The complexity of distributed computing systems has raised two unprecedented challenges for system management. First, various customers need to be assured by meeting their required service-level agreements such as response time and throughput. Second, system power consumption must be controlled in order to avoid system failures caused by power capacity overload or system overheating due to increasingly high server density. However, most existing work, unfortunately, either relies on open-loop estimations based on off-line profiled system models, or evolves in a more ad hoc fashion, which requires exhaustive iterations of tuning and testing, or oversimplifies the problem by ignoring the coupling between different system characteristics (ie, response time and throughput, power consumption of different servers). As a result, the majority of previous work lacks rigorous guarantees on the performance and power consumption for computing systems, and may result in degraded overall system performance. In this thesis, we extensively study adaptive performance/power management and power-efficient performance management for distributed computing systems such as information dissemination systems, power grid management systems, and data centers, by proposing Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) control and hierarchical designs based on feedback control theory. For adaptive performance management, we design an integrated solution that controls both the average response time and CPU utilization in information dissemination systems to achieve bounded response time for high-priority information and maximized system throughput in an example information dissemination system. In addition, we design a hierarchical control solution to guarantee the deadlines of real-time tasks in power grid computing by grouping them based on their characteristics, respectively. For adaptive power management, we design MIMO optimal control solutions for power control at the cluster and server level and a hierarchical solution for large-scale data centers. Our MIMO control design can capture the coupling among different system characteristics, while our hierarchical design can coordinate controllers at different levels. For power-efficient performance management, we discuss a two-layer coordinated management solution for virtualized data centers. Experimental results in both physical testbeds and simulations demonstrate that all the solutions outperform state-of-the-art management schemes by significantly improving overall system performance.

Problem 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? Syfte 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. Metod 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. Resultat 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. / Problem 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? Purpose 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. Method 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. Result 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.

Aim: 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.   Method: 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.   Result & Conclusions: 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.   Suggestions for future research: 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.   Contribution of the thesis: 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.

When the independent upper secondary schools were started in 1992, it meant a change in the competitive relationship for the local upper secondary schools. A reduced number of students during some years ahead, while the number of independent upper secondary schools increase will probably result in tougher competition between upper secondary schools. The purpose of this study is to review and compare financial and performance management between a public and an independent upper secondary school. The dissertation will focus on the now existing competitive relationship between the two types of upper secondary schools. The theory underlying the study is Porter's model - five competitive forces. The model is applied to the local upper secondary school and used to identify competitive factors affecting upper secondary schools. The study is using a qualitative approach with five interviews at two upper secondary schools, one independent and one public, located in the same town. The comparison of financial and operational management of upper secondary schools indicate that the differences are not as great as we first imagined, but that there still are some differences. Our results show that Porter's model is not adequate to describe the competitive factors affecting upper secondary schools. The results of the factors that in addition to Porter's original model affects the competitive relationship is presented in a separate model and includes factors such as public upper secondary schools, free search, advertising / bait, programming, re-election, reputation, internal competition, independent upper secondary schools, location, teacher quality, peer pressure, number of pupils and students. It is therefore concluded that Porter's model is not comprehensive enough to be able to describe and analyze the two cases included in this study.   Keywords: performance management, private school, public school, finance, competition / När de fristående gymnasieskolorna 1992 startades innebar det en förändring i konkurrensförhållandet med de kommunala gymnasieskolorna. Ett minskat elevantal i några år framöver samt att de fristående gymnasieskolorna blir fler kommer leda till en hårdare konkurrens mellan gymnasieskolorna. Syftet med uppsatsen är att granska och jämföra ekonomi- och verksamhetsstyrning mellan en kommunal och en fristående gymnasieskola. Uppsatsen riktar sig mot det numera rådande konkurrensförhållandet mellan kommunala och fristående gymnasieskolor. Teorin som ligger till grund för uppsatsen är Porters modell - branschkonkurrensens drivkrafter. Modellen appliceras på den kommunala gymnasieskolan och används för att urskilja konkurrensfaktorer som påverkar gymnasieskolorna. Uppsatsen bygger på en kvalitativ ansats med fem intervjutillfällen på två gymnasieskolor, en fristående och en kommunal belägna i samma kommun. Jämförelsen av ekonomi- och verksamhetsstyrningen på gymnasieskolorna tyder på att skillnaderna inte är så stora som vi föreställt oss, men att det ändå förekommer skillnader. Resultaten visar att Porters modell inte är tillräcklig för att beskriva de konkurrensfaktorer som påverkar gymnasieskolorna. Resultaten av de faktorer som utöver Porters originalmodell påverkar konkurrensförhållandet presenteras i en egen modell och inkluderar faktorer som kommunala gymnasieskolor, fritt sök, marknadsföring/lockbete, programutbud, omval, rykte, intern konkurrens, fristående gymnasieskolor, geografiskt läge, lärare, kvalitet, grupptryck, elevantal och studenter. Slutsatsen är därför att då Porters modell inte är heltäckande går den inte att applicera på Väggaskolan och John Bauer som en konkurrensmodell. De faktorer som vi framarbetat kan ligga till grund för gymnasieskolornas arbete för att bemöta konkurrensen på bästa sätt.   Keywords: performance management, private school, public school, finance, competition

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This study is focused on how characters of management control system affect organizational climate and the how the relation between those two factors guide performance in different organizations. With four diffent case studies in Taiwan, this study found three types of reaction in management control system, organizational climate and organizational performance: mediator model, moderating model and interactive model. This study showed that the relationship among management control system, organizational climate and performance are not in a given type; there would be various possible mixes in their relationship. In mediator model, management control system is an important factor to improve performance and the awareness of organizational climate in employee directly affected the guiding effects of management control system to organizational performance. According to the previous finding, an environment makes the employee have better awareness about organizational climate will help managers to reach the performance goals with management control systems. In moderating model, organizational climate moderate the linkeage between managemeant control system and the awareness of performance in employee. It is not ony the factor to adjust effects of management control system but also change managers¡¦ designs of management control system and moderate the relationsip on management control system and performance. Organizational performance could be improved when managers design indicators and controlling mechanism with considered interactive effects in organizational climate. This study also found that industrial characters will affect operational process of management control system and awareness of organizational climate in employee. Due to professional knowledge is an important factor for employee in service industry to provide servive to their customers, attendance rate and safety of customers are two important indicators to management control system in such industry. According to this reaesch, the case in service industry put more focus on this performance item than the cases in manufacturing industry, so the study found the characters of industrial technology will also a factor to affect the design of management control system

The first goal of management for company is to make profit and growth. The company performance stands for its outcome managed under the optimum fit with resources. Human resource is the significant asset in the company and also influence on the company performance. It is the key to create the performance good or bad for ¡§ Performance Management¡¨ in which how to elaborate employees¡¦ higher productivity or potential and how to continue to employ is the critical issue. One of the functions of performance management is to implement training workforce or job rotation that based on the performance appraisal besides together with the compensation and merit pay, another is to make win win between the company and its employees that capitalized on the individual career development coordination with company. This study discuss the useful encourage mechanism for performance management with compensation and merit pay by the case study method, interview the employees of the case company and review on the relevant reference documents related the subject of those have been published textbooks and periodical. The key point of the study is to establish an appropriate performance management with pay-for-performance system and replace the present system, and become a high-performance culture company. The conclusions are significant to the management in the following¡G 1.Broken a falsehood fair system of performance management, become a real reasonable, public and fair system, and create a high-performance culture company. 2.To avoid the ratchet effect on budget and standard of Key performance indicators (KPI).It is necessary to check again about economic intelligence, industry situation and inside and outside resources etc in order to make an accurate budget and KPI. 3.Under the linkage mechanism of performance management with the merit-pay system, justice is a critical issue in the process of performance appraisal except fair pay-for-performance. It would drive voluntarily one¡¦s motivate of work and higher performance. 4.Besides the encouraged by money, job enrichment, rotary system and job training may increase employee¡¦s performance. If not so, the employee would be fired. 5.Performance management and merit pay system is two key factors for business organization that linkage with vision, object, strategy, culture and personnel goal would ignite organization power to enrich value-chain management and transform to be competitive superiority. It also becomes a three-win system to individual goal, company growth and stockholders value. And the recommendations are important as follows¡G 1.There is no absolutely good for any system whether it is good or bad, so the company of case study should be self-criticism the applicable system of performance management linkage with merit pay system at any time. 2.The person who is a boss in the department, please don¡¦t let your right to be sleep. You have to do justice to subordinate. 3.The execution is a key successful factor for the practice of performance management linkage with merit pay system. 4.Finally, the application of statistics analysis, the influence of execution, leadership, organization structure and innovation of measurement of encouragement are the directions for further study.

Achieving a high degree of efficiency is non-trivial when managing the performance of large web-facing applications such as e-commerce websites and social networks. While computing clouds have been touted as a good solution for elastic applications, many significant technological challenges still have to be addressed in order to leverage the full potential of this new computing paradigm. In this dissertation I argue that the automation of elastic n-tier application performance management in computing clouds presents novel challenges to classical system performance management methodology that can be successfully addressed through a systematic empirical approach. I present strong evidence in support of my thesis in a framework of three incremental building blocks: Experimental Analysis of Elastic System Scalability and Consolidation, Modeling and Detection of Non-trivial Performance Phenomena in Elastic Systems, and Automated Control and Configuration Planning of Elastic Systems. More concretely, I first provide a proof of concept for the feasibility of large-scale experimental database system performance analyses, and illustrate several complex performance phenomena based on the gathered scalability and consolidation data. Second, I extend these initial results to a proof of concept for automating bottleneck detection based on statistical analysis and an abstract definition of multi-bottlenecks. Third, I build a performance control system that manages elastic n-tier applications efficiently with respect to complex performance phenomena such as multi-bottlenecks. This control system provides a proof of concept for automated online performance management based on empirical data.

The change from Fordist to Post-Fordist production and employment systems typically correlates with a more outcome-oriented management of individual and collective performance. This article aims to develop a critical perspective on the implementation of these performance management systems. In particular, the significance and the change of performance norms and standards will be analyzed and acknowledged. Our central premise is that the more the norms and standards of job performance are downgraded and replaced by a demand for specific performance outcome, the more anomic tendencies in organizations will increase. Anomie, as growing weakness of workplace norms and standards, is among some of the unintenional and paradoxical of the new performance management. It bears the danger to undermine some necessary organizational requirements of job performance and over the long run, results in a normative destabilization of organizations.

The overall aim of this study is to investigate the phenomenon of performance measurement in independently owned hotels in Ireland in order to understand the role of measurement in the management of the largest component of the hotel sector. The primary objectives of this study are to investigate the extent to which Irish hotel operators are utilising performance measurement techniques, to establish the rationale for the use of selected performance measures in independent hotels and to understand approaches to performance measurement in the management of independent hotels. A comprehensive investigation of existing performance management and measurement activity is provided in this study. A mixed methods approach to the research was undertaken to gather data on the phenomenon of performance measurement, allowing for a triangulation of data through multiple sources. A survey questionnaire was carried out within the hotels in Ireland followed by focus groups and indepth interviews carried out in a number of small and medium-sized hotels in Ireland. A number of key' performance measurement issues were investigated and include the rationale for performance measurement, the benefits of performance measurement, those responsible for carrying out the function, critical success factors impacting on the business and performance dimensions and measures utilised by hotel operators in the study. The findings of this research have implications for a number of stakeholders, however, the greatest impact will be on the small and medium-sized hotel operator. The research shows there is a need for these hotel operators to adopt a more structured formal approach to performance measurement. A number of models of performance measurement for small, medium-size and large hotels are proposed. These models will contribute to the management of performance in the hotel sector in Ireland, leading to increased effectiveness which is especially important in the current economic climate that the hotel and tourism sector is facing and will face into the future.