D.Litt. et Phil. / An expanded conceptualisation of the marketing organisation includes all organisations which seek specific responses from other social units concerning some social objects, where the response probability is not fixed, by the exchange of some values. A central problem facing all such organisations is the uncertainty of their environmental transactions in the attainment of desired responses. The degree. to which the uncertainty is reduced, is often associated with the organisation's effectiveness. Little progress has been made in the identification of the determinants of organisational effectiveness. This study examines and identifies an appropriate theoretical framework within which to proceed with such an investigation; contributes to the clarification of the concepts "organisation" and "organisational effectiveness", and the role of communication therein; and lastly, determinants of the organisation’s ongoing. effectiveness are postulated. The systems approach is analysed as a framework for study of the social sciences. It is argued that the systems approach is of limited ontological value, but that it offers a valuable cluster of strategies for inquiry, offering an "organised space" within which theories may be developed and related. The partially systems-derived view of Heidema is discussed. Heidema describes perceptions of real systems along spatial and temporal dimensions: as ahistorical, inward-looking and structural; or as historical, outward-looking and changing. The formal organisation and prominent theoretical views on it are discussed. An attempt is made to describe a "true" open systems organisational perspective. Theory of organisation-environment relations, and communication in organisations are iscussed. Organisational effectiveness is given a limited definition. It is argued that because effectiveness is known to exist only in the present and the past, the organisation's potential to maintain its effectiveness over time is best termed its "potential effectiveness". The marketing and public relations disciplines are discussed, and it is suggested that their principles of intra-organisational action, environmental awareness, and actions within the environment are the principles of the potentially effective organisation. The study is concluded with an integration of the preceding work and the development of the active outward oriented perceptual paradigm. It is suggested that the basic assumptions of organisational members determine the overt form of the organisation, that the existence of the active outward oriented basic assumption is a necessary condition of the organisation's potential effectiveness, and that the process by which it is instituted and maintained is communication. It is postulated that there is a positive relationship between the potential effectiveness of organisations which seek uncertain environmental responses by the exchange of values, and the existence of an active outward orientation amongst the organisation's key members.

Submitted in fuIfilment ofthe requirement for the degree Master of EDUCATION in the Department of Educational Psychology of the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2005. / The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of an effective school. School effectiveness means that the school satisfied external criteria such as the demands of the community, parents and learners, and does well against comparable institutions in areas such as examination results. From the literature study it became clear that an effective school is one that can demonstrate quality in its aims, in overseeing of learners, in curriculum design, in standards of teaching and academic achievements and in its link to the local community. The literature supplied a vast amount of evidence to support the common notion that the characteristics of an individual school can make a difference in the learners' overall progress. What all successful schools have in common is effective leadership and a climate conducive to growth. An effective school is characterised by learner performance, educator competence, a culture of mutually reinforcing expectations, trust, staff interaction and participation in the development of instructional goals, curriculum and classroom practice. For the purpose of the empirical investigation a self-structured questionnaire for educators was utilised. The data obtained from the completed questionnaires was processed and analysed by means of descriptive statistics. The findings from the empirical study confirmed that the effective functioning of a school largely depends on the leadership, management expertise and skills, the functioning of the management team, educators' commitment and accountable parental involvement. In conclusion a summary of the study was presented and based on the findings of the literature and empirical study, the following recommendations were made: > Training and guidance, in the form of workshops and/or seminars, should be given to principals on the effective running of schools. > Programmes should be implemented by schools to empower parents in matters concerning their involvement in schools. > Further research ought to be conducted concerning ways to improve the effectiveness of schools.

BACKGROUND:There is a need for more Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) to strengthen the evidence base for clinical and policy decision-making. Effectiveness Guidance Documents (EGD) are targeted to clinical researchers. The aim of this EGD is to provide specific recommendations for the design of prospective acupuncture studies to support optimal use of resources for generating evidence that will inform stakeholder decision-making.METHODS:Document development based on multiple systematic consensus procedures (written Delphi rounds, interactive consensus workshop, international expert review). To balance aspects of internal and external validity, multiple stakeholders including patients, clinicians and payers were involved.RESULTS:Recommendations focused mainly on randomized studies and were developed for the following areas: overall research strategy, treatment protocol, expertise and setting, outcomes, study design and statistical analyses, economic evaluation, and publication.CONCLUSION:The present EGD, based on an international consensus developed with multiple stakeholder involvement, provides the first systematic methodological guidance for future CER on acupuncture.

M.A. (Human Resources Management) / The objective of this study was to compare an actual change process within an organisation with the theory related to organisational change. This was done with the aim of determining the fit between theory and actual experience. The actual approach followed with this study was to describe the experience of an organisation which was operating in the fast moving consumer food industry, with regard to change. These experiences of an actual change process were then compared to the theories related to change and the fit between theory and reality was determined. In addition it was attempted to identify the effect that an organisation change process would have on the organisation's effectiveness, considering organisation effectiveness indicators such as organisation values, relationships and actual performance outputs. As no quantitative data was available on the quality of the relationships and the extent of the changes in the organisation values, this study was not used to conclusively prove that the approach to organisation effectiveness described in this dissertation could in fact build shared values and improve relationships. The approach followed was rather to describe the organisation's experiences with regard to change, compare it to the theories related to change and identify the fit between theory and reality. In addition to measuring the fit between theory and reality, a model integrating the various areas of organisation change was also developed to provide a conceptual framework for understanding organisation change. The degree to which the actual change process, as discussed in the case study, managed to produce change in the organisation was measured by determining whether shared organisation values as emerged in natural work teams could be integrated by management to become one set of values for the total company. In addition, specific performance output areas were measured to assess whether actual improvement did in fact occur. These were the areas which were selected as improvement projects by natural work teams as part of the change process. Some new change models were also introduced, based on the theory and actual experiences within the organisation reflected in this study. These models further assisted in conceptually clarifying the wide field of organisation change. The actual results reported from this study seem to indicate that : ~ a high degree of fit exist between the theory related to organisation change and the actual reality experienced by the organisation. the "hard" results reflected in Chapter 5, section 2 seem to indicate that in terms of the task indicator of organisation effectiveness, this change process was in fact successful. to prove that the organisation culture was altered through the emergence of shared values, an actual list of organisation norms and values as provided by the management team using the values which emerged in the natural work teams were provided. Although this indicated that change in the culture and values were in fact achieved, the strength of these changes and the degree of integration of these changes could not be proven. ~ The impact of the change process on relationships could not be proved or disproved. ~ The staff turnover reduced during the change process from a high of 16,8% in 1987/1988 to 5,5% in 1990/1991.

This study addresses a campus institutional effectiveness (IE) process and its influence on faculty and staff. Although a comprehensive, rational IE process appeals to campus leaders, this study found that it creates significant faculty and staff challenges. Campus leaders, faculty, and staff differ in their (a) knowledge and support of IE; (b) participation in IE process activities; and (c) perceptions of IE strengths, weaknesses, and usefulness. Needed IE data are typically available to campus stakeholders except for student learning outcomes data across all academic programs. Administrators, faculty, and staff agree that a lack of time is the major IE impediment. IE expectations may be too challenging for campus participants, and faculty and staff need more institutional support to analyze and use existing data. Future research should focus on faculty and staff aspects of community college effectiveness.

No description available.

After the Water Utilities Corporation adopted outsourcing as a policy initiative and operational directive various non-core functions were outsourced. This raises obvious questions as to why the Corporation suddenly decided to do this. Does the Corporation indeed benefit in terms of value addition from outsourced functions? Some of the pertinent questions include: To what extent did policy guidelines and operational measures govern the said outsourcing initiatives? What are the costs and benefits of the following: fleet management, IT/functional/Technical/and Infrastructure support? This paper argues that Public Utility Companies such as the WUC are not implementing outsourcing initiatives the right way. As a result, outsourcing at WUC is ridden with more costs than benefits. Using multiple data collection methods thirty respondents, employed at various WUC work stations completed the questionnaires. The results from the questionnaire suggest that outsourcing is the right business decision to be made, but cost benefit assessment must be undertaken in order to derive more benefits from outsourcing initiatives. In tackling the problems of the predominance of costs versus benefits an overhaul of the policy and implementation framework needs to be done. In carrying out a cost benefit analysis of outsourcing initiatives at Water Utilities Corporation, a three-tier dimensional model in which quantitative data, qualitative data and cross quantity-quality data was analysed and tabulated. According to the cost benefit analysis variant model, a negatively discounted cost benefit ratio indicates more costs over benefits for any particular analysis of data. While measures of non-monetary outsourcing costs are improving, at least four other key areas warrant more attention: First, routine savings derive from routine precautions to determine an efficient working model of outsourcing. Second, models of vendor (provider) and the Corporation (service provider) and the Corporations' clients (consumer) are underdeveloped in this field . Third, outsourcing externalities occur when entities (such as the Corporation, Premises Managers, some persons and environments) produce targets and situations that provide outsourcing opportunities. These entities externalise or do not bear the outsourcing costs to the corporation and society that they produce. This can be explained by the convergence of qualitative responses from respondents, the efficiency and effectiveness of the vendors and the overall saisfaction of the Coporation of the services provided by the vendors. This report has been conducted on Water Utilities Corporation ,Botswana. Data has been collected by observing total outsourcing process, taking personal interviews, analysis cost and revenue data and searching through data archives. / Thesis (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2011

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

published_or_final_version / abstract / Business / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Economics / Master / Master of Social Sciences