This study describes the factors which cause resistance to subsidiary evolution in twenty-eight geographically dispersed subsidiaries, as a global strategy is implemented by a mature multinational corporation (MNC). The subsidiaries are diverse in terms of the roles they perform within the MNC. Strategic change of this nature requires that subsidiaries roles evolve, in most cases to Implementer of head office decisions. Based on the interplay between subsidiary evolution factors namely; head-office assignment, subsidiary choice and local environments, this study evaluates which factors cause the most resistance to different subsidiary roles as a new MNC structure is implemented. Global Innovators experience the most resistance from headquarter factors, local innovators face the most resistance from subsidiary factors and Implementers experience low levels of resistance from the strategic change. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfilment of the requirements for the Doctoral Degree in the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education at the University of Zululand, 2007. / This study examined the perceptions and reflections of educators on their educational practice in the foundation phase classes. The aim of the study was to investigate the challenges facing the implementation of OBE in foundation phase classrooms. The research targeted foundation phase educators because they were the first to be exposed to the knowledge and practice of OBE and Curriculum 2005 in 1998. Initial assumptions held by the researcher was that by now the foundation phase educators should have accumulated a lot of experience in OBE and Curriculum 2005 (C 2005) practical implementation. The first research instrument was a questionnaire that was administered by the researcher to foundation phase educators for the purpose of soliciting their perceptions of the training workshops conducted from 1998 to 2000 to facilitate their understanding of C2005. The second research instruments were self-evaluation sheets that were disseminated to Foundation Phase (FP) educators so that they could rate themselves in terms of the competences they thought they developed during the training workshops and classroom-based support workshops. Thirdly, Interview schedules were used to solicit information about the support programmes available to educators in the foundation phase to facilitate the successful implementation of OBE and C 2005 in the classrooms. Lastly, the use of observation schedules provided the necessary confirmation of whether the educators' self rating was confirmed by their classroom practice. The results showed that there are challenges facing the implementation of Outcomes-based education in classrooms such as. The challenges faced by the educators were as follows: • Data collected from classroom observations showed that the FP educators had difficulty in applying skills and competencies required to implement a successful OBE delivery. Among difficulties was a lack of creativity to plan worthwhile learning activities to engage the learners in a variety of identified skills, and intellectual processes without resorting to rote learning. • The subjects lacked skills to integrate knowledge across curricula and this was exacerbated by a general poor content knowledge of educators in general, even at this level. • The OBE demand to have educators who can handle diverse needs of learners was lacking. The dominant teaching method was the "telling method" accompanied by recitation of unexplained poems. The role of the poems was not explained but seemed to be used to fill gaps when educators had nothing worthwhile to teach. • Another missing pillar of OBE in the subjects' classrooms was poor contextualization of content with learners' real life experiences. The educators had difficulty in selecting support materials to facilitate learning. On the role of School Management Teams to mentor and support FP educators the results of the study showed the following: • Time constraints made it impossible for SMT member to mentor and assist colleagues. But the most crucial point was that the SMTs stated that they had been inadequately trained to implement OBE let alone train other people. • SMTs are managing an RNCS curriculum that is in a trial and error mode as everybody grapples to understand what is authentic OBE implemented as RNCS in South Africa. The impact on the learners is a decline on literacy levels. Failure to implement OBE effectively in FP classrooms is rocking the foundation stones of future learning of the young Black learners. The findings suggest a need for intensive and more prolonged in-service education and training for foundation phase educators, otherwise the country is heading toward disaster of another lost generations of learners who will come out of school illiterate. The heads of departments and other members of school management teams require proper training in instructional leadership skills and knowledge. This could enable the members of the school management teams to provide mentorship, coaching, support and proper guidance to educators about the practical implementation of OBE curriculum.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate two important aspects of educational technology: leadership and implementation. The research conducted in this study aimed to assess three aspects of leadership as it relates to educational technology: leadership that supports the technology implementation process, leadership that supports the change associated implementing technology, and leadership that supports a culture that embraces technology. An additional purpose of this study was to evaluate the process, procedures, and actions of implementing educational technology at three Catholic elementary schools in ways that foster a culture that promotes a supportive disposition towards educational technology. The data from the interviews, document reviews, and site observations revealed that leadership styles and practices that support the adaptation to change and a culture that can embrace technology are vital to the educational technology implementation process. This study confirmed literature that contends that partnership, collaboration, and ownership from all stakeholders are essential conditions in being able to cultivate change and sustain a culture that embraces technology. In addition, this study identified and discusses the significance of effective educational technology leaders, professional development, the establishment of a vision, mission, and plan, proper technology maintenance, and the idea that technology is a resource that is meant to enhance rather than replace teaching and instruction.

No description available.

Effectively addressing mental health and substance use problems are important challenges faced globally. People experiencing such problems encounter many societal barriers that can affect their ability to participate as full members of society and have life expectancies much shorter than the general population. Policies to address mental health and substance use problems require the mobilization of multiple sectors, such as health, education, and justice. While there is strong evidence for programs and services that work, and there are policy directions aimed at achieving better service experiences and improved health and social outcomes, there is a lack of knowledge about how to get these policies and programs embedded effectively into daily practice – a process called implementation. The objective of this dissertation is to advance the understanding of implementation strategies for addressing such complex challenges through five original scientific contributions. The first is a critical interpretive synthesis of existing literature to generate a theoretical framework of the implementation process from the perspective of a policy goal by integrating findings from the public policy, implementation science and knowledge translation fields. Next is a two-part comparative case study exploring how policy implementation was structured and the strategies used in large, well-developed mental health systems. Last is a two-part in-depth examination of mental health policy implementation efforts in Ontario, Canada, beginning with an analysis of the development and implementation of the province’s mental health strategy, followed by an examination of the role that citizens and other stakeholder groups played in its implementation. Together these studies contribute theoretical, substantive and methodological insights toward understanding the effective implementation of policy directions for complex social challenges. Better implementation means more citizens can benefit from effective policies and programs that are needed across populations. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / People with mental health and substance use problems face many barriers that can affect their ability to participate in society. In order to make a positive impact on mental health, changes need to be made in a number of different areas such as health, education and justice. There is now research evidence about programs and policies that are effective, but there is a lack of understanding of how to get those changes into policy and practice so that people can benefit from them – a process called implementation. This thesis answers questions about implementation in mental health systems to help fill this gap. It contributes: 1) a new theory of implementation from the perspective of a policy goal; 2) insights about the infrastructure needed to support large-scale implementation; and 3) an understanding of how citizens and other stakeholders contribute to implementation by examining Ontario’s mental health and addictions strategy.

This study investigates the implementation phase of reorganization. Although determination of reorganization success or failure is a rather intractable problem, this study sheds light on this issue by performing a structured study of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports to answer the question, what do GAO reports say about the implementation of federal agency reorganization? More specifically this study explores what portion of reorganization plans are implemented, what are both expected and unexpected costs, and what issues occurred during the implementation process. GAO reports on reorganization are used as a data source to gather information on a number of implementations of varying sizes. Content analysis is the tool to be used to extract data over a large number of implementations. This study provides a more nuanced view of implementation by evaluating a number of reorganization implementations as a data set. As Destler (1981a) said, 'For reorganization, as for any other change, implementation is the bottom line. Without it, the whole exercise is show and symbolism' (p. 155)Findings of this study reinforce observations on reorganization and implementation by many scholars. The results of the content analysis show the precepts of classical organization theory still influence implementation of reorganization. Economy and efficiency were found to be motivations in a large majority of reorganizations. This study also showed the primacy of personnel issues in implementation, especially when implementation resulted in a net loss of personnel. The desire to avoid layoffs combined with reduction in force procedures exacerbated uncertainty in implementation. Neither the implementation schedule nor the resulting workforce was completely under agency control in many cases. Finally, this study showed the conflict between advocates of less government and advocates of reinventing government was evidenced in reorganization implementation. / Ph. D.

This explanatory mixed-methods policy analysis describes how school counselors' thoughts and attitudes contribute to the implementation fidelity of the Academic and Career Plan (ACP) policy in a suburban Virginia school division. A quantitative survey investigated counselor thoughts about the policy, implementation behaviors, and counselor ideas about equity issues related to providing college and career planning services to at risk students. Counselor interviews were conducted to provide deeper insight about the street level implementation practices and beliefs of counselors. Findings reveal that counselors place substantial value in the ACP policy and think the process is useful for connecting student interests and postsecondary goals to high school programs of study. Counselors implement the ACP policy with high fidelity because the policy incorporates counselor beliefs such as integrating the career pathway model into the course selection process. Counselors report spending more time assisting higher socioeconomic groups with college planning which results in less time for supporting at risk students. Findings indicate that counselors recognize the need at risk students have for additional support during postsecondary planning but are inhibited by the demands of higher socioeconomic groups. Finally, implications for school leaders related to improving counselor services to at risk students are discussed.

Data warehousing (DW) in the last decade has become the technology of choice for building data management infrastructures to provide organizations the decision-making capabilities needed to effectively carry out its activities. Despite its phenomenal growth and importance to organizations the rate of DW implementation success has been less than stellar. Many DW implementation projects fail due to technical or organizational reasons. There has been limited research on organizational factors and their role in DW implementations. It is important to understand the role and impact of both technical but organizational factors in DW implementations and their relative importance to implementation performance. A research model was developed to test the significance of technical and organizational factors in the three phases of implementation with DW implementation performance. The independent variables were technical (data, technology, and expertise) and organizational (management, goals, users, organization). The dependent variable was performance (content, accuracy, format, ease of use, and timeliness). The data collection method was a Web based survey of DW implementers and DW users sampled (26) from a population of 108 identified DW implementations. Regression was used as the multivariate statistical technique to analyze the data. The results show that organization factors are significantly related to performance. Also, that some variables in the post-implementation phase have a significant relationship with performance. Based on the results of the tests the model was revised to reflect the relative impact of technical and organizational factors on DW performance. Results suggest that in some cases organizational factors have a significant relationship with DW implementation performance. The implications and interpretation of these results provide researchers and practitioners' insights and a new perspective in the area of DW implementations.

Implementationer av nya obligatoriska system är något många verksamheter står inför eller genomgår. Mycket forskning har bedrivits inom området men med litet fokus på obligatoriska system och stort fokus på att förutspå acceptans före implementation. Måttet av acceptans har tidigare mätts genom det faktiska användandet av systemet vilket i en implementation av ett obligatoriskt system inte är ett relevant mätvärde. Syftet med studien var att utreda vilka faktorer som spelar störst roll vid en implementation av ett obligatoriskt system. För att undersöka detta har två enkätundersökningar, en före och en efter implementation, genomförts. Dessa enkätundersökningar har även kompletterats med ostrukturerade intervjuer samt en semistrukturerad intervju. Ett teoretiskt ramverk har tagits fram med hjälp av en inledande litteraturstudie i ämnet. Studien visar att information och förväntningar på systemet är det som ger mest genomslag för hur användarna uppfattar systemet, men att användandet av systemet inte påverkas nämnvärt av användarnas uppfattning.

The Ministry of Education in Malawi introduced Life skills Education program with the intention to empower children with appropriate information and skills to deal with social and health problems affecting the nation including the fight against HIV infections. This study investigates factors affecting the implementation of the Life skills programme in four schools in the Zomba District, Malawi. A curriculum is not implemented within a contextual vacuum. I draw on Cornbleth‟s (1990) notions of the structural and social contexts to study the contexts of the school organisation, classroom environment and social-economic-political context in which the curriculum is implemented. Within this framework, I use Whitaker‟s(1993) identification of key role players in curriculum implementation, to consider the specific ways in which teachers, learners, principals, district officials and the community affect the implementation of this curriculum within the schools I chose to study. Findings suggest that the implementation of Life skills is constrained by a variety of social and structural contextual factors. Some of the crucial factors hampering the teaching of Life skills are the poor conditions under which teachers are working. Teachers are paid very little salaries and this affects their motivation to teaching making some of these teachers giving most attention to what they perceive as priority subjects only such as Maths and Languages at the expense of Life skills. The cascade model of training leaves the responsibility of training Life skills teachers to school principals who are not subject specialists. This adds to their already highly pressured roles in terms of managing their schools, resources and learners. The training of teachers in life skills curriculum involves two days of training. This short duration of the training is not sufficient to develop understanding of content and empower teachers to mediate sensitive topics with 3 confidence. This model of training also undermines professional responsibility of each teacher to empower themselves to become subject experts in the subjects they teach. The inaccessible language used within the Teachers‟ Guide contributes to the omission of areas of the curriculum by teachers who struggle to understand and teach certain topics. The case study shows that hunger experienced by learners affects their concentration in class and leads to frequent absences. It has been found that the Life skills curriculum is not supported by all sectors of the community. Certain teachers and their principals found a clash between rural communities‟ cultural beliefs and the Life skills programme. The prevalence of HIV/AIDS affects both the teachers of Life skills and their learners resulting in teachers feeling uncomfortable and reluctant to teach that which affect them and their learners. Some teachers believe that it is inappropriate to teach sexual matters to children of this age. This results in the teachers omitting the very issues that the Life skills curriculum has sought to address. Given these issues, the research finds significant challenges facing the implementation of the Life skills curriculum in Malawi and based on the findings, recommendations are made for improvement of the implementation of the Life skills program.