A rationale for organisational effectiveness assessment in seaport organisations

This thesis is concerned with the management of seaport organisations, the importance of regular Organisational Effectiveness (OE) assessments of these organisations and the benefits arising from such assessments. Therefore, this research introduces the concept of OE to seaport organisations, explores the rationale for regular assessment of OE in seaport organisations, examines the impacts of effective organisations on Operational Performance (OP) of seaports and ultimately on national development, and empirically develops an appropriate model for the regular OE assessment of seaport organisations. In other words, the main pioneering objective of this study is to introduce organisational effectiveness theory to port ~anagement practice. This research involves a sequential triangulation of methods-both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Firstly, this allows for a qualitative exploration of historical data, development of a theory and hypothesising a model, and secondly for quantitative testing of the hypotheses and answering the research questions. An extensive literature review on the impacts of transportation in general and seaports in particular on development was undertaken. This was followed by an in-depth search for different classifications and types of available OE models which finally led to conceptualisation of a model for assessment of OE in seaport organisations. A group questionnaire survey technique was used to collect the primary data from 225 of Iran's PSO managers at different branches to answer three major research questions. The SPSS software was utilised to analyse the collected data and make sense out of the raw data. Key findings relate to implementation of regular OE assessment in seaport organisations, the benefits of such an assessment, the impacts of effective organisations on operational performance of seaports and eventually on national development, and the appropriateness of the model (and its OE criteria) conceptualised in this research to assess OE in seaport organisations. The analysis and discussion of the findings lead to conclusions with respect to the needs for seaport organisations and their managers to undertake regular organisational effectiveness assessment, as well as the implications for further future research. This research also provides some justification and impetus for all managers and organisations, either within or outside seaport organisations, to engage in the systematic process of assessing effectiveness, and perhaps enacting legislation, policies or procedures for obligatory periodical OE assessment of their organisations. The significance of this research is enhanced by the absence of any empirical research on OE of seaport organisations and of any model specifically designed for assessment of OE in seaport organisations. Accordingly, this study is of significance as it introduces OE to seaport organisations and, for the first time, produces a model appropriate for the regular assessment of OE in seaport organisations which, in turn, should lead to improved OP.