Pastaruoju metu Lietuvą užvaldė realybės šou žanras. Dabar televizjos ir interneto dėka mes galime stebėti begalę realybės šou projektų, kurie atvaizduoja realų gyvenimą, kurių dėka Lietuva atranda naujų talentų arba vieniši žmonės susiranda savo meilę. Informacinės technologijos paskatino ir pramoginių šokių išpopuliarėjimą. Populiarūs televizijos šokių projektai paskatino žmones lankyti pramoginius šokius bei prisidėjo prie daugybės naujų šokių studijų atsiradimo. Mėgėjų šokėjų ir suaugusiųjų šokių mokymosi ypatumai pakankamai plačiai išanalizuoti mokslinėje literatūroje, tačiau iki šiol neaišku, ar mokymasis šokti dalyvaujant televizijos šokių projekte skiriasi nuo tradicinio mokymosi šokių studijose. Tyrimo objektu pasirinktas mėgėjų pramoginio šokio mokymas televizijos projekte metu. Tyrimo tikslas –išanalizuoti mėgėjų pramoginio šokio mokymo, dalyvaujant televizijos šokių projekte, ypatumus. Atlikus temai aktualios literatūros analizę, išsiaiškinta, kad televizija daro didelę įtaką asmenybei, ji pateikia gyvenimo būdo modelius, elgesio normas, vertybių sistemą. Žiūrėdami televiziją, žmonės įgyja galimybę išmokti daugelį naujų dalykų, pvz., šokti. Suaugusiųjų mokymas šokti turi savo ypatumų – mokytojas privalo atsižvelgti į jų fizines, psichologines, socialines charakteristikas. Siekiant atskleisti mėgėjų šokėjų, dalyvaujančių televizijos projekte, mokymo ypatumus, buvo atlikta šokių projektų dalyvių – mėgėjų šokėjų ir choreografų mokytojų apklausa. Tyrime dalyvavo 9... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / In recent years Lithuanian television has been taken over by the reality TV show genre. Due to television and Internet we have the opportunity to watch many reality shows, representing real life and enabling us to discover new talents or help people to find new love. Advancemenet in IT technologies enabled the popularisation of ballroom dance. Popular dance TV shows stimualted public interest in ballroom dance, which lead to the opening many more new dance studios. The aspects of social dancers‘ and adults‘ teaching are well described in academic literature. But it is still unlear wether training for the reality TV project is different from training in dance studio. The object of the study is training of social dancers engaged in the reality dance TV project. The study is aimed at analyzing the aspects of social dancers participating in reality TV projects. The analysis of literature revealed teh great influence of television on personality. Television provides lifestyle, behavior norms, social values. Reality TV projects provide the opportunity for people to learn lots of new things (e. g. dance). Adult dance training is influenced by participants‘ physical, psychological and socials characteristics. In order to discover the features of training social dancers‘ participating in TV dance projects, the survey was conducted. Nine social dancers (3 female, 6 male) and two choreographers (male and female) participated in the survey. The survey revealed different aimes for... [to full text]

Šiame darbe buvo siekiama išanalizuoti švietimo sektoriaus NVO vykdomų projektų valdymo problemas ir pateikti projektų valdymo problemų sprendimo pasiūlymus. Šiam tikslui pasiekti buvo analizuojama mokslinės literatūra, dokumentai, teisės aktai, spaudos publikacijos, elektroninė informacija. Taip pat atliktas kiekybinis tyrimas, statistiniams duomenims surinkti panaudotas anketavimo metodas. Pirmiausia darbe apžvelgiama projektų vadybos samprata: aptariamas projekto sąvokos turinys bei projektų vadybos taikymas organizacijose; analizuojami projektų gyvavimo, valdymo ypatumai; nagrinėjama projektų vadyba organizacijos kaitos bei organizacijos kultūros kontekste; nagrinėjamos projektų vadyboje taikomos darbo organizavimo formos. Toliau analizuojami NVO ypatumai Lietuvoje: aptariama NVO sąvoka bei pagrindiniai principai ir tikslai; analizuojama NVO sektoriaus teisinė aplinka Lietuvoje; nagrinėjami NVO veiklos sričių ypatumai; analizuojamos projektų vadybos taikymo tendencijos Lietuvos NVO, kuomet NVO traukiamos problemų sprendimų, tą darant per projektų finansavimą, nagrinėjama Europos Sąjungos paramos Lietuvai, kai projektų vadybos pagalba įsisavinamos šaliai skiriamos lėšos; apibūdinami NVO sektoriaus valdymo ypatumai ir jų problemos. Trečiame darbo skyriuje aptariami atlikto kiekybinio tyrimo rezultatai: aptariamas tyrimo organizavimas ir metodika; apibūdinama tyrimo duomenų analizė; nagrinėjama gauta informacija apie projektų administravimo personalą; analizuojama... [to full text] / The purpose of this master thesis was to traverse projects’ governance problems of Educational sector NGOs and to present suggestions of solutions for these problems. In order to achieve the goal was chosen the method of analysis of nonfictions, documents of NGOs legislations, publications on internet websites; was made quantitative research, for gathering statistical information was chosen the method of questionnaire. First of all, the theoretic conceptions of project management were analyzed: there were discussed the notion and implementation of project management in the organizations; there were analyzed stages and singularities of the projects, as well as project management in the context of the culture of organization, and analyzed organized work forms, applied in the projects’ management. Further, there are analyzed singularities of NGOs in Lithuania: analyzed peculiarities of NGOs’ activities, when they are involved to solve the problems by implementing projects, analyzed peculiarities of projects governance and problems of NGOs. In the third part of this work the results of quantitative research are analyzed: there are discussed the methodology, how research was organized; described the data of research; analyzed gained information about projects’ administrative staff; analyzed information about projects’ governance system. In order to find differences and similarities between groups of respondents, gained information was compared, there were given common... [to full text]

This thesis discusses the challenges of modern organizations in their efforts of designing relevant project governance systems. To address the challenge the paper proposes using resource-based view on project-based organizations in order to evaluate and identify key governance resources. Given that prevailing rational and standardized models in project-related literature provide organizations with homogeneous resource-base, this paper invites attention to those resources, which have the potential to deliver unique character to the organizations. The thesis first discusses the relevance of exploring projects as governance resources at project-based organizations, next screens the projects through VRIO framework of resource-based theory. Derived intangible resources and organizational resources are further explored at a case study organization. The findings are analysed through complex adaptive systems theory, where intrinsic motivations appear as sources for emerging project governance systems, while principal trust serves as a resource for self-organization of projects and project governance unit.

Rural development is a serious problem in Bangladesh, and so is the situation of women. This thesis assesses the programmes offered by a particular non-governmental organization, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), which simultaneously promote rural development and improve the status of women. This assessment is achieved by examining the functioning and impact of these programmes in a single village. The study is exploratory and uses qualitative methods, employing principally unstructured but in-depth interviews. Results indicate that most village women were aware of the need for improvement in the position of women, but interest, and thus active participation, was greater among those who were widowed or divorced. For these women, the programmes did succeed in raising their income through better technical knowledge, and in some ways improved their position in the family and society. They did not, however, succeed in raising their administrative knowledge, confining them to "women's only" projects, and did little to increase political empowerment.

Given the dynamic and unpredictable nature of modern business environment, organizations need to always be ready for change. It is essential for employees to be able to accept change initiatives at workplace and contribute to them constructively.  The authors of this research suggest that due to the similarities in the nature of their implementation process, projects are the most appropriate vehicle for implementing change initiatives. Change initiatives implemented through projects take characteristics of planned change and exclude emergent changes from the scope the scope of this research. The initiating phase of a change project is devoted to creating readiness for change, which is the main focus of the research. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of organizational culture in creating readiness for a change project. The research looks at the process of creating change readiness. This provides a ground for identifying the importance of organizational culture and its interconnection with change management efforts. Further, the dimensions of organizational culture are identified in the relation to change readiness. The literature suggests that these dimensions create change readiness. If organizational culture does not incorporate the identified dimensions of organizational culture, change management efforts should be applied to reinforce or create them. Eight interviews were conducted with change leaders/ project managers. Each interview was conducted in the context of a change project experienced by the interviewee, in order to gain an insight in to the influence of organizational culture on creating change readiness. The study finds organizational culture as being pivotal in creating change readiness. The insight taken from the empirical data allows differentiating between organizational culture as a whole and organizational culture created within the project context by change management efforts. It was found that organizational culture in its exclusivity, does not lead to readiness for a change project. Organizational culture rather builds a foundation for implementing change and creates readiness for a change project through mediation of change management efforts.

In the contemporary business environment multiple projects are a common way of organising work and they are usually implemented and managed as a portfolio of projects. It is widely recognised that effective project portfolio management delivers a range of strategic benefits and significantly contributes to overall organisational success. However, project portfolio management is acknowledged by both theory and practice to be a highly challenging task which is even amplified by the presence of project interdependencies. Managing project interdependencies is found to be an area of weakness for contemporary portfolio management, which so far remains under investigated but emergent field within general portfolio management theory. Therefore this study presents an empirical investigation that aims to uncover why and how organisations from the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry manage project interdependencies. In order to answer why organisations manage project interdependencies the study examines the benefits of project interdependency management, the negative effects of failed project interdependency management and the related challenges. In order to investigate how project interdependencies are managed this study focuses on the hard and soft practices that portfolio practitioners use. The study is based on cross-case analysis of two case organisations operating within the ICT industry in Italy. The ICT is chosen as an excellent ground for studying project interdependency management since it is of significant importance for the contemporary world’s economy where project and portfolio management is practiced intensively. Qualitative data is collected via semi-structure interviews. The key findings apply to both case organisations demonstrating their similar reasons and manner of managing project interdependencies. The research findings show that there are various types of project interdependencies in the project portfolios that practitioners need to account for and that effective management of these interdependencies delivers significant benefits contributing to the portfolio success, while failed interdependency management distorts the portfolio success. The study indicates potential challenges that project interdependency management may encounter and confirms that comprehensive consideration of project interdependencies is a rather complex task within a project portfolio management. In order to manage issues arising from interdependent projects and leverage related benefits, organisations implement the following hard practices: web application platforms and tracking tools; and soft practices: formal and informal PM meetings, creation of a cooperative culture, leadership, negotiation and convincing and sacred cow. These practices are examined along with their benefits, limitations and context of their application. Although both hard and soft practices are found to be important in the case organisations, the preference is given to soft ones, mainly because of the benefits that soft practices offer over hard ones and the fact that the indicated hard practices allow only identification of project interdependencies, but do not provide managerial solutions per se. Therefore similar organisations operating within ICT industry may find it useful to devote attention to soft practices as they are found to be a prevailing mechanism for managing project interdependencies. The combination of hard and soft practices can also be seen beneficial for realisation of effective project interdependency management.

<p>The generation of large volumes of solid and liquid wastes in urban and periurban areas of Ghana is a big problem for the people and government of Ghana. It contributes to the outbreak of many diseases in the country such as malaria, diarrhoea and typhoid fever. In managing the situation, a new concept called ecological sanitation (ecosan), which focuses on reuse of waste, has been introduced in the country. The objectives of the thesis were to criticise the environmental sanitation policy&nbsp / by analysing its content in relation to policy implementation arrangements, to discuss programmes and projects identified under the policy, to critically examine the implementation of an ecosan project as a way of achieving the goal and objectives by outlining its implementation processes, prospects and challenges, and to make appropriate recommendations. The analysis and discussion of the thesis were based on both primary and secondary data. The primary data, on one hand, were collected on the prospects and challenges that exist in the implementation of ecosan projects from Kumasi metropolis. The secondary data, on the other hand, were from&nbsp / books, journals and websites. From the research analysis, it emerged that the policy allows the implementation of many sanitation projects including ecosan. Secondly, stakeholders see ecosanto be a good approach to reduce waste generation in the country. However, the main challenges that exist in promoting the concept are inadequate financial support, unavailability of implementation guidelines and lack of knowledge about concept details. It is therefore argued that financial support, implementation guidelines and awareness-creation activities should be available in the implementation of ecosan in the metropolis. Government, private organisations, companies and individuals should each contribute their quota in the support and processes.</p>

This study aims to develop a robust methodology for measuring the performance of equity-share schemes in South African agriculture. Equity-share schemes are privately owned farming operations that are generally restructured as companies with the original owner and the farmworkers as shareholders. Several studies have investigated various aspects of the performance of these schemes but no single study has yet measured their performance using a comprehensive and objective set of criteria. Four categories of criteria are proposed: poverty alleviation; empowerment and participation; institutional arrangements and governance; and financial performance. This study does not aim to assess the performance of existing equity-share schemes rather a methodology for the four criteria based on empirical evidence gathered in 2004 from a land reform project in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal and seven established equity-share schemes in the Western Cape. Poverty alleviation is measured using a transition matrix of households grouped by four different symptoms of poverty: current income, wealth, health and a principal component index of housing quality based on building materials, access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. Eight. categories of indicators are recommended for empowerment and participation: control and ownership; skills transfer; understanding of the structure of the scheme; information; outcomes; trust; outreach; and participation. A scorecard applying norms based on empirical evidence gathered at equity-share schemes in the Western Cape is used to assess the indicators. A scorecard approach is also applied to institutional arrangements and governance, which are measured using three categories of indicators: accountability, transparency and property rights. Recognised indicators ;of financial performance are applied to balance sheet and income statement data provided by four of the seven equity-share schemes in the Western Cape. This analysis highlights problems with several of the conventional ratios used to measure the profitability, solvency and growth of recently restructured farming enterprises whose 'empowerment' status attracts exceptionally high levels of debt capital to finance long-term investments. To avoid these problems it is recommended that, for equity-share schemes, profitability should be measured by the return on assets or dividend return; solvency by the debt/asset ratio; liquidity by cash flow projections; growth by changes in the (estimated) real. value of shares; and workers' total returns by changes in the sum of the real wage bill, capital gains, dividends, interest and other benefits accruing to workers in aggregate. The proposed performance measures are relevant, manageable in number and have feasible norms based on empirical evidence. These indicators and their norms need to be tested on a wider scale and over time. Further research should be undertaken to estimate weights for the empowerment and institutional indicators. / Thesis (M.Sc.Agric.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

Since the 1950s, various paradigms of development have aimed to achieve improvement in the living conditions in the developing world (Africa, Asia and Latin America). Today the effects of globalisation have increased the gap between the information and technology haves and have-nots and development practice (born out of the paradigms developed over the last fifty years) now seeks to address issues such as access to Information Communication Technology (ICT) and the need for developing countries to participate in the global economy. The practice of development has and continues to raise debate, as Friberg and Hettne (1985 in Melkote and Steeves, 2001:19) note "there is no universal path to development. Each society must find its own strategy". Thus development projects have ranged in approach and focus. This research project examines the first year of the joint venture between the Media in Education Trust (MiET) and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education (KZNDE) to develop Education Centres Supporting Rural Development in KwaZulu-Natal. These education centres aim to address a number of development issues for rural communities in KwaZulu-Natal. Through these centres access is provided for schools and communities in the area to Information Communication Technology, teacher development programmes, educational materials (including textbooks), library services, skills development programmes (including Adult Basic Education and Training), youth programmes and HIV/AIDS education and support. This research examines the Education Centres project in relation to Development Communication Theory and the local and global development context. The local context focuses on the challenges faced by South Africa as a developing nation and the urban-rural divide. The global perspective is gained through examining the centres project in relation to the Millennium Development Goals. In order to examine the Education Centres, this research project examines three centres in KwaZulu-Natal and their objectives in relation to the issues of participation, access, sustainability and the economic and socio-economic impact of the development project. These issues relate not only to the local and global context for development but to the relationship between technology, education and development. This Education Centres project is still in the early stages and thus the challenges faced could still be resolved during the course of the project. The key challenges identified when examining the three centres in relation to the issues of participation, access, sustainability and the economic and socio-economic impact of the development project are the lack of physical resources currently available in the centres and the lack of Internet connectivity in two of the centres. These two factors restrict the centres from fully achieving their objectives in the context of access, participation, sustainability and the socio-economic impact of the project. The Education Centres project is scheduled to establish these Education Centres over four years. This research presents an analysis of the first year of the project, thus there is opportunity for additional research as the project progresses and this future research can more accurately examine if the Education Centres project is meeting its objectives in relation to the issues outlined in this research - those of access, participation, sustainability and the socio-economic impact of the development project. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Dev.Studies)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.