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This study was undertaken to find out what problems the Administrative Operations Division was encountering in the absence of a job description plan. Many employees in the division were not aware of their actual job functions. They have only been giver a class description of their jobs by the Bureau of Personnel, which is not the actual job functions. They have only been given a class description of their jobs by the Bureau of Personnel, which is not the actual description that they are entitled to from the division in which they are employed. A class description is a stigmatization of general duties performed by employees assigned to that class. A detailed job description is a listing of the specific and everyday duties of an employee assigned to that poison The study found that this is indeed a problem in the Administrative Operations Division. This paper recommends that the problem be corrected by developing detailed job descriptions for each employee in the division, and specific recommendations are made toward that end.

The aim of my thesis is to critically evaluate the set of management tools used in the student organization AIESEC Praha. The issues discussed are the organization's mission and strategic management, especially using the system of Balanced Scorecard. Furthermore, terms of critical success factors and key performance indicators are defined and are being investigated in various stages of development of the strategic map of Balanced Scorecard of AIESEC Praha, with emphasis on their annual change, consistency and coherence with other instruments of the organization, its internal development and the development of the external environment. In conclusion I describe a draft of qualitatively better system of management tools of AIESEC Praha with regard to described objectives. Emphasis is also placed on the conditions of usage of the system of management tools and the factors that influence its further development.

Corporate diversification continues to be an important phenomenon in the modern business world. More than thirty years of research on diversification suggests that the degree of relatedness among a firm's business units is a factor that can affect firm performance, but the true effect of diversification relatedness on firm performance is still inconclusive. The purpose of this dissertation is to shed more light on this inconclusive association. However, attention is focused on the performance implications of individual diversification actions (e.g., acquisitions and joint ventures) rather than on the overall performance of firms with different levels of diversification. A non-experimental, longitudinal analysis of secondary data was conducted on over 450 unique acquisitions and on more than 210 joint ventures. Results suggest that even when individual diversification actions rather than entire business portfolios are examined, an inverted curvilinear association between diversification relatedness and performance is likely to emerge. This pattern is observed in both acquisitions and joint ventures. However, the association between diversification relatedness and performance in acquisitions is moderated by the level of industry adversity, though factors such as corporate coherence and heterogeneous experience do not moderate the association between diversification relatedness and performance. This study augments the body of knowledge on diversification and adds refinement to the traditional curvilinear finding regarding relatedness. By studying acquisitions and joint ventures independently, the results reveal differences in both slope and inflection points that suggest the relative impact of relatedness may vary depending on the mode of diversification.

Underpinning the elements of strategy design and execution are assumptions, norms and beliefs which can be broadly characterised as strategic management practices. These strategic management practices are in evidence in all schools of strategy academic theory. Whilst there has been a great deal of work conducted into the processes of strategy design and execution, there is little study of strategic management practices. This research sought to uncover the contemporary strategic management practices in evidence at a select number of leading organisations through qualitative analysis of secondary data in the form of case studies and other publically available material. A nascent content based definition for the concept of strategic management practices was developed from the literature review and tested against the evidence uncovered. Additional themes uncovered from the data were incorporated into the proposed definition and a synthesised version developed based on the strength of the evidence uncovered. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

No / This article brings strategy back to managers and their organizations. It argues and demonstrates empirically that what managers do, and the kind of organization they lead, matter in terms of achieving stated objectives. Managerial action involves a set of activities from assessing the problem to prioritising action, and takes place within an organizational context which has two important elements for decision-making. First, organizations have an accumulated stock of experience, and the more managers can access and utilise this experience base the better. Secondly, the culture and structure of an organization may exhibit more or less readiness for the changes that decisions bring about, and contexts less ready for change pose problems for managers in the implementation of decisions. This long-term study of 55 decisions in UK firms shows that careful managerial planning does not of itself guarantee successful outcomes: the organizational context is crucial in framing actions and influencing achievement, and decisions may send a firm on a trajectory beyond the point at which it can plan with confidence. Where experience and readiness are strong, decisions achieve stated objectives¿where both are lacking, decisions tend to fail. But, as examination of two illustrative cases indicates, strength in either domain may be enough: sound experience may win out in comparatively unreceptive situations, and decisions may still succeed where experience is lacking but the organization is ready for change. The article closes with some implications for managers.

As part of an on-going process of centralizing control of government science and technology (S&T) after World War II, in 1966 the Navy went through a major reorganization that was intended to centralize the strategic management of the Navy laboratory system. This centralization was to be accomplished by placing the major Navy research and development activities in a single systems command - the Naval Material Command - and establishing the position of Director of Navy Laboratories. Organizational studies and reorganizations continued for the next 25 years until the Naval Material Command and the Director of Navy Laboratories were disestablished in 1985 and 1991, respectively. This dissertation is, in part, an historical study of the Navy from 1946 to 1966 that focuses on the bureaus and laboratories. It summarizes the organizational changes related to strategic management and planning of science and technology. The 1966 reorganization was a critical event because it created the first formal Navy laboratory system. It is proposed that the 1966 reorganization was not successful in centralizing the strategic management of the Navy laboratory system. Classical organization theory offers an explanation of this failure. What can complexity theory add? The overarching contribution is in recognizing that a "Navy Laboratory System" existed before one was formally established in 1966. This argument is developed by considering two specific aspects of complexity theory. First, there is the notion that strategic management of the laboratory system resulted from the complex interactions of the smaller units that comprise the system (rather than the result of organization and process choices by senior leadership). Second, there is the theory that an organization will exhibit different behaviors at different times or in different parts of the organization at the same time. This translates into the idea that at particular times and places, the formal structure was dominant in strategic management, but at other times the "emergent" organization was dominant. In fact, if power law theory is applicable, then the periods of stability (where the formal structure was dominant) ought to be more prevalent than the turbulent periods where the emergent organization was dominant in strategic management. This case is made by describing agent-based models of the Navy laboratory system at two points in time and using them to identify the expected performance characteristics of the system. Historical and organizational artifacts are then used to make the case that the postulated system existed. / Ph. D.

O presente trabalho tem o objetivo de investigar a influência dos fatores estratégicos no desenho do sistema de gestão estratégica de custos em uma entidade fundacional. Para melhor compreender as especificidades das fundações, desenvolve-se um referencial teórico sobre suas principais características: patrimônio, fontes de recursos e estrutura de governança. Em seguida, tratou-se dos fatores estratégicos nestas organizações, com base no referencial teórico sobre a formulação e a implementação de estratégias de Almeida (2003). Sobre a Gestão Estratégica de Custos, apresenta-se a conceituação de artefatos de gestão de custo proposta por Soutes (2006), na qual os seus arranjos determinam o desenho do sistema de gestão de custos. Apresenta-se então um estudo de caso, de cunho exploratório, aplicado à Fundação Instituto de Administração, fundação privada que atua na área de educação, pesquisa e extensão no Estado de São Paulo. A aplicação do estudo de caso se deu através de entrevistas pessoais realizadas junto ao Diretor Financeiro e ao Gerente de Orçamento e Controle da fundação, e permitiu o levantamento de insights sobre os fatores estratégicos que determinaram a seleção dos artefatos de gestão de custo dentro do sistema de gestão de custos da organização nos últimos anos. Conclui-se então que alterações no sistema de gestão de custos devem ocorrer tão somente quando ocorrerem revisões no posicionamento estratégico da organização. Além disso, conclui-se que as fundações privadas devem perseguir princípios fundamentais de sustentabilidade e transparência a fim de garantir o atingimento a seus objetivos sociais. Finalmente, sugere-se que testes sejam realizados para adaptar o modelo de cadeia de valor de Porter (1985) para uma melhor aplicação a fundações privadas. / This main goal of this study is to investigate the influence of strategic factors in the conception of the strategic cost management system in a foundational entity. To better understand the specificities of foundations, a theorical referential on its mains aspects is developed: patrimony, resource sources and governance structure. After that, strategic factors were considered on these organizations, based on Almeidas´s theorical referential (2003) about strategy formulation and implementation. Concerning strategic management cost, it´s presented Soutes´ definition (2006) of management cost tools, in which its arrangements/fits are responsible for the conception of the Strategic Cost Management system. Then, this study presents an exploratory case study applied on Fundação Instituto de Administração, a private foundation that works on education, research and extension on the state of São Paulo. The application of the case study was made personally by the researcher with the Finance Director and Budget and Finance Manager of the foundation, and managed to contribute with insights about strategic factors that were considered in the management cost tools selection for the strategic cost management system in the last years. One may conclude that cost management system changes must occur only when strategic positioning changes happen. Besides, as a conclusion, private foundations must follow fundamental principles of sustainability and transparency so that they can assure their social main goals are met. Finally, it suggests that tests may be done in order to adapt Porter´s value chain model (1985) to a better functioning in private foundations.

O presente trabalho tem o objetivo de investigar a influência dos fatores estratégicos no desenho do sistema de gestão estratégica de custos em uma entidade fundacional. Para melhor compreender as especificidades das fundações, desenvolve-se um referencial teórico sobre suas principais características: patrimônio, fontes de recursos e estrutura de governança. Em seguida, tratou-se dos fatores estratégicos nestas organizações, com base no referencial teórico sobre a formulação e a implementação de estratégias de Almeida (2003). Sobre a Gestão Estratégica de Custos, apresenta-se a conceituação de artefatos de gestão de custo proposta por Soutes (2006), na qual os seus arranjos determinam o desenho do sistema de gestão de custos. Apresenta-se então um estudo de caso, de cunho exploratório, aplicado à Fundação Instituto de Administração, fundação privada que atua na área de educação, pesquisa e extensão no Estado de São Paulo. A aplicação do estudo de caso se deu através de entrevistas pessoais realizadas junto ao Diretor Financeiro e ao Gerente de Orçamento e Controle da fundação, e permitiu o levantamento de insights sobre os fatores estratégicos que determinaram a seleção dos artefatos de gestão de custo dentro do sistema de gestão de custos da organização nos últimos anos. Conclui-se então que alterações no sistema de gestão de custos devem ocorrer tão somente quando ocorrerem revisões no posicionamento estratégico da organização. Além disso, conclui-se que as fundações privadas devem perseguir princípios fundamentais de sustentabilidade e transparência a fim de garantir o atingimento a seus objetivos sociais. Finalmente, sugere-se que testes sejam realizados para adaptar o modelo de cadeia de valor de Porter (1985) para uma melhor aplicação a fundações privadas. / This main goal of this study is to investigate the influence of strategic factors in the conception of the strategic cost management system in a foundational entity. To better understand the specificities of foundations, a theorical referential on its mains aspects is developed: patrimony, resource sources and governance structure. After that, strategic factors were considered on these organizations, based on Almeidas´s theorical referential (2003) about strategy formulation and implementation. Concerning strategic management cost, it´s presented Soutes´ definition (2006) of management cost tools, in which its arrangements/fits are responsible for the conception of the Strategic Cost Management system. Then, this study presents an exploratory case study applied on Fundação Instituto de Administração, a private foundation that works on education, research and extension on the state of São Paulo. The application of the case study was made personally by the researcher with the Finance Director and Budget and Finance Manager of the foundation, and managed to contribute with insights about strategic factors that were considered in the management cost tools selection for the strategic cost management system in the last years. One may conclude that cost management system changes must occur only when strategic positioning changes happen. Besides, as a conclusion, private foundations must follow fundamental principles of sustainability and transparency so that they can assure their social main goals are met. Finally, it suggests that tests may be done in order to adapt Porter´s value chain model (1985) to a better functioning in private foundations.

Sustainable strategic management emerged from the coevolution of strategic thinking in today's sustainability challenging business environment. Business ecosystems, designed to create socially and ecologically responsible economic opportunities for their members, have emerged as excellent structures for implementing sustainable strategic management strategies along the whole pyramid of coevolving developed, developing, and undeveloped markets. Both the business ecosystem leaders and niche players in these whole pyramid business ecosystems have critical roles to play in formulating and implementing potentially profitable strategies that help reduce the human footprint and improve the quality of human life. Ecosystem leaders need to be responsible for creating and shepherding their business ecosystems' visions of a sustainable future, and niche players need to be responsible for providing the ecosystem with an innovation trajectory designed to make those visions a reality.