Ever since the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, the quest for 'sustainability' has gained increased prominence on the business landscape. The King Report on Corporate Governance has further heightened awareness of social and environmental considerations which had previously been overlooked, thus broadening the business agenda beyond meeting the needs of owners and shareholders. Within the South African context, transformation imperatives have placed additional obligations on our businesses, requiring a change in corporate attitudes and business practices. Thus, in today's business climate, where companies compete globally for customers as well as talent, where reputation is as important as financial outcome, and where social and environmental risks have become key business dynamics, companies are increasingly being called to account, by a broader range of stakeholders, across a far wider spectrum of activities and operations. The dissertation reflects on the complexity of developing an inclusive and participatory approach to understanding the dimensions of sustainability and developing a sustainable development agenda for IlIovo Sugar Sezela business. The study presents an opportunity to apply systems thinking to consider the various perspectives and worldviews of the participating stakeholders, and to promote democratic decision-making in formulating possibilities. In this regard, it is imperative that the inquiry involves the use of methodologies appropriate to the structure and nature of the organisation, and that the outcome of the inquiry involves a 'product' that is owned by the organisation. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.

Due to crisis events that have shocked several college and university campuses, many of these institutions have begun to look for ways to respond effectively to those events. However, higher education is generally not equipped or prepared to respond to crisis events. Thus, crisis management research in higher education should be explored. Principles of organizational learning and organizational development from corporate management America were used in this qualitative study to explain how leaders in higher education institutions prepare for crises and learn from their crisis experiences. Chaos theory provided the theoretical lens for the study. Purposeful sampling was utilized to select two institutions and purposely identified administrators at those sites. Interviews gleaned the lived experiences of the participants. Data analysis revealed five themes: conflicting definitions, institutional response to crisis, continuous learning, institutional issues related to a crisis, and leadership roles during a crises. The findings support the importance of developing a crisis management plan, disseminating the plan to all stakeholders, and application of continuous learning principles to evaluate the plan and actual crises responses before, during, and after a crisis event.

The thesis explored the effect of government regulation on the cost of developing Facility Plans for pollution abatement facilities in Indiana. The study used cost data from nearly 300 sewage works projects across Indiana from 1968 to 1976. The cost of professional services for these projects was computed on a per capita basis for each fiscal year and fluctuations in cost were analyzed in light of regulatory changes.It was found that the effect of these regulatory changes was to escalate costs, especially in fees for projects in municipalities with less than 2,000 population. / Department of Urban Planning

Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2009. / Härtill 3 uppsatser.

The diploma thesis focuses on initial planning of human resources at quotation phase at enviroment of APV company, for purposes of project management. It analyse initial planning of projects and compare it with actual state at the end of project. It contains suggestion, which may lead to more accurate initial planning.

Many products are harvested from the forests of the United States in addition to timber. These non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are plants, parts of plants, or fungi that are harvested from within and on the edges of natural, disturbed or managed forests. Often, NTFPs are harvested from public forests for the socio-economic benefit they provide to rural collectors. Social science and market research methods were used to examine the extent that NTFPs are addressed in national forest management plans, identify and explore issues that affect their management, and determine the attitudes and perceptions of forest managers at various levels within the U.S. Forest Service. Non-timber forest products have not been considered in national forest management plans to the extent that have other forest resources. Fewer that 25 percent of the current management plans for the national forests of eastern United States address NTFPs. However, the Forest Service Directive System provides sufficient policy and procedural direction at the national and regional level for the management for NTFPs and legislation enacted in 2000 directs the Forest Service to develop a pilot program to beginning managing for these products. Managers with expertise and education in botany, wildlife, recreation, and wilderness had significantly more positive attitude toward managing for NTFPs than did managers with a more traditional (timber-based) educational background. A regression model of intention to include NTFPs in the forest management plans was developed using data from forest managers and based on the Theory of Reasoned Action. Both attitude and perception were found to be significant determinants of behavior intention. A common perception among forest managers is that NTFP management is not an issue of public concern. Also, managers do not perceive that the lack of management is a problem. Without a visible and vocal constituency, the impetus for change must necessarily come from within the organization. Efforts by the U.S. Forest Service to manage for NTFPs will be hampered by a lack of information and expertise. But, the activities of more progressive national forests suggest that sufficient knowledge does exist for the agency to take a more proactive approach to management. / Ph. D.

Effective estimation, planning, and control of the functions, operations, and resources of a project are among the most challenging tasks faced by the management of today's engineering and construction organisations. The increase in size and complexity of modern projects demand a sound organisational structure and a rational approach. The main objectives of the present study are two-fold. Firstly to report and critically review theoretical and practical developments of different aspects of the management of engineering and construction projects. Secondly to further develop conceptual, practical techniques and processes; also to provide Guidelines to make more effective use. of resources and systems. To achieve these objectives the present research was carried out in close collaboration with various indurtrial organisations. The current literature on project management is critically examined from the point of View of project cost estimation, planning and control. Various existing and recommended procedures, approaches and techniques are reviewed with particular emphasis on using probabilistic techniques. As the problems of scale are increasing, progressively more industries are adopting systems and project management approaches. Problems, deficiencies and gaps in the existing systems are identified. An analysis of a questionnaire survey on Systems-Caps is carried out and the results of the analysis are reported. . S-curves (or progress curves) are widely used in the plauaing and control of cost, time and resources. A mathematical model for the S-curve is adopted for this purpose. Expenditure data on a number of ii recent projects is analysed and fitted to two S-curve models suggested by Keller-Singh and the Department of Health and Social Security (D. H. S. S. ). A comparative study of the models is carried out. A set of standard parameters for the models is obtained and the predicting accuracy of these models for forecasting expenditure for future similar projects investigated. Quantification aspects of risk involved with the completion time of a project are studied. 'A number of stochastic distributions arc fitted for this purpose to the programed and actual durations for the different activities of a housing project. The maximum likelihood method is used for the estimation of parameters of the fitted distributions. Due to the increasing use of indices in the construction industry, building cost and tender price indices, their application, limitations and methods of formation are discussed. Box-Jenkins models are employed to study past behaviour and to forecast future trends for labour, materials and building cost indices. Finally, general conclusions derived from the present regearch are sunmarised and areas requiring further research are proposed.

This is the first longitudinal, retrospective, qualitative, descriptive and multi-case study of hurricanes in Puerto Rico, from 1899 to 1956, researching for planning purposes the key lessons from the disaster management changes that happened during the transition of Puerto Rico from a Spanish colony to a Commonwealth of the United States. The selected time period is crucial to grasp the foundations of modern disaster management, development and planning processes. Disasters are potent lenses through which inspect realpolitik in historical and current times, and grasp legacies that persist today, germane planning tasks. Moreover, Puerto Rico is an exemplary case; it has been an experimental laboratory for policies later promoted by the US abroad, and it embodies key common conditions to develop my research interface between urban planning and design, meteorology, hydrology, sociology, political science, culture and social history. After introducing the dissertation, I present a literature review of the emergence of the secular characterization of disasters and a recent paradigm shift for understanding what a disaster is, its causes and how to respond. Next, I summarize the multidisciplinary research and policy knowledge concerning Puerto Rican hurricanes. Subsequently, I explain my methodological sequential data analysis, beginning with three case studies, followed by cross-case comparisons and assessments, ending in answer, recommendations and conclusions. I implemented a version of Grounded Theory, combining deductive and inductive thinking, with a phenomenologist standpoint that valued people's experiences and interpretations of the world. I aimed to denaturalize so-called ‘natural disasters’, exposing with a political economy lens the political character of public decision-making before, during and after a disaster; and grasp how politics impacted the society under study. My research methods were archival research in the field and online, visual sociology and case study. Based on information-oriented sampling, I chose the destructive hurricanes San Ciriaco (1899), San Felipe (1928) and Santa Clara (1956), which occurred at critical historical junctures. I examined three themes: characterization, causation, and relief. Those themes divided into six sub-questions and thirty-eight variables, summarized later. Answer: Disaster management vastly improved mirroring shifting ideas of God, nature, knowledge and humanity; always influenced by the dependent position of the island. Historically, citizens tried to handle hurricanes through mythological beliefs, empirical observations, rituals and material practices; some of which endured colonization and modernization into the mid 20th century. Disaster management emerged haphazardly; at first it was ineffective and improvised relief, without much preventive or reconstructive policy-making. The official perception of hurricanes changed from being essentially uncontrollable religious or natural events, to natural events that could be tamed with technology, physical changes and policies. Yet, it was a more nuanced confluence of environmental, economic, social, cultural, and political factors that enabled storms to become destructive disasters affecting the Puerto Rican economy, environment and society. The social groups that experienced higher resilience or vulnerability during a disaster respectively corresponded to the groups that were best and least served during relief and who could or could not produce public transcripts and policies. Such division resulted from entrenched social and political arrangements, including citizens’ rights, colonial administrative policies, social hierarchy that merged local and external power dynamics, and notions of habitus . Eventually, the growing understanding of citizens’ rights was critical to reduce hurricane casualties and the worst forms of vulnerability through New Deal and Commonwealth developmental projects. By also including contentious aims though, they created other forms of underdevelopment and dependency from the US; whilst technology and modernity paradigms bolstered new risks that would become rather costly. Simultaneously, disaster management became a federal responsibility, which reached Puerto Rico; but it was the unplanned intersection of a hodge-podge of disciplines, approaches and institutions, centered on physical interventions and neglecting the role of culture and the political economy of disasters with negative lasting impacts. Although improvised, contradictory and controversial; the main factors enabling the rise of disaster management were increased governmental leadership, knowledge construction, public awareness, planning and investment in hard and soft infrastructure, and relief provision. My dissertation contributes to Puerto Rican Studies and to emerging planning discussions about the Circum-Caribbean. Also, it contributes to disaster management, an area of academic and practice-oriented literature relevant for planning, fastly growing given the rising frequency and intensity of multiple disasters; and which is usually focused on contemporary events, prospective forecasting and proposal-making. Contrastingly, my dissertation’s strengths reside in being a critical and exhaustive historical study of hurricanes that proposes an option to the customary deleterious disciplinary fragmentation of disaster studies and management, and to the emphasis on physical change that remain standards in most countries.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, 2009. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

There will always be a need for consulting engineering services in industry. In the engineering consulting fraternity, employees are the key valuable assets and this study addresses how the professional employees’ skills can be managed and structured in such a manner that they contribute efficiently to the daily operation of the consulting engineering firms. The core business of the consulting engineering firms is to sell or offer engineering or technical solutions to their clients and this can be successfully recognised by integrating the firm’s different engineering disciplines into projects teams that are able to implement specific projects allocated to them. Leaders in these teams are expected to have proficiency to identify individuals’ skills and talents that can be incorporated into a specific project team. At a strategic level, firms’ mangers should consider developing skills development plans that takes into consideration a combination of academic training, professional training and practical employee training. As soon as a skills development plan is in place, it is easier for it to be implemented at the operational level under the supervision of team leaders who are responsible for the continuing professional development of individual team members. The aim of this study was to determine the various business and technological strategies applied by consulting engineering firms while tendering and competing for project work in the country. The consulting engineering industry is highly competitive; managers of these firms must be properly equipped with both technical and management skills in order that they may survive in this industry. A probability sample of 44 engineering consultants was drawn from consulting engineers in two areas of South Africa, namely, North West Province and Eastern Cape Province, which have a total of 140 consultants. 22% of the respondents offered electrical engineering services, followed by the civil engineering services that form 16.7% of the respondents. The structural and mechanical engineering followed at 13.9% and 11.1% respectively. Chemical engineering and architecture were both at 5.6%. Some of the findings of this study were that managers of the consulting engineering firms must be equipped with communication competencies as well as emotional intelligence and self-management competencies, because, although consultants are highly technically skilled, they lack business and human skills. Part of the recommendations are that there is a need for the consulting engineering firm to upload a succinct synopsis of their services on their company websites, which will help promote the value of their services to their clients. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.