The purpose of this study is to explore the implementation of an IST in a rural primary school of Northern KZN. The ISTs within an inclusive education context have not existed in the said area, due in part to the way the district support structure was implemented. Previously, the main focus had been on psycho-educational assessment, which was done in a more traditional way, with no specific interventions after assessment. This, however, was not in accordance with the ex-KwaZulu Department of Education modus operandi. Although the Education Support Services (ESS) of the past era provided some support for learners with barriers to learning in Northern KZN, it was not enough. The research site is nestled in a valley amidst rocky land in Northern Zululand, with sparsely populated communities around the school. Acculturation, that is the absorption of other cultures, prevails among the local people, with influences noticeable in some community houses being built in the semi-urban style of neighbouring Swaziland and Mozambique. However, the majority of the community continue to live in traditional houses and the area still operates as a subsistence economy. This is evident along the roadsides, where there are a number of informal small business sites from which the local community sell their wild fruits, arts, crafts and/or firewood to passers-by, including tourists. Many learners assist their parents with these sales after school, over weekends and on public holidays. Some have large fields for growing vegetables, mealies and other crops. It is significant that the majority of the community is illiterate, with this becoming a challenge to the school because the same parents are expected to support their children with their schoolwork, as well as participating in the school activities. The cooperation between the home and the school should be improved, as many learners are not staying with their natural parents but with members of the extended family, including their grandparents. For much of the time these guardians (grandparents and care-givers) have their own personal commitments. The School Governing Body (SGB), including parent representatives, is instrumental in improving educator-parent relationships. / Mrs. O.R. Pettipher

M.Ed. (Educational Management) / Situational leadership can be very effective in schools if applied correctly. It is therefore essential for the head of department to know exactly what situational leadership is all about. Situational leadership is defined by the Hersey and Blanchard as follows: Situational leadership is based on an interplay among: the amount of guidance and direction (task behaviour) a leader gives, the amount of socio-emotional support (relationship behaviour) a leader provides, and the readiness level displayed by the followers in performing a specific task, function or objective. There is unfortunately no one best way to influence teachers. It is of the utmost importance that the head of department must have the ability to diagnose and interpret the situation correctly in order to adapt his style accordingly. The leadership style of the head of department will therefore match the maturity level of the teachers. The ultimate goal will be the effective changing of leadership style from telling to selling to participating and eventually to delegating. The teachers will then be able to function independent and autonomous. The influence of various management models and-theories will also be dealt with in this research. The model of Hersey and Blanchard most probably originated from the model of Tannenbaum and Schmidt. Situational leadership is accepted worldwide as effective and functional if applied correctly. The correct application will thus result in effective teaching and positive results in that specific department. It is therefore an indisputable fact that situational leadership has a positive influence on teaching and educating if applied efficiently.

M.Ed. / The educational system in South Africa has undergone several changes in the last few years, with an emphasis on providing quality education for all. These changes are in line with international trends towards an inclusive approach to education and learners. Within this framework, a long-term goal of the education system is to investigate and address barriers to learning, while recognising and accommodating the diverse range of learning needs in this country. The new Education Support Services will be the cocoordinating structure which facilitates this process. At school level, school-based support teams are being created in order to provide the link between schools and these support services. Although all these changes have been documented, it has become necessary to investigate whether the new support services are indeed achieving their goals. In light of this, a qualitative study was conducted in four Gauteng primary schools, to assess the utilisation of psychological support services. The methods used were individual interviews and focus group interviews. The individual interviews were conducted with principals or life orientation coordinators. The focus group interviews included life skills educators, life orientation coordinators, members of the school-based support teams, and school management teams. There appeared to be minimal utilisation of Psychological Support Services in this study, and this was attributed to lack of staff within the support services, an abundance of paperwork, staff turnover and unavailability, and inefficient response time to requests. Difficulties identified within the schools were academic and social issues, as well as parental and staff challenges. Trauma was also a significant problem encountered by schools. The schools in the study highlighted their needs in terms of support. These were related to intervention, including prevention and consistent ongoing support, and staff professional development. From this study it is evident that primary schools in Gauteng are not utilising the Psychological Support Services, and that the new support structures are not reaching the learners. Recommendations for improving this are made.

A dissertation submitted to the FACULTY OF EDUCATION at the UNIVERSITY OF ZULULAND in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF EDUCATION in the Department of Educational Planning and Administration, 2002. / The research examines the position power of the principals in decision making with a view to establishing how learners and educators respond to the principals' decisions. It also explores the principals' involvement with school management team and school governing body in decision making and how the Department of Education helps or hinders the principals in decision making. Questionnaires were used by the researcher to establish the above scope of the study. The researcher found that the principal's decisions are accepted by school management team, school governing body and learners if these parties were involved in the decision-making process. Educators were found to be sometimes difficult and, instead of contributing positively to decision making, they use the opportunity to criticise the principal and thereby hinder the decision-making process. The study reveals that the respondents feel that the attitude of the principals towards learners, educators and parents contribute to how their decisions are accepted by all these parties. From the study it is established that principals use their skills and knowledge to facilitate the effectiveness of their position power, and thereby influence the decisions positively in order to get work done. The study also reveals that the principals involve the school governing body in decision making. This improves the relationship between principals and school governing bodies and results in commitment to the implementation of decisions, and therefore the success of the school. There is a low involvement of school management team in decision¬making, and this is a problem for the school community as a whole as it will result in poor implementation of decisions. The study further reveals that the interaction between the Department of Education and the principals is inadequate. The principals are not involved in the policy-making decisions that affect their schools and this in turn causes problems for the principals in the implementation of these decisions. This results in principals having to contact the Department of Education requesting direction even on petty issues. Inadequate involvement of principals by the Department is disempowering, and threatens the fulfillment of the Department of Education's intention of empowering schools.

This dissertation explores (i) the determinants of executive selection in the international labor market, (ii) how these determinants shift relative to economic and institutional conditions, and (iii) how they differ for various functional roles. Using regression-based analysis and competitive assignment matching models, I examined executive appointment patterns in the subsidiaries of global banks located in Central & Eastern Europe between 2005 and 2012. The setting and timeframe not only yielded a heterogeneous sample of executive appointments under a variety of environmental conditions but also provided the opportunity to study the impact of financial shocks in the environment and/or the subsidiary network on executive succession during and in the aftermath of the Financial Crisis of 2008. The results indicate that there exists a substantial difference in appointment strategies by functional role, which remains intact regardless of the level of environmental uncertainty present in the subsidiary market. In examining the entire subsidiary executive team, the results of the two-sided competitive assignment matching model show that firm-specific human capital is the dominant determinant of an executive appointment during an economic upswing, but during an economic downturn firm-specific human capital is nearly four times weaker in driving an executive—subsidiary match than general human capital. Upon limiting the sample to just subsidiary CEOs, I find that while broad economic shocks and subsidiary-specific performance shocks both incite CEO turnover, they prompt different preferences for successors' human capital attributes. Specifically, country-wide economic crisis promotes a preference for local human capital, while performance shocks limited to the subsidiary are associated with a preference for expatriate human capital and for successors with broad international experience.

Background & problem:  In a fast-moving environment where organizations are forced to meet changing stakeholder needs, the importance of understanding top management teams (TMT) becomes more prominent given their influential position. Further on, with a growing population, the demand in the real estate industry is deemed to have a continuous growth. For this reason, the urge to implement a sustainability strategy has become fundamentally important to stay competitive. Hence, corporate sustainability communication has purposely been served as a tool to provide misleading information, commonly referred as greenwashing.   Purpose: Building on that, by studying the attitude of TMT regarding the integration of corporate sustainability strategies, it is possible to explore how TMTs are being influenced by stakeholders in their strategic decisions. Furthermore, it is possible to identify characteristics that affect potential drivers of greenwashing.    Method: To serve the purpose of this study, data were collected through a quantitative online survey targeting TMT members of Swedish real estate companies. The framework created for this study is based on an extensive literature review and contains constructs based on observable characteristics drawn on the illuminations from upper echelon theory (UET) (Hambrick & Mason, 1984). To adequately analyse relationships between the different variables, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis as well as multiple linear regression analysis were conducted.    Conclusion: The results show that the business career construct based on the UET items: financial position, different functional track, career experience and education, has a positive correlation with TMTs perceived gain of positive publicity by stakeholders if implementing a sustainability strategy. Moreover, this study adds knowledge of the underlaying characteristics of managers’ attitude towards corporate sustainability and provide support that business career characteristics follow a stakeholder-orientated logic of implementing a sustainability strategy.

This study investigates if the proportion of women on Board of Directors (BOD) and Top Management Teams (TMT) in Swedish listed firms affect the financial performance. Using a sample of 1,432 firm-year observations for firms listed at Nasdaq Stockholm during the years 2012-2019, the study estimates multiple regressions to investigate the association between proportion of women on BODs and TMTs and firms’ financial performance, measured as ROA, ROE and Tobin’s Q. Using an interaction variable, the study also investigates if female representation in TMT affects the association between BOD gender diversity and financial performance. Furthermore, in line with critical mass theory, the study investigates whether there is a specific threshold of female representation that needs to be achieved for the performance effect to occur. The study’s results provide some evidence for a positive association between proportion of women on BOD and financial performance, but only possible indications for a negative effect of proportion of women in TMTs and financial performance. No support is found for the interaction effect. The positive impact of female representation on BOD and TMT does not seem to depend on any critical mass threshold. The study contributes with a new perspective on how gender diversity on several firm levels affects the financial performance.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree MASTER OF EDUCATION in the Department of Educational Planning and Administration of the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand, 2006. / This study examines the leadership role of School Management Teams (SMTs) in marketing schools in the Lower Tugela Circuit in KwaZulu-Natal. School managers currently face the major challenge of finding innovative ways of attracting learners to their institutions. With at least part of their budget derived from school fees and private donors, they need to ensure solid learner enrolment numbers and good pass rates. To address this issue, SMTs are expected to employ business and marketing principles in their management plans. SMTs are faced with the task of changing educators' mindsets and perceptions with regard to marketing. They are required to inculcate a competitive spirit among educators and create partnerships with industries to attract sponsorships. Furthermore, SMTs need to ensure that the needs of their learners are satisfied. An empirical investigation was undertaken to assess and evaluate the role of SMTs in marketing their schools. Data was solicited from a sample of SMTs by means of questionnaires. Both open and closed-ended questions were used. The following are key findings of the study: • Some schools lack teacher development programmes to capacitate educators to market their schools effectively. • School Governing Bodies (SGBs) are not sufficiently involved in school marketing decisions. • Some schools have not established partnership with business and industry. On the basis of these findings, the following recommendations were made: • SMTs must be tasked with developing programmes to capacitate educators to market their schools effectively. • SGBs should be involved in a greater capacity in school marketing decisions. • SMTs should bridge the gap between schools as education service providers and business/industry as the ultimate consumer of these services, by marrying the business/industry knowledge and skills requirements with relevant school curriculum design.

A dissertation submitted to the FACULTY OF EDUCATION at the UNIVERSITY OF ZULULAND in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF EDUCATION in the Department of Educational Planning and Administration, 2004. / This research examined the role of school management teams (SMTs) in facilitating quality education in schools. The study made use of questionnaires to establish the perceptions of SMTs towards quality education they facilitate in their schools. This study was undertaken to investigate the challenges that are encountered by school management teams in facilitating quality education in schools. With regard to management, the research investigates the roles of school management teams such as building trust to support quality education, developing an enabling school culture and climate, demonstrating appropriate leadership. From the review of literature on the role of school management teams, the study provides a comprehensive exposition of what school management entails, especially as far as curricular management, visioning and strategy formulation, is concerned. Against this background, the study investigates the role of SMTs in secondary schools in the Insuze - Noodsberg Ward in Ndwedwe Circuit. On the basis of empirical work, the study makes recommendations regarding the role of SMTs. The recommendations made are a contribution towards improving SMTs and leading them in a process which can truly enhance them to perform their roles of facilitating quality education in schools.

Submitted in partial fulfilment of a Masters Degree in the Department of Educational Planning and Administration at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2005. / The primary objective of this study was to investigate the impact of School Management Teams (SMTs) on Learner Academic Performance (LAP). To achieve this, a literature review was conducted on relevant strategies that SMTs can adopt to enhance LAP. Furthermore, an empirical research project was launched to test the extent to which these strategies were or could be employed in local schools. The empirical study was conducted by means of a questionnaire-driven survey, administered in the Port Shepstone District. The study revealed that LAP is adversely affected in schools where learners are not part of the decision-making process and where they are not given immediate feedback after their assessment activities. In such cases, opportunities for improve performance were lost. Other key findings of the study suggest that: • Many STMs have not implemented staff development programmes. • Some SMTs have not involved parents in the formulation or implementation of LAP enhancement programmes. • Educators are not fully motivated to enhance LAP. • A general lack of communication between SMTs and the rest of the staff members compromises potential enhancement of LAP. • Some educators are not familiar with the vision of the school and consequently do not realise its goals. • LAP is negatively impacted in schools where there are indications of poor strategic planning. • A lack of non-management educator involvement in curriculum development also negatively impacts LAP. The above shortcomings were compared to recommended and best practices where suggested in research on LAP enhancement. The following suggestions were made in this regard: • The National Department of Education (NDoE) should provide resources for on-going capacity-building. • Parents should be involved in supporting the school to manage learners and learning activities effectively. • SMTs should capitalize on educator strengths, put in place educator development programmes to address areas of weakness and motivate educators to excel in teaching. • SMTs should create and maintain clear channels of communication. • SMTs and educators should develop a shared vision to enhance LAP and this should be communicated to all constituencies in the teaching and learning environment (including parents and the general community in which the school is embedded). • SMTs and educators should engage in strategic planning to enhance LAP. • SMTs should conduct staff training programmes on curriculum development. This study is deemed significant as it exposes, at grassroots level, problems experienced in enhancing LAP and makes practical recommendations on strategies to improve LAP. These recommendations are based on a review of both national and international literature and have precedents of successful implementation here and abroad.