Search

This research seeks to connect the philosophical focus of the agency-structure debate with the practice of management through a comparative study of organisational decision-making in situations involving stakeholder consultation. Set in the context of decision-making following an airport master plan consultation, the study considers how the stakeholder framework can be integrated within institutional theory using institutional logics as a theoretical link between these two literatures. This thesis, which adopts a critical realist perspective, takes a comparative case approach of four airports, each owned in different ways. Interviews with airport managers are supplemented by discussions with stakeholders and industry experts. Two sets of a priori themes were identified from the literature. The first focuses on the institutional logics prevailing in the field and their influence on managers as they make decisions. The second considers four decision-making strategies managers might employ in this situation. Findings centre on the causal powers acting upon airport managers as they make their decisions. Whilst normative isomorphic pressure enables stakeholder consultation, the coercive pressure on the decision-making process deriving from English planning law, the adversarial and oscillating nature of Central Government policy, and a mimetic response to the nature of local authority development plans constrain the actions of airport managers. Indeed, the current bureaucratic form of capitalism limits stakeholder contribution to final master plans. This research makes four main contributions: Firstly, reflecting upon the agency-structure debate from a critical realist perspective has facilitated development of a model integrating the stakeholder framework within institutional theory. Secondly, it improves our understanding of how stakeholder contribution is managed in master planning. Thirdly, the study adds to the growing body of work that employs a critical realist perspective. Lastly, since reconciling conflicting stakeholder opinions may well be of vital importance to the future of the UK’s airport infrastructure, this work has practical significance for airport managers, government policy-makers and stakeholders as they strive to formulate worthwhile airport consultations.

Zirconium-mediated synthesis of mono- and bi- cyclic zirconacyclopent-anes, -enes and - adienes is well established and the potential for their elaboration has begun to be realised in recent years by carbenoid insertion into carbon-zirconium bonds. Synthetic methods and the history of carbenoid insertion into organozirconocenes, including zirconacycles, is reviewed herein. The novel work in this thesis is then presented in three sections. Firstly, regioselective co-cyclisation between 1-stannyl, 1-thio or 1-silyl substituted 1-propynes and zirconocene- ethene has furnished monocyclic zirconacyclopentenes with a-substituents. Subsequent insertion of allyl carbenoids into the sp^C-Zr bond leads to cyclic zirconocene ri^-allyl species, reaction of which with aldehydes constitutes a concise route to homoallylic alcohols. The nature of the a-substitution is found to influence geometry about the alkene introduced and zirconacyclopentenes to the synthesis of naturally occurring terpenoids has been made. 9- Hydroxyfamesoic acid, 9-hydroxyfamesol, crinitol and 9-hydroxysargaquinone, all of which contain (E)-homoallylic alcohol functionality, are synthesised via this one-pot protocol followed by Stille coupling methods for functional group interconversion at the alkenyl stannyl group. In the same way, a precursor compound to p-D-galactose and - altrose linked sesquiterpenoids Moritoside and Euplexide A has been furnished. A second area, carbenoids into zirconacycles, demonstrates synthesis of zirconacyclohexenes bearing an a-exocyclic alkene by 1-chloro-l-lithio enyne insertion into five-membered zirconacycles. Further ring-expansion via isocyanide insertion yields a zirconacycloheptene-iminoacyl complex in a multi-component synthesis of a, P-unsaturated aldehydes and imines. Finally, investigation of the regiochemistry of carbenoid insertion into non-symmetrical zirconacycles required the preparation of an a-ethyl substituted zirconacyclopentane, found to arise from either (E) or (Z) co-cyclisation precursor alkenes via P-H elimination and re-addition to give a five- and not six-membered zirconacycle. Ring junction stereochemistry of P-methyl substituted zirconacyclopentanes can also be predicted. The regiochemistry of insertion of 1-chlor-l-lithio enynes, 1 -chloro-1 -lithio-silanes and 1- chloro-l-lithio ethers into these a-alkyl and P-alkyl zirconacyclopentanes is found to be consistent, taking place exclusively or predominantly into the a-cyclohexyl and P-methyl substituted side of the zirconacycle and into the C-Zr bond opposite to an cc-ethyl substituent. Discussion of the mechanism of carbenoid insertion in terms of nucleophilic attack upon zirconium and interconversion of regioisomeric zirconate complexes is made.