People, processes and teams form the basis of organisational success. Therefore the understanding and prediction of people and their behaviour- both individual and in a team - is a critical management activity. Behaviour of people are influenced by internal factors such as personality, abilities and skills, perception, beliefs and motives as well as by external factors from the environment in which the individual operates. Understanding these forces and their influence on the individual is paramount if one is to understand how to canalise these behaviours to achieve any given organisational goal. Another concept important to understand, is that of organisational culture which is regarded as beliefs, values and learned ways of coping with experience. Organisational culture develops during the course of an organisation's history, and has become a more and more important concept in organisations, due to its strategic nature and impact on business. The culture of an organisation can be influenced and changed naturally over time, or by using deliberate, carefully designed cultural change interventions. The maturity of an organisation's HSEC systems and processes and related improvement in performance, is related to the prevailing HSEC culture evident in the organisation. It is evident that as an organisation moves from a reactive safety culture to an interdependent safety culture, so does the HSEC performance and lagging indicators of the organisation increase. Behaviour-based safety processes endeavour to influence the individual employee's behaviour in order to improve the safety performance of an organisation. The benefits of behaviour-based safety programs are numerous and lead to reduced injuries and improved levels of safe behaviour amongst employees. Metalloys has selected behaviour-based safety as one of the tools to entrench a culture of zero harm in the organisation and to establish an empowered and enabled workforce. The effectiveness of this approach was assessed during this study The empirical research conducted for this study revealed that both the average response rate per construct and the responses per question within the various constructs reflect a positive response to the elements tested. It is evident from the results that a large proportion of the employees are of the opinion that communication processes are effectively established, employees are involved on a personal level, that there is sufficient supervisor support and that leadership exhibits visible leadership in the organisation. These are all constructs testing the elements required to effectively establish the culture of the organisation. In addition, a large proportion of the employees felt that HSEC systems are well entrenched and that facilities and equipment are of such a standard, as to ensure the safety of employees and that these are maintained at high levels. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010

Limited scientific research regarding the effectiveness of Adventure-Based Experiential Learning (AEL) as an instrument to develop personal effectiveness exists. Furthermore, little attention have been given to factors that influence the effectiveness of these programmes. As a result the purpose of this study was twofold. Firstly the study aimed to determine whether AEL is effective in improving the personal effectiveness of participants scientifically. The Review of Personal Effectiveness with Locus of Control (Richards et al., 2002) was used to determine the personal effectiveness of participants. For the first article 23 adolescents currently enrolled in a post-matric development centre were studied. The study consisted of an experimental (n=12) and control group (n=11). The experimental group participated in a five day low risk AEL programme in an urban setting. Pre-post test effect sizes showed that the experimental group experienced significant (d=0.80) development in four areas and medium (d=0.50) development in nine areas of personal development, compared to one medium effect size for the control group. Secondly, the study investigated whether a processed AEL programme will produce higher short-term outcomes in terms of personal effectiveness than a non-processed programme. For the second article a processed experimental group (n=12), a non-processed experimental group (n=12) and a control group (n=11) were studied. The experimental groups participated in identical Jive day low risk AEL programmes, with one group receiving group processing after each activity while the other experimental group did not. Pre-post test effect sizes for the processed experimental group indicated significant improvements (d=0.80) in four constructs and medium improvements (d=0.50) in nine constructs. The non-processed experimental group achieved significant improvements (d=0.80) in one construct and medium improvements (d=0.50) in two constructs. Results indicate the importance of processing for the attainment of AEL programme outcomes. Research into the effect of AEL design and duration as well as the amount and type of processing on outcomes is recommended. / Thesis (M.A. (Recreation Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Change is inevitable for any organisation to ensure effectiveness and to stay competitive in today's business environment. Change should be managed proficiently to ensure that the required outcomes are achieved. Conversations with employees of ABSA Bank in the Northern Cape region revealed that the perception of the management of change is that it is less than effective due to general dissatisfaction regarding elements such as training, communication and support during change efforts. The purpose of this study is to measure the effectiveness of change management in ABSA Bank. The importance of this being that negativity and wrong perceptions regarding change can lead to resistance that can destroy any potential change effort in ABSA Bank. The literature study revealed that in order to manage change effectively, proven change management models are to be used and the elements within the model need to be managed convincingly. A questionnaire was utilised as the measuring instrument in the empirical study to obtain information that underscored the questioning of the effectiveness of the change management model as well as the management of the elements in the model of ABSA Bank. Recommendations are made to the management of ABSA Bank, based on the results of the study, on how to improve the level of effectiveness of the change management exercise in ABSA Bank. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

This qualitative case study explored the response of four practicing non-Aboriginal teachers related to preservice training and effectiveness. Each of the participants involved in this research project was an experienced teacher with a minimum of five years of teaching experience. This case study is framed within the conceptual context of cultural responsivity. The research questions were: What do four non-Aboriginal teachers with over five years experience working with Aboriginal students describe as qualities of effective teaching in this context? What are some of the major social justice issues that teachers need to address in order to be both successful and effective when working with Aboriginal students? Methods for data collection included semi-structured interviews during which the participants shared their stories. These conversations were audio taped and the audio tape recordings were transcribed. The transcriptions were analyzed to determine insights from the stories. Those teachers who are interested in learning about being an effective teacher of Aboriginal students will find the stories insightful. While the researcher and participants were non-Aboriginal the stories may be helpful for all teachers, regardless of their ethnic or cultural background, as they work with both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students. The implications of this study are that further research is needed in the areas of Teacher Education, Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, and Teacher Effectiveness.

Information Systems (IS) are being developed and used in organizations to achieve their business goals and to enhance organizational effectiveness. The rate of systems success is questionable. One of the causes of IS failures might be user dissatisfaction with the systems. The success of an Information System is difficult to measure directly, so user satisfaction and system usage are frequently used as surrogate measures of system success. User participation in IS development has been advocated to achieve user satisfaction with the system and consequently system success. Past research findings about the effect of user participation on user satisfaction leading to system success are mixed and inconclusive. Past research has not been successful in showing whether user participation in IS development is necessary or not. So further research in this respect is justifiable. This thesis investigated the effect of user participation/involvement on user satisfaction. The effect of user expectations, and user-developer effective communications on user satisfaction has also been explored. A research model was proposed to proceed with this research. Meta-Analysis was carried out to investigate the relationship between user participation, user expectations and user-developer effective communication each with user satisfaction respectively. This thesis found some relationship of these factors with user satisfaction. The strength of the relationship (i. e. correlation 'r') was found to be 'medium' but not large'. The results also show that user involvement has a larger correlation with user satisfaction as opposed to user participation. The findings not only lead to the conclusions that user participation/involvement, user expectations, and user-developer effective communication have positive relationship with user satisfaction, but also contribute to the existing alternative views among IS researchers. The relationship between system usage and user satisfaction was found to be positive and of 'medium' strength and contrasts with the prevailing view that no correlation exists between them. So research findings are not only useful to resolve controversies that exists in past research but also lead to conclusions that user participation may contribute towards successful IS development and consequently user satisfaction with IS. Further, the causes of the emergence of unrealistic user expectations are explored and suggestions for future research are made.

A Study of Excellence in United States Marine Corps Infantry Battalions is a study conducted to test the hypothesis that common attributes are shared by excellent battalions. Interviews were conducted with thirty-one senior infantry officers from various stateside commands, from which it was concluded that excellent battalions do possess a common set of attributes that account for their superior performance. To further develop this narrative model of excellence, and present a clearer picture of how an excellent battalion operates, interviews were subsequently conducted with staff noncommissioned officers, noncommissioned officers, and junior enlisted men from various infantry units. Attributes dealing with balanced excellence, leadership, emphasis on goals, culture and values, and the environment of excellence are discussed in detail.

In this Master thesis are discussed critical aspects of the most important and biggest international organizations– the United Nations – actions, missions and activities in the field of promotion and protection of human rights in this world. The analyze is based on the SWOT model which helps to find the strengths, weaknesses, possible opportunities to change critical situation and discuss all possible threats, also find ways how to fight against them. The work is started with analyze of the origin of the UN and it’s the main documents - the UN Charter and the Bill of Human Rights. The purpose of this step is to estimate the aims of this organization in human rights protecting and promotion branch. The next step is to analyze strengths and weaknesses of the UN institutions (charter and treaty bodies) some practical examples. The last part of this work is to suggest some reforms in the UN finances, which are in crisis now and stop a lot of necessary missions necessary to protect millions of people in different states, also to pay for attention to the reporting system and enforcing international human rights law changing it’s nature and implementing stronger sanctions, fighting against world non- action as the main way to react to human rights abuses in nowadays world.

There are many views about the meaning and importance of performance measurement of employees and of organizations. This thesis is concerned with many of these views but is most concerned with performance contracts and quality management and the relationship between them. The whole concept of the measurement of performance is sometimes questioned and in some cases regarded as being both subjective and futile. Van de Ven and Ferry (1980) argued that: "Whether the difficulties associated with assessing the performance of complex organizations can be met by a single set of measurement instruments and process guidelines has still to be proven." Glover and Kelly (1987) contended that measuring the performance of individual jobs can also be difficult: "Performance is hard or impossible to measure with many jobs and occupations, think for example of the differences between the work of architects, surgical appliance fitters, design engineers, criminals, politicians, street traders and musicians. There is often a conflict between volume and quantity of output in the long-term and the short-term such as when profits come before investment and vice-versa." Similarly, Van De Yen and Morgan (1980) argued with regard to organizational performance that: "Performance is a complex construct that reflects the criteria and standards used by decision makers to assess the functioning of an organization. As this definition suggests, performance is a value judgement on the results desired from the organization at different levels of analysis--and--often change over time." However, the demand for measurement of performance, whether it comes from the first level of supervision or from a shareholders' meeting, does tend to mean that attempts be made to measure performance (Talley, 1991).

This research has shown that a knowledge-based system is an effective tool to help novice simulation users interpret and understand simulation output. The thesis describes the development and empirical evaluation of the prototype. A simulation program which adopts the discrete-event simulation approach simulates the behaviour of a local area network protocol, i.e., the Ethernet, with different sets of parameter values. The knowledge-based system carries out the 'analysis' of the simulation output covering the protocol efficiency and throughput. The knowledge-based system summarises the simulation output and upon request from the user, provides explanations to a conclusion arrived at. The summary is the relationship between any pair of variables; and the explanation is the justification as to how the pair are related. The strategy for building the knowledge base using production rules is also elaborated. There are different functions performed by the different sets of rules (or rule-sets). Their major functions, In parallel with the development objective, are interpreting numerical data, presenting output to users and providing explanations interactively. The rules are grouped accordingly to make the knowledge bases easier to maintain. In the explanation aspect, the few approaches attempted by other researchers to improve expert system explanation is discussed. It is argued that a mere regurgitation of 'fired' rules to explain the Ethernet behaviour is not adequate in this case. To circumvent this problem, a 'constructive' approach to explanation is employed. The explanation procedure rewrites the 'fired' rules in a more understandable form than the if-then rules. Unnecessary parts of the rules are ommitted to make the explanations clearer. Finally, an experiment carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the prototype is described in detail. The effectiveness is measured from a few different perspectives. These are test scores, completion time for the test and the users' degree of confidence, both in the interpretation and explanation tasks. The results show that although some responses are mixed, there is evidence to suggest that the knowledge-based simulation system environment is beneficial to the target users.

This study examined the effectiveness of a parenting intervention for abused women and their children called Mothers in MindTM. Based on models of cumulative effects of trauma, it was hypothesized that women who experienced continuous abuse (from childhood to adulthood) would have more parenting difficulties initially and be less receptive to treatment than women whose abuse experiences began later in life (in youth and/or adulthood). Fifty-seven women completed the intervention. Overall, parenting intervention significantly increased women’s parenting competence but did not significantly change mothers’ perceptions of their attachment with their children. Contrary to hypotheses, there were no significant differences in initial parenting difficulties between the two groups and timing of abuse (continuous versus late onset) did not significantly differentiate treatment effects. Contributions of other contextual variables, such as poverty and parental psychopathology, to variation in the effectiveness of intervention for this population of multiply disadvantaged women are discussed.