In this thesis the candidate explores the apparent gaps between strategy development and strategy implementation (the strategy alignment question), and between business end-user needs and the suppliers of information technology (IT) related products and services. With business intelligence (BI) emerging as one of the fastest growing fields in IT, the candidate develops a conceptual model in which BI is placed into context with other relevant subjects such as strategy development, enterprise architecture and modelling and performance measurement. The emphasis is on the development of processes and templates that support a closed loop control system with the following process steps: - A business strategy is defined. - The implication of the strategy on business processes, supporting IT resources and organizational structure is formally documented according to enterprise architecture principles. - This documented blueprint of the organization helps to implement the selected business strategy. - A performance measurement system is developed and supported by a well-designed data warehouse. - On a regular basis the measurements that were defined to support the implementation of the strategy, together with information from the external environment are interpreted and this analysis leads to either a new strategy, or refinement of the implementation of the existing strategy. Both options may lead to changes in the enterprise architecture, the execution of business processes and/or the performance measurement system. Some of the individual components of the model are supported by existing theories, for example the Zachman Framework for enterprise architecture and the Balanced Scorecard from Kaplan and Norton. The contribution of the author was to position them in the bigger picture to indicate how they can add value with regard to the establishment of business intelligence in organizations. Instead of packaging existing ideas slightly differently under a new name, the author intentionally searched for existing theories to fulfil certain requirements in the Bigger Picture BI Context Model. Apart from a set of templates that were adapted from various other sources and packaged into practical formats that can be used during facilitation sessions, the author has also developed and described the Fourier Model and the Pots of Money Model. The Fourier Model is a powerful conceptual model that helps a business to package solutions for market related requirements through selections of previously defined building blocks (technical components) that can be delivered through various business entities, depending on the requirements of the opportunity. The Pots of Money Model is a quantitative model embedded in a spreadsheet format to illustrate and communicate the effect of spending decisions in one area of the business on other areas. The candidate demonstrates the Bigger Picture BI Context Model in several case studies. The thesis is accompanied by a CD ROM, which contains over 700 references to relevant literature (most of them available in full text) and links to internet web sites, as well as examples of the software templates that support some of the steps in the context model. The following figure depicts the conceptual model in schematic format: (See figure in the abstract of 00front) / Thesis (PhD (Industrial Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Industrial and Systems Engineering / unrestricted

The transformation of all spheres of South African government to a more effective and efficient administration became a priority after the election of the country's first democratic government in April 1994. An important aspect of South Africa's democratisation was the promise by the new government to improve the lives of the people of this country, and provide a better life for all the citizens of South Africa. One of the most effective ways of achieving this goal is generally accepted to be the proper management and strengthening of the local government sphere. Local government is the sphere of government that is closest to the people, and generally the performance of National Government is assessed through the performance of municipalities. In strengthening local government, various pieces of legislation were developed since 1994 to ensure that the objectives of Section 152 of the Constitution are achieved. As a result of these imperatives, the Department of Provincial and Local Government introduced a White Paper on Local Government on 9 March 1998, with a vision of working towards a new developmental local government system. Various statutes emanated from this strategic framework, such as the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act No. 117 of 1998, the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act No. 32 of 2000 and the Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act No. 56 of 2003. These legislative enactments endeavour to ensure that the local sphere of government is managed more strategically than previously, and is responsive to the needs of communities. Municipalities are expected to deliver efficient and affordable services to the local communities, and failure to do so could result in the recent spate of violent protest that has been recently experienced in various parts of the country. In order to measure the extent of service delivery to the communities, and to assess whether the objectives named in the municipality's Integrated Development Plan (IDP) document are being achieved, municipalities are compelled to implement performance management for all members of staff, political office bearers and service providers, in terms of the Municipal Systems Act No. 32 of 2000. This thesis therefore looks at challenges faced by the Senior Management (i.e. Section 57 employees, Directors and Assistant Directors) in the implementation of performance management within the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, during the first five years of their term in office (i.e. Senior Management appointed after 6 December 2000 local government elections), and recommending performance management steps as well as performance management model that can be used to cascade performance management amongst all levels of staff. This thesis begins by introducing the subject of performance management, briefly discussing the demarcation of the research, the research method utilised, the historical background of performance management, as well as the current status of performance management within the municipality. The introduction of the topic is followed by a theoretical overview of the subject of performance management. This is followed by the discussion of the research methodology followed when conducting this research study. The findings are discussed in detail after the research methodology, giving a synopsis of what the interviewees disclosed during the interview process. The last chapter provides a brief discussion of the findings, and discusses the recommended performance management steps and performance management model, that can be used by the municipality to cascade performance amongst all members of staff.

The world has seen unparalleled pressure put on the public sector to improve the speed and quality of service delivery, whilst simultaneously employing measures to cut the costs. South Africa and the Eastern Cape have not been immune to this as there have been complaints and demonstrations from various national and provincial stakeholders demanding more and improved services. The Department of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEDEAT) in particular has employed the services of public entities in its quest to realise government’s socio-economic developmental objectives and ease some of the service delivery pressures. These agencies are unfortunately struggling to deliver and the Department is unable to play the oversight role it is legislatively mandated to carry out. The main reason for this seem to be the lack of the capacity to objectively track and measure the performance of these agencies. As they say “you cannot manage what you cannot measure”. This is despite the fact that there is a shareholders’ compact and many other measures in place to enable performance monitoring. Also, the public sector is known to have inherent and unique performance management challenges like broad and vague objectives which lead to too many measurements, a propensity to focus on the “easy to measure” but often irrelevant indicators at the expense of critical outcomes and a short-term orientation that is usually fuelled by political expediency. Against this background, this study sought to make use of a comprehensive and dynamic performance monitoring framework, namely the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), to explore its potential use in assisting government to monitor the performance of public agencies, in particular the Development Finance Institutions (DFI) in South Africa. The proposed framework helps government to focus on the performance drivers of future value, and what decisions and actions are necessary to achieve critical outcomes. The aim of the study therefore is to develop an adjusted BSC framework to monitor the activities of a public sector agency and thus demonstrate how a BSC framework could be used to monitor a public agency by the government department. The study is evaluative in nature and is divided into three sections. Section one is presented as an Evaluation Report. It sets the scene, discusses briefly the key theoretical concepts, outlines the research methods used and presents the findings followed by a discussion and recommendations. Section two delves into the literature in more detail, providing a more extensive review of the literature that informed the investigation, whilst section three provides a more extensive description of the research methodology employed in the study. To achieve the aims of the study, the research drew from the work of various authors in the field including that of Bigliardi, Dormio and Galati, 2011; Bititci, Garengo, Dörfler, and Nudurupati, 2012; Julyan, 2011; Kaplan and Norton, 1992, 1993, 1996, 2001, 2004 and 2006; Niven, 2003 and 2008 and Northcott and Taulapapa, 2012. Also, five BSC perspectives - including the programme specific “equity” perspective - were used to develop an interview schedule. These were used to formulate the key performance objectives and indicators, based on the stakeholder’s responses. These respondents have experience within the programme as administrators, beneficiaries and funders. The research employed purposive sampling with semi-structured in-depth interviews and document analysis as primary and secondary instruments for data collection. In essence, five officials from the agency, one from DEDEAT and two co-operatives participated in the research. The results indicate a general appreciation of and gravitation towards outcome based measures, even though the government culture of focusing on outputs is still prevalent. The results of the study indicated that, generally, a government - public agency BSC based performance monitoring framework would have the following features:  Customer objectives and programme mission as the main goal and this will provides clarity at all levels on who the customers are and what are their primary requirements.  Clear, visible and stringent financial controls as the agency is administering public resources.  Few carefully selected processes and systems that have a direct and positive impact on the customer objectives. Deliberate and consistent efforts to promote the participation of designated groups in the economy of the country.  Comprehensive indicators on capacity building as “mission based-organisations rely heavily on skills, dedication and alignment of staff”. Overall, the study concludes that the make-up of the BSC is beneficial to the public sector and in monitoring the public sector agencies for the following reasons:  It helps the agency to focus on customers and their needs.  It forces the agency to engage and communicate strategic intention with both internal and external stakeholders and thus synchronize competing stakeholder needs.  It forces the agency to limit the number of indicators and therefore select the few value adding measures that are aligned to customer outcomes.  Through its cause and effect relationship, the agency is compelled to align all the resources, activities and processes to the main goal of the entity. All these help to minimize the principal agent problem, as the use of the BSC can bring clarity on strategy and expectations, provided it is supported with regular communication.

The use of performance information is the backbone of performance management. Performance information use refers to the willingness of public managers or other relevant stakeholders to incorporate quantitative or qualitative data in their decision-making. Both routine and nonroutine performance information is considered essential in managers’ decision making. Understanding the organizational factors that motivate public managers to use performance information is an important topic in the literature and practice of performance management. Although the number of studies on information use is growing, little is known about the impact of Organizational Social Capital (OSC). OSC is composed of the sub-dimensions of social interaction, trust, and shared goals. The main argument of this study is that OSC fosters performance information use in public administrations. It is expected that departments with high levels of organizational social capital are more likely to use both routine and nonroutine performance information. To test the hypothesized effect, department heads, middle managers, and other individuals with a supervisory role from 513 Florida County Government departments were surveyed. Furthermore, interviews, focus groups, and analysis of secondary data were performed to provide the context and the narrative surrounding the hypothesized effect. Analysis of the survey data reveals evidence in support of the hypothesized effects. Furthermore, the comparative case study analysis shows the existence of substantial differences in the history, background, organizational culture, and management between the two counties. The main findings show how reorganization processes as well as a lack of leadership may have detrimental effects to organizational social capital. Organizational social capital could be considered a relevant predictor of performance information use and thus deserves further attention from both researchers and practitioners.

The focus of the study is to investigate the factors that impact on effective implementation of a performance management system at the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) in the Eastern Cape Region, Nelson Mandela Metro District. It is said that an organisational success in service delivery largely depends on the efficiency and effectiveness of its employees in undertaking their functions, duties and responsibilities (Ntombela, Mpehle and Penciliah, 2010: 63).

The performance management system has been introduced in the South African public service with the intensions of monitoring, reviewing, assessing performance, developing underperformers and recognising and rewarding good performance. This study was undertaken as an attempt to assess whether the Lukhanji municipality performance management systems contribute to the improvement of service delivery and employee productivity. The literature review undertaken in this study, shows that there is a general poor understanding of performance management systems in Lukhanji municipality. The literature review further establishes that there are several challenges that hinder the effective implementation of a performance management system in the municipality. Other findings of the study include that there is a challenge in setting the unrealistic performance targets which are unrealisable by employees. These are the reasons why productivity levels are not always realised and targets not achieved by Lukhanji municipality. The main findings of the study are that, although performance management systems play a significant role in the improvement of service delivery, it has not contributed in the improvement of employee productivity of the Lukhanji municipality. The main recommendation on the basis of this finding is that there should be thorough and regular training of officials within the Lukhanji Municipality about the performance management system and how it influences productivity and service delivery. In conclusion, the Municipal Executive Mayoral Committee should demand verifiable evidence to justify a higher rating during quarterly assessments, and that punitive disciplinary measures be taken against those who do not comply with the provision of the performance management system framework, particularly failure to submit performance instruments.

Diploma thesis is focused on enterprise planning. The main part of the thesis is dedicated to the design of the planning model in the SW company, which comes from real condition of big SW company. The first chapter introduces the world of enterprise planning to the reader. There are clarified reasons of current rise of demand in this area of planning and the advantages of its use. The following chapter explains the essential theory related to enterprise planning area. It also mentions other system approaches to enterprise planning. In the end of the chapter there are described main principles of the CPM concept and its relation to enterprise planning. The fourth chapter is aimed at the current state, requirements and the issues of the planning processes in companies. The outcome of this chapter is set of recommendations for company planning process and company plans itself. The next chapter familiarizes the reader with the current market situation of the planning suites. There are described main players on this market (and their products), acquisitions proceeded in last time and awaited evolution in future. The sixth chapter is focused on the real planning project itself. It introduces the used product -- Cognos Planning. It follows with description of the main principles of model building -- the essential terminology, key plan objects on which basis is the model built and the process of the model development. At the end of chapter is the summary of the project and its contribution to company. The end of thesis depicts expected progress in this sphere of planning and evaluates the fulfillment of thesis targets and its contribution to this area.

This thesis is concerned with an evaluation of a role of financial and managerial accounting in the management of financial performance. From the range of criterions, that indicate the development of performance, the profit was chosen. The basic approach of the thesis is the concept of financial performance in the U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (U.S. GAAP). The diction of U.S. GAAP is compared with the text of International Accounting Standards / International Financial Reporting Standards (IAS / IFRS) and the Czech accounting legislation. In addition, the thesis deals with the concept of financial performance and its role in the performance management system. In conclusion, the theoretical background is confronted with its practical application. The comparison is made with the assistance of the example of financial performance management in the company Škoda Auto, a.s.

This thesis addresses issues of measuring and managing the performance of commercial bank institutions by means of a system called Corporate Performance Management (CPM). The theoretical part of this work is devoted to introduction of banking industry and methods of performance measurement in commercial banks. It introduces a general concept and key components of CPM supported by Business Intelligence technology. In the practical part of this work there is introduced the design of two concrete CPM solutions which are being currently built in banks -- KPI processing and interest margin calculation. The main thesis contribution to the existing literature is a creation of complex material about relevant aspects of implementation CPM solutions in data warehouses of commercial banks and creation the conceptual design of a concrete solution.

Description and analysis of system performance management in a chosen company (Kasalova pila, s.r.o.), forcefully on job evaluation, development and training, motivation system and remuneration system.