Thesis (MTech (Business))--Peninsula Technikon, 2003. / Word processed copy. Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 132-140). Also available online

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Commonwealth University, 2007. / Prepared for: Center for Public Policy. Bibliography: leaves 220-239. Also available online via the Internet.

Dissertation (MBus) -- AUT University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (xiii, 101 leaves ; 30 cm.) in City Campus Theses Collection (T 658.4013 TAU)

Thesis (M. P. A.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2008. / "Fall 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-93).

The concept of decline has variously been applied to businesses, organizations, groups, and government (Levine 1978; Lorange and Nelson 1987; Whetten 1980). The term decline has also been used to describe various government agencies such as NASA. It is the theory put forth presently that decline in its traditional form in the literature does not apply to government agencies. Decline has been previously characterized as a time of decreasing or restricted resources, conflict, a decrease in innovativeness, a decrease in organizational size, a decrease in income or profits, and an organization's inability to adapt (Cameron, Whetten, and Kim; Weitzel and Jonsson). These characteristics, however, are not applicable to individual government agencies; an agency's tasks, form, and functions are usually set and defined through legislation, its budget is tied to the budget of the rest of the US government, and policy is usually generated at the top. Because of these pitfalls, I propose a new model of operations at the government level: the government agency decline model. This model posits that an agency's operations are in constant flux depending on the nature of the US economy at any given time and a number of other variables. Pursuant to this, I propose that there is a strong relationship between budget, agency performance, and power; more money in an agency's accounts contributes to bettering their performance, better performance leads to more power, which can lead to an increased budget. Therefore this cycle can begin and be interrupted at the money stage depending on the state of the American economy. Findings show that there are relationships between economy, budgets, performance, and power leading to an enhanced explanation of NASA's yearly budget. Recommendations for further research include examining a wider array of government agencies and developing better ways to measure power.

This thesis focuses on investigating the relationship between improvements in information quality and the benefits and performance of e-Government organisations. As information quality is a multidimensional measure, it is very crucial to determine what aspects of it are critical to organisations to help them to devise effective information quality improvement strategies. These strategies are potentially capable of changing government organisational structures and business processes. To develop effective information quality improvement strategies, it is important to explore the relationships between information quality (‘cause’) and organisational benefits and performance (‘effect’). The limited research on information quality and organisations performance focuses on private sectors and pays little attention to governments and public organisations. To the best of the author’s knowledge, there is no single study which covers the relationships between information quality and organisations performance in Kuwait. E-Government success literature has rarely investigated information quality as a contributor to the success of e-Government initiatives. This thesis makes a step forward and contributes to the body of knowledge by examining the nature, direction and strength of the connections between information quality and the success of e-Government initiatives as it proposes and discusses a conceptual model (Figure 3.6) and contextual framework by means of which organisations performance and information quality research can be viewed. This thesis adopts a hypothetic-deductive and inductive approach with mixed methods, to conduct the present study. Quantitative and qualitative methods were then utilised to empirically validate the conceptual framework. The author claims that the relationships between information quality and strategic benefits along with institutional value were in upright agreement. Similarly, both qualitative and quantitative analyses highlighted that improvement in different aspects of information quality can lead to a better organisational image. Usability and usefulness attributes of information quality came on the top of the key influencers on both strategic benefits and institutional value. Furthermore, analyses highlighted some differences among information sharing participants’ views regarding the relationship between constructs investigated in this research. Figure 6.5 presents a revised research model including the new constructs, such as, cost savings, improved decision-making, and increased citizen satisfaction, which have been found to be affected by information quality and affect organisational performance.

Published Article / Despite the introduction of various legislative measures to improve the performance of local government in terms of the mandate to be an autonomous sphere of government, service delivery in South Africa remains questionable and local government in a quandary. Performance in this context is influenced by globalization, technological development and challenges such as the world-wide financial crisis, enforcement of debt collection policies, decaying infrastructure and an unresponsive political and administrative environment. Strategies are recommended to ensure that local government can move beyond this point to excellent service delivery.

Territorial reform is the most radical and contested reorganisation of local government. A sound evaluation of the outcome of such reforms is hence an important step to ensure the legitimation of any decision on the subject. However, in our view the discourse on the subject appears to be one sided, focusing primarily on overall fiscal effects scrutinised by economists. The contribution of this paper is hence threefold: Firstly, we provide an overview off territorial reforms in Europe, with a special focus on Eastern Germany as a promising case for cross-country comparisons. Secondly, we provide an overview of the analytical classifications of these reforms and context factors to be considered in their evaluation. And thirdly, we analyse the literature on qualitative performance effects of these reforms. The results show that territorial reforms have a significant positive impact on functional performance, while the effects on participation and integration are indeed ambivalent. In doing so, we provide substantial arguments for a broader, more inclusive discussion on the success of territorial reforms.

Cleanup of leaking underground storage tank (LUST) sites has been a priority for the United States of America (USA) for more than 20 years due to the large number of sites, the potential harmful health affects associated with gasoline components and the fact that single owners may not have the ability to pay for cleanup of these sites. In June 2006, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that of the 459,637 confirmed releases from USTs that had occurred previously, 342,688 had been remediated, which leaves 116,949 sites yet to be completed across the USA. Petroleum cleanup programs tend to be managed at the State level; however, there are wide variations among State programs in terms of information access, risk perception and funding availability. While each of the Federal and State UST programs has evolved to meet specific requirements, there has not been a comprehensive comparison of the individual State programs.In this thesis, State petroleum cleanup programs across the USA are evaluated to determine similarities and differences in an effort to identify factors that affect petroleum cleanup progress. Many parameters enter the equation in determining petroleum cleanup effectiveness. Not only are the parameters of the State program operation important, but also the characteristics of each State, including drinking water source and perceived risk associated with petroleum contamination, factor into the determination.A representative group of States and State petroleum cleanup programs were evaluated and the characteristics of States were compared to cleanup progress to determine factors affecting efficiency. Based on trend analysis the cleanup levels for toluene, ethylbenzene and total xylenes correlate directly to the cost of LUST site cleanup. For States with less perceived risk from petroleum contamination, the cleanup goals are less stringent; therefore, fewer resources and less time are required to complete site cleanup. Consequently, petroleum cleanup in States with less-stringent goals is achieved more efficiently. The knowledge of these drivers of efficient petroleum cleanup can be used to expeditiously pursue completion of the thousands of sites remaining across the USA.

Thesis (M.B.A. (Investec Business School))--Rhodes University, 2006. / A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Masters of Business Administration, Rhodes Investec Business School.