed into five main topic areas: present and preferred use of information sources, and discrepancies arising; use by participants of interpersonal and print-based sources of information; use of sources which were internal and external to the organisation; the relationships between participants' status and source use; and the relationships between participants' education and source use. Initially from the clustering process in the two pilot studies, and later from the ranking procedure across all organisations, it became evident that participants' status was a crucial factor in the present use of sources. Although distinct differences by status levels were found for present source use, preferred source use was almost entirely unrelated to status level. Overall, it appeared that as these knowledge workers moved up the hierarchy they tended to receive more information and record fewer discrepancies between information received and sought. From the investigation of interpersonal and print sources, it was found that certain very accessible and internal interpersonal sources (coworkers, superior, subordinates and the grapevine) were most used, though two (also accessible and internal) print sources (memos and newsletters) were also frequently cited. Use of the grapevine seemed to be associated with lesser access to formal or officially sanctioned sources of information, but it was also found that participants tended to prefer to receive grapevine information only sometimes; if frequency of contact exceeded this, a negative discrepancy was likely to occur. Few overt indications of information overload were found, but there was some evidence to suggest that the phenomenon of overload was more closely related to what staff felt able to handle rather than to what they would like to have had. There was also some evidence that external sources were contacted more by staff at the top and bottom of the organisation, than by the two middle levels. A complex pattern of correlations seemed to apply in respect of education and source use; relationships appeared to be emerging between education and external sources and the grapevine.
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    The rhetoric of business social responsibility in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management and Communication, Massey University, Palmerston North
    (Massey University, 2003) Walker, Robyn Jane
    This thesis focuses on how business social responsibility is constituted and enacted in New Zealand. It comprises a case study of Hubbard Foods Limited, using rhetorical analysis to examine the business texts related to the company, many of which are produced by and about owner-manager Dick Hubbard, a key exponent of business social responsibility. Three distinctive approaches to rhetorical analysis are used in this study: role analysis, dramatism and cultural analysis. Role analysis examines how business social responsibility is constituted through the central communication tool of Hubbard Foods Limited, Clipboard. Application of Beason's (1991) framework enables exploration of how Hubbard attempts to persuade others, through the written text, of his own credibility and his vision of business social responsibility. Dramatistic analysis (Burke, 1969a) examines text as drama, focusing on a company event - a staff trip from New Zealand to Samoa. Analysis of the drama reveals how staff members are cast as co-actors engaging in a public enactment of business social responsibility. Cultural analysis is used to compare and contrast the narratives of Dick Hubbard and counter agent Roger Kerr, Executive Director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable. Points of compatibility between Hubbard and Kerr are apparent in both the basic assumptions upon which their positions are founded and in the images and archetypes they draw upon to legitimise their claims about business social responsibility. In particular, analysis reveals that both actors draw upon religious imagery. Rhetorical analysis of Hubbard Foods Limited business text extends current conceptions of business social responsibility in a number of ways. The findings suggest a blurring of the business and society distinction, as Hubbard's rhetoric constitutes business as part of society. Analysis of textual strategies reveal aspects of the transactive process associated with business social responsibility, highlighting the importance of managers' personal moral engagement with the implications and consequences of their business decisions, thus challenging contemporary tendencies to objectify social responsibility. The case study of Hubbard Foods Limited serves to draw attention to the centrality of trust to conceptions of business social responsibility and to the way Hubbard humanises the idea. The thesis proposes a 'definition' of business social responsibility in New Zealand whereby it is characterized as a process of negotiation that accommodates inconsistencies and contradictions. It identifies implications of this finding for managers and for business and society research. Finally, it urges business and society researchers to acknowledge the value of interpretive approaches to complement and enrich the current scholarship.