Thesis (M.S.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Industrial Engineering. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

The main concern in this study is the demand for the delivery of quality education in schools. This concern prompted the Education Department to introduce accountability measures that included the three-legged Integrated Ouality Management System (lOMS). One important requirement of the IOMS is that the school management team should assist teachers to enable them to teach more effectively thereby improving the quality of education delivered to learners. One way of achieving effective performance is the implementation of performance management. With the above considerations in mind this research was conducted to investigate what performance management entailed, what the views and perceptions of school management teams in primary schools were with regard to it and what recommendations can be made to assist school management teams in implementing performance management. A literature study was conducted to expose the essence of performance management. On the basis on the literature study, an empirical research was conducted from the interpretivist paradigm, using the qualitative research design and the specific method of structured interviews. Participants consisted of members of the school management teams in three primary schools in the Rustenburg Area (N=11) . . The major findings of the research showed that participants did not fully understand what performance management entails there being a lack of a coherent, systematic process of implementing it. However, participants implemented some of the aspects of pe.rformance management such as mentoring, monitoring and coaching. It also came to light that school management teams faced difficulties in the implementation of performance management notably that teachers displayed a negative attitude towards performance management. The research is useful as a beginning in investigating this little understood issue and serves as a basis for further research. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

The main concern in this study is the demand for the delivery of quality education in schools. This concern prompted the Education Department to introduce accountability measures that included the three-legged Integrated Ouality Management System (lOMS). One important requirement of the IOMS is that the school management team should assist teachers to enable them to teach more effectively thereby improving the quality of education delivered to learners. One way of achieving effective performance is the implementation of performance management. With the above considerations in mind this research was conducted to investigate what performance management entailed, what the views and perceptions of school management teams in primary schools were with regard to it and what recommendations can be made to assist school management teams in implementing performance management. A literature study was conducted to expose the essence of performance management. On the basis on the literature study, an empirical research was conducted from the interpretivist paradigm, using the qualitative research design and the specific method of structured interviews. Participants consisted of members of the school management teams in three primary schools in the Rustenburg Area (N=11) . . The major findings of the research showed that participants did not fully understand what performance management entails there being a lack of a coherent, systematic process of implementing it. However, participants implemented some of the aspects of pe.rformance management such as mentoring, monitoring and coaching. It also came to light that school management teams faced difficulties in the implementation of performance management notably that teachers displayed a negative attitude towards performance management. The research is useful as a beginning in investigating this little understood issue and serves as a basis for further research. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Whenever projects fail, analysis of the causes has shown that risks were present from day one. Often individuals at some level in the project team have knowledge of these risks and they could have been identified and appropriate remedial action taken. Risk, whether identified or not, generally results in some increase in financial exposure on behalf of the organisation, but, if managed well, offers a potential that could lead to increased profits. There has been a tremendous explosion regarding the amount of data that organisations generate, collect and store. Managers are beginning to recognize the value of this asset and are increasingly relying on intelligent systems to access, analyse, summarise and interpret information from large and multiple data sources. These systems help them to make critical decisions at a faster rate or with a greater degree of confidence. Data mining is a promising new technology that helps bring intelligence into these systems. The purpose of this thesis is to present a methodology that integrates a data mining technique with a decision support system in order to form an intelligent decision support system. The implementation of such an intelligent decision support system will enable project and project risk managers to improve the management of and reduce risk within a project. This thesis consists of two sections. The first section describes the processes and characteristics of project management, project risk management, data mining and decision support systems. The aim is to provide the reader with a background about these four management methodologies. The second section describes the methodology of how the processes of project and project risk management can benefit from the integration of a data mining technique and a decision support system. An application that uses the case-based reasoning approach as a data mining technique to intelligently profile a project according to its risks is demonstrated. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Wanneer projekte misluk, toon 'n analise van die oorsake dat risiko's vanuit die staanspoor daar teenwoordig was. Individuele persone op verskillende vlakke in die projekspan is dikwels daarvan bewus. Hierdie risiko's kon geïdentifiseer gewees het en regstellende stappe kon geneem gewees het. Risiko, hetsy geïdentifiseer of nie, loop gewoonlik uit op 'n sekere mate van toename in finansiële blootstelling namens die organisasie, maar wanneer dit goed bestuur word, bied dit 'n potensiaal vir verhoogde wins. Daar is 'n geweldige vermeerdering in die hoeveelheid data wat organisasies genereer, versamel en berg. Bestuurders begin alreeds die onskatbare waarde van hierdie bate besef en steun toenemend op intelligensiestelsels vir toegang, analise, opsomming en interpretasie van inligting van omvangryke en veelsoortige databronne. Hierdie sisteme stel hulle in staat om kritieke besluite vinniger of met 'n groter mate van vertroue te neem. Dataontginning is 'n belowende nuwe tegnologie wat daartoe bydra dat intelligensie in hierdie sisteme ingebring word. Die doel van hierdie tesis is om 'n metodologie wat 'n dataontginningstegniek met 'n besluitnemingsondersteuningsisteem integreer sodat 'n intelligente besluitnemingsondersteuningsisteem gevorm kan word. Die implementering van so 'n intelligensie besluitnemingsondersteuningsisteem sal projekbestuurders en projekrisikobestuurders in staat stelom die bestuur van 'n projek te verbeter en die risiko binne die projek te verminder. Hierdie tesis word in twee dele aangebied. Die eerste deel beskryf die prosesse en karakteristieke van projekbestuur, projekrisikobestuur, dataontginning en besluitondersteuningsisteme. Sodoende word aan die leser agtergrondinligting van hierdie vier bestuursmetodologieë verskaf. Die tweede deel beskryf die metodologie en hoe die prosesse van projekbestuur en projekrisikobestuur voordeel kan trek uit die integrasie van 'n dataontginningstegniek en 'n besluitondersteuningsisteem. 'n Toepassing is ontwikkel wat die gevallebasis beredeneringsbenadering as 'n dataontginingstegniek gebruik om 'n projek op 'n intelligente wyse volgens sy risiko's uit te beeld.

Cíl diplomové práce spočíval v nástinu podmínek a prostředí pro implementaci systémů managementu jakosti ve veřejné správě ČR. Při objasňování tohoto cíle bylo využito východisek z dostupných literárních pramenů, praktických zkušeností s implementací Úřadu městské části Prahy 7 a také vlastního výzkumu. Systémy managementu kvality tvoří ucelené přístupy k rozvoji organizace formou obecných doporučení, jak skutečného růstu kvality poskytovaných statků či služeb dosáhnout. Aplikaci standardizovaných metod je třeba přizpůsobit individuální organizaci vzhledem k předmětu její činnosti a vytýčeným cílům. Veškeré přístupy jsou vždy pouze nástrojem a pomůckou, jenž při správném využití dokáží napomoci ke zkvalitnění a zefektivnění řízení. V současné době je implementace přístupů ke kvalitnímu řízení veřejné správy v ČR dobrovolná a každá veřejná instituce/úřad si jej může zvolit, dle vlastního uvážení. Při dostatečné publicitě a prezentaci, by v budoucnu mohly systémy managementu kvality v očích veřejnosti působit jako určitá záruka poskytovaných statků a služeb.

As competition in the business environment increases, knowledge management becomes a critical success factor. Firms should be able to gather, analyze and reuse knowledge to support their strategic decisions. Construction firms should also analyze information in hand (completed and on going project data) and make it a part of their learning mechanism. Post-project appraisal is an organizational learning mechanism aiming to form an organizational memory. Organizational memory is a remedy for organizational amnesia, which is a very common problem in the construction industry due to the project-specific nature of the industry and lack of systematic ways to manage knowledge. Particularly, information about risks and their consequences is an important piece of knowledge that the firms should refer to in the forthcoming projects in order not to do the same mistakes. v Risk management comprises of risk identification, analysis and formulation of risk response strategy to maintain an optimum risk-return structure in a project. It is agreed upon by many researchers that, although risk management is accepted as one of the critical success factors for construction projects, project participants generally do not have sufficient knowledge pertinent to risk management concept and the number of tools which facilitate the risk management process is rather low. Typically, companies carry out a risk assessment exercise at the start of a project and the obtained risk ratings are used to determine contingency. However, after the project is over, a final assessment is not usually carried out. The main idea in this study is that, in order to improve the risk assessment process in forthcoming projects, risk assessment should be a part of post-project appraisal. Risk events that actually happened may be classified according to their sources and impacts (monetary/nonmonetary) as well as the effectiveness of utilized response strategies. Consequently, companies may learn from what had happened in previous projects and prepare more realistic risk management plans in the future. The major objective of this thesis is to develop a project risk management information model for risk assessment using historical data in order to improve risk assessment process in forthcoming projects. The framework is modeled to ensure information continuity throughout the project life cycle by storing and reusing project information that resides in risk event databases. The applicability of the developed database system is tested on a real construction project and potential benefits are discussed.

This thesis describes the development of a Knowledge Management (KM) Assessment tool for the Operational level of the organisation. Its main focus is to help organisations to identify the KM activities and mechanisms that they could improve in order to improve their operational efficiency. Current KM literature is lacking in guiding organisations in what they need to do in order to implement and formalise KM in their operations with a view to improving operational efficiency. Therefore the aim of this thesis is to fill this gap in the literature and also to influence the manner in which KM is practiced. The research project has three distinct stages: the model development, modification and testing stages. The model development stage synthesises KM literature and a pilot study in order to develop a conceptual model of the KM assessment tool. The second stage of the research project describes the application of the tool in three organisations and details the modifications that were made as a result. Finally, the third stage tests the final version of the KM Assessment tool using four case organisations. The KM Assessment tool presented in this thesis is not a prescriptive KM solution; it emphasises the need to approach KM from a process and task specific perspective. Put another way, KM improvements should be implemented to reflect the processes and task charactaristics of each individual organisation. However, the thesis presents a method of evaluation of such that is unform across organisational types

Thesis (M. Env. St.)--University of Adelaide, Mawson Graduate Centre for Environmental Studies, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-173).

This research explores the theory and practice of risk assessment and project evaluationand proposes novel alternatives. Reviewing literature revealed a continuous endeavourfor better project risk modelling and analysis. A number of proposals for improving theprevailing Probability-Impact (P-I) risk model can be found in literature. Moreover,researchers have investigated the feasibility of different theories in analysing projectrisk. Furthermore, various decision support systems (DSSs) are available for aidingpractitioners in risk assessment and decision making. Unfortunately, they are sufferingfrom a low take-up. Instead, personal judgment and past experience are mainly used foranalysing risk and making decisions.In this research, a new risk model is proposed through extending the P-I risk model toinclude a third dimension: probability of impact materialisation. Such an extensionreflects the characteristics of a risk, its surrounding environment and the ability ofmitigating its impact. A new assessment methodology is devised. Dempster-ShaferTheory of Evidence (DST) is researched and presented as a novel alternative toProbability Theory (PT) and Fuzzy Sets Theory (FST) which dominate the literature ofproject risks analysis. A DST-based assessment methodology was developed forstructuring the personal experience and professional judgment of risk analysts andutilising them for risk analysis. Benefiting from the unique features of the EvidentialReasoning (ER) approach, the proposed methodology enables analysts to express theirevaluations in distributed forms, so that they can provide degrees of belief in apredefined set of assessment grades based on available information. This is a veryeffective way for tackling the problem of lack of information which is an inherentfeature of most projects during the tendering stage. It is the first time that such anapproach is ever used for handling construction risk assessment. Monetary equivalent isused as a common scale for measuring risk impact on various project success objectives,and the evidential reasoning (ER) algorithm is used as an assessment aggregation toolinstead of the simple averaging procedure which might not be appropriate in allsituations. A DST-based project evaluation framework was developed using projectrisks and benefits as evaluation attributes. Monetary equivalent was used also as acommon scale for measuring project risks and benefits and the ER algorithm as anaggregation tool.The viability of the proposed risk model, assessment methodology and projectevaluation framework was investigated through conducting interviews with constructionprofessionals and administering postal and online questionnaires. A decision supportsystem (DSS) was devised to facilitate the proposed approaches and to perform therequired calculations. The DSS was developed in light of the research findingsregarding the reasons of low take-up of the existing tools. Four validation case studieswere conducted. Senior managers in separate British construction companies tested thetool and found it useful, helpful and easy to use.It is concluded that the proposed risk model, risk assessment methodology and projectevaluation framework could be viable alternatives to the existing ones. Professionalexperience was modelled and utilised systematically for risk and benefit analysis. Thismay help closing the gap between theory and practice of risk analysis and decisionmaking in construction. The research findings recommend further exploration of thepotential applications of DST and ER in construction management domain.

The master thesis deals with the performance evaluation of the selected company according to the multi-criteria model START PLUS. Based on the assessment of key performance indicators in individual areas a scoring is created in order to identify strengths and areas for improvement. The last chapter of this thesis is dedicated to proposal of concrete measures and recommendations to increase the performance of the analyzed company.