The initiative entitled the Federal Government 8(a) Program was developed to serve as a training intervention to assist minority-owned businesses in gaining access to Federal contracting dollars. Minority-owned firms complete a certification process rendering them eligible to compete for up to nine years in a sheltered environment for specific contracting set-aside opportunities. However, of the approximately 4,848 8(a) certified businesses nationally, only a limited number ever secure a contract through the program. This research identified learning and policy performance barriers experienced by 8(a) business owners related to securing a Federal contract. Three research questions were addressed: 1. What potential barriers does an 8(a) business face when competing for a contract? 2. What capabilities are required to compete successfully for Government contracts? 3. What do 8(a) business owners perceive their learning needs are related to securing a contract? These research questions were addressed using a multi-method research approach combining the use of secondary qUalitative research and primary qualitative case studies. One hundred eighty-six responses to a letter sent by Small Business Administration (S.B.A.) Administrator, Erskine Bowles, to all 8(a) certified businesses to solicit opinions, suggestions, and comments related to the program were analyzed to inform the three research questions. During the second phase of the research, case study analysis were conducted with a Federal Contracting Officer, a S.B.A. Business Opportunity Specialist, and an 8(a) business owner, three parties critical to the success of the 8(a) business. Six barriers were identified: 8(a) Certification Process; Access to Federal Contracting Opportunities; Federal Government Procurement Personnel; Lack of Financing; Use of Wrong Performance Measures; S.B.A. Staff, Processes and Policies. Each performance barrier had both learning and policy implications. Overall, findings indicate that success in the 8(a) program requires an in depth understanding of the 8(a) procurement process, previous Federal Agency contacts, adequate working capital or access to lines of credit, and a sophisticated marketing structure. Additionally, the findings indicate that the S.B.A. 's process of certification, performance evaluation and graduation is bureaucratic, difficult to maneuver and does not provide adequate technical assistance particularly in the area of marketing. / Ed. D.

This dissertation asks what happened when the Chinese socialist state sought to build a cutting-edge telecommunications system with its unparalleled power of mass mobilization. By investigating the state-sponsored popularization of radio technology and expertise as well as its unexpected consequences from the 1950s to the 1980s, it offers a new understanding of Chinese socialism as a mass technological project. Unlike the conventional historiography focusing on political campaigns and social turmoil in the People’s Republic, it shows how socialist China turned a poorly educated populace into skillful technologists by promoting affordable and accessible technology. As radio was the most important telecommunications tool for much of the twentieth century, the socialist state developed its radio technology and industry by counting on the masses to produce and disseminate knowledge and design and construct infrastructures. With the availability of radio sets and loudspeakers, a new model of sonic governance was devised to gather information from individual listeners and to refashion the state’s perception of its subjects. However, radio listeners also used their newly acquired devices and know-how to circumvent and destabilize the state’s information control by listening to foreign radio stations. Bringing together radio history, the history of technology, and the social history of control and resistance, “Revolution on the Air” redirects the scholarly attention on Chinese socialism away from its institutional organizations to its infrastructural and material base, charting a new narrative of modern Chinese history with an emphasis on previously ignored actors and through a technological perspective.

The federal government relies extensively on information technology to perform its basic missions. This study is a formative program evaluation of the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) primary policy for overseeing federal agency management of information technology. The goal of the research is to assess the effectiveness of OMB Circular No. A-130, "Management of Federal Information Resources," in shaping federal agency management of information technology. As part of this evaluation, it was necessary to illuminate and interpret the policy framework used in the federal government for managing information technology. The results of this analysis show that the public laws shaping the policy framework include fundamentally different criteria for how federal agencies should evaluate investments in information technology. OMB's policy mirrors this lack of clarity and more generally reflects outdated views of information technology management techniques. This policy framework provided a basis for judging federal agencies' interpretation of OMB's policy as of September 1991. An analysis of 21 agencies' policies for managing information technology revealed an inconsistent adoption of the substantive requirements contained in the policy framework. The analysis of agencies' policies revealed four groupings that distinguished the differing degrees of consistency with the policy framework. Based on the degree of consistency between agencies' policies and the policy framework, the analysis examined elements of the decision-making environments in four federal agencies. A comparison of these case study results showed that the effectiveness of OMB's policy for managing information technology depended on several variables, which include: (1) the consistency between agencies' policies and the policy framework, (2) whether and how information technology policy was enforced, (3) the role of oversight groups internal and external to the agency, and (4) the culture of the agency and agreement around core missions. This evaluation research found OMB's policy for overseeing federal management of information technology outdated and incomplete. These weaknesses resulted in inconsistent application and enforcement of the OMB policy and the policy framework in the four agency cases examined. The study presents recommendations for how OMB can improve content and enforcement of its policy for overseeing federal agency management of information technology. / Ph. D.

Contemporary labor social security is an important social institution established to combat risks of human life under urbanization. It has close connection with the mass rural-urban migration in the process of industrialization. Since the 1980s reform and open door in China, huge number of peasants has crowded to the cities looking for jobs. This has created the ever largest migration movement in human history and posed grave challenges to the existing labor social security system. On the basis of a comprehensive review of the legal documents and field interviews in the city of Hangzhou, an attempt was made in this study to review the evolution and the practice of rules and regulations relating to the labor social security, analyze the causes of the labor social security rights deprivation, and explore the social inclusion strategies from developmental welfare perspective. / The findings suggest that: (1) The migrant workers have now enjoyed the same basic labor social security rights as the urban workers in terms of rules and regulations; (2) The deficiency of the labor protection in practice is mainly the consequences of the distorted social development: the surplus supply of labor market, the transformation of labor social security system, the problem of the rules and regulations and their executions; (3) Developmental welfare strategies in terms of human and social capital investment help the migrant workers improve their position in the labor market and get access to labor social security; and (4) Apart from implementing developmental welfare strategies, the positive discrimination policy should be endorsed in order to achieve the aim of the wellness of social development and change the disadvantaged position of the migrant workers. / This study takes social development theory as the core concept, and regards the social exclusion of labor social security as the result of distorted social development, and proposes a policy orientation that combines developmentalism and positive discrimination. The study not only overcomes the limit of developmental welfare theory which pays emphasis on long-term goals and neglects immediate aids, but also promotes the realization of labor social security rights from both its consequences and causes. / 方巍. / 呈交日期: 2006年12月. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2007. / 參考文獻(p. 266-311). / Cheng jiao ri qi: 2006 nian 12 yue. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-08, Section: A, page: 3616. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Lun wen (zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2007. / Can kao wen xian (p. 266-311). / Fang Wei.

Thesis (M. Tech. (Tourism and Hospitality management)) -- Central university of Technology, Free State, 2012 / South Africa is the country with the largest population of HIV and AIDS sufferers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since AIDS is an incurable disease that mostly affects individuals in their productive years, it could have a disruptive impact on the productivity and financial sustainability of organisations, which is especially true in the hospitality industry where long and strenuous working hours are often expected from staff. With this in mind, the study aimed to evaluate the level of implementation of HIV and AIDS policies in the hospitality industry, by focusing on a major South African hotel group. This particular hotel group operates a number of individual hotels throughout South Africa. To ensure that all geographical areas were covered, major cities in three different provinces were identified as suitable locations for individual hotels to be identified for the study. The city of Durban, representing the Kwazulu-Natal Province, was selected on the basis of being the worst-affected area, with Bloemfontein (Free State Province) and Cape Town (Western Cape Province) as the medium-affected and least-affected area respectively. The data, which was gathered by means of a questionnaire, was interpreted both qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings show that the respondents were not always aware of the existence of HIV and AIDS policies and that these were not being adequately communicated to staff. The findings also indicate that the respondents do not fully comprehend the disruptive nature of the disease or the fact that it could negatively affect productivity and profit.

This study sought to examine linguistic and discursive strategies used to construct messages reflective of the implementation of the HIV and AIDS policy for Zimbabwe of 1999 by government and private newspapers. Such analysis was perceived to be important since media content has a bearing on Zimbabweans‘ perception and attitudes regarding HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment and control. The study was aimed at comparing messages from newspapers with views by the people of Zimbabwe regarding the implementation of the policy. Findings reveal that empowerment programmes particularly those targeting women and children are lagging behind as Zimbabweans, literature and newspaper data sources testify. In addition, information sources concur that cultural (For example, stigmatisation, polygamy, religious practices, spouse inheritance) and structural (For example, patriarchy, masculinity, bureaucracy, politics) are stumbling blocks that negatively affect the implementation of the policy. Further, even though private and government newspapers do not fully agree on the portrayal of human agents, there is a general consensus between newspaper reports and Zimbabweans that people still face socio-economic and econo-political challenges that militate against the smooth implementation of the HIV and AIDS policy. Government newspapers tend to downplay aspects which reveal inadequacies of government activities. The study notes this as betrayal of use of ideological squares both by government and private newspapers whereby certain aspects regarding the implementation of the policy are either downplayed or highlighted to influence perception. The study reveals that newspaper reports used nominalisation, quantification, positive politeness, thematisation, rhematisation, intertextuality, euphemism, proverbs, idioms, action verbs, metaphors and citation of experts as linguistic and discursive strategies both for agenda setting and building purposes regarding the implementation of the HIV and AIDS policy. Other devices used particularly in the encoding of Operation Murambatsvina are, claptraps, deictic referencing, personal pronouns, adjectives and direct speech. The study attributes problems regarding the Zimbabwean HIV and AIDS intervention model to the top – down approach inherent in the policy. Hence, the call for an adoption of an unhu/hunhu/ubuntu inspired bottom – up HIV and AIDS intervention model in Zimbabwe. This would inculcate pro-family, pro-village, pro-nation/people and ―servant leadership‖ (Mangena and Chitando, 2011) values in the fight against the pandemic through the embracing of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS). Unfortunately, such values largely continue to elude the radar of the current top – down HIV and AIDS intervention model cuurently in use in Zimbabwe. / African Languages / D. Litt et Phil. (African Languages)

No description available.

One of the key features of the 2002 United States National Security Strategy was an abrupt shift from the traditional U.S. approach to proliferation threats that prioritized deterrence and promotion of nondiscriminatory nonproliferation norms, to an approach called counterproliferation that emphasized military preemption and direct challenges to adversarial state identity. This thesis asks the question, what caused counterproliferation to largely replace deterrence and nonproliferation as the central national security policies of the U.S. concerning unconventional weapons? The thesis argues that to understand this policy change requires not merely an appreciation of changes in the post-Cold War international security environment, but also an examination of how culturally shaped threat conceptions among American policymakers interacted with capabilities development and policy institutionalization within the U.S. military. As no current theory adequately addresses those dynamics, complimentary strategic culture and organizational theory models are presented as the framework for analysis. This thesis will contend that policy shift from NP to CP resulted from the merging of strategic cultural efforts aimed at legitimizing conceptions of proliferation threats as originating from state identity, with a military organizational drive to avoid uncertainty through the development of counterproliferation capabilities. Together these strategic cultural and organizational responses to shifting proliferation threats altered the menu of choice for policymakers by institutionalizing and legitimizing a policy response that directly challenged existing nonproliferation norms and practices. This thesis relies on a detailed case study of the evolution of counterproliferation policy from 1993 to 2002, with particular focus on the analysis of public discourse, declassified policy planning and Department of Defense documents, and participant interviews.

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 ushered in a new era of globalisation and with it, intensified levels of global migration. The movement of people across increasingly fluid and penetrable boundaries has altered the demographic profile of European states and this cultural diversity has confronted contemporary Western liberal democracies with a unique set of challenges concerning the integration of diverse groups into society for the purpose of fostering cohesion and domestic stability. The effects of cultural diversity are not limited to demographics however, and this thesis focuses predominantly on the political and public responses that this phenomenon has evoked. The context of the Netherlands provides a particularly enlightening example of the way in which attempts to manage cultural diversity have stimulated intensive debate on immigration and integration topics, which have subsequently become firmly ensconced within public and political discourse. This ongoing debate in the Dutch context has brought to the fore wider questions pertaining to citizenship, national identity and culture. More importantly, these issues have exposed the limits of Dutch tolerance: increasingly restrictionist immigration and integration policy over the last two decades, and in the last 10 years in particular, has appeared incongruous with stereotypical perceptions of the Netherlands as an ultra-liberal and progressive paragon of multiculturalism. This thesis therefore seeks to rework this image of the Netherlands by observing possible shifts in public attitudes towards immigrants and immigration in the context of considerably less favourable material circumstances, occasioned by the current global financial crisis. Attitudes towards Muslims in Dutch society are of particular interest to this research given the particular cultural and symbolic threat that Islam is considered to pose to liberal values. Realistic Group Conflict Theory provides a useful framework for analysing inter-group competition and conflict stemming from both material and non-material perceptions of threat. Whilst particular focus is accorded to the specific macro-economic conditions of the ongoing financial crisis for observing potentially shifting sentiments, this discussion is situated within a larger national debate about immigration and integration spanning two decades. Linking public perception data to analyses of Dutch integration and immigration policy, patterns of voting behaviour and the real effects of the financial crisis on the Dutch economy, the ultimate intention of this research, then, is to assess the prospects and overall “health” of liberal democracy in the Netherlands. The country‟s experiences in attempting to deal with cultural pluralism reveal that liberal democratic norms have not simply been entrenched as “givens” and they are subject to contestation and ambiguity. It is in attempts to address difference and “otherness” in society that the shortfalls of Dutch liberal democracy have been laid bare. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Met die val van die Berlynse Muur in 1989 het „n nuwe tydperk van globalisasie aangebreek en daarmee saam, verskerpte vlakke van globale migrasie. Die beweging van mense oor meer toegangklike grense het die demografiese profiel van Europese state verander. Hierdie kulturele diversiteit het huidige Westerse liberale demokrasieë met „n unieke stel uitdagings gekonfronteer, aangaande die integrasie van diverse groepe in die samelewing met die doel om saamhorigheid te bevorder. Die effek van kulturele diversiteit is egter nie beperk tot demografie nie en hierdie tesis fokus hoofsaaklik op die politieke en openbare reaksies wat die verskynsel uitgelok het. Die Nederlandse konteks verskaf „n besondere insiggewende voorbeeld van die manier waarop pogings om kulturele diversiteit te hanteer, intensiewe debat oor immigrasie- en integrasie-onderwerpe gestimuleer het, wat sedertdien stewig in die openbare en politieke diskoers verskans is. Die voortdurende debat in die Nederlandse verband het wyer vrae aangaande burgerskap, nasionale identiteit en kultuur laat ontstaan. Selfs van groter belang is die feit dat hierdie vraagstukke die perke van Nederlandse verdraagsaamheid ontbloot het: toenemende inperkings op immigrasie- en integrasie-beleid oor die afgelope twee dekades en veral in die laaste 10 jaar, het teenstrydig voorgekom met die stereotipiese indruk van Nederland as „n ultra-liberale en progressiewe toonbeeld van multi-kulturalisme. Hierdie tesis be-oog derhalwe om hierdie beeld van Nederland te ondersoek deur moontlike veranderings in openbare houdings teenoor immigrante en immigrasie waar te neem, teen die agtergrond van aansienlik minder gunstige materiële omstandighede, veroorsaak deur die huidige globale finansiële krisis. Houdings teenoor Moslems in die Nederlandse samelewing is van besondere belang in hierdie ondersoek teen die agtergrond van die beweerde kulturele en simboliese bedreiging wat Islam vir liberale waardes inhou. Realistiese Groep-Konflikteorie voorsien „n nuttige raamwerk om inter-groep wedywering en konflik, wat spruit uit beide materiële en nie-materiële perspesies van bedreiging, te analiseer. Alhoewel besondere aandag geskenk word aan die spesifieke makro-ekonomiese omstandighede van die huidige finansiële krisis om moontlike veranderings in houdings waar te neem, is hierdie bespreking deel van „n groter nasionale debat oor immigrasie en integrasie oor die afgelope twee dekades. Deur inligting oor openbare persepsie te verbind met die Nederlandse integrasie-en immigrasie-beleid, stempatrone en die ware uitwerkings van die finansiële krisis op die Nederlandse kultuur, is die uiteindelike doel van hierdie navorsing om die vooruitsigte en algehele “gesondheid” van liberale demokrasie in Nederland te evalueer. Die land se ervaring van kulturele pluralisme bewys dat liberale demokratiese norme nie verskans is nie en dat hulle onderhewig is aan omstredenheid en dubbelsinnigheid. Die pogings om verskille en “andersheid” in die samelewing aan te spreek, het die tekortkominge van die Nederlandse liberale demokrasie ontbloot.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This assignment seeks to explore the role of privatisation in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) to South Africa and Zambia. In doing this, literature review method based on primary and secondary documentary sources have been utilised. In order to attract FDI, the study revealed that it is necessary to get the policy environment right. Creating an investor-friendly environment which promises good return on investment in line with the international "regulatory" framework - the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) requirements - is therefore significantly important. The World Bank regards Zambia's privatisation programme as the model for Africa. South Africa finds itself in a contradictory position. On the one hand it is the leading economic power in Africa, while on the other hand it still lags behind in terms of restructuring its parastatals. Privatisation programme in South Africa has been very slow. However, the government and other stakeholders, particularly in 1997, have been trying to get privatisation off the ground. The conclusion is that both South Africa and Zambia succeeded in attracting FDI through their processes of privatisation. In both countries major FDI inflows have been an outcome of privatisation. FDI is important for creating employment, debt reduction, empowerment, transfer of technology and managerial skills. However, these countries follow different approaches to privatisation. Due to the slow privatisation pace in South Africa, it is recommended that South Africa learn from Zambia's approach and experience. This would enable South Africa to fully explore some of the benefits of privatisation. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie opdrag ondersoek die rol van privatisering in die trek van direkte buitelandse beleggings (DBB) in Suid-Afrika en Zambie. Ten einde hierdie doelstelling te kon bereik is 'n literere oorsig van primere en sekondere bronne gedoen. Hierdie studie het bevind dat 'n gunstige beleidsomgewing DBB sal trek. Die skep van 'n beleggings-vriendelike omgewing wat goeie dividende beloof en in Iyn is met die internasionale "regulerende" raamwerk - die Wereldbank se International Finance Corporation (IFC), Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) en World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) - se vereistes is van kardinale belang. Die Wereld Bank beskou Zambie se privatiseringsprogram as die model program vir Afrika. Suid-Afrika bevind haarself in 'n teenstrydige posisie. Aan die een kant is sy Afrika se voorste ekonomiese moondheid, en aan die anderkant is die programme om haar staatsondernemings te herstruktureer nog in hul kinderskoene. Privatiseringsprogramme in Suid Afrika het tot dusver baie stadig verloop. In 1997 het die regering en ander belanghebbende partye egter privatisering van die grond af probeer kry. Die konklusie is dat beide Suid-Afrika en Zambie daarin geslaag het om DBB te lok met hul privatiseringsprogramme. In beide lande was groot DBB die uitkoms van privatisering. DBB is belangrik om werk te skep, skuld vereffening, bemagtiging, en die oordrag van tegnologie en bestuursvaardighede. Hierdie lande volg egter verskillende benaderings tot die privatiseringsproses. Vanwee die stadige privatiseringsproses in Suid Afrika word die voorstel gemaak dat Suid-Afrika by Zambie leer in hul benadering en ervaring. Dit sal Suid-Afrika toelaat om al die voordele van privatisering te ontdek.