Thesis (M.B.A. (Rhodes Investec Business School)) - Rhodes University, 2009. / A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration (MBA)

The approach of the age of knowledge economy and prosperous growth of IT makes knowledge become one of the most important core resources. The knowledge is also organizations' key point of seeking for survival and development. Knowledge economy emphasizes on transferring ¡§knowledge¡¨ into ¡§profit¡¨ instead of knowledge itself. Therefore, knowledge application is more essential than knowledge possession. At rapid digital age, knowledge management becomes key point of core competence. Hence, this study, knowledge management as variables, will discuss if knowledge management will upgrade the achievement of R&D performance of human capital and organizational culture. This study used questionnaire. This study used convenience sampling to select 1,517 high-tech industries as subjects from Taiwan Industrial Park Directory (published by Taipei County Exhibition Hall, 2005) and the appendix of high-tech industry yearbook (published from 2002 to 2005) as population. Valid questionnaires were 140 copies. This study used LISREL for data analysis and the result are listed as following: 1. Investment in human capital management helps efficiently improve R&D performance. The functional activities of human resources, such as recruit, maintenance and encouragement, connect organizations with employees effectively. Enhancement of employees' contribution, promise and encouragement strengthen value and uniqueness of human resources and also produce remarkable progress of R&D performance. 2. Execution of organizational culture, including participation, strategic vision which aids to organization's evolution, team work and organizational structure, helps to improve significantly for R&D performance. 3. Promotion and execution of knowledge management play as important mediators in organizations. The efficiency of R&D performance in human capital and organizational culture will be enhanced through the mediation caused by execution of knowledge management. 4. The amount of enterprises' employees makes diversity of performance of human capital and knowledge management. The enterprises that own 2,000 employees and above have more remarkable performance in human capital and knowledge management than the enterprises that own fewer employees. It means, large-scale enterprises have more competence because of more cost reduction, which improves quality of products and customer services. Regarding knowledge management, different amount of enterprises' employees also makes diversity of employees' knowledge creation and collection. The result of this study indicates that large-scale enterprises are more capable of invention and acquiring latest knowledge.

The work is devoted to the problem of learning organization. The objective of the work is to evaluate if the chosen company actually is learning organization and to identify the areas in which the company is close to this concept and what action should be taken to become a learning organization. A questionnaire survey was mainly used for this evaluation. In the end strong and weak sides of the chosen company are introduced and a recommendation is proposed which should lead to creating a learning organization.

Vi undersöker i denna studie en organisation, Grameen Bank, och vill på så vis upplysa om ett problem i världen. Det finns många hjälporganisationer som hjälper fattiga och utsatta länder men för att en bättre infrastruktur ska kunna etableras i u-länder krävs även nya metoder så att nya entreprenörer kan etablera sig på marknaden. Muhammad Yunus är en entreprenör, han skapade Grameen Bank i Bangladesh för att hjälpa den fattiga befolkningen att utvecklas och förbättra levnadsstandarden genom att låta dem ta mikrolån. Studiens syfte:  Undersöka hur Grameen Bankens organisation fungerar  Ta reda på Grameen Bankens syfte, mål och vision  Undersöka faktorer som påverkar Grameen Bankens effektivitet och utveckling / The purpose of this study is to analyze an organisation, Grameen Bank, and illustrate a relevant problem in the world. There are plenty of aid organizations that help countries, but to enable the build-up of an infrastructure, new methods are required that help the establishment of new entrepreneurs. Muhammad Yunus founded Grameen Bank in Bangladesh to help the poor population to develop and enhance their living standards by lending them micro loans. The purpose of this study:  Investigate how the organisation of Grameen Bank works  Acquire the purpose, goal and vision of Grameen Bank  Investigate the factors that influence the efficiency and development of Grameen Bank

The conclusions of those studies is that the heads of service should focus not only on the management or marketing of the products, but also on corporate identity and corporate communication as well. The corporate identity and corporate communication are very close related with the image-building of advisory services. The signals from audiences create correct market perception for the service when it is not commensurate with market share. Well developed corporate image of the service minimize the risk of relations with staff, customers and suppliers, governmental institutions, press and other institutions or persons which could have influence on activity of the service – in other words for strategic plans.

Uncertainty avoidance as a cultural construct has been known to affect worker stress and performance in organizations, but a review of these findings has not been done up until this point. In effort to clarify the relationship between uncertainty avoidance and stress and performance, a comprehensive literature search was performed. Findings from articles on this topic have been presented. In addition, organizational practices for accommodating uncertainty avoidance and other cultural dimensions have been explored. This review shows that uncertainty avoidance appears to be linked to higher stress, while its relationship to performance appears to depend on other factors. Best practices for accommodating uncertainty avoidance tend to include enhanced communication and structure. Ideas for future research on this topic are discussed.

Esta pesquisa aborda a primeira experiência sistemática de utilização do rádio como tecnologia educacional no Brasil: a Rádio Escola Municipal do Rio de Janeiro (PRD-5), inaugurada em 1934. A iniciativa foi concebida por Edgard Roquette-Pinto em meados dos anos 1920, quando o debate do uso de tecnologias educacionais ganhou força com as reformas estaduais dos sistemas de ensino. Com formação médica, contando com sólida carreira antropológica no Museu Nacional e envolvido no início oficial do rádio brasileiro, Roquette- Pinto elaborou um \"diagnóstico\" dos problemas nacionais fundamentando-se sobretudo no debate antropológico sobre a mestiçagem das décadas de 1910 e 20. Com essa base, propôs como \"remédio\" para resolver tais problemas a educação. Gravitando no entorno da Associação Brasileira de Educação (ABE), postulou que o rádio poderia chegar a todos que não tivessem acesso à escola. O intuito era \"abrasileirar\" o brasiliano, trazendo o sertanejo \"atrasado\" para um suposto nível mais avançado de \"civilização\". Seu fim último era um projeto de modernização conservadora, que teria os intelectuais como vanguarda capaz de moldar as \"massas amorfas\" e de conduzir a classe política para assegurar o desenvolvimento nacional. Em sua experiência da Rádio Sociedade do Rio de Janeiro (PRA-2), primeira emissora oficialmente reconhecida no Brasil (1923), propunha-se a difundir a cultura erudita, sob uma perspectiva impositiva e dirigista, no momento em que a \"indústria cultural\" estava florescendo no país. O eruditismo, elemento distintivo da concepção de radiodifusão de Roquette, buscava difundir entre os radiouvintes os conhecimentos produzidos pela intelectualidade, com foco nas ciências naturais, letras e artes. Oposto a esse campo da radiodifusão educativo-cultural, desenvolveu-se o comercial, fundamentado na lógica de mercado, dependendo do patrocínio e da audiência para sobreviver. Este último tornou-se hegemônico a partir do início da década de 1930, fazendo com que a radiodifusão educativocultural tentasse conquistar espaços institucionais, apoio governamental e público para o perfil de cultura que pretendia difundir. Um dos espaços conseguidos foi a PRD-5, pensada especificamente como uma emissora escolar. Elementos da experiência da PRA-2 foram absorvidos na Rádio Escola Municipal, mas ela se destacou por focar o público infantil (ensino primário), os professores e a educação de adultos. A PRD-5 ficou abrigada no Instituto de Educação do Rio de Janeiro (IERJ) e, caso a Universidade do Distrito Federal (UDF) não fosse desmontada pelo governo federal, se tornaria rádio universitária destinada à extensão. Para estudar as concepções de radioescola em Roquette-Pinto, desde os projetos até as realizações, realizou-se prospecção biográfica para compreender a estruturação de seu pensamento e de sua conversão de antropólogo para educador. A experiência na Rádio Sociedade, mais dedicada à cultura geral do que especificamente ao ensino, foi analisada na medida em que forneceu padrões e questionamentos relevantes para elaborar o projeto radioescolar. A partir desses elementos e de levantamento documental, foi possível identificar concepções de uso dos meios de comunicação no ensino que se perpetuam até hoje nas tecnologias educacionais. / This research studies the first systematic experience of radio as an educational technology in Brazil: the Municipal Radio School of Rio de Janeiro (PRD-5), which started its activities in 1934. The enterprise was conceived by Edgard Roquette-Pinto about middle-1920\'s, when debate about the use of educational technologies have been strengenthened with reforms in educational systems of many Brazilian States. Roquette-Pinto used his medical formation, his solid career as an anthropologist of the National Museum (MN), and his involvement with the official start of the Brazilian radio to make a \"diagnosis\" of national problems, mainly inspired on the anthropological 1910\'s-20\'s Brazilian mixing of races debate. Based on that, he proposed education as a \"medicine\" to solve the Brazilian problems. His link with the Brazilian Association of Education (ABE) lead him to present radio as a mean to educate those who didn\'t have access to schools. His objective was to \"Brazilianize\" the brasilianos, bringing the \"underdeveloped\" sertanejo (wilderness inhabitant) to a presumed most advanced level of \"civilization\". His Nation-building proposal implied in a conservative modernization project, which would be lead by the intellectuals as an avant-garde capable of shaping the \"amorph masses\" and of conducting the political class to assure the national development. His experience on Radio Society of Rio de Janeiro (PRA-2), first officially recognized Brazilian radio station (1923), privileged the diffusion of erudite culture - under an imposing and dirigist way - at the moment in which \"industrial culture\" was flowering. The eruditism, a distinctive face of Roquette\'s radio diffusion idea, intended to spread the intellectual knowledge among the radio listeners, focusing on natural sciences, languages and arts. This educational and cultural field of radio diffusion was opposed to the commercial one, based on free-market functioning, what meant dependency of sponsorship and audience. The commercial field of radio diffusion became hegemonic since earlier 1930\'s in Brazil, forcing the educational and cultural one to promote efforts to conquer institutional spaces, governmental support, and listeners to the cultural standard to be spread. One of these institutional spaces was PRD-5, thought precisely as a radio school station. Some components of PRA-2 experience was adopted on the Municipal Radio School, but the station had some particularities as focus on children listeners (conducting radio classes to primary schools), on teachers, and on adult education. PRD-5 was installed on Institute of Education of Rio de Janeiro (IERJ) and its destiny was to become the radio of University of Federal District (UDF), assuming extension role. The study of Roquette-Pinto radio school project, from planning to practice, observes the biographical path which lead him to structure his thinking and his conversion from anthropology to education. The Roquette\'s experience in Radio Society - in which general culture, and not the schooling, was predominant - was analyzed as an extensive laboratory able to supply standards and questionings to shape the radio school project. The approaching of these aspects and the developing of documental research made possible to identify persisting ideas related to the use of mass media in schools since that time until nowadays.

The main objective of this diploma thesis is to characterize forms of education in selected enterprise, analyse it in relation to the corporate culture and suggest changes leading to a desirable future state of the knowledge-based economy. In connection with the theme and the main objective of this thesis is the research also focused on the corporate culture, the recruitment and the selection of employees. The theoretical part consists of theoretical knowledge, which relate to the issue of development of employees through lifelong learning, selection of employees, corporate culture and knowledge economy. The practical part contains information about selected company. This part also analyses the corporate culture, the selection and training of employees, through the use of quantitative and qualitative methods. The obtained results are the basis for proposing effective changes. At the end of the diploma thesis are proposed some changes which should improve the current situation, especially the area of employee training to reach a knowledge-based economy in the future.

Esta pesquisa aborda a primeira experiência sistemática de utilização do rádio como tecnologia educacional no Brasil: a Rádio Escola Municipal do Rio de Janeiro (PRD-5), inaugurada em 1934. A iniciativa foi concebida por Edgard Roquette-Pinto em meados dos anos 1920, quando o debate do uso de tecnologias educacionais ganhou força com as reformas estaduais dos sistemas de ensino. Com formação médica, contando com sólida carreira antropológica no Museu Nacional e envolvido no início oficial do rádio brasileiro, Roquette- Pinto elaborou um \"diagnóstico\" dos problemas nacionais fundamentando-se sobretudo no debate antropológico sobre a mestiçagem das décadas de 1910 e 20. Com essa base, propôs como \"remédio\" para resolver tais problemas a educação. Gravitando no entorno da Associação Brasileira de Educação (ABE), postulou que o rádio poderia chegar a todos que não tivessem acesso à escola. O intuito era \"abrasileirar\" o brasiliano, trazendo o sertanejo \"atrasado\" para um suposto nível mais avançado de \"civilização\". Seu fim último era um projeto de modernização conservadora, que teria os intelectuais como vanguarda capaz de moldar as \"massas amorfas\" e de conduzir a classe política para assegurar o desenvolvimento nacional. Em sua experiência da Rádio Sociedade do Rio de Janeiro (PRA-2), primeira emissora oficialmente reconhecida no Brasil (1923), propunha-se a difundir a cultura erudita, sob uma perspectiva impositiva e dirigista, no momento em que a \"indústria cultural\" estava florescendo no país. O eruditismo, elemento distintivo da concepção de radiodifusão de Roquette, buscava difundir entre os radiouvintes os conhecimentos produzidos pela intelectualidade, com foco nas ciências naturais, letras e artes. Oposto a esse campo da radiodifusão educativo-cultural, desenvolveu-se o comercial, fundamentado na lógica de mercado, dependendo do patrocínio e da audiência para sobreviver. Este último tornou-se hegemônico a partir do início da década de 1930, fazendo com que a radiodifusão educativocultural tentasse conquistar espaços institucionais, apoio governamental e público para o perfil de cultura que pretendia difundir. Um dos espaços conseguidos foi a PRD-5, pensada especificamente como uma emissora escolar. Elementos da experiência da PRA-2 foram absorvidos na Rádio Escola Municipal, mas ela se destacou por focar o público infantil (ensino primário), os professores e a educação de adultos. A PRD-5 ficou abrigada no Instituto de Educação do Rio de Janeiro (IERJ) e, caso a Universidade do Distrito Federal (UDF) não fosse desmontada pelo governo federal, se tornaria rádio universitária destinada à extensão. Para estudar as concepções de radioescola em Roquette-Pinto, desde os projetos até as realizações, realizou-se prospecção biográfica para compreender a estruturação de seu pensamento e de sua conversão de antropólogo para educador. A experiência na Rádio Sociedade, mais dedicada à cultura geral do que especificamente ao ensino, foi analisada na medida em que forneceu padrões e questionamentos relevantes para elaborar o projeto radioescolar. A partir desses elementos e de levantamento documental, foi possível identificar concepções de uso dos meios de comunicação no ensino que se perpetuam até hoje nas tecnologias educacionais. / This research studies the first systematic experience of radio as an educational technology in Brazil: the Municipal Radio School of Rio de Janeiro (PRD-5), which started its activities in 1934. The enterprise was conceived by Edgard Roquette-Pinto about middle-1920\'s, when debate about the use of educational technologies have been strengenthened with reforms in educational systems of many Brazilian States. Roquette-Pinto used his medical formation, his solid career as an anthropologist of the National Museum (MN), and his involvement with the official start of the Brazilian radio to make a \"diagnosis\" of national problems, mainly inspired on the anthropological 1910\'s-20\'s Brazilian mixing of races debate. Based on that, he proposed education as a \"medicine\" to solve the Brazilian problems. His link with the Brazilian Association of Education (ABE) lead him to present radio as a mean to educate those who didn\'t have access to schools. His objective was to \"Brazilianize\" the brasilianos, bringing the \"underdeveloped\" sertanejo (wilderness inhabitant) to a presumed most advanced level of \"civilization\". His Nation-building proposal implied in a conservative modernization project, which would be lead by the intellectuals as an avant-garde capable of shaping the \"amorph masses\" and of conducting the political class to assure the national development. His experience on Radio Society of Rio de Janeiro (PRA-2), first officially recognized Brazilian radio station (1923), privileged the diffusion of erudite culture - under an imposing and dirigist way - at the moment in which \"industrial culture\" was flowering. The eruditism, a distinctive face of Roquette\'s radio diffusion idea, intended to spread the intellectual knowledge among the radio listeners, focusing on natural sciences, languages and arts. This educational and cultural field of radio diffusion was opposed to the commercial one, based on free-market functioning, what meant dependency of sponsorship and audience. The commercial field of radio diffusion became hegemonic since earlier 1930\'s in Brazil, forcing the educational and cultural one to promote efforts to conquer institutional spaces, governmental support, and listeners to the cultural standard to be spread. One of these institutional spaces was PRD-5, thought precisely as a radio school station. Some components of PRA-2 experience was adopted on the Municipal Radio School, but the station had some particularities as focus on children listeners (conducting radio classes to primary schools), on teachers, and on adult education. PRD-5 was installed on Institute of Education of Rio de Janeiro (IERJ) and its destiny was to become the radio of University of Federal District (UDF), assuming extension role. The study of Roquette-Pinto radio school project, from planning to practice, observes the biographical path which lead him to structure his thinking and his conversion from anthropology to education. The Roquette\'s experience in Radio Society - in which general culture, and not the schooling, was predominant - was analyzed as an extensive laboratory able to supply standards and questionings to shape the radio school project. The approaching of these aspects and the developing of documental research made possible to identify persisting ideas related to the use of mass media in schools since that time until nowadays.

The dissertation deals with the particularities of a mutual cooperation of hearing and deaf employees of the institution Tichý svět, o.p.s. The dissertation is divided into the theoretical and the application part. The theoretical part is dedicated for the theme of the culture in the general concept, the culture of the organisation, and culture of the deafs. The thesis also deals with diversity management and communication in organizational management, focusing on communication in the intercultural team and description of the deaf communication systems. The theoretical part focuses, in its conclusion, on the team and teamwork, on conflicts and their solutions in the cotext of diversity management. The objective of the application part was to analyze situations where there is a misunderstanding between the hearing and the deaf employees of the organization and to describe the specifics of this cooperation. At the end of the thesis the finding are discussed and recommendations made for the organization, which are aimed to avoid misunderstanding. Key words: culture of organization, intercultural communication, deaf, Czech sign language, diversity, team, conflicts.