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    Developing a model for integrated leadership succession planning in Post-Settlement Governance Entities : a praxis approach : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2025-04-27) McCurdy, Lynette
    The thesis examines key factors that influence leadership succession planning in Post-Settlement Governance Entity in Aotearoa New Zealand. The research was made possible through the long-standing relationship between iwi organisation, Te Rūnanga o Ngā Wairiki Ngāti, a Post-Settlement Governance Entity (PSGE) and me, a non-Indigenous, non-Iwi business researcher (NIR). The context for the research method is based on how a NIR and an iwi organisation can approach a research project together. The research is framed by two questions. Research Question 1 asks ‘How should a NIR approach research with an iwi organisation?’ (RQ1) and Research Question 2 asks ‘What factors influence leadership succession in PSGEs?’(RQ2). The research makes two significant contributions. In response to RQ1, the Framework for non-Indigenous Research Praxis (the Framework) represents a new model for non-Indigenous research not previously described in the literature. The Framework makes important contributions in the fields of non-Indigenous research methods and applied approaches to Kaupapa Māori research. The Framework aligns the NIR with Kaupapa Māori research principles and opens a space for NIRs to consider if, and how, they can make effective contributions in Indigenous research settings, as guided by their Indigenous research partners. RQ2 opens a comprehensive exploration of key factors that influence leadership succession in PSGEs. The response to RQ2 is the development of Te Aka Matua o Iwi Rua—Leadership Succession Model for Te Rūnanga o Ngā Wairiki Ngāti Apa (the Model). The thesis considers leadership succession planning from a strategic organisational risk perspective and offers a detailed and adaptive model for an integrated approach to leadership succession planning and risk mitigation for the Rūnanga. The research makes a significant contribution to the field of leadership succession planning in PSGEs.
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    Advancing environmental sustainability in German hospitals : challenges and practices : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Studies in Management at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2024) Suessenguth, Nora Johanna
    This study focuses on the German healthcare sector, more specifically on German hospitals. In Germany, the healthcare sector is responsible for 5.2% of the national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and therefore has a substantial impact on environmental sustainability. Despite growing awareness about the importance of minimising their environmental impact, this aspect is still often neglected. Limited pressure and support, limited financial means, the difference of priorities in the healthcare sector, such as high quality patient care, and lack of knowledge about environmental management in hospitals are known reasons for this. Despite these barriers, a few hospitals in Germany have been able to dedicate resources to address environmental sustainability. This study aims to provide practical insights for hospital management and enhance understanding of how hospitals in Germany can advance in environmental sustainability despite the multiple barriers they face. Three research questions are addressed: (1) What actions are hospitals taking to improve their environmental sustainability? (2) What challenges do hospitals face in implementing these actions? (3) What practices enable hospitals to overcome these challenges and advance in environmental sustainability? This study draws on three theoretical frameworks regarding governance, development, and organisational change. To analyse how hospitals can advance in environmental sustainability based on these frameworks, the adaptive capacity needs to be examined, which determines how well an organisation is able to respond to changes and implement change initiatives to progress towards sustainability. Therefore, change initiatives of hospitals are examined, as well as four dimensions shaping the implementation of these initiatives: strategy making, organising processes, management capabilities and relational assets, thereby highlighting the challenges of implementation. For this study, a multiple explanatory case study design was adopted. Data were collected via semi structured interviews with people in four German hospitals whose task is to address sustainability, and with one managing director of an overarching organisation, linking the healthcare sector to sustainability. Findings were identified via thematic analysis. Three domains, with eight themes and various subthemes, categories, and codes were identified. Domain 1 (sustainability actions) includes theme 1: change initiatives, domain 2 (challenges in implementation) includes themes 2–5: strategy making, organising processes, management capabilities, and relational assets, and domain 3 (enabling practices) includes themes 6–8: establishing structures, collaboration and knowledge sharing, and openness to alternative approaches. First, sustainability actions were identified. They include initiatives to reduce environmental impact, change behaviour, increase resilience, and assess the environmental impact. Then, several challenges in implementing initiatives were identified within the dimensions of strategy making, organising processes, management capabilities, and relational assets. They include lack of external pressure and support, lack of knowledge, time, and personnel, organisational complexity, lack of funding, difficulty to change behaviour, and the competition of environmental sustainability with hygiene and patient safety. Finally, enabling practices to overcome these challenges were also identified. They include establishing structures within hospitals, engaging in collaboration and knowledge sharing with external and internal stakeholders, and openness to alternative approaches. These practices were found to improve implementation of change initiatives, which could impact the adaptive capacity of a hospital, leading to them being able to advance in environmental sustainability.
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    The relationship between lean and performance measurement in service and manufacturing organisations in New Zealand : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Accounting at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2024-08-20) Roos, Christina Maria
    This thesis examines the relationship between lean and performance measurement systems (PMSs) in New Zealand private and public organisations. There is a dearth of research on lean and PMSs, despite the importance of understanding this relationship. To provide insights and an understanding of this relationship, this study identifies and examines lean techniques and the corresponding performance measures applied to measure lean performance. The research data were analysed using Searcy’s (2004) framework of lean performance dimensions and the findings were informed by contingency theory. The research conclusions were drawn from qualitative interpretations of the data through thematic analysis. The research findings show that lean is still in an emergent state in New Zealand and that managers associate lean with reducing waste to reduce costs, promote continuous improvement, improve quality, and deliver customer value. This differs from the global perspective of providing customer value through continuous improvement (Thornton et al., 2019; Albzeirat et al., 2018). The lean techniques implemented by the lean organisations reflect the managers’ association of lean with reducing cost and promoting continuous improvement, with a marginal focus on improving customer value. Organisations that successfully use lean techniques remain in a ‘black hole’ between measuring lean performance and the inclusion of lean performance dimensions in the PMS. Less than half of the organisations adapted their PMSs to include lean performance, nor did they implement specific lean KPIs to measure and evaluate lean performance. In those organisations where managers had identified, implemented, and used critical lean success factors, they had concurrently modified their PMS to include lean KPIs. Nonetheless, dollars saved are still recognised as the most important lean contribution, subsequently, once dollar-related goals were reached, organisations restored their traditional PMSs. As such, lean performance was neglected, and the existing lean practices were not associated with PMS. Ultimately, most organisations did not adapt their PMSs sufficiently to accommodate lean, and consequently, the organisations’ PMSs did not adequately capture lean outcomes. The implications for organisations and CEOs are that they need to shift focus from cost savings and profits to lean techniques and map the correct key performance indicators to the PMS to fully measure and evaluate lean outcomes.
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    Due diligence and psychosocial risk : examining the construction of compliance : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management at Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2024-07-20) Deacon, Louise Joy
    New Zealand’s Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 introduced two significant changes to the country’s work health and safety regulatory landscape: (1) it placed a duty upon officers to ensure that the business of which they are an officer complies with its duties under the Act; (2) it broadened the definition of health to include mental health. The latter inclusion confirmed the scope of the Act to apply to psychosocial risks at work. Despite the officers’ duties being lauded as a profound change to New Zealand’s regulatory landscape, there has been little research investigating how officers respond to these legal duties. Further, internationally, there are significant gaps in knowledge regarding the role senior company managers play in psychosocial risk management, particularly relating to the intersect of legal responsibilities and psychosocial risks. This research adopted a Foucauldian analytical approach to examine how ideas about compliance and psychosocial risks are constructed and organised. Specifically, the research questions led to an investigation of the ways in which officers conceptualised and carried out their due diligence duties as they applied to the protection of workers’ mental health and the implications thereof. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 24 officers of large companies operating in New Zealand. The findings indicate that officers tended to discursively construct risk in ways which frequently obfuscated causes of harm arising from work while also problematising the possibility of eliminating or minimising risks to workers. Further, through a process of “risk translation,” psychosocial risks were often transformed into risks which were individualised, psychologised and managerialised. This translative effect functioned to displace psychosocial risks with risks which were more recognisable and amenable to management and posed less challenge to management prerogative. In this way, a dominant construction of risk came to represent worker mental health as a cause of risk to the organisation and the object of compliance, rather than a consequence of psychosocial risk exposure. The resultant compliance responses may therefore be considered symbolic in that they represented attention to legal ideals while marginalising the management of risks arising from work. Thus, the potential of work health and safety legislation to regulate psychosocial harm arising from work was largely curtailed, highlighting the limits of self-regulation in a legal context characterised by uncertainty and ambiguity.
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    Shifting the focus from gender diversity and inclusion to belonging and gender equity in Aotearoa New Zealand community football organisations : how did we get here and where are we going? : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management at Massey University, Manawatū, Aotearoa New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2023) Shanks, Alida
    Gender equity in community football organisations remains elusive despite national and international moves to address this through legislation, reports, and strategies focusing on gender diversity and inclusion. This research demonstrates that we are in the position we are today because in their attempts to promote gender equity, national sports organisations and Sport NZ (in its current and previous incarnations) have essentially placed all their emphasis on devising and implementing policy. This approach has produced, at best, symbolic equality. While we have seen some progress in this space, there is much more to do for a sustained change in attitudes and behaviour towards gender diversity and inclusion to achieve gender equity within community sports organisations. Historically, this research shows that legislation and policies are a fairly blunt instrument for changing behaviour, because while they are important statements of what governments and organisations believe, this has not translated into practice. This research provides a historical analysis of this issue, by tracing the history of women’s involvement in community football organisations in Aotearoa NZ within the wider context of women’s involvement in sports organisations, and with reference to the scholarly literature on the history of women’s sport. It discusses the academic literature on gender diversity and inclusion in sport at micro-, meso-, and macro-levels, and draws on analyses of previous frameworks to conceptualise and create a new model, the Belonging and Equity Model. I adopted a relativist ontological approach, a social constructionist epistemology, underpinned by post-structural feminism. Taking a holistic approach, I used a multi-disciplinary methodology, mixed data collection methods and multiple sources of evidence that focused on converting theories and research into practicable tools for community football organisations to use. I applied a qualitative approach, using case study and insider research that included historical context, a web-based survey, action research, and a human-centred design thinking workshop to pilot and review the Belonging and Equity Model, a theoretical framework which was refined and evolved to become the practical Te Poukapa: The Belonging and Equity Matrix. The findings showed that there is a lack of diversity in community football organisations and more than a third of women who work in regional football federations have experienced discrimination. What is needed are actions that focus on belonging and gender equity, including at a strategic level, knowing and owning our (her)story, introducing gender equitable rituals, and building trust at all levels. This research discusses both the reasons for how we got ‘here’ and offers recommendations on how to move forward.
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    Integrated project and change management framework for healthcare projects : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Quality Systems at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020) Osborne, Farisha
    The purpose of this study was to develop an integrated project and change management framework for healthcare. Transformative healthcare has become front and centre in the health industry, utilising projects as a form of delivery. Healthcare projects invariably create change, to which either staff or patients need to accommodate. Hence, having a framework that consolidated the two practices would be valuable. Set at Auckland District Health Board (ADHB) the research utilised a case study design and employing a pragmatic research methodology as it provided a flexible and more reflexive approach to research design. The research findings show that project and change management can be integrated and extremely useful in a healthcare setting. However, building capability for both domains requires a series of logical, economic and reasonable steps. Due to the time limitation of a master’s thesis, it is difficult to evaluate the new framework's implementation fully. This, however, paves the way for future research.
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    Essays on managerial foreign experience and corporate behaviours in China : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Finance at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2022) Sun, Zixiong
    Managerial foreign experience is a type of resource which allows managers to think globally and act locally. This thesis contributes to the literature on how foreign experienced managers impact corporate behaviour in China, the world’s largest emerging market. The first essay examines how managers with foreign experience influence corporate risk-taking. I find that foreign experienced managers are positively associated with corporate risk-taking. This relationship only robustly exists among private firms rather than state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The excess risk-taking through foreign experienced managers is positively related to Tobin’s Q, indicating that foreign experienced managers increase firm value through value-enhancing projects, which benefits shareholders. The second essay concentrates on the relationship between managerial foreign experience and earnings quality. I find that foreign experienced managers improve corporate earnings quality, and this improvement is more pronounced in private firms. Moreover, I document that the improved earnings quality is an important mechanism for which foreign experienced managers increase stock returns and decrease agency costs. The third essay in the thesis investigates the relationship between foreign experienced managers and corporate labour investment. I find foreign experienced managers are more likely to recruit and retain high skilled employees, which in turn increases labour cost for firms in total. The positive relationship between managerial foreign experience and labour cost is significant in both SOEs and private firms. Foreign experienced managers may focus on employees’ well-being to complete political goals in SOEs while they are more likely to retain and attract high skilled employees to benefit shareholders’ value in private firms. I further document that the increased labour costs through managerial foreign experience can influence firm value positively. However, it also increases the labour stickiness cost. Overall, this thesis documents the benefits and costs of hiring foreign experienced managers in firms.
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    A quantitative situation analysis model for strategic planning in quantity surveying firms : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Construction at Massey University, Albany Campus, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2021) Frei, Marcel
    Quantity Surveying (QS) firms, like all organisations must continuously formulate and execute the strategies required to enable them to survive and succeed in a constantly changing business environment. Key challenges that firms are required to grapple with include the rapid pace of technological advances affecting professional practice, intense internal competition, and the struggle to attract and retain key talent. In the midst of these operation challenges, QS firm leaders must also dedicate resource to planning and executing strategy. Unfortunately, strategic planning in QS firms is often ad-hoc or neglected, and there is a distinct lack of framework s and tools specific to the QS context. This study set out to redress this gap in literature and theory, by providing firstly a framework of key factors to be considered in a situation analysis – the core activity of the Design School approach to strategic planning, and secondly to provide a quantitative model based on that framework to enable firms to diagnose their Strategic Health – that is, their current performance and areas for improvement and optimisation, prior to formulating, selecting and executing strategic options to achieve their mission and vision. To achieve this, this study takes a multi-stage mixed methods approach. Firstly, following a review of the literature, in-depth semi-structured exploratory interviews were undertaken with key leaders in the Australian and New Zealand QS profession that led to the development of a situation analysis (SA) framework of 28 External Factors and 26 Internal Factors. Two stages of descriptive survey were undertaken (in 2013 and 2020) which enables the development of a quantitative Strategic Health model based on the framework Factors. Finally, the developed model was tested amongst five similar case study firms. Based on the case study results the developed model correlates strongly with five self-reported measures of success. The developed SA framework provides QS firms with empirically validated terms of reference when undertaking SA as part of their own strategic planning process. Due to the relatively small sample sizes involved, caution is urged in applying the developed Strategic Health model to situations outside of the population samples in the study. Further testing of the model in larger population samples or in associated industries are recommendations for further research. Keywords: quantity surveying, situation analysis, strategic health, strategic planning, Australasia
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    A study of the industry/university/government (UIG) collaborative project organisation : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020) Skelton, Lorraine
    Research projects are a subset of project management that is gaining attention. Primarily driven by the need for innovation to boost economic growth. This need has brought with it an impetus for researchers to work together between enterprises and gain the benefits of cross-sector collaboration. The surge of interest has been attributed to the increased importance of collaboration between university, industry and government, theorized by Etzkowith and Levdesdorff (1995) and termed the Triple Helix. Their work led to the recognition that successful innovation depends upon the effective selection and management of the research project portfolio and the research partners. Studies in this area largely focus on how well the relationships are either working or not working, and there is little published literature that seeks to understand what is particular to each of these environments that causes difficulties when working together across the ‘cultural gap’ (Kirkland, 2010). Existing studies have identified several key differentiators that create barriers to effective collaboration. The present study aims to develop these areas into a more complete framework and contextualise the factors (in the present research called ‘differentiating themes’) for each of the three sectors. A multilevel approach was taken to understand the areas of difference between team member and key informant participant levels, while incorporating a project approach across the traditional project components of phases and constraints. The findings of this research are based on a thematic analysis of the current literature. Nine broad themes of: funding, project, leadership, teamwork, completion, scientific endeavor, intellectual property, ethics and career, were further divided into sixteen subthemes. These describe the main areas of difference – or tensions between the sectors involved in the collaboration. The data collection was guided by a data collection model developed for this study. The study also measured the perceived outcomes of the collaborative effort, using the Strategic Alliance Formative Assessment Rubric (SAFAR), developed by Gajda (2004), which seeks to capture growth in a collaboration over time, and is used to measure both the inputs and outputs of the collaboration. The survey yielded 94 responses. Semi-structured interviews focussed on how both context and individual experience influence the themes, using a representative sample of team members and key informants from each sector, with twenty interviews conducted in both New Zealand and Australia. New differentiating themes were identified through the interviews and added to the original framework: main themes of collaboration, project management method, communication, internationalism and project mishaps, and subthemes of trust, contract management, task segregation, profitability and influencing. The study explored the impact of the differentiating themes as either contributors or influencers to the collaboration, as well as their impact on pre-project, project, and post-project phases in a framework for use by all parties involved in the UIG. The study has added to our current understanding of this project type through the development of a more encompassing framework, taking in multiple themes within the UIG collaborative style project. It has produced findings that consider the influencing dynamics of the sectors and participants addressed, from the perspective of both collaboration and project level determinants including the importance of collaborative outcomes. The study highlights the formation of collaborations, ongoing influences, and the differences found which account for many of the barriers to both start-up and ongoing collaborative development. This study also highlights the need to develop strategies for collaboration including between sector strategies to advance the benefits of collaboration, performance measures that reward collaboration, and the necessity to understand and accommodate the outcomes needed by all participants. The study has also increased the understanding of the complexity of the processes involved in UIG collaboration.