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

Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2006 / Numerous programmes addressing performance assessment in the workplace have been designed and implemented in various organizations. In South Africa, public institutions have employed various appraisal systems with mixed results. A new tool for performance assessment has been designed and implemented since 2003 (for the past three years). This tool is called Performance Management Development System (PMDS).This study is based on the performance assessment of women in managerial positions, in the Lepelle-Nkumpi Municipality, Capricorn District, Limpopo Province. It explores the views of women managers on the challenges they are faced with, the type of support they receive, the effects of PMDS on work performance and the extent of institutional intervention at workplace. The qualitative techniques were used on the population of 180 women managers. The sample size of 114 was selected using random sampling method. The findings indicate the need to improve Performance Management and Development Systems (PMDS) and Performance Instruments (PIs) in order to create an environment conducive to better performance standards of women managers.

Thesis (M. Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2013 / Recent changes in the allocation of land through the results of land redistribution have compelled members of communities to form committees, that is, Communal Property Associations (CPAs) that would be responsible for managing the claimed land. The Maruleng Local Municipality was not excluded from this process. Five of the CPAs have been formed under the above mentioned municipality to manage claimed land. The research investigated the impact of performance management on the Moletele CPA’s performance at Maruleng Local Municipality of the Limpopo Province. The management of Moletele CPA was not without challenges, problems such as lack of resources, adequate training programmes, lack of clear policy and objectives were also found in the study. This research also seeks to investigate why Moletele CPA is performing better than the other CPAs in the municipality. In order to understand the total context of the challenges faced by Moletele CPA, an empirical research and interviews were conducted to collect data from the members of Moletele CPA. The findings of the study suggest that a lack of resources and relevant training programmes are contributing negatively towards the performance of the Moletele CPA in particular, and other CPAs in general. To conclude, the study revealed that performance management is not determined by one factor, but other challenges such as clarity of policies and cooperation amongst stakeholders also contribute towards the success of the Moletele CPA ;hence the recommendations made in chapter five.

Thesis ( M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2015 / This study was undertaken with the purpose of investigating the implementation of performance management in the Mbombela Local Municipality. This is a quantitative case study. The objective is to assess how Performance Management is implemented and used as a developmental tool to ensure and speed up service delivery in the municipality. Purposive and random sampling has been used to collect data and SPSS was applied to analyze data. The research revealed that Performance Management has not been implemented at all levels of employment. The study recommended that Performance Management should be implemented at all levels of employment and feedback should be given to employees promptly in order to improve their performance. In-service training is offered to employees to improve their performance and bring about understanding of their appraisal system. All employees must be motivated, trained and encouraged to share the same norms, values and organization objectives. The Municipal Manager should be the engine in terms of ensuring that Performance Management is implemented throughout the municipality to ensure quick service delivery to the committees

Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (THAI) is a very large organization compared to Thai standards. It generates huge incomes to a number of families, directly and indirectly. Like many airlines, the main concern with THAI and the regulatory authorities is safety because THAI is in a mass transportation business. THAI have had two accidents within a span of some six years, killing a total of 214 people. The accidents affected THAI in four key areas, namely political, economical, social and technological. This phenomenon prompted the study of aviation safety in THAI. The question that requires an answer is: “How should THAI build its protocols to enhance aviation safety?” This then became the research question. The objective of the study is to build a model suitable for THAI to enhance aviation safety, thus answering the question. Through a review of the literature within the parent disciplines, the product, process, and customers of flying activities were identified. The four processes, the MP, the HRD, the PM and the RS are recognized through rigorous search of the literature. The developments of the required seven elements of skills needed for pilot performance measurement were made.A review of study within the immediate discipline concerning Aviation Safety in THAI was carried out and the current status in THAI was defined. All of these led to the identification of research question, research objective, and research propositions. The research propositions were:• Research Proposition 1: that the management practice (MP) process receives inputs from the reporting system (RS) process. Outputs from the management practice (MP) process form inputs for the human resource development (HRD) process.• Research Proposition 2: that the human resource development (HRD) process receives inputs from the management practice (MP) process. Outputs from the human resource development (HRD) process form inputs for the performance measurement (PM) process.• Research Proposition 3: that the performance measurement (PM) process receives inputs from the human resource development (HRD) process. Outputs from the human resource development (HRD) process form inputs for the reporting system (RS) process.• Research Proposition 4: that the reporting system (RS) process receives inputs from the performance measurement (PM) process. Outputs from the reporting system (RS) process form inputs for the management practice (MP) process. • Research Proposition 5: that the individual process components identified in Research Propositions 1, 2, 3 and 4, can be consolidated into an overall, comprehensive Continual Improvement (CI) loop.Once the research propositions were established, the research design was conceived. Due to the fact that THAI is a unique airline influenced by its history of inception and by particular sets of cultures, an embedded, single case-study research method was used. Many techniques within the case-study method were employed starting from a secondary data search, direct observations, focus group interviews, elite interviews, pilot study, participant observations and in-depth interviews. Issues such as validity, reliability, sensitivity, generalizability and ethics were referred to. Issues on data processing, coding, editing, and interpreting were made and discussed.As a result of the various methods of study and the fieldwork previously mentioned, findings were derived. These were then edited, categorized, coded, tabulated and interpreted into meaningful information. Findings from the study and fieldwork supported all the propositions derived from secondary data search and literature review. Consequently the gap identified in the literature was now filled and the principal model was drawn. A slight modification was introduced in keeping with the interpretation of the findings. A recommendation was made that THAI implement policy measures and professional practices derived from the implication of the study to minimize risks in flight operations system and thus maximize safety.Based on the findings of this research, it is recommended that future studies be conducted employing a deductive, quantitative, statistical method to evaluate the model and test its theoretical implications.

It is understood that national culture has an impact on organisations but what is not well understood is the extent to which this occurs and how it occurs. This thesis examines how employees working in a major multinational corporation (MNC) in the Asia Pacific Region (APR) perceive work commitment. Multinational corporations use ethnocentric and largely American constructs and measures in all areas of staff performance, including work commitment. This study is situated within the service sector where the work commitment of employees is increasingly posited as an important element of achieving competitive advantage. This is an applied research study that seeks to both further the understanding of work commitment in a cross-cultural context, namely the collectivist cultures of the APR, and to provide answers to questions that the management of the MNC in question had regarding the applicability of their American-developed measure of work commitment. The MNC in this study is one of the largest hotel chains in the world, employing 154,000 employees. The methodological approach adopted was a mixed methods sequential exploratory study, with triangulation of data that included: surveys, interviews, focus groups, forced choice questionnaires and expert panels. The final analysis of data was conducted using the MNC's employee survey (n=19950) of APR countries. A hallmark of the research is the extensive use of triangulation or multiple methods within a mixed methods approach. Cross-cultural studies are fraught with methodological problems, and triangulation of data is considered to be essential to overcome a range of problems, associated with the use of traditional survey methods. This is an insider investigation as the researcher was an employee of the MNC, called Merico for the purposes of this thesis, to maintain the organisation's privacy. The first stage of the study revealed the dimension of collectivism as being of importance to employees in the APR. The familial-type organisational culture Merico created a degree of isomorphism because it aligned more readily with the collectivist values and orientations of employees. In the second stage, the research explored work commitment and discovered that in the APR there was a different set of understandings of work commitment compared to the one used currently by Merico. Through integrating the findings from both stages of the study a new framework of work commitment, called the 'Work and Organisational Kinship' (WOK) framework, was developed. The WOK was then tested against the American model through using the existing employee survey that Merico conducted in 2000 and a new index of work commitment, called the WOKI was proposed for use by Merico. The relevance of this study is that it shows that the 'one size fits all' approach to work commitment will no longer provide a sound approach for managing performance within a competitive market place. The research shows that there are differences between drivers of work commitment and outcomes in the APR compared to those of the US and Australia. Performance management in Merico is heavily rewarded by work commitment. To misunderstand work commitment in the context of the APR and to measure it in a culturally insensitive manner, and then apply reward systems accordingly, poses major problems in performance management. The WOK framework introduces two constructs called 'organisational kinship' and 'service loyalty' that are critical to creating a geocentric approach to work commitment in the APR, and in Merico.

This thesis explores the application of personal construct psychology and the repertory grid to performance management in a technical consulting organisation. The research examines what is important for a manager in assessing work performance and how each manager's mental model for performance compares with his/her peers. Managers acting as raters are the critical link in the observation and assessment of performance and in the feedback process. Rater observations and judgements are affected by their personal mental models regarding what is important. These views may or may not accord with those of their peers, resulting in inconsistency and unfair assessments, or with what the organisation's strategy demands. Understanding rater views on what is important, and how well these align with strategy, is a key to ensure that the appraisal process supports, rather than hinders, both individual and organisational needs. Each manager's personal constructs relating to appraisal were elicited through a repertory grid interview. The elicited constructs were taken together and categorised to derive broad performance categories summarising the views of the entire management team. Each individual's personal constructs were then allocated to the relevant common category to develop a view of how each manager related to the group's overall approach to appraisal. A measure for the importance of each category in making performance judgments (importance score) was derived based on the correlation of the constructs in each category with an overall performance construct. A second measure of a manager's preparedness to discriminate between levels of performance was also derived (discriminant score) based on the variation in each manager's construct structure. In keeping with the personal construct psychology approach, the process emphasizes the importance of discussion with the individual concerned to verify the sorting and ranking pro cess. A ranking process to establish the overall management group priorities for judging performance (team mental models) was demonstrated and a charting process was developed to facilitate presentation and discussion of the results. The research has demonstrated the strength of the repertory grid process as a means of getting at a rater's framework for thinking about appraisal and provides a way to identify possible voids or blind spots in a rater's approach. Understanding the most important categories of performance used by raters provides an opportunity for management to determine whether these are likely to achieve the objectives of the company, and if necessary, to introduce and inculcate different approaches.

<p>Problem</p><p>Performance management på individnivå innebär att styra individen utifrån individuella mål som förmedlar organisationens övergripande strategi till medarbetarna. För att förstärka styreffekterna av individuella mål kan en belöning kopplas till måluppfyllelsegrad. Effekten av ett bonussystem ställer stora krav på samarbete mellan chef och anställd då de tillsammans ska ställa upp realistiska mål som syftar till att utveckla den enskilde individen samtidigt som de bidrar till organisationens övergripande mål och resultat. Därmed är det viktigt att undersöka hur medarbetare och chefer påverkas av individuella mål kopplade till bonus och vilka effekter detta får inom företaget. Vilken effekt har målsättnings-, uppföljnings- och utvärderingsarbetet på styrning och motivation bland medarbetare och chefer?</p><p>Syfte</p><p>Syftet är att undersöka och öka förståelsen kring hur styrning och motivations-aspekter påverkas då performance management bryts ner till individnivå samt hur en belöningskoppling kan förstärka den eventuella styreffekten.</p><p>Metod</p><p>Undersökningen har genomförts i form av en fallstudie där intervjuer använts som främsta empiriinsamlingsmetod. Intervjuverktyget valdes för att få en förståelse för hur performance management påverkar personer inom en organisation utifrån ett styr- och motivations-perspektiv. Det gav möjlighet till att undersöka problemet på en djupare nivå där olika synsätt och åsikter kring ämnet kunde fångas upp under personliga intervjuer.</p><p>Resultat</p><p>Undersökningen visar att styrfilosofin inom en organisation inte påverkas i nämnvärd utsträckning av performance management på individnivå. Det som påverkas är hur organisationen väljer att hantera styrningen i form av de svårigheter som uppstår i och med att målen blir individuella. De största svårigheterna med ett individuellt målsättningsprogram är att få en jämvikt mellan finansiella och ickefinansiella mätetal där målen kommuniceras och förankras hos medarbetarna på ett fungerande sätt. Trots att de mjuka målen uppfattas som oerhört viktiga på individnivå så är det dessa mål som skapar de största svårigheterna. Fallstudien har visat att en tydlig målsättning med konkreta och realistiska mål är en förutsättning för att påverka styrningen i positiv riktning. Det framgår även att rättvisa är viktigt i och med att en bonus kopplas till måluppfyllelsegrad varför kvalitén på målsättningsarbete och uppföljningen är av stor vikt.</p> / <p>Problem</p><p>Performance management helps the organisation clarify the strategy through individual targets. To reinforce the management effect a bonus can be connected to the fulfilment of targets. When a bonus is connected to performance management it is vital that the communication between managers and co-workers is well functioning and that the individual targets support the co-workers learning as well as they support the organizations overall targets. Therefore it is important to investigate how co-workers and managers are affected by individual targets and what consequences it has on the organization. What impact has the target setting-, follow up- and evaluation process on the organisation’s management and the motivation among the staff?</p><p>Purpose</p><p>The purpose of this study is to investigate and increase the understanding of how management and motivational aspects is affected when performance management is broken down to individual levels and how a reward can enhance the possible control effect.</p><p>Method</p><p>This study has been performed through a case study where interviews have been the primary method. Several interviews were conducted to gain an understanding of how performance management influences employees in an organization on the basis of a control and motivational aspect. Interviews made it possible to examine the purpose on a deeper level, where different opinions and approaches to performance management could be collected.</p><p>Result</p><p>The control function is not influenced by the fact that performance management is broken down to individual levels. The difficulty with this topic is the problems that arise when targets are made individualized. Individual targets make it hard to find a balance between financial and non-financial measurements and to gain the approval of employees. Non-financial goals cause the biggest problems since these are the hardest goals to measure and reward. Despite problems surrounding the non-financial goals there exist a great confidence in such goals. The case study shows that performance management on an individual level demands a well functioning communication to effect organisational management in a positive direction. It also shows that a bonus connected to targets demands a high quality in the rewarding procedure where justice plays an important part.</p>

<p><strong>Aim: </strong>Based on a case study of UNICEF Supply Division (SD), this thesis seeks to investigate how non-profit organizations use scorecards and if the use of scorecards in non-profit organizations results in strategic alignment.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Method: </strong>The theoretical framework for this case study consists primarily of the strategic performance management tool known as the Balanced Scorecard, which consists of interlinked measures, derived from the organization's strategy. For the case study, primary data, both qualitative and quantitative, was collected by means of semi structured interviews with members of senior management and a survey which was sent out to the whole organization. Abductive reasoning was applied in the analysis.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Result & Conclusions:</strong> The case study organization's scorecard focuses mainly on a selection of process measures and is perceived by staff and management as a good diagnostic tool for processes. The organization thus has implemented a more operational adaption of the scorecard. A weak match between the organization's strategy and selected measures in its scorecard in combination with limited incentives for achieving set targets suggest that strategic alignment is likely to be low.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Suggestions for future research:</strong> The scope of the thesis is limited to UNICEF Supply Division. Comparative studies of other UN agencies would increase the reliability of the study. Future research may also try to address, more in-depth, how non-profit organizations can implement more strategic, as opposed to operational performance management systems.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Contribution of the thesis:</strong> While the findings of this study mirror prior findings on Balanced Scorecard use in the non-profit sector, it has given the case study organization valuable insight on important measurement parameters, strategy mapping and other areas of improvement.</p>

<p>The main purpose of this study is to define important criteria to consider when selecting and implementing performance measures on a strategic, tactical and operational level. The thesis is built around the questions "What to measure" and "How to measure". Generally within the thesis the question of "what" concerns different frameworks and working procedures that can be used to determine what to measure, while the question of "how" concerns criteria to consider when implementing performance measures, such as how to design measure formulas and targets, how to communicate measures, etc.</p><p>The study has been conducted as a qualitative study, where the empirical data has been collected through interviews and by using information material from the case company. The purpose of the case study was to test the theoretical framework. The studied case company was Sandvik Process Systems, a product area within the Sandvik group. The case study was complemented by two minor comparative studies of companies also belonging to the Sandvik group. In total the study comprised interviews with 15 persons within different organizational levels.</p><p>Several different frameworks aiming to help organizations to answer the question of what to measure have been developed during the last decades. The frameworks differ more or less, but theorists appear to agree on several matters. My conclusions of the most important criteria to be taken into consideration when answering the question of what to measure is:</p><p>* Complement the outcome measures, i.e. the financial measures that show the results from past efforts, by pro-active performance drivers - the measures that drive the future performance</p><p>* Ensure linkage between performance measures and company vision and strategic objectives</p><p>* Involve the co-workers in the process of developing measures</p><p>* Use an overall comprehensive view and methodic approach</p><p>* Limit the amount of measures</p><p>* Retain the methodic approach – manage the performance measurement system</p><p>After answering the question of what to measure there are also a number of important criteria to consider when it comes to how to measure and implement measures into the organization:</p><p>* Define measure purposes</p><p>* Assign reasonable targets to the measures</p><p>* Consider the field of application when designing a performance measure</p><p>* Communicate the performance measures</p><p>* Specify the measures</p><p>Despite attempting to simplify a complicated reality the frameworks aiming to help organizations to select measures are all rather complex. Hence, to develop and implement a PMS (Performance Measurement System) by the book will imply an extensive project for any company. How time- and resource demanding the project will become will differ from one company to another. Thus, a general conclusion of this study is that a company must start out from its own conditions in order for the development and implementation not to become too complex a project, where the organization loses focus and fails to manage the project all the way through.</p><p>Companies must consider factors such as the size and complexity of the organization, how the business is controlled and managed as well as the structure and control of an already existing PMS. For large organizations, already possessing a rather unstructured PMS, the best approach could be to look upon the development as a constantly on-going activity in the spirit of continuous improvements, rather than a complex project running over a limited time. A vital success factor is also to communicate the intentions to the whole organization at an early stage. If the whole organization is aware of the intention and the purpose this will facilitate the process of developing and implementing a successful PMS.</p>