Thesis (Ph. D.)--Auburn University. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 125-136).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-145). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.) University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 9, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2014-02-04Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:13:27Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000753362.pdf: 7729519 bytes, checksum: 291883c7a21a4269ae4808d90b0de655 (MD5) / A aprovação das diretrizes curriculares nacionais para os cursos de Engenharia já completou mais de dez anos. Uma de suas novidades foi propor o direcionamento dos esforços na formação dos futuros engenheiros não apenas nos conhecimentos previstos nas grades curriculares. A formação, segundo as diretrizes, deve privilegiar o desenvolvimento de habilidades, competências e atitudes, as quais são tão ou mais importantes que os conteúdos ministrados para a ulterior atuação do profissional na sociedade. O objetivo deste estudo foi verificar a percepção de alunos, de egressos e de docentes quanto à maior ou menor valorização das competências propostas nas diretrizes curriculares para formação dos engenheiros de produção. Para atingir este objetivo geral foram realizados diversos levantamentos tipo survey. O primeiro teve como respondentes alunos formandos de cursos de uma universidade pública e de uma universidade privada, que avaliaram a valorização das diversas competências no ambiente universitário e no ambiente profissional. No segundo, o público alvo foram os docentes dos mesmos dois cursos que avaliaram o quanto são valorizadas as competências propostas nas diretrizes na realidade concreta das universidades e num quadro em que os respondentes considerariam ideal de ser atingido. No terceiro levantamento, com egressos do curso da universidade pública, os respondentes fizeram avaliação de quanto cada uma das competências foi valorizada e desenvolvida em sua formação universitária e o quanto elas têm sido importantes na sua atuação profissional. Como resultado tem-se um mosaico de percepções, em grande parte bastante divergentes, que aponta que a formação acadêmica continua privilegiando os conteúdos e não o desenvolvimento mais integral de competências e habilidades / The adoption of national curriculum guidelines for courses in Engineering has completed more than ten years. One of his innovations was to propose the targeting of efforts in training future engineers not only on the information covered in the curricula. The training, according to the guidelines, should focus on developing skills, competencies and attitudes, which are equally or more important than the content taught to further the professional practice in society. The aim of this study was to investigate the perception of students, graduates and teachers of as the greater or lesser use of skills in the proposed curriculum guidelines for training of production engineers. To achieve this overall objective type survey several surveys were conducted. The first respondent had the senior students of courses at a public university and a private university that assessed valuation of the various skills in the university environment and professional environment. In the second, the audience were teachers of the same two courses that assessed how skills are valued in the guidelines proposed in the concrete reality of universities and a framework in which respondents would consider ideal to be achieved. In the third survey, with students who graduated from public universities, respondents did review how each of the competencies was developed and valued in their university education and how they have been important in their professional practice. As a result, there is a mosaic of perceptions, mostly quite divergent, pointing that education continues focusing on the content and not the full development of skills and abilities

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / Leadership and how it impacts on the performance of human beings remains to wide and to generic to define in a one stop shop. The inability of the research community to have one definition of this well researched topic, complicates the process of identifying those critical factors that lead to effective leadership. Sometimes, incorrectly so, leadership and management are interchangeably used when they do not always mean the same thing. Whilst both can be found in an individual, they are different with leadership relating to personality as compared to management which relates to formal position. Because leadership resides in the person of the individual, it lands itself into different styles as they pertain to the knowledge, understanding, education, culture and experience of the leader. Project management or leadership, is unique because of the unique nature of the project and the environment in which projects are executed. A special type of leadership is presumed to be able to provide effective leadership in the presence of the matrix structure leading to the authority gap, the temporary nature of the project leading to labour instability, and the square root parameters against which the success of the project are measured. The findings clearly indicate that there are certain behavioural patterns necessary to provide effective project execution in the risky and unpredictable project terrain.

Project management is undeniably the fastest growing discipline as organizations move into the euphoria of projectification of their operations. Though projects have been a part of human life since time immemorial, there is a sudden realisation of the effectiveness of the methods used in project management. The enrolment of students studying for project management in tertiary institutions has shown tremendous increase. Yet the project execution process is mired by high failure rates and absence of clarity on the necessary skills required for effective project execution. The authority-gap in project management presents political and operational conflicts, and new innovative ways of authority-gap reduction need to be identified and taught in training programs. Simultaneously there is a realisation by both academics and practitioners that there is a difference between managers and leaders. Extensive studies on leadership have not allowed for a one-stop-leadership-style to be used in leadership of any form, let alone project leadership. In fact there is no standard definition of leadership as this has been heavily contextualized and thereby disallowing the creation of a universal definition. No cast-in-stone leadership styles are known and thereby leaving the research on leadership to concentrate on critical competencies required for effective leadership of projects. This study seeks to establish the core competencies needed by the project leaders and other practitioners to reduce the failure rate and maximise the benefits currently sought after by organisations. Studies have shown that the matrix structure within which the embedded projects work is a contributing factor to the failure of projects. Because projects are executed by people, it would be the proper utilisation of people’s talents and competencies that are expected to yield favourable results. Thus, whilst the matrix structure creates the authority-gap that presents a problem for effective project execution, management-by-projects still remains the best way known to add economic value to performance and productivity. The study therefore focuses on those characteristics of project leaders that will most likely make the difference in the way people perform in the workplace. The research findings emphasised the importance of empowerment of project managers and the development of their interpersonal skills of the project leader with special emphasis on extroversion, genuineness of senior management, and the responsiveness of the project leaders as important requirements for effective authority- gap reduction. These critical competencies will therefore facilitate the project execution process and enhance the empowered project leader’s ability to reduce the high project failure rate and high cost overruns. These competencies apply specifically to the human element as it relates to the role of the project leader and the interaction with the team members, this new knowledge needs to be introduced into training programs and project practitioners.

In his 2006 State of the Nation Address, President Thabo Mbeki emphasised the need for the development of managerial competencies and other skills to empower the country’s municipalities to meet the needs of the community (Governance and Administration, 2005). In order to meet the needs of the local community, municipalities need to render effective and efficient services. The lack of relevant managerial competencies adversly influences the municipality’s capacity to deliver the required services. In addition, the uneven distribution of capabilities and capacity across different sections within a municipality also poses a great risk to municipal performance and equitable service provision over the medium term. Notwithstanding progress made to date, service delivery backlogs still exist in key areas that affect the daily lives of the community. Where these backlogs coincide with poor municipal capacity, the result is service failure and a government that is incapable of meeting its goals (Governance and Administration, 2005). The objective of the study is to assess the contemporary management competencies that are required to assist municipal management in addressing the challenges of a dynamic, uncertain and complex Local Government environment. A questionnaire was used to gather the perceptions of 26 senior managers. This sample constituted a response rate of 65 per cent of people employed by municipalities within the Eden District Municipality’s service area. The questionnaires were distributed to the senior managers by means of an identified contact person within each municipality. The empirical findings such as the mean, median, standard deviation and pvalues were calculated by means of MS Excel. The main findings of this research indicated that: • Presently the most developed managerial competencies were selfmanagement, strategic action, planning and administration and communication. • The least developed current competency was global awareness. • The managerial competencies regarded as the most important for the next ten years were planning, administration and strategic action. • Global awareness was regarded as the least important competency for the next ten years. This finding points to the need for developing the global awareness competency to ensure that Municipal Managers are more sensitive to cultural cues and are able to adapt quickly in novel situations.

The purpose of this study was to identify whether firms that implement and develop core competencies perform significantly better than firms that do not. A model of core competency implementation and development in restaurant firms was developed and tested in three casual dining restaurant firms. The amount of co-alignment in the core competency process was compared to financial performance. Results indicated that firms that had a greater amount of alignment performed better. The highest performance was evidenced in the firm that not only had internal alignment but that appeared to have competencies that are also critical to success in the restaurant industry. / Ph. D.

This paper explored the requirements and subsequent competencies needed for an emerging market SME to operate in the developed markets on design, development and manufacturing projects. This was analysed by first exploring the differences in the requirements of the two markets and then determining what competencies a typical SA company would have to acquire to be competitive in the DM. The case was explored through a study of an SA SME operating in the design and development market, who was in the process of internationalising into the US and European markets. Data was gathered through a desk analysis of specifications from each market as well as in-depth interviews with the firm’s key decision makers and customers from each market. The first outcome was that there was a difference in the requirements of the two markets, namely the level of detail and sophistication of the DM specifications, the greater need for a competitive product in the DMs, both in pricing and functionality, the requirement for socially ethical practices and that EMF products need to overcome the negative COO effects. The final outcome was that EM SME’s needed to improve on their current competency set, namely an adaptation of the development process, sourcing practices and improvement in technical competencies. The firm also developed a method of introducing their product to the DM, such that the COO effect was reduced. This was done through the use of SA OEM’s and DM MNE’s supplying SA. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The purpose of this study was to determine the critical core occupational competencies for secondary agricultural education programs as identified by Ohio agricultural business and industry. The method used to generate this information was an item analysis of the competencies that industry experts identified as core competencies in the Ohio Competency Analysis Profile (OCAP) process. OCAPs are a source of competencies that agricultural educators use to teach the essential skills needed for employment in agricultural careers. The study identified the importance of and relative time spent on core competencies in 10 agricultural occupations, determined the critical core of occupational competencies in each of 10 agricultural occupations, and determined the common core of critical occupational competencies across all 10 agricultural occupations. A survey of Ohio agricultural business and industry workers was conducted. The competency lists for this study consisted of 10 agricultural education OCAPs developed by the Vocational Instructional Materials Laboratory at The Ohio State University. The OCAP lists consisted of: Agricultural Production, Agricultural Sales and Service, Agricultural/Industrial Mechanical Technician, Animal Management Technician, Floriculture and Greenhouse Worker, Forest Industry Worker, Meat Processor, Nursery and Garden Center Worker, Resource Conservation, and Turf and Landscape Worker. Conclusions included: 1. Competencies in the general safety precautions unit: demonstrate safe work habits, maintain safe work environment, and operate equipment and vehicles were ranked among the 20 most important competencies in all 10 agricultural occupations. 2. One competency in the general safety precautions unit, operate equipment and vehicles, was the only competency ranked among the top 20 competencies on relative time spent in all 10 agricultural occupations. 3. A critical core of occupational competencies was identified for each agricultural occupation. 4. Each agricultural occupation is so highly specialized that a substantial common core of critical occupational competencies in agricultural occupations could not be identified. Selected recommendations included: 1. Given that the competencies in the general safety precautions unit are the most important competencies in all agricultural occupations, agricultural educators should concentrate on preparing workers with general safety precaution competencies. 2. Because a critical core of occupational competencies can be identified, agricultural education programs that need to determine the occupational content for the program should concentrate on the critical core competencies for the occupational focus of that agricultural education program. 3. Because the common core of critical occupational competencies across all 10 agricultural occupations is not substantial, agricultural education programs cannot be generic agricultural education programs with a common core of critical occupational competencies for program content. Agricultural education programs should be occupationally specific. / Ed. D.