This thesis argues that the role of productivity growth in an economy is critical to the welfare of a nation. It further argues that productivity growth in an economy is dependent on the productivity growth within organisations operating in that economy. It goes on to argue that the establishment and maintenance of continuous productivity improvement requires a management role that enables all employees to interact optimally with their work environments at all times. It argues that the means to such a management role change is a formal efficient and effective integrated corporate performance communication system - A system that continuously facilitates purposeful communication between managers and their employees across all dimensions of the organisation and its environment. To demonstrate this, the research in this study identifies the main building blocks of productivity on which the performance communication system should be focused. It investigates the pitfalls of the traditional role of management namely "controller" versus the advantages of a management role of "enabler" towards continuous productivity improvement. It also investigates the pitfalls of traditional strategic planning and organisational transformation as a consequence of performance communication breakdown. A corporate performance communication system was developed based on this study, computerised and tested in theory with employees from various organisations as well as experts on this terrain. The argument is substantiated by the results from a statistical analysis based on a work environment study, the results from surveys and role-plays executed in a case study on a knowledge organisation. A summative overview of what productivity improvement and the performance communication system encompass, identifies the complex nature of productivity, as well as the minimum areas which need to be addressed when attempting to improve productivity. A detailed discussion of the method, which was employed, and the instrument developed to enhance corporate performance communication, precedes the experimental results. A critical discussion of the results obtained from the statistical analysis and the literature on productivity improvement provide a theoretical foundation on which the system was designed. The system is then explained to illustrate how organisations can apply it to facilitate a management role change that is conducive to continuous productivity improvement and how it can support organisational change as the nerve system of a learning organisation. Thereafter, a discussion of the areas which were explored and led to the development of the performance communication system, as well as an explanation of the system, provide the context in which the system should be viewed as a guideline for continuous productivity improvement and the change of the management role to enable that. This thesis recommends that, in order to continuously improve on productivity, the us-them syndrome should be eliminated by a management role change to enabler of performance. The corporate performance communication system developed in this study could be considered as a starting point. A further recommendation is that the experiment primarily based on theoretical studies and practical experience gained over a number of years could provide the need for further research. The thesis concludes that as far as could be determined, this was the first time that a study of this nature was undertaken and that the need for future research to validate this study and its results, exists. / Thesis (DCom)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Communication Management / DCom / Unrestricted

Please read the abstract in the section, 00front of this document. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Communication Management / DPhil / Unrestricted

Communication departments may have the core knowledge to practise excellent communication, but senior management must also share a common understanding of the role and function of communication and communication managers in an organisation for communication to be excellent. The need for this study originated from the perception that the top communicator is often not at the table when strategic decisions are made. Yet, public relations specialists often have expertise that can contribute to organisational decision-making. They can, amongst others, facilitate dialogue between key publics and members of senior management in order to enhance understanding of the vision and goals of the organisation and the needs of the organisation's clients and stakeholders. This form of two-way symmetrical communication is the basis of excellent communication. Most practitioners agree that the best place for the top communicator is within an organisation's senior management - taking part in strategic decision-making through two-way communication (Dozier, Grunig, L&Grunig, J, 1995). The three spheres of communication excellence - as identified in the Excellence Study, the largest and most intensive investigation ever conducted of public relations and communication management - include the knowledge base of communication departments; shared expectations between the top communicator and senior management; and the culture of the organisation. The middle sphere of shared expectations between the top communicator and semor management, has three components which will be investigated in this study. The first component is departmental power - the ability to influence members of senior management. Sometimes top communicators are members of senior management, participating directly in strategic management and planning. In other cases, they exert informal influence as providers of information and as process facilitators to senior management. The power of the public relations department is associated with the value members of senior management attach to public relations as a function, as well as the strategic contribution the top communicator and the communication department make to organisational decision-making. The second component of excellence in this sphere is the demand-delivery loop. Senior managers in excellent organisations demand two-way public relations practices from their communicators to persuade and negotiate, and top communicators are aware of this. This sets up a loop of repeated behaviour, with senior management demanding and communicators delivering excellent communication programmes. In this study, top communicators in South African organisations are asked about their perceptions of these expectations. The third component of excellence in this sphere is the organisational role played by the top communicator. Top communicators may have formal decision-making authority for communication policy and may be responsible for programme success or failure, which means that they play the manager role. On the other hand, top communicators may play an informal role as senior advisors who outline options and provide research information needed for decision-making by other senior managers. Both manager and senior advisor role¬playing, contribute to communication excellence. However, senior management can also expect the top communicator to play the technician role. Top communication departments from the Excellence Study combine knowledge of both manager and technician roles to provide the requisite foundation for excellence. To actually achieve excellence, however, top communicators must play advanced organisational roles of communication manager and senior advisor. One of the objectives of this study was to establish whether the top communicator in the South African organisation does indeed contribute to excellence in the organisation by being involved in the organisation's strategic management process. For top communicators to be part of the strategic management process, a positive relationship must exist between themselves and senior management. This relationship is investigated by questioning the top communicator on the three components of the sphere of shared expectations, namely departmental power, the demand-delivery loop (and the practising of the four models of communication) and the organisational role played by the top communicator. The empirical study was undertaken amongst top communicators in South African organisations. A clear exposition is given of the methods and procedures used in the study. Hypotheses have been developed and the testing of these hypotheses attempts to provide a contribution to the scientific knowledge of communication excellence in the South African organisation. The following assumptions can be made about the findings of the study regarding the perceptions of top communicators in South African organisations in respect of the beliefs and expectations of senior management of the top communicator and the communication department: <ul><li> It is the perception of top communicators that senior management expects them to make a strategic contribution to organisational decision-making by playing the public relations manager role. </li><li> Senior management expects those top communicators predominantly playing the public relations manager role to make use of two-way public relations models in organisational decision-making and communication activities; and those predominantly playing the public relations technician role to make use of one-way public relations models. </li><li> The top communicator predominantly playing the public relations manager role and using two-way public relations models, can make a strategic contribution to organisational decision-making. This can lead to excellent communication and can contribute to the communication function being valued and supported by top management. </li><li> Top communicators do not perceive reporting lines to the chief executive officer (CEO) (or any other manager) or senior management (or middle management) to be very good indicators of their strategic contribution to decision-making. These findings support the communication theory that reporting relationships are necessary, but hardly sufficient for making a strategic contribution to organisational decision-making as indicated by Dozier et al (1995:84). The critical factor is not whom one reports to, but rather whether one has access to any of the senior (corporate) officers at will. </li><li> Top communicators in small and in large organisations can make a strategic contribution to organisational decision-making. </li><li> The top communicator can make a bigger strategic contribution in large communication departments, where technical tasks can be delegated. </li><li> Small and large public relations departments predominantly use one-way public relations models in their communication activities, but large departments also use two-way public relations models. It can, therefore, be assumed that two-way public relations models will be practised more frequently in large departments where the top communicator will also be expected to make a strategic contribution to organisational decision-making (by playing the public relations manager role). </li><li> The highest qualification of the top communicator is a weak indicator of the strategic contribution the top communicator makes to organisational decision-making. This could indicate that senior management values skills and knowledge, rather than qualifications, when the top communicator makes a strategic contribution to organisational decision¬making. </li><li> Senior management, furthermore, expects the top communicator with many years' experience in the communications field to make a bigger strategic contribution than the top communicator with a few years' experience in this field. <br></li></ul> / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2001. / Communication Management / MA / Unrestricted

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published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Business Administration, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Degree of Master of Management. / The concept of storytelling and management / organisation throughout the World has been intensively researched in recent years. For instance, Blunt and Jones, 1991; Lessem, 1989, 1993, 1994; Christie, 1993; Chown, 1994; Mbigi, 1993; Zemke, 1990; O'Reilly. 1985; Wilkins, 1984 and many more, have made a significant contribution towards storytelling and management. This report was aimed at providing a partial answer to the following question: "At the level of management style or in their technique, are South African managers inspired storytellers or detached analysts?" The fundamental aim was to establish whether storytelling forms an important part of the South African manager' s leadership repertoire. In conjunction with this aim, the proposition made by Lessem (1994) that storytelling competence is an important subset of communal management, was tested. Propositions for this research were as follows: Storytelling is an important competency for South African managers. • Storytelling is used consciously by South African managers to achieve specific aims. • South African managers can identify the characteristics of good, healthy stories and good storytellers in organisations. • South African managers can identify specific examples ·of stories used in their own organisations. • South African managers can identify other managers who use storytelling as part of their leadership repertoire. The research was confined to organisations operating within the PWV boundaries. the method of "snowball" sampling was utilised to collect the data, whereby telephonic contact was made with individual members of' executive teams in organisations. These individual managers were asked if they could identify any persons within the executive team whom they would characterise as using stories as part of their leadership repertoire. (Abbreviation abstract) / Andrew Chakane 2019

近年來，標準化的媒體訪問控制（MAC）協議，在無線局域網（WLAN）和無線傳感器網絡（WSNs）中起著重要的作用。其中具有分佈式協調功能 (DCF) 的IEEE 802.11協議目前是一種最流行的WLAN標準，它包括MAC層和物理層的規範；而規範了PHY-MAC 的IEEE 802.15.4協議，也成為了促進部署各種商業用途的無線傳感器網絡的一個重要的里程碑。IEEE 802.11 DCF和802.15.4 MAC協議的核心是使用與防撞載波偵聽多路訪問協議 （CSMA/CA）。 / 雖然對這類MAC協議的研究已經持續了幾十年，但是研究者們仍然無法對這些無線網絡進行全面徹底的性能分析。 / 鑑於這種原因，我們在這篇論文中提出了一種通用馬爾可夫狀態空間模型，用於分析基於CSMA/ CA的MAC協議。每個節點的輸入緩衝器被模擬為一個Geo/G/1隊列，我們用了馬爾可夫鏈來描述每一個隊頭封包（HOL）的服務時間分佈。在本篇文章裡，這種馬爾可夫模型理論被運用於分析在非飽和條件下，基於概率指數補償的調度算法的兩種網絡：在理想信道和非理想信道條件下的IEEE 802.11 DCF網絡，以及IEEE 802.15.4網絡。 / 從這個排隊模型中，我們獲得了網絡穩態下吞吐量的特性方程，數據包平均分組接入延遲以及排隊延遲。此外，對於IEEE802.15.4網絡，通過馬爾可夫模型我們也得到每個節點的能量消耗的準確表達。 / 在這篇論文中，我們闡述了對於MAC網絡的吞吐量和排隊延遲方面的穩定條件。基於這兩個穩定條件，我們能夠得出兩種區域：穩定的吞吐量區域和有界延遲區域，並發現它們與補償調度算法和總輸入量有著密切的關係。另外我們證明了這種指數補償演算法同樣適合龐大用戶量的網絡。 / 對於802.11 DCF網絡，我們發現基於RTS / CTS訪問機制的網絡性能受到總輸入量和轉播因子的影響比基於基本訪問機制的網絡來的小。此外，經過對比理想和非理想信道下網絡性能的表現，我們發現傳輸錯誤對網絡的吞吐量和延遲也會產生重大影響。對於IEEE802.15.4網絡，我們的研究結果證實在穩定的吞吐區域內，單個節點的能耗較少。 / 最後，我們將這種方法擴展到基於競爭窗口補償模型中，對比分析證明了概率補償演算法的模型可以有效地用於分析實際中基於競爭窗口機制的無線網絡。 / In recent years, the standardized Media Access Control (MAC) protocol plays an important role in wireless local area networks (WLANs) and wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The IEEE 802.11 protocol with distributed coordination function (DCF) is the most popular standard in WLANs that includes specifications for both MAC and physical layers, whereas the IEEE 802.15.4 PHY-MAC specifications represents a significant milestone in promoting deployment of WSNs for a variety of commercial uses. The core of the 802.11 DCF and 802.15.4 MAC protocols is the Carrier-Sense Multiple-Access protocol with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA). / Although the studies of such kinds of MAC protocols have been lasted for several decades, a thorough network performance analysis of these wireless networks still cannot be tackled in the existing works. / In light of this concern, we propose a generic Markov state space model of the MAC protocols with CSMA/CA for contention resolution in this thesis. The input buffer of each node is modeled as a Geo/G/1 queue, and the service time distribution is derived from a Markov chain describing the state transitions of head-of-line (HOL) packets. This Markov model is well demonstrated by the IEEE 802.11 DCF networks in either ideal channels or imperfect channels, and IEEE 802.15.4 networks, with probabilistic exponential backoff scheduling algorithm under non-saturated condition. / With this queueing model, we obtain the steady state characteristic equation of network throughput as well as the mean packet access and queueing delays of packets. Moreover, for the IEEE 802.15.4 networks, the accurate expressions of energy consumptions for each node can also be obtained through this Markov model. / In this dissertation, we specify the stability conditions in terms of throughput and queueing delay for MAC networks. These two stable conditions enable us to derive two kinds of regions: the stable throughput region and the bounded delay region, which is dependent on the backoff scheduling algorithm and the aggregate input traffic. We prove that the stable regions still exist even for an infinite population with exponential backoff. / For the IEEE 802.11 DCF networks, it depicts that the network performance of RTS/CTS access scheme is less dependent on the aggregate input rate and retransmission factor than that of the Basic access mechanism. Additionally, with the comparison of the networks performance under ideal and imperfect channels, we also show that the transmission errors have a significant impact on both throughput and delay of networks. For the IEEE 802.15.4 networks, our results confirm that the energy consumption of a single node is kept small within its stable throughput region. / Last but not least, we extend our approach to the contention-window-based backoff model, and depict that the probabilistic backoff model can serve as a good analytical model for the practical contention window mechanism. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Yin, Dongjie. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-160). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction of IEEE Standard MAC Protocols --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Medium Access Control (MAC) Protocols --- p.2 / Chapter 1.1.1 --- Medium access control in wireless LANs --- p.3 / Chapter 1.1.2 --- Medium access control in wireless sensor networks --- p.6 / Chapter 1.2 --- Backoff Scheduling Algorithms for Contention Resolution --- p.8 / Chapter 1.3 --- Our Methodologies --- p.11 / Chapter 1.3.1 --- Multi-queue-singer-server system --- p.11 / Chapter 1.3.2 --- State space of Markov chain for MAC protocols --- p.15 / Chapter 1.4 --- Contributions --- p.19 / Chapter 1.4.1 --- The Markov state space model of MAC protocols --- p.20 / Chapter 1.4.2 --- Stability analysis of networks --- p.20 / Chapter 1.4.3 --- Probabilistic exponential backoff and window-based exponential backoff --- p.21 / Chapter 1.5 --- Dissertation Overview --- p.22 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function --- p.24 / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction and Overview of IEEE 802.11 DCF --- p.25 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Principle of IEEE 802.11 DCF protocols --- p.25 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Historical background of IEEE 802.11 DCF --- p.26 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Contributions of our works --- p.29 / Chapter 2.2 --- Queuing Model of HOL Packet for the 802.11 DCF --- p.31 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Alternating renewal process of channel --- p.31 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Queuing model of input buffer --- p.34 / Chapter 2.3 --- Stable Throughput Region for the 802.11 DCF --- p.42 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- Stable throughput condition --- p.43 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Stable throughput region of exponential backoff --- p.45 / Chapter 2.4 --- Bounded Delay Region for IEEE 802.11 --- p.52 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- Bounded delay condition --- p.52 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- Bounded delay region of exponential backoff --- p.53 / Chapter 2.5 --- Window-based Exponential Backoff --- p.57 / Chapter 2.6 --- Conclusion --- p.63 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- IEEE 802.11 DCF in Presence of Non-Ideal Transmission Channel --- p.65 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction of IEEE 802.11 DCF with Error-Prone --- p.66 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Collision and error control in 802.11 DCF --- p.66 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Historical background --- p.69 / Chapter 3.2 --- Queuing Model of Input Buffer for the 802.11 DCF with Error-Prone Channels --- p.71 / Chapter 3.3 --- Stability Analysis --- p.83 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Stability analysis of network throughput --- p.83 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Stability analysis of queueing delay --- p.91 / Chapter 3.4 --- Conclusion --- p.96 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Performance Analysis of IEEE 802.15.4 Beacon-Enabled Mode --- p.97 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.98 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Principle of IEEE 802.15.4 protocols --- p.98 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Historical background of IEEE 802.15.4 --- p.101 / Chapter 4.1.3 --- Contributions of our works --- p.103 / Chapter 4.2 --- Queuing Model of Input Buffer for IEEE 802.15.4 --- p.105 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Queuing model of input buffer --- p.106 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Stable conditions of exponential backoff --- p.113 / Chapter 4.3 --- Analysis of Uplink Traffic without Acknowledgement --- p.116 / Chapter 4.4 --- Analysis of Acknowledged Uplink Traffic --- p.122 / Chapter 4.5 --- Analysis of Power Consumption of Each Node --- p.127 / Chapter 4.5.1 --- Power consumption of non-acknowledgement mode --- p.129 / Chapter 4.5.2 --- Power consumption of acknowledgement mode --- p.130 / Chapter 4.6 --- Simulation and Numerical Results --- p.132 / Chapter 4.7 --- Conclusion --- p.137 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Summary and Future Works --- p.139 / Chapter 5.1 --- Contribution Summary --- p.140 / Chapter 5.2 --- Future Works --- p.142 / Chapter Appendix A --- Service Time Distribution for the Ideal 802.11 DCF with Exponential Backoff --- p.145 / Chapter Appendix B --- Throughput of802.11 DCF with Window-Based Backoff Scheme --- p.146 / Chapter Appendix C --- Service Time Distribution for the 802.11 DCF under Error-Prone Channels with Exponential Backoff --- p.147 / Chapter Appendix D --- Service Time Distribution for the IEEE 802.15.4 with Exponential Backoff --- p.150 / Bibliography --- p.151