The thesis documents findings of a study conducted to develop a project based financial management system (PBFMS) whose role was viewed as a contributor to the successful delivery of projects leading to improved financial performance of small and medium construction enterprise (SMCEs). In particular, the PBFMS was viewed as a facilitator {function) for the efficient and effective conduction of the strategic management, project planning and control processes. Thus an adequate PBFMS was seen as one which, facilitates the efficient and effective delivery of projects with a view to provide enhanced enterprise performance. In pursuit of this aim, theory and practices relating to the development, operation and use of a PBFMS were investigated and analysed from both literature and field work leading to findings being reported in the thesis. In addition, the actual financial management systems of SMCEs were investigated to determine the extent to which their attributes match those of the proposed PBFMS model. The motivation for embarking on the study was brought about by three aspects observed in Botswana. Firstly, was the frequently documented poor delivery of projects, that is, for a sustained period of time, projects were being delivered beyond stipulated times, above agreed cost, and below specified quality. In some worst scenarios, projects were being abandoned at various stages execution but before completion. Secondly, the investigation was also prompted by the frequent financial failures of enterprises that were being recorded in the construction industry. Thirdly, the conduct of the proprietors of the construction enterprises was also frequently circumspect, particularly in matters relating to financial management. Thus in pursuing the study, a number of premises were made. Firstly, the financial management systems of the SMCEs were considered inadequate to fulfil their functions, that is, they were incapable of facilitating the strategic management, project planning and control process. It was also speculated that management of SMCEs were not committed to the PBFMS i.e. they did not participate, get involved and did not comply with the policies regarding the planning, developing, and operation of financial management systems. As a result, PBFMS were unable to play their role of facilitating to the successful delivery of projects for improved contribution to the financial performance of SMCEs. The second premise was that financial models available are either too generic to guide SMCEs in financial management matters or the strategic component is not linked to the operational plans to execute the strategy. For those which are meant for construction enterprises, they normally prescribe practices for project planning and control without including the strategic element and vice versa. In essence there is a gap in each of the models available for use by the SMCEs. It is the closing of this perceived gap in knowledge that the results of the thesis contribute in finding a solution to the mentioned problem. Thus the study aimed at answering two research questions: (i) Do SMCEs have adequate PBFMS that facilitate the effective delivery of projects for enhanced financial performance? and (ii) Is there a relationship between the adequacy PBFMS and poor performance of SMCEs? To facilitate the answering of these two question two hypothesis were formulated namely: Hoi: The PBFMS of SMCEs are adequate to facilitate the delivery of projects; and Ho2: The adequacy of the PBFMS is positively correlated with the performance of SMCEs. To test the two questions a research process was planned and executed in several steps. Firstly, a survey strategy using the questionnaire was selected as the most appropriate method to provide a snap shot of the existence of attributes of PBFMS and to investigate associated practices relating to their development and operation. The method was considered more appropriate and effective in gathering large data in a short space of time in line with the doctoral time framework. Construction enterprises registered with Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) for building and civil work in classes A, B, C and D were surveyed. The internal quantity surveyor, estimator or accountant were requested to respond on matters relating PBFMS on behalf of the SMCEs. The sampling frame from which the SMCEs considered for study were obtained from the two government departments which work closely with PPADB, the Department of Building and Engineering Services (DBES) and Department of Roads (DR). The sample sizes for each group category (small and medium) were determined using Krajcie and Morgan (1970) table. Stratified and systematic random sampling was used to select the identity of the members to form a sample fro study from the sampling frame. The second step was to design the questionnaire to probe the three aspects identified as constituting the PBFMS namely the strategic management; project planning and control; and management commitment. Essentially the questionnaire sought to investigate the knowledge, tools, techniques, practices, opinions and attitudes of those who design, develop, operate and use the PBFMS in the SMCEs. To ensure a high quality design, the questionnaire was given to experts in the subject area to provide some comments on its suitability and was also piloted on four enterprises. Data collected was analysed using mainly the SPSS software and involved application of various statistical techniques including cross-tabs, ratio analysis, ttests and correlational tests. A total of 101 completed questionnaires were received, made up of 55% and 46% small and medium enterprises, respectively. The demographic profile of SMCEs confirmed some of the expected results, for example, majority (59%) of the respondents were owner/managers confirming the dominance of the owner in SMCEs. Majority of SMCEs (59%) were more than 9 years old, with medium enterprises being more mature (60% older than 9 years) than the small sized enterprises (49% older than 9 years). Majority (56%) of SMCEs had 10 or more employees, with medium sized enterprises having more employees (75% with 10 or more) than the small sized enterprises (42% with 10 or more). SMCEs performed more of building work alone (48%) than both building and civil work (48%) or maintenance (11%) and no enterprise performed civil work (0%) alone. Majority of SMCEs (65%) acted as main contractors as opposed to sub-contractors, though as expected sub-contracting was seen more in small (20%) than medium (10%) enterprises. Lastly, the public sector (central and local authorities) provided majority (65%) of the SMCEs jobs. However, if parastatals which are wholly owned by government were added, the public sector job market adds up to 73% (65%+8%). The testing of the major two major hypothesis resulted in the following conclusion. The results indicated that the first hypothesis was supported, that is, in a majority of SMCEs operating in Botswana the PBFMS were found to be adequate in facilitating the delivery of projects. The results were therefore not in agreement with the basic premise made at the commencement of the study. In view of the finding, it suggests that SMCEs in Botswana have adequate systems that support the efficient and effective project planning and control. Secondly, management is committed to the 'welfare' of the PBFMS in terms of complying and supporting their development and operation. However, like any human endeavour, there are weaknesses in the PBFMS, for example, they were found inadequate in facilitating the strategic management process, including lack of linking the process to the operational process in order to execute the strategy. They were also found weak in one of the most crucial process of project management; that of project control. The second major investigation showed a weak link between the adequacy of a PBFMS and performance. Secondly, the results also indicated that the SMCEs which had adequate PBFMS performed better than their counterparts. The first results were not surprising since the cause of poor performance were shown as three pillars (business environment, client/representatives and enterprise factors). However, the second results emphasise that SMCEs with adequate PBFMS posted better performance than their counterparts with inadequate systems. In this way the role of PBFMS in contributing to better performance was illustrated by the results. Some recommendations are proposed resulting from the findings and how to achieve a deeper understanding of the subject. Firstly, SMCEs should pay more attention to matters pertaining to strategic management to ensure a long-term view of their enterprises. Secondly, when a strategic plan is developed, it must be implemented through operational plans as a means of executing the strategy. Thirdly, concerted effort should made in ensuring that the projects are controlled as it is the only way to achieve sustained profitability and satisfied customers. Fourthly, as a way of providing a deeper understanding of the subject, it is suggested a longitudinal study could be undertaken to yield a more encompassing investigation than a cross sectional study which captured only one business cycle of the industry (down turn). Lastly, the study could be replicated in another industry with a similar profile like the construction industry in Botswana, for example, Namibia or/and the study could include large enterprises to provide means of comparing the different profiles of enterprises. / Business Management / D. B. L.

This thesis explores the environmental and social responsibilities being increasingly shouldered by cement manufacturing sector and outlines a new approach for these companies to accept their responsibilities and to utilise professional approaches to address the economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainable business. Managing these three dimensions in business translates corporate responsibility into an integrated responsibility for doing business profitably, ethically and in sustainable manner. This three-pronged approach is sometimes called the Triple Bottom Line. It helps companies to fulfil their more holistic Corporate Social Responsibility. A critical review of the literature led the thesis author to develop the theoretical framework for environmental and social reporting to proceed on TBL/CSR journey within the cement industry. Data were collected from TBL/CSR reports from cement companies on key environmental and social performances. Based upon those data, a questionnaire was developed to obtain more information from the leading worldwide cement companies. The combined results of the responses to the questionnaire and the quantitative data derived from the TBL/CSR reports were used to establish best practice benchmarks to serve as performance targets for the author's case study company, Oman Cement Company (OCC). The contribution to knowledge of this research is the summarisation and prioritisation of the cement industry's implementation of TBL/CSR management systems, which integrate the elements of TBL/CSR into their strategic plans and daily operational procedures. Guidelines were derived from the Global Reporting Initiative, the United Nations Global Compact and the new ISO 26000 standard, which promotes a new way of working towards innovation, value creation and incremental actions for transforming businesses to become more responsible. The contributions to practice of this research are the practical and procedural insights, gained by quantitative analysis of environmental and social indicators, into how cement companies are making improvements in their processes and products in response to climate change, economic, governmental regulations and social pressures for improvement. Based upon the findings, recommendations and timetables were developed and are being implemented within the OCC as it progresses on its TBL/CSR journey.

There has been an increasing demand for commercial organisations to foster real-time interaction with customers, because harnessing customer competencies has been shown to be a major contributor towards various benefits, such as growth, innovation and competition. This may drive organisations to embrace the development of multimodal interaction and complement Electronic Customer Knowledge Management Systems (E-CKMS) with metaphors of audio-visual nature. Although the implementation of E-CKMS encounters several challenges, such as lack of trust and information overload, few empirical studies were devoted to assess the role of audio-visual metaphors, and investigate whether these technologies can be put into practice. Therefore, this thesis describes a comparative evaluation study carried out to examine the implication of incorporating multimodal metaphors into E-CKMS interfaces on not only usability of E-CKMS, but also the user's trust, knowledge and acceptance. An experimental E-CKMS platform was implemented with three different modes of interaction: Visual-only E-CKMS (VCKMS) with text and graphics, Multimodal E-CKMS (MCKMS) with speech, earcons and auditory icons and Avatar-enhanced multimodal E-CKMS (ACKMS). The three platforms were evaluated by three independent groups of twenty participants each (total=60) who carried out eight common tasks of increasing complexity and design based on three different styles. Another dependent group of forty-eight participants (n=48) was instructed to interact with the systems under similar usability conditions by performing six common tasks of two styles, and fill a questionnaire devised to measure the aspects of user acceptance. The results therein revealed that ACKMS was more usable and acceptable than both MCKMS and VCKMS, whereas MCKMS was more usable than VCKMS, but less acceptable. Inferential Statistics indicated that these results were statistically significant.

<p>This thesis deals with the importance of managing employees’ thoughts and feelings in relation to organisational learning. To visualise and to identify affections within organisations is of major importance since most of our actions and the decisions we make are steered by our emotions rather than rational thinking.</p><p>In this work we show that employees’ thoughts and feelings can be managed by implementing the cognitive therapeutic process into the organisational setting. In comparison to the more traditional way of managing problems within organisations, i.e. the two activities of problem identification and problem solving, the cognitive therapeutic process also addresses the importance of identifying associated feelings and underlying automatic thoughts in relation to an occurrence or a situation.</p><p>Consequently, the overall purpose of this thesis has been to develop an approach for improving the quality of organisational learning processes which should stimulate employees’ contribution and facilitate the identification of their thoughts and feelings in relation to their work. As a result, ‘The Affect Based Learning Matrix’ (TABLe MATRIX) was developed. TABLe MATRIX can be used either in a paper-based or in a Web-based format and identifies and analyses individuals’ affections in relation to an organisational occurrence or change, a subject or a problem. Our empirical investigations show that TABLe MATRIX contributes to improving the output of organisational learning processes since unspoken negative emotions make people passive in finding new solutions. TABLe MATRIX has been evaluated by interviewing thirteen operational development representatives within eight different branches and also by testing the paper-based version at two large organisations within retail fast moving consumer goods and within education.</p>

Kvalitetsledningsstandard ISO 9001 samt miljöledningsstandard ISO 14001 är idag frekvent förekommande i svenska företag. Standarderna har som syfte att ligga till grund för en organisations ledningssystem och innehåller en mängd kravspecifikationer som anses vara optimala för att en verksamhet ska bedriva ett hållbart kvalitetsarbete. Standarderna ges ut av International Organization for Standardization, vilken förkortas som ISO. Förkortningen grundar sig i det grekiska ordet isos som kan översättas till identisk eller lika. Grundidén för ISO-standarder är nämligen att de är standardiserade riktlinjer som går att applicera på alla organisationer med samma resultat.    Genom en kvalitativ flerfallsstudie så ämnar forskningen att undersöka hur organisationer påverkas av ISO-standarders spridning och institutionalisering, samt vad det har för effekt på dess arbete med kvalitet och hållbarhet. Under arbetets gång så har primärdata samlats in genom sex semi-strukturerade intervjuer med kvalitetschefer, miljöchefer och projektansvariga på ISO-certifierade företag samt hos Swedish Standards Institute. Majoriteten av forskningsanalysen behandlar ISO-standarder i kontexten kring institutionalisering, isomorfism och institutionellt tryck, men den undersöker även företags påstådda motiv, och hur de upplever de organisatoriska konsekvenserna av anpassningen till ett ISO-certifierat ledningssystem.   Utfallet av undersökningen visar att de undersökta företagen påstår sig ha tre olika motiv till att göra en anpassning till ISO-standarder och dessa är: Påtryckningar från intressenter och kundernas krav på certifierade ledningssystem, certifieringar som konkurrensfördel i upphandlingar, samt en tilltro till standardens förmåga att effektivisera den egna verksamheten.   Påtryckningarna från intressenter har visat sig ha en central roll i hur företaget bedriver sitt arbete med standarder. De organisatoriska effekterna upplevs av samtliga respondenter som positiva men ger i de flesta fall inte intryck av att vara bra nog för att motivera den mängd tid och resurser som krävs för att erhålla ett certifikat. Istället sätts processen ofta igång genom ett tryck från omgivningen där kunderna genom sina kravställningar har en förmåga att få företagen att initiera sin anpassning. Svenska organisationer drivs således till att anpassa sig till samma typ av standardiserade sätt att bedriva sitt arbete, vilket gör dem mer homogena med sin omgivning och bidrar till att kvalitets- och miljöarbetet allt mer blir professionaliserat. / Quality management standard ISO 9001 and environmental management standard ISO 14001 are frequently occuring in swedish enterprises. The standards are intented to provide a foundation for an organization’s management system and they contain a series of specifications that are estimated to be optimal for a business to conduct a sustainable and high quality operation. ISO-standards are published by International Organization for Standardization, which is abbreviated as ISO. The abbreviation stems in the greek term isos, which can be translated into equal or alike. The main idea of ISO-standards is that they are a series of standardized guidelines which can be applied to any organization with the same results.   By conducting a qualitative multi-case study the research intends to examine how organizations are affected by the ISO-standards proliferation and institutionalization, as well as its perceived effects on firms’ work with quality and sustainability. Primary data has been gathered during the course of the research by conducting six semi-structured interviews with quality managers, environmental managers and project managers at ISO-certified enterprises as well as the Swedish Standards Institute. The majority of the analysis treats ISO-standards in the context of institutionalization, isomorphism and institutional pressure. Moreover, it also examines the enterprises alleged motives for adaption as well as their experience of the organizational changes a certified management system entails. The results of the research shows that the examined enterprises claims to have three different motives for adaption: Pressure from stakeholders and the customers’ demands for certified management systems, certificates as a competitive advantage in procurements, as well as a trust in the standards ability to streamline the organization.   The pressure from stakeholders have proven to play a central role in how the enterprise conducts work with the standards. The organizational effects are perceived by all respondents as positive. However, in most cases they do not give the impression of being worthy of the time and effort required to achieve a certificate. Instead, the process of acquiring a certificate is often initiated as a direct response to customers’ demands. Thus, the organizations are more inclined to adapting the same kind of standardized ways of planning their operations, which further makes them homogeneous with their environment as well as contributes to the professionalization of quality- and environmental work.

As more diagnostic testing options become available to physicians, it becomes more difficult to combine various types of medical information together in order to optimize the overall diagnosis. To improve diagnostic performance, here we introduce an approach to optimize a decision-fusion technique to combine heterogeneous information, such as from different modalities, feature categories, or institutions. For classifier comparison we used two performance metrics: The receiving operator characteristic (ROC) area under the curve [area under the ROC curve (AUC)] and the normalized partial area under the curve (pAUC). This study used four classifiers: Linear discriminant analysis (LDA), artificial neural network (ANN), and two variants of our decision-fusion technique, AUC-optimized (DF-A) and pAUC-optimized (DF-P) decision fusion. We applied each of these classifiers with 100-fold cross-validation to two heterogeneous breast cancer data sets: One of mass lesion features and a much more challenging one of microcalcification lesion features. For the calcification data set, DF-A outperformed the other classifiers in terms of AUC (p < 0.02) and achieved AUC=0.85 +/- 0.01. The DF-P surpassed the other classifiers in terms of pAUC (p < 0.01) and reached pAUC=0.38 +/- 0.02. For the mass data set, DF-A outperformed both the ANN and the LDA (p < 0.04) and achieved AUC=0.94 +/- 0.01. Although for this data set there were no statistically significant differences among the classifiers' pAUC values (pAUC=0.57 +/- 0.07 to 0.67 +/- 0.05, p > 0.10), the DF-P did significantly improve specificity versus the LDA at both 98% and 100% sensitivity (p < 0.04). In conclusion, decision fusion directly optimized clinically significant performance measures, such as AUC and pAUC, and sometimes outperformed two well-known machine-learning techniques when applied to two different breast cancer data sets. / Dissertation

Knowledge Management Systems are deployed in organisations of all sizes to support the coordination and control of a range of intellectual assets, and the low cost infrastructures made available by the shift to ‘cloud computing’ looks to only increase the speed and pervasiveness of this move. However, their implementation has not been without its problems, and the development of novel interventions capable of supporting the mundane work of everyday organisational settings has ultimately been limited. A common source of trouble for those formulating such systems is said to be that some proportion of the knowledge held by a setting’s members is hidden from the undirected view of both The Organisation and its analysts - typically characterised as a tacit knowledge - and can therefore go unnoticed during the design and deployment of new technologies. Notwithstanding its utility, overuse of this characterisation has resulted in the inappropriate labelling of a disparate assortment of phenomena, some of which might be more appropriately re-specified as ‘hidden knowledges’: a standpoint which seeks to acknowledge their unspoken character without making any unwarranted claims regarding their cognitive status. Approaches which focus on the situated and contingent properties of the actual work carried out by a setting’s members - such as ethnomethodologically informed ethnography - have shown significant promise as a mechanism for transforming the role played by members’ practices into an explicit topic of study. Specifically they have proven particularly adept at noticing those aspects of members’ work that might ordinarily be hidden from an undirected view, such as the methodic procedures through which we can sometimes mean more than we can say in-just-so-many-words. Here - within the context of gathering the requirements for new Knowledge Management Systems to support the reuse of existing knowledge - the findings from the application of just such an approach are presented in the form of a Pattern Language for Knowledge Management Systems: a descriptive device that lends itself to articulating the role that such hidden knowledges are playing in everyday work settings. By combining these three facets, this work shows that it is possible to take a more meaningful approach towards noticing those knowledges which might ordinarily be hidden from view, and apply our new understanding of them to the design of Knowledge Management Systems that actively engage with the knowledgeable work of a setting’s members.

This thesis presents the design and implementation of control strategies for building energy management systems (BEMS). The controllers considered include the multi PI-loop controllers, state-space designs, constrained input and output MIMO adaptive controllers, fuzzy logic solutions and genetic algorithm techniques. The control performances of the designs developed using the various methods based on aspects such as regulation errors squared, energy consumptions and the settling periods are investigated for different designs. The aim of the control strategy is to regulate the room temperature and the humidity to required comfort levels. In this study the building system under study is a 3 input/ 2 output system subject to external disturbances/effects. The three inputs are heating, cooling and humidification, and the 2 outputs are room air temperature and relative humidity. The external disturbances consist of climatic effects and other stochastic influences. The study is carried out within a simulation environment using the mathematical model of the test room at Loughborough University and the designed control solutions are verified through experimental trials using the full-scale BMS facility at the University of Bradford.

Sådana system i en organisation som inte är sanktionerade kallas skuggsystem. I detta arbete har vi genomfört en fallstudie vid Försvarets materielverk FMV för att undersöka vad som orsakar att skuggsystem uppkommer. I studien har ett antal skuggsystem identifierats och möjliga orsaker har analyserats. Det är viktigt för en organisation att skaffa kunskap om skuggsystemens existens för att kunna hantera dem och därför är det viktigt med en förståelse för orsakerna bakom. / Systems in an organization that are not formally sanctioned are called shadow systems. In this paper we have conducted a case study at the Swedish Defence Material Administration FMV to better understand the drivers behind the creation of shadow systems. The study has identified a number of shadow systems and possible drivers have been analyzed. It is important for an organization to gain knowledge about the existence of shadow systems in order to manage them. Therefore it is important to have an understanding of the drivers behind shadow systems.

Thesis. (M. Tech. (Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Dept. of Civil Engineering))--Vaal University of Technology, 2011 / In the past thirty years there has been a rapid deterioration of the road network in South Africa. As an attempt to address this challenge, a study was conducted on R34 between Vrede and Bothmas Pass Border. The aim of the study was to develop a pavement management system for road network maintenance to serve as a decision support tool to assist to improve the efficiency of making decisions, provide feedback as to the consequences of these decisions, ensure consistency of decisions made at different levels and improve the effectiveness of all decisions in terms of efficiency of results. The study focused on developing and testing pavement management system for road network maintenance. Consequently, visual condition inspections, non-destructive and semi-destructive tests were conducted on the field, data acquired, processed and analysed in accordance with guidelines stipulated in the Draft Technical Recommendations for Highways (TRH) 22 in order to draw conclusions. The data acquired included the surfacing assessments, structural assessments, functional assessments, traffic surveys, riding quality, falling weight deflectometer, mechanical rutting, material investigations and dynamic cone penetration. After analysis of the data, visual condition index was then calculated to be 40%. Visual condition index was then used to determine the action required towards rehabilitating the road. After consultation with guidelines contained in the TRH22, it was concluded that the pavement treatment needed for the road was Rehabilitation. It was then concluded that PMS developed would provide key performance indicators to assist with decision support system and that it is also suitable for road network applications ranging from national roads, provincial roads, regional or district arterial and collector / distributor networks in SA. The municipalities and other road maintenance agencies were then recommended to utilise the “easy to use” developed pavement management system as a decision support tool in their maintenance programmes.