O presente trabalho tem como objetivo a proposição e aplicação de um processo de avaliação de sistemas de gestão da qualidade segundo requisitos ISO 9001:2000. A avaliação da situação atual das práticas de gestão da qualidade de uma organização é uma condição indispensável para a certificação ISO 9001:2000. Muitas vezes, este processo implica altos custos relacionados a serviços de consultoria, que acabam sendo necessários devido à falta de conhecimento sobre os requisitos normativos por parte da organização, bem como a falta de um modelo simplificado de diagnóstico. Com base no processo proposto, infere-se que é possível realizar uma avaliação das práticas de gestão da qualidade de uma organização de modo a identificar as lacunas entre essas práticas e os requisitos ISO 9001:2000. A dissertação é constituída pelas seguintes partes: a) revisão da literatura, com o propósito de reforçar os conhecimentos concernentes à gestão da qualidade total e aos modelos de auto-avaliação; b) desenvolvimento do processo de avaliação a partir dos referenciais teóricos explorados; c) aplicação da proposta em organizações selecionadas; e d) avaliação dos resultados e conclusões sobre o trabalho. Infere-se que a aplicação da proposta será capaz de identificar as lacunas entre as práticas de gestão da qualidade e os requisitos ISO 9001:2000, além de permitir a identificação do estágio de adequação a esses requisitos. O processo de avaliação proposto também é capaz de identificar os pontos fortes e as oportunidades para melhoria, para que a organização possa se adequar aos requisitos ISO 9001:2000. / The present research aims the proposition and application of an assessment process for quality management systems according top the requirements ISO 9001:2000. The assessment of the current practices of quality management of an organization is an indispensable condition for the ISO 9001:2000 certification. Many times this application implies in elevated costs related to the consulting services, which are considered necessary due to the lack of knowledge about the requirements from the organizations as well as the absence of a simplified diagnosis model. Based on the proposed work, it is thought possible to perform an evaluation of the practices management of the quality of an organization so that it can identify the existent gaps between these practices and the ISO 9001:2000 requirements. The dissertation is constituted by two parts: a) a review of the literature with the proposal of reinforcing the knowledge related to the total quality management and to the self-assessment models; b) development of an assessment process from the explored theoretical references; c) the practical use of the proposed work in selected organizations and d) evaluation of the obtained results. It can be supposed that the application of the practical use of the work will allow the identification of the gaps between the current quality management practices and the requirements ISO 9001:2000, besides allowing the identification of the phase of adjustment to those requirements. Theproposed evaluation process is also a useful tool for the identification of the strengths of the evaluated material and what needs to be improved so that the organization is able to adequate itself to ISO 9001:2000 requirements.

Dissertação apresentada para obtenção do grau de Mestre, na Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, sob a orientação do Prof. João Paulo Tomé Saraiva

To improve an organizations competitive edge, leadership has adopted a conventional and organized approach known as TQM to improve the quality of its products and services. Implementation of TQM varies from one organization to another. This study determined the various impacts of leadership on TQM in the food industry in India. The continuous decrement of India's economy has led organizations to hire nonskilled people who lack the basic knowledge of the process and thus do not work efficiently and thus ensuring failure of TQM. Another problem faced was the lack of a healthy management which ensures a positive environment and boosts morale of the people. This study gave an idea about the organizational culture and characteristics, the issues it faced while implementing TQM due to lack of an effective leadership, the linkage between the leadership and TQM policies. Data was collected with the help of a questionnaire survey from the people involved in the industry and thus the results from the survey were analyzed and used to answer the research questions.

Thesis (MPA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2013 / The South African government, through the Department of Education is continually seeking means and strategies to improve the quality of education in the country. Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) is one of the systems adopted and implemented in all public schools to improve the quality of teaching and learning in schools. IQMS, as outlined in Collective Agreement No 8 of 2003, was informed by the Employment of Educators Act 76 of 1998 and the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. IQMS consists of three programmes which need to be in place in order to enhance and monitor performance of the education system. Developmental Appraisal’s purpose is to appraise individual educators in a transparent manner with a view to determining areas of strengths and weaknesses and to draw up programmes for individual development; Performance Measurement’s purpose is to evaluate individual educators for salary and grade progression, affirmation of appointments and rewards and incentives, and Whole School Evaluation’s purpose is to evaluate the effectiveness of a school. The research focused on how IQMS is implemented in Mopani District secondary schools, in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Qualitative research methodology was used. Results indicated that some structures and individuals know their roles and responsibilities in IQMS implementation; however, they admit to encountering challenges in implementing it. Educators and structures generally perceive IQMS positively and believe that educator performance may improve if the challenges encountered are addressed by the Department of Education. Recommendations were also advanced on how to make IQMS serve the purpose for which it was intended.

Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2006

Thesis (MPA) --University of Limpopo, 2005 / This research has attempted to investigate whether there were proper financial controls at Bankuna High School of the Ritavi Circuit in the Tzaneen Area of the Limpopo Province of the Republic of South Africa. The researcher has, after an extensive evaluation of data arrived at some conclusions and he had made a few recommendations. The researcher is of the belief that the results of this research can be applied in most former historically disadvantaged African schools. Also this study can help Provincial Departments of Education in their future training on Financial Management for poor African schools.

Area access control is defined as the process of mediating requests to enter a physical area through one or more entry points. Area access control database systems are the collections of information required for an access control system to access, query, retrieve and match real time user inputs with persistent data to ensure the integrity of the resources it protects. This thesis presents an object oriented approach to the design and implementation of a centralized area access control database system and focuses on two features, zone management and personnel tracking. Zone management is defined as the process of hierarchically relating a zone to other immediately adjacent zone(s) that a user is required to have prior access to. This feature will automatically generate all zones that a user requires prior access to in order to approach a target zone. To implement zone management, the database system is required to support recursive relationships and recursive querying. The personnel-tracking feature allows the administrator to obtain information such as the movement of persons of interest and their interactions with others in the installation at any particular time. The results of this thesis contribute to the implementation of a sophisticated area access control database system capable of handling multiple installations, and generating the access rules and paths for each new user automatically. In addition, the object oriented area access control database system is able to support unconventional data types such as images and sound which are essential for emerging biometric security systems.

This qualitative study identified the formal and informal performance management (PM) practices in use in Australian public universities for academic staff Levels A, B and C. It asked the following research questions. • What PM practices are currently in use in these universities? • What are the similarities in approach and what issues does PM raise? • How do academic staff who take part in these practices (as either staff or management) experience them? • What cultural and contextual factors (if any) contribute to this experience? • What are the perceived effects of these practices on the performance of individuals, teams and the organisation? • Which system elements do academic staff and academic managers perceive to be most effective in academic cultures and why? The context of substantive change within Australian universities was outlined and literature pertaining to the field of PM in general, and in educational organisations in particular, was explored. The existence, structure, purposes and other factual details of formal PM systems were identified, although the study focused on the opinions, perceptions and attitudes of the respondents. Findings suggested that current PM practice in Australian public universities did little to meet the needs of any of the key stakeholders and remained fundamentally unsatisfying to all concerned. Furthermore, the failure to clearly articulate the purposes and to consider the implementation and ongoing costs of a formal PM system typically resulted in widespread cynicism and a ritual dance of compliance that demonstrated palpably low engagement with systems. Formal PM systems helped to clarify objectives and workload allocation for some staff, but were found to be poorly linked to organisational planning processes, poor at differentiating levels of performance, not valued by academic staff as a vehicle for meaningful feedback, failing to follow through on development outcomes and thus did little to build team, individual or organisational capability. Study recommendations suggested that developmental models of PM were more appropriate and acceptable in academia and that considerable work would be required to incorporate evaluative links such as performance-related pay successfully. More rigorous evaluation, consultation processes regarding user preferences, piloting of PM systems prior to full implementation, and dedicated resources for the PM function and its outcomes (such as staff development), would be required as a part of a comprehensive change management strategy to overcome historical resistance. A thorough capability analysis of the people management skills for Heads of School and above was seen as a priority, given that feedback skill and the management of under-performance were consistently identified as problematic. The costs of under-performance warranted this expenditure. A national evaluation study of PM practice in higher education was recommended to assess the real outcomes, costs and benefits and determine whether continued investment in PM systems was actually merited. Alternative models and approaches such as modular PM systems for the different stages of an academic career, promotion portfolios, reflective practice or peer learning groups were suggested as potentially more successful in enhancing the accountability and performance of academic staff than mandated hierarchical PM.

<p>Competence Portals are software tools that are intended to make it easier for persons that have had no previous contact to find and contact each other. The portals can address areas ranging from finding an expert within an organisation to the marketing of the competence of a region or a research centre to other organisations. </p><p>The purpose of the thesis is to examine the necessity of Competence Portals in research-intensive organisations. Important characteristics of the information in such portals have been identified and used as a basis for recommendations regarding how Competence Portals could be designed. Furthermore, the thesis focuses on the task of finding a source of knowledge within an organisation. </p><p>The study is of a general nature and is supposed to be of interest to anyone who has an interest in knowledge management and tools to enable easy contacts within and between organisations. The study includes research organisations from Sweden, Germany and the United Kingdom and privately owned Swedish companies. The focus is on the German research organisations and Swedish companies. The empirical data was gathered using two surveys and multiple interviews with both persons featured in a Competence Portal as well as prospective users. </p><p>We have found that is uncommon to have access to tools such as Competence Portals in the studied groups. The tasks that a portal is meant to make easier is most often already solved in an efficient way or not performed frequently enough to merit a larger investment. Furthermore, the general opinion regarding Competence Systems in the studied group is very sceptical. We have therefore reached the conclusion that the demand for a software solution such as Competence Portals is low in the studied group. As a result of the little room for improvement in current work procedures and a general low demand we conclude that the necessity of Competence Portals is low in the studied group. However, Competence Portals are likely to be useful to very large or geographically scattered organisations. We have summarized our findings regarding the quality aspects of the information inCompetence Portals in a model that illustrates the important areas to consider when designing a Competence Portal. The model emphasise the importance of processes for updating and maintaining the information in the portal.</p>

<p>Many of the future methods are used in areas like economical studies, predicting future markets or legislations that might have an effect on a company or an organization. There is a necessity for knowing what the future holds. Following sustainable development companies has begun to adopt standardized environmental management systems like EMAS and ISO 14001. The companies that use scenario methods are often companies that also use environmental management and standardized management systems, which also is the case in this study. The aim of the study is to examine how future oriented studies can be used to develop the environmental strategic arena, by suggesting possible work procedures. The aim is also to describe how different future studies and techniques theoretically can be used within the strategic environmental area and to examine the use of future studies within different companies. Four Semi-structured interviews were made with companies that both use EMS and future studies. The interviews and the theoretical framework in study were used to answer the aim.</p><p>The results indicate that company future studies only have an effect on the market area and not the company EMS, the influence at the best is only indirect. The companies are more focused on factors that can change the market and economical aspects surrounding their products and services, than on factors that can be of important in making strategic important decisions about the appearance of the future environmental arena. Future oriented studies can be of use in EMS, the forecasting used in company A or the external method used in the three other companies. The methods each have qualities that are of use in different areas of the standardized EMS. Forecasting can help the user in the beginning of the planning process of EMS, with its short term visions the user can create an understanding about which way to go and this can then be complemented with backcasting. External scenarios used in the other three companies should be able to be integrated with the environmental area of the companies. These companies have god conditions to integrate their scenario work with the EMS because of the knowledge and use of future studies today.</p> / The ISRN in the pdf-file is incorrect. The correct ISRN is shown below.