In South Africa, the trend has been towards the decentralising of authority and giving greater powers to schools. This implies the active involvement of the school governing body members, the school management team members and the Level One educators in the day-to-day functioning of the school. Whilst some schools have welcomed this change and seen this devolution of power as an added advantage contributing to the efficacy of schools, some schools have struggled, while others have failed dismally to cope with this added responsibility of managing their own resources. The researcher, being an educator involved in this transition, has been intrigued by the success of some self-managing schools and the failure of others. The following words of Oliver Wendell Holmes have inspired the investigator to conduct this research to ascertain the reasons for the success of certain schools and the failure of others: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Since the performance of schools is normally ranked according to their matriculation pass rates, this research focused on six self-managing schools in the Port Elizabeth District. These schools were selected on the basis of their matriculation performances in 2008. Two of the schools had achieved an above 85 percent matriculation pass rate (Category A); two obtained a 50 percent pass rate (Category B); while the other two schools obtained matriculation pass rates of between 25 percent and 30 percent (Category C). Although the research relied strongly on a qualitative method of inquiry, because of the nature of the data and the need to obtain a better understanding of the feelings, attitude and perceptions of those in management positions, governing body positions and members of the personnel, multiple instruments for data collection such as a literature review and the study of school documents and questionnaires, were used. This inclusion of these multiple instruments for obtaining information, which is also called triangulation, contributed to the reliability and validity of the empirical investigation. Although the data was presented in the form of tables and graphs, vi which alludes to a quantitative approach, a narrative interpretation of the findings, which is associated with a qualitative method of inquiry, was also presented. An analysis of the findings revealed that there was a great amount of involvement of the principals, school management team members and Level One educators in Category A schools, which had a matriculation pass rate of above 85%, in the following change management strategies: the establishment of a vision, planning and organising, teamwork, training and development, communication, praise and incentives, and evaluation and feedback. There was also a great contribution by the school governing body members. However, the study revealed that Category B and Category C schools did not effectively use communication, praise and incentives and evaluation and feedback as change management strategies. It was evident from the empirical investigation that in Category B and C schools, the school governing body members were less, or not involved in the usage of the change management strategies applied. According to the results based on the six-facet model of Emotional Intelligence, Category A schools obtained 80% and above in the competencies relating to the self and social domain. Category B schools fluctuated between 50 percent and 80 percent in both dimensions, while Category C schools fluctuated between 30 percent and 80 percent. The findings suggest that there should be greater involvement of all stakeholders, especially the school governing body members, in the establishment of a vision, planning and organising, communication, teamwork, training and development, praise and incentives and the provision of feedback and evaluation for self-managing schools to become effective and improve their performances. Professional development, especially in the areas pertaining to Emotional Intelligence competencies such as personal and interpersonal skills, should be prioritised. This thesis proposes that, on the basis of the investigation carried out at the six participating schools on the influence of Emotional Intelligence on the change management strategies adopted in self-managing schools, schools use strategies such as the establishment of a vision, planning and organising, communication, teamwork, training and development, praise and incentives and evaluation and feedback to ameliorate the damaging impact of change. There should be continuous training and development at schools, especially for the school governing body members, who are elected every three years. The newly elected school governing body members need to develop the necessary skills to effectively contribute to the efficacy of schools. The human resource is the vital ingredient in schools, thus for any progression or improvement, all stakeholders need to be informed, trained and enriched. Since Emotional Intelligence can be learned, professional development in the area of Emotional Intelligence should be given more thought and included in training courses, focusing on the development of personal and interpersonal skills. The Emotional Intelligence training should be conducted as part of teacher training courses as well as on an annual basis for educators already in the teaching system, since Emotional Intelligence can influence the use of change management strategies at schools and enhance the efficacy of the functioning of self-managing schools.

Engineering changes are unavoidable and occur throughout the lifecycle of products. Due to the high interconnectivity of engineering products, a single change to one component usually has knock-on effects on other components causing further changes. This change propagation significantly affects the success of a product in the market by increasing development cost and time-to-market. As such engineering change management is essential to companies, but it is a complex task for managers and researchers alike. To address this challenge, the thesis at hand investigates the state-of-the-art of research in engineering change management and develops a method to support engineering change propagation analysis, termed FBS Linkage. This method integrates functional reasoning with change prediction. A product is modelled as a network of its functional, behavioural, and structural attributes. Change propagation is then described as spread between the elements along the links of this network. The FBS Linkage concept is designed based on a comprehensive set of requirements derived from both the literature and industry practices as well as a comparative assessment of existing change methods and functional reasoning schemes. A step-by-step technique of building and using an FBS Linkage model is demonstrated. The method’s potential benefits are discussed. Finally, the application of the method to two industrial case studies involving a diesel engine and a scanning electron microscope is presented. The method evaluation indicates that the benefits of the method outweigh its application effort and pinpoints areas for further refinement.

Service Oriented Virtual Organizations (SOVOs) business processes and services are subject to change to meet the internal and external requirements of the competitive, complex and rapidly changing environment they operate in. More practical and efficient ways of change management are needed to allow different partners to initiate changes to their business process and services in a faster and user-transparent manner. This thesis proposes a Change Management Framework for service oriented virtual organizations including a structural and a procedural framework. The structural framework categorizes changes in the SOVO into three layers of change; which include the value network layer, the collaborative process layer and the service providers’ layer, and identifies the impact of change on each layer. Furthermore, the structural framework identifies various triggers of changes which eventually lead to actions taken at the three layers. The change management procedural framework is derived from the ITIL V3, ECM and ECOLEAD best practices and recommendations, customized to fit the SOVO change requirements. It provides different components including the six layers for change processes, change control, change actors and related management processes. The change management procedural framework provides a sequence of steps and methods that the SOVO and its participated organizations can follow in initiating changes to their business processes or services. We design an implementation architecture and a prototype for building the change management console which enables the SOVO change management participants to initiate, assess, collaborate, monitor and authorize changes. The prototype is developed to realize and validate the change management process of change in the SOVO environment. We employ the various capabilities of the IBM Business Process Management (BPM) (including its recent Web 2.0 capabilities) to increase the collaboration between partners in the process of change. We demonstrate that the proposed solutions facilitate and enhance the process of change by effectively engaging the SOVO partners in the process of change.

This diploma thesis defines the issue of software requirements engineering and the implementation of software requirement into IS/ICT projects. One of the aims is to highlight the importance of systematic requirements management to successful IS/ICT projects. The theoretical part of thesis includes requirements definition, requirements typology and qualitative parameters of good requirement and actors, that are involved into the process of requirements management. The practical part of this thesis defines the process of requirements management general accepted methodologies of as it is specified in the internationally recognizable methodologies. Author's own contribution is the definition of a methodological process for managing requirements specifications, based on rigorous methodologies and extended to reflect author's practical experience. Methodological approach is tailored to the needs of smaller software companies and small to medium scale IS / ICT projects, and, if necessary, is further extendable. Another practical benefit of this thesis is the recommended methodology for change management requirements. Proposal process is based on the ITIL set of best practices; sub-threads are adapted to be able to meet the change management requirements and the broader business environment infrastructure. This methodology emphasizes an individual approach to the requirement. There is a recommendation of appropriate software tools for development and management requirements support divided into partial ITIL processes.

This diploma work is focused on evaluation of opportunities to improvement and modernization of production process of castings in company ŽĎAS a.s. As base are in theoretical part informations about business process management and change management (Deming's improvement cycle, theory of constraints, reengeneering, concept of quality management). Practical part analyses concrete opportunity to modernization of molding section and compares it with technology which is now used.

This thesis defends a hypothesis of transition towards sustainable development through the use of management and marketing tools within free market conditions. The main idea is the use of changing consumer preferences in favour of nature friendly products as a business opportunity.

Master's Thesis deals with project management of minor projects and its utilization in industrial company in environment with minimal knowledge of project management. Thesis is based on analysis of internal project in the department Transpormangement in the company SKODA AUTO a.s. The goal of the thesis is to create an effective recommendation of workflow which will be exploitable in future similar projects. The author examines internal project through methodologies for Change management and Project management used in company. The author sets recommendations in problem area of stakeholders, communication and risks.

The topic of the thesis is a change of corporate identity of the company and role of communication during this process. There are components of corporate identity and relationship between corporate identity, image and reputation described in the thesis. Furthermore it is dedicated to integrated marketing communication, internal communication and role of communication in change management. The theoretical knowledge is applied on company Nicoll Česká republika, s.r.o. which have been coming through the changes of name and corporate identity since January 2015. The main goal is to describe in detail and analyze the process of this change from the preparation phase to realization with respect on communication, evaluate this communication and suggest further recommendations. The analysis contains of description of the company including former communication mix, furthermore there is a description and analysis of changes and also analysis and evaluation of communication. In the end of the thesis there are summarized the main problems connected with the changes and also key mistakes, which were done in communication. Finally it suggests further steps for future.

Main purpose of this thesis is creation of suggestions leading to sales department efficiency increase. Throughout the theoretical part three main approaches dealing with changes in organizations are introduced. These approaches are Process Management, Lean Management and Change Management. Some of the principles and methods introduced are then applied during suggestions development in the second (practical) part of the thesis. The second part begins with the introduction of the company and selected departments. It is thereafter followed by deep analysis of the current state resulting in main constraints discovery. Based on these findings specific suggestions for its elimination are developed. By elimination of these constraints the efficiency of sales department should be increased. Finally, quantification of expected benefits is performed and compared with the defined objectives.

This thesis deals with the Change Management issue and its use in Plzeňský Prazdroj, a. s. The paper briefly summarizes the basics of Change Management and it also describes types of changes , change process and some of Change Management models, of which the greatest attention is paid to the Kotter's eight step method. The aim of this work is to analyze the functioning of Change Management in Plzeňský Prazdroj from the perspective of the use of the mentioned Kotter's method and the communication of changes to employees. This objective was fulfilled through a questionnaire survey among employees affected by the change and through semi-structured interviews with project team members. The questionnaire and interviews questioned Change Management of two large projects implemented during past years in this company. The answers obtained from the questionnaires and interviews complemented each other . I found that the most neglected part of the change processes of these projects was post--implementation phase, which includes the change integration and anchoring. In the end of the practical part is the summary of key learnings and my suggestions for improvement.