In this research study I shall examine the recently introduced Developmental Appraisal System. I shall carry out an investigation into the implementation of the Developmental System of Appraisal in a primary school in Kwa-Zulu Natal. The intention of the research is to provide a case study, which will focus on the implementation of the Developmental Appraisal System. In order to achieve this, three main issues of the system will be addressed. These are the conceptualisation of the system; the implementation process and the impact of the process. Although, the results of my research is focussed on one school the results could be illuminative. The final chapter of this study will concentrate on the findings and recommendations for the enhancement of the Developmental Appraisal System. The paper concludes that despite the many positive aspects of the process it is recommended that the whole appraisal system should be revised, revised and re-conceptualised to make it accessible to most South African schools, paying particular attention to simplifying it. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, 2002.

This study focuses on stress management of educators, and specifically in the KwaZulu–Natal geographical region. The study consists of four focus areas (which are presented in article format), namely: * The first article identifies the role–players and their functions in delivering quality education to all South Africans. The article identifies the role–players from literature research and discusses their influences on the South African educational environment. A biographical profile of the educators of the KwaZulu–Natal area is compiled in the article by means of empirical research. * The second article employs both theoretical and empirical research to focus on the causes of stress to educators in public schools. In addition to identifying the causes of stress, the article also determines how stress impacts on the work performance of educators in KwaZulu–Natal. * The third article reports on management and leadership qualities of a school, and how guidance can assist in the transformation process. The study further examines the effects of a principal's leadership behaviour on the school's learning culture in KwaZulu–Natal. * This final article is a comparative study. It provides an overview of similarly focussed studies by Jackson (2004), Jackson and Rothman (2006) and Van Wyk (2006) with regard to the causes of stress among educators (but in different application settings namely the North West and Free State provinces). The focus in the final article is to determine if the stressors and its influences in education are generic throughout South Africa, or localised to KwaZulu–Natal. The research design consisted of selecting four districts randomly from the twelve in KwaZulu–Natal. From these districts, a total of 1 500 participants were randomly selected from the total population of 2 123 educators in the four districts. This amounted to a sample of 70.6% of the population). A total of 358 respondents completed the questionnaires resulting in a response rate of 23.3%. The study employed the statistical software programme SPSS 17.0 for Windows to analyse the data. A number of quantitative statistical techniques befitting the doctoral level of research were used to analyse the data. These techniques are: * Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy; * Bartlett's test of sphericity; * Exploratory factor analysis; * Cronbach Alpha's reliability coefficient; and * Pearson's correlation coefficient. The major findings of the study were that: * Three major role–players are identified in the first article, namely the educators, the Department of Education and the learners. To effectively facilitate quality education, management is a crucial component, whilst these role–players are also influenced by the macro environment. * The second article identified causes of stress. These causes account for a favourable 71.6% of the variance explained, and are: organisational support, overload, remuneration, control, job insecurity, job opportunities and growth opportunities. * The third article identified seven factors of importance in management and leadership. These factors explained a favourable 78.6% variance and are: Management and leadership styles, financial security, management and leadership fairness, stressors, empowerment, job security and sense of control over the work environment. * In the final article it is clear that the stressors are generic to South Africa. The majority of stressors have been identified by studies in the Free State, North West and in this study in KwaZulu–Natal. These stressors are organisational support, overload, growth opportunities / task characteristics, rewards and remuneration, and job insecurity. The ultimate recommendation of the study is because stress impacts negatively on the educators and their performance, a national strategy is partly required to improve educator stress as there are a number of common stressors in the three separate studies. Yet, further research is needed to substantiate the prevalence of these factors in all the provinces. A provincial approach is recommended for province specific stressors, while the national strategy could address the common stressors in conjunction with a provincial stress relieve programme. The study culminates in a final perceptual map of stressors, it causes and educator management that could handsomely assist in the drafting of such a national stress strategy for educators. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Business Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

This study focuses on stress management of educators, and specifically in the KwaZulu–Natal geographical region. The study consists of four focus areas (which are presented in article format), namely: * The first article identifies the role–players and their functions in delivering quality education to all South Africans. The article identifies the role–players from literature research and discusses their influences on the South African educational environment. A biographical profile of the educators of the KwaZulu–Natal area is compiled in the article by means of empirical research. * The second article employs both theoretical and empirical research to focus on the causes of stress to educators in public schools. In addition to identifying the causes of stress, the article also determines how stress impacts on the work performance of educators in KwaZulu–Natal. * The third article reports on management and leadership qualities of a school, and how guidance can assist in the transformation process. The study further examines the effects of a principal's leadership behaviour on the school's learning culture in KwaZulu–Natal. * This final article is a comparative study. It provides an overview of similarly focussed studies by Jackson (2004), Jackson and Rothman (2006) and Van Wyk (2006) with regard to the causes of stress among educators (but in different application settings namely the North West and Free State provinces). The focus in the final article is to determine if the stressors and its influences in education are generic throughout South Africa, or localised to KwaZulu–Natal. The research design consisted of selecting four districts randomly from the twelve in KwaZulu–Natal. From these districts, a total of 1 500 participants were randomly selected from the total population of 2 123 educators in the four districts. This amounted to a sample of 70.6% of the population). A total of 358 respondents completed the questionnaires resulting in a response rate of 23.3%. The study employed the statistical software programme SPSS 17.0 for Windows to analyse the data. A number of quantitative statistical techniques befitting the doctoral level of research were used to analyse the data. These techniques are: * Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy; * Bartlett's test of sphericity; * Exploratory factor analysis; * Cronbach Alpha's reliability coefficient; and * Pearson's correlation coefficient. The major findings of the study were that: * Three major role–players are identified in the first article, namely the educators, the Department of Education and the learners. To effectively facilitate quality education, management is a crucial component, whilst these role–players are also influenced by the macro environment. * The second article identified causes of stress. These causes account for a favourable 71.6% of the variance explained, and are: organisational support, overload, remuneration, control, job insecurity, job opportunities and growth opportunities. * The third article identified seven factors of importance in management and leadership. These factors explained a favourable 78.6% variance and are: Management and leadership styles, financial security, management and leadership fairness, stressors, empowerment, job security and sense of control over the work environment. * In the final article it is clear that the stressors are generic to South Africa. The majority of stressors have been identified by studies in the Free State, North West and in this study in KwaZulu–Natal. These stressors are organisational support, overload, growth opportunities / task characteristics, rewards and remuneration, and job insecurity. The ultimate recommendation of the study is because stress impacts negatively on the educators and their performance, a national strategy is partly required to improve educator stress as there are a number of common stressors in the three separate studies. Yet, further research is needed to substantiate the prevalence of these factors in all the provinces. A provincial approach is recommended for province specific stressors, while the national strategy could address the common stressors in conjunction with a provincial stress relieve programme. The study culminates in a final perceptual map of stressors, it causes and educator management that could handsomely assist in the drafting of such a national stress strategy for educators. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Business Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Finding ways to deal with complex situations has been a long issue of interest by researchers and scholars alike. Researchers and scholars have provided the strategy community with an insightful understanding of the phenomenon of complexity. The traditional understanding of complexity in strategic management, mainly coming from the design school of strategy, has given way to modern complexity perspectives. These perspectives are from Chaos Theory, Dissipative Structures and Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS). Complexity sciences seek to look at the challenges associated with knowing and understanding the unknowable by focusing on the interactions in complex systems. The properties of complex systems in turn provide lessons that can be transferred to the field of strategic management in a form of approaches to deal with complexity. The CAS metaphor will be used as a model to contrast the approaches in current use by the organisation of study in strategic management. Insights from studies on complex systems points to a need for constant exploratory studies in organisations to determine how well organisations are responding to complexity. The aim of this study is to explore approaches that inform thinking and management practices in strategic management by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education (department) in view of complexity - increasing difficulties to understand the world. Firstly, results of the study are intended to contribute to understanding how insights arising from the study of complex systems, in the world, are being used to rethink and design government departments – public sector organisations - systems and strategic approaches, so that they are more flexible, adaptable and able to respond efficiently and effectively to changes in larger environment. Secondly, where the study finds that the current complexity approaches of the department are not informed by the latest thinking on complexity, recommendations are made on ways the department can improve its approaches. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2011.

Evaluation is not unfamiliar : educators in classrooms use constant feedback from learners as the basis for self-evaluation. What may be less familiar is for groups of educators in a school to carry out a self-evaluation or experience a whole-school evaluation process, which in the latter case means more than a single educator. Whether familiar or not school evaluation has increased in importance in recent years, particularly at the level of the whole school. The introduction of WSE, notwithstanding its worthy intentions, has proved to be a contentious issue for educator unions, which expressed considerable reservation both about which led to the introduction of WSE and the underlying purposes of the process. In addition, there is no widely available, if any, assessment of the success or failure of the pilot project. Within this broad context, this small-scale research project, subject to limitations, attempts to investigate the experiences and reactions of one school in which an attempt has been made to implement the process. Based upon the responses of the participants in this research study, it became clear that there is a desire to be involved in the traditions of 'school improvement'. If one assumes that the sample group is representative of stakeholders at the pilot school, then this study believes that some important principle of WSE are implicit in the way things are now being done and thought of at the school. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.