What does it take for organizations to support people working together effectively? What does it mean for an organization to be effective? Does successful collaboration lead to more effective organizations? This study explored these questions both theoretically and empirically in an effort to help organizations understand the most important aspects to consider when attempting to achieve collaboration for organization success. The purpose of this study was to fill some of the gaps in the research by taking a broad, holistic approach to exploring the context required to support collaboration at levels of organizations broader than the team and exploring the links between organization support of collaboration and organization effectiveness. In preparation for the current study, the Organization Support of Collaboration model was developed to identify the broad organization design elements that are required to support collaboration. The Organization Effectiveness model was created to provide a holistic view of what it takes for an organization to be considered effective. The present study empirically validated these models and explored the links between them. Data was collected via a web-based questionnaire administered to a broad sample of individuals who work in organizations. Results supported a model of Organization Support of Collaboration with six factors (Connect to the Environment, Craft a Culture of Collaboration, Understand Work Processes, Design Using an Array of Structures, Build Shared Leadership, and Align Support Systems) and a model of Organization Effectiveness with six factors (Performance, Employee Involvement, Flexibility, Customer Satisfaction, New Customer Development, and Treatment of People). Connect to the Environment predicted five of the six Organization Effectiveness factors, and Craft a Culture of Collaboration predicted four of the six, notably with a connection to Performance. For the predicted relationships between the models, nine hypotheses were supported, six were not supported, and three unexpected significant relationships were found. Implications for practice and future directions are recommended.

DEd (Educational Management) / Department of Educational Management / There has been greater demand for more accountability, results-based culture and enhanced effectiveness of programmes and services globally. The education sector has not been spared by this wave either and hence teacher effectiveness and instructional quality have risen to the top of the educational policy agenda. It is important therefore that effective teaching must be assured and teacher evaluation is a key means of providing that assurance. To date, most studies on the teacher appraisal system in Zimbabwe have focused on the perceptions and attitudes of the teachers towards the evaluation process, and at the same time the implementation challenges. Little has so far been done to determine the effectiveness of the teacher performance evaluation system in Zimbabwe. This study consequently sought to evaluate the effectiveness of the teacher performance evaluation system in Kwekwe district of Zimbabwe. The study was premised on the pragmatic philosophical worldview and hence the mixed method approach was adopted. The convergent parallel mixed method design was used. Data was collected using individual face to face semi structured interviews and a 5 point Likert scale questionnaire. Documentary review was done prior to the development of the research instruments as a way of ensuring relevance of the data collection instruments. The study was underpinned by the self-developed RADPS conceptual framework on performance evaluation system effectiveness. Stratified purposive sampling technique was used to select ten secondary schools for the quantitative strand and four for the qualitative strand. The quantitative sample was composed of 292 teachers and the qualitative sample was composed of 12 participants constituting of 4 teachers, 4 heads of departments and 4 schools heads. Quantitative data was analysed using the SPSS version 25 while the qualitative data was analysed using ATLAS ti. 8. The key findings of the study were that: the performance evaluation system was imposed and accordingly there was no buy in; there was inadequate budgetary support thereby rendering the introduction of the system mistimed; teachers as key stakeholders were excluded from the design process and hence there was no ownership; and ultimately, relevance of the system was questioned. It was also revealed that the evaluation process is merely a compliance exercise with erratic and discontinuous monitoring and supervision through the evaluation cycle. The findings from the study imply the following: policy formulation should be participatory and inclusive; readiness assessment should be conducted before introducing a new programme; a programme should be pilot tested; evaluation process should be monitored by external officials; the process should be consequential and the system should be continuously monitored and reviewed for relevance and validity. / NRF

The U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command*s Army Learning Concept 2015 and Army Training Concept 2025 are documents that discuss the need for an adaptive soldier learning model with a flexible training delivery methodology. The U.S. Army has been investing in serious gaming technology for the past two decades as a cost effective means to teach tactics and strategy. Today, the U.S. Army is seeking to expand its application of virtual environment training to areas such as cultural awareness and human network analysis for the infantry soldier. These new expanded applications will require a higher level of non-determinant behavior inside the virtual environment. To meet more of the training needs of the war fighter, the U.S. Army is looking beyond first person perspective games to the cooperative and social gaming experience offered by the MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) and the VWT (Virtual World Technology). Altogether, these classes of games have the potential to teach leadership skills, social acclimation skills, cultural awareness and practice skills, and critical thinking skills for problem solving in a cost effective manner. Unfortunately, even today there is a paucity of scientific research to support whether this potential may be realized or not. A literature review was performed which covers current concepts in the usage of virtual environments for military individual and team training in the U.S. Army infantry soldier domains. There are many variables involved with the lifecycle of the virtual training activity including the acquisition, information assurance and cyber security, deployment, proper employment, content development and maintenance, and retirement. This discussion goes beyond the traditional topics of graphics and game engine technology and delves deeper into concepts of the importance of proper usage of the environments by the trainees. This dissertation is composed of three studies with two subject pools: experienced soldiers and novice soldiers. The participants in the studies were randomly assigned to one of two training conditions. The training conditions were either a traditional slide-show in a classroom or a virtual environment based training system. The participants were then provided with training for a room clearing tasks in each of the conditions. The independent variables are training condition and soldier condition. The dependent variables are individual performance, team performance, stress questionnaire scores, and workload questionnaire scores. A number of relationships are explored in this dissertation. The first objective of these studies is to attempt to identify any effect the training conditions have on either individual performance or team performance. Lastly, these studies attempt to identify if there is any difference the training conditions have on novice versus experienced subjects* performance during a live assessment.

Value-added models (VAMs) have become widely used in evaluating teacher accountability. The use of these models for high-stakes decisions making has been very controversial due to lack of consistency in classifying teachers as high performing or low performing. There is an abundance of research on the impact of various student level covariates on teacher value-added scores; however, less is known about the impact of teacher-level and school-level covariates. This study uses hierarchical linear modeling to examine the impact of including teacher characteristics, school characteristics, and student demographics aggregated at the school level on elementary mathematics and reading teacher value-added scores. Data for this study was collected from a large school district in north Texas. This study found that across all VAMs fitted, 32% of mathematics teachers and 37% of reading teachers changed quintile ranking for their value-added score at least once across all VAMs, while 55% and 65% of schools changed their quintile ranking of value-added scores based on mathematics and reading achievement, respectively. The results show that failing to control for aggregated student demographics has a large impact on both teacher level and school level value-added scores. Policymakers and administrators using VAM estimates in high-stakes decision-making should include teacher- and school-level covariates in their VAMs.

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With a focus on leadership, this study examines the leadership characteristics of principals in schools that are recognized as National Blue Ribbon Schools by the United States Department of Education. This mixed methodology study utilizes the causal comparative method to compare what teachers consider to be effective leadership characteristics of principals in National Blue Ribbon Schools to those of principals in matched sets of selected Non-Blue Ribbon Schools in Pennsylvania. The Audit of Principal Effectiveness is used to collect quantitative data and a survey protocol is used to identify confounding factors and extraneous variables. The research revealed significant findings in nearly all areas of the Audit of Principal Effectiveness. Principals in the selected matched-set schools were ranked higher than principals in National Blue Ribbon Schools. Additional analysis using a multiple regression showed that teachers perceive their principal as effective if the principal has good relations with them, employs and evaluates staff effectively, has high expectations, and does not exceedingly involve the community in the life of the school. / Educational Administration

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-162). / xi, 162 leaves, bound ill. (some col.), maps 29 cm

Today's global economy requires many organizations to co-ordinate work across a variety of intra and inter-organizational boundaries (Armstrong & Cole, 1995; Lipnack & Stamps, 1997). Global competition, re-engineered product life cycles, mass customization, and the increased need to respond quickly to customer needs are just some of the more pronounced trends currently driving organizational change (Grenier & Metes, 1995; Miles & Snow, 1986; Miles & Snow, 1992). An organizations growth and profitability is largely due to the strategies of globalization. Firms developing products with global applications must build competencies to connect and leverage knowledge on a worldwide basis (Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1998). In several industries product development is a crucial ingredient and therefore factors such as cost of development, cycle time and increased productivity are key drivers for market share and profitability. Product development is an expensive process particularly in the engineering and technology intensive segments. Technological advances have enabled many companies to assemble teams of employees from across the country or around the world into global teams to solve complex organizational problems (Lipnack and Stamps, 1997). Such teams are sometimes temporary, culturally diverse, geographically dispersed, and electronically communicating collections of individuals (Kristof, Brown, Sims, and Smith, 1995). These teams allow organizations to increase efficiency and effectiveness by tapping the knowledge, skills, and expertise of employees around the globe, increasing opportunities for information or knowledge exchange through expanded social networks (Wellman 1996). A large amount of investment is spent in human resources and hence ways to optimize the spending by leveraging global resources, directly helps the bottom line (Govindarajan & Gupta 2001). Models that could be used to understand better team development and effectiveness have been limited to those based on the traditional colocated group perspective. Theory development and empirical research are needed to help managers better understand and respond to the challenges that global teams face (Furst, Blackburn & Rosen, 1999). A literature review conducted found though team effectiveness has been fairly well researched the extension of the topic and as applied to global teams remains a gap. This study attempts to understand team effectiveness and its relevance when applied to a global team in a product development environment. The study involves developing a suitable model and understanding the causal relationships between the identified factors and explains the model based on the findings. Review of Literature The study reviewed a vast amount of literature relating to teams and small workgroups and summarized findings under; Team Definition, Team Types and Nature, Team Composition, Task Design, Team Development, Team Processes, Organizational Context and Global Teams. The literary review suggests that though research is steadily increasing, empirical studies on performance and effectiveness are limited. There has been very few studies on effectiveness as applied to global teams. Literature review on the subject of global teams, suggests that these teams, face even greater challenges because of their geographical separation, diverse cultures, and language. The study identified factors as applicable to global team effectiveness based on previous studies and calibrates them with findings in general team and workgroup study. The study considers Task design, Team composition, and Organizational context factors and attempts to empirically determine causal relationships with Team Processes and Team Effectiveness. Objectives and Methodology The objectives of the study are as follows: 1 To develop and validate a conceptual model that explains global team effectiveness in a product development environment. 2 To establish relationship between team design, team composition, knowledge management context and senior management context towards global team effectiveness in a product development environment. 3 To illustrate the application of the validated model and relationships for developing interventions to enhance effectiveness in a product development environment through a qualitative case study. The methodology adopted was to study contemporary team effectiveness models from literature and get an understanding of the key variables and factors that influence effectiveness. Next, based on prior studies on global teams, a model was developed using an established effectiveness model and extended it to global teams. The main study comprised of analyzing responses from 376 participants from 64 projects working together as global teams. The conceptual model developed consists of two key factors measuring effectiveness namely; Product Development Effectiveness and Team Process Effectiveness. The enabling factors, that are called as ‘global factors’ in the study that influence effectiveness in the model are; Team Design and Composition, Senior Management Context and Knowledge Management Context. Measures defining each factor were developed, refined and checked for reliability and validity. The factor analysis conducted suggested that Product development effectiveness variables include; Schedule compliance, Functional completeness, Product Quality, Cost compliance and Innovative Problem solving. Team Process effectiveness includes; Internal motivation in the team, Looking forward to team challenges, Willingness to share Knowledge, Conflict resolution, Openness to Learning and Quality team interaction. Similarly, factor analysis suggests Task design and team composition be combined as Team Design and Composition. The variables included are; Clear Goals, Well defined output or deliverable, Use of Judgment, Adequate skill sets (Technical, Functional, Program Management and Diversity) and Right size. Knowledge Management Context variables following factor analysis are; Knowledge management practice, Perceived importance of knowledge management, adequate infrastructure and Existent reward system. Senior Management context variables are; Global Senior management support, Management review support and Easy information flow. In order to achieve the objectives of the study a detailed Structural Equation Modeling using Partial Least Squares method was conducted. The measurement model and structural model was assessed, path coefficients studied, moderating effects studied and model evaluated for goodness of fit. In addition, an in depth case study is conducted and the model is applied in a practical scenario. Results and Discussion The study suggests the importance of global teams in a product development environment. This is particularly so as distance, time, culture and technology interface make it all the more important for global teams to have means of measuring effectiveness. It is also necessary to have an understanding of the enabling factors aiding effectiveness. The study suggests a model for measuring effectiveness in global teams involved in product development as; Meeting milestones and timely delivery of the output, Meeting product functional and technical requirements, Quality of output delivered, Cost and budget targets and Innovative problem solving are typical measurements of effectiveness. The model encourages using Team Process Effectiveness as a measure and suggests it has a moderating influence it has on Product Development Effectiveness. The Team Process Effectiveness measures are; Internal motivation amongst members within the team, Identifying if the team looks forward to challenges, Willingness to share knowledge with each other, Resolving conflicts within the team in a positive manner, Openness to learning and Quality team interaction. The model developed indicates that all paths defined and relationships are positive and the model is structurally valid. As hypothesized, factors, Team Design and Composition, Knowledge Management Context and Senior Management Context has significant relationship with Team Process Effectiveness. Further, Team Process Effectiveness has positive causal relationship with Product Development Effectiveness. Knowledge Management Context and Senior Management Context have a significant and positive relationship with Team Process Effectiveness. The study confirms the moderating influence Team Process Effectiveness has on Team Design and Composition, Senior Management context, Knowledge Management Context with Product Development Effectiveness. The in depth case study on a department of 75 members of product development global teams provided the insight into the empirical analysis, strengthened it and helped understand several other aspects of global teams. Conclusion The study provided an in-depth understanding of global team effectiveness by reviewing literature and identifying variables that influence global teams in a product development environment. A model was developed, empirically validated and tested. The model includes effectiveness factors and enabling factors and relationship between factors have been explained. A case study spanning a period of five years on a global team involved in product development was conducted and the model applied in practice. This study suggests that the model can be used by organizations and practicing managers for understanding, developing and leading global teams involved in product development.

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This study deals with the employee perception on the effectiveness of the performance management and performance appraisal system fairness at the National Security Agency, Department of Training. Organisational factors such as (appraisal knowledge), were used as a guide for assessing effectiveness of the system and its fairness. The quantitative approach/method was used to gain and understand employee perceptions on the system based on their personal experiences of the organisation's performance management system. The research chosen was Quantitative, which is the most appropriate approach to the study. The survey used self-administered e-mailed and hand delivered questionnaires to gather data from the respondents. The questionnaires had a brief overview of the research methodology, to give a reader a clear picture of the processes and procedure that were followed. The data was analysed quantitatively by using SPSS system. The overall findings show that many employees perceive the system not effective and not fair. / Thesis (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2014