Staff Development and Performance Review (SDPR) was introduced in Northern Ireland in 1992, in compliance with the Education (School Teacher Appraisal) Regulations (1991) in England and Wales. This qualitative study examined issues relating to SDPR and staff development. Qualitative research was chosen because the research involved an in-depth examination of social processes and the researcher would be closely associated with the research, the findings of which would have direct implications for her professional practice. The research involved four case studies, each conducted in four post-primary schools in Northern Ireland, a voluntary grammar school, an integrated school, a maintained school and a controlled school. Twenty-five semi-structured interviews were carried out. Findings showed that there is a close relationship between the management of SDPR and the perceptions held of it. When the principal for example embraced SDPR in a positive light, other teachers in the school did likewise. Constraints to SDPR included: lack of time; SDPR being perceived as appraisal; the difficulty of choosing a suitable focus for review; concerns about writing up the report following the review; and inadequate training. Personal professional development was being encouraged and supported in all four schools. Two of the schools offered funding for in-service degree courses. The other two did not. This highlighted inequity in relation to financial support for teachers undertaking part-time degree courses. A number of respondents thought that the introduction of performance related pay (PRP) would have a positive effect on the staff development aspect of the SDPR process. Others believed that if performance related pay and SDPR were to be linked, the purpose of SDPR would be defeated. The study refers to a number of recommendations. These include the fact that money should be held centrally by the Department of Education in Northern Ireland for the purpose of supporting personal professional development.

Although there is substantial literature on the use of performance appraisal in the for-profit world, there is little literature available concerning the appraisal of staff positions in higher education. More knowledge is needed in this area since there is considerable research indicating that performance appraisal creates benefits to an organization and its employees. This study provides a comprehensive review of the development and use of performance appraisal in the United States, and a detailed look at the purposes, benefits, and challenges of performance appraisal. The study found a very high usage of staff performance appraisal in its population of 108 Christian colleges and universities. However, it also found a significant amount of dissatisfaction with the appraisal process due to (a) lack of leadership support for the appraisal process, (b) supervisors not being held accountable for the timely completion of their appraisals, and (c) the lack of training provided supervisors for doing performance appraisals well.

This study contributes to the performance measurement (PM) literature by providing validated measures of PM system use and increased understanding of the impact of PM use on organizational outcomes. The purpose of this study was to articulate and test the relationships between PM system use, organizational learning, and organizational performance by taking into account the effects of PM-related technical factors (namely, PM system maturity and review process (RP) maturity). The concept of PM use was explored through the examination of its underlying processes, as reflected in the literature and two case studies, and a set of practices delineating PM use processes were proposed. Following a scale development approach, a measurement instrument of PM use was developed and validated with empirical data collected through a web-based questionnaire. The results from factor analysis showed the need to revise the initial set of PM use practices into five dimensions: monitoring, problem-finding, problem-solving, validating causal relationships, and validating improvement actions. Additionally, new measures were developed to assess PM and RP maturity factors. The factor analysis results identified four maturity variables: managed RP, optimized RP, PM design and PM implementation. Data from 216 managers participating in RP meetings were used to test the hypothesized relationships via partial least square (PLS). The results provide varying support for the hypotheses defined. First, the results show that monitoring directly impacts organizational performance while problem-finding, problem-solving and validating causal relationships indirectly impact organizational performance through shared vision and team learning. These indirect effects were positive in some cases and negative in others, depending on the direction of the relationship between the use variable and the organizational learning variable. Second, validating improvement actions did not influence organizational outcomes. Finally, the only moderating effect found was managed RP on the relationship between validating causal relationships and financial performance. Because of the weak support for moderating effects, an alternative model was proposed, exploring these maturity variables as antecedents of PM use. The results provided substantial support for this alternate model. Practical implications and areas for future research are also identified and discussed. / Ph. D.

School Performance Review and Development (SPRAD) was a major innovation in school evaluation in the Australian Capital Territory. One of its aims was to encourage teachers and parents to work together in evaluating and developing policy across all areas of school life: Administration and Management, Finances, Curriculum and Assessment, Staff and Student Welfare and overall School Climate. SPRAD is different from other forms of school review in that it is system-initiated but kept under the control of the participants. The ACT Department of Education and Training supplies the resourcing and consultative assistance. One of the hopes for SPRAD was that, in bringing teachers and parents closer together, it would create a greater understanding of where each group stood in relation to the other and strengthen parent/teacher relationships. The focus areas for this study were parent participation in classroom and related activities, the various channels of information employed within the school such as school newsletters, reports and interviews, specific notices and letters relaying matters peculiar to class groups and school sectors, parent/teacher information-sharing sessions, parent/teacher involvement in board and P & C activities, and other forms of formal and informal contact. The study highlights the differences and similarities between teachers and parents in relation to "professionalism" and "partnership", and areas of conflict highlighted by Beacham & Hoadley (1979) who discuss the Fortress Model of Schooling, and Darland (lanni et al: 1975) who writes of the "anyone can teach attitude" displayed by many members of the public, i.e. the attitude that because all people have had some experience of schooling, then their opinions on education carry as much weight as those of the professionals; the feeling that what was good for them is good for their children, because they have "been there, done that" and teachers do not really know very much more than they (the public) do. SPRAD was seen to be a helpful factor in developing some aspects of parent/teacher relationships. Satisfaction with parent participation in classroom activities had increased overall despite some drops in actual parent presence at the activities because of the movement of children into the Senior areas of the school. Another example was the lessening of the degree of dissatisfaction with teachers' professional development programmes, especially pupil-free school development days.

Background IKEA Communications (ICOM) is IKEA’s communication company which creates communication tools, such as the IKEA catalogue and brochures. The company also functions as IKEA’s internal communication agency. In 2008, ICOM went through a reorganization adopting a matrix structure. This imposes challenges since the employees report to different leaders in different situations. The competence leaders (CL) have the traditional staffing responsibility while project leaders (PL) are the operating leaders and responsible for leading the projects. Purpose We will investigate how the leadership in terms of role clarification and area of responsibility of the CLs can be made more distinct in relation to their employees. Second, we investigate how the relationship between PLs and CLs can be further developed in terms of feedback. This involves sharing employee performance review and individual development after a project as well as how the CL can conduct employee performance review meetings. Method The study was performed with a qualitative method. A number of 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted with employees and leaders at the production department at ICOM. Conclusion Two areas of development have been identified at ICOM. It is evident employees are confused regarding the CL’s role and area of responsibility. The role of the CLs is clear in theory but not in practice. Hence, the first area of development is to increase the distinction of CL’s leadership in terms clarifying their role and responsibility. The study also discovered there is no common feedback routine used between PL and CL where they exchange information regarding employee’s performance within a project. The second area of development is regarding the usage of a structured feedback routine for providing this information.

<p><strong>Background </strong></p><p>IKEA Communications (ICOM) is IKEA’s communication company which creates communication tools, such as the IKEA catalogue and brochures. The company also functions as IKEA’s internal communication agency. In 2008, ICOM went through a reorganization adopting a matrix structure. This imposes challenges since the employees report to different leaders in different situations. The competence leaders (CL) have the traditional staffing responsibility while project leaders (PL) are the operating leaders and responsible for leading the projects.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Purpose </strong></p><p><strong></strong>We will investigate how the leadership in terms of role clarification and area of responsibility of the CLs can be made more distinct in relation to their employees. Second, we investigate how the relationship between PLs and CLs can be further developed in terms of feedback. This involves sharing employee performance review and individual development after a project as well as how the CL can conduct employee performance review meetings.</p><p><strong>Method </strong></p><p><strong></strong>The study was performed with a qualitative method. A number of 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted with employees and leaders at the production department at ICOM.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p><p>Two areas of development have been identified at ICOM. It is evident employees are confused regarding the CL’s role and area of responsibility. The role of the CLs is clear in theory but not in practice. Hence, the first area of development is to increase the distinction of CL’s leadership in terms clarifying their role and responsibility. The study also discovered there is no common feedback routine used between PL and CL where they exchange information regarding employee’s performance within a project. The second area of development is regarding the usage of a structured feedback routine for providing this information.</p>

The purpose of this study is to describe how the employee appraisal is perceived by managers, employees and representatives from human resources departments. The empirical material con-sists of 15 interviews: respondents were two representatives of the human resources departments, four unit managers and nine employees who work at a state institution or municipal management. In the study, I adopt a sociocultural perspective, with the communicative relational perspective. The latter is a special education perspective in which the interpenetration of participation, com-munication and learning emphasized. The result shows that the majority of employees would like to see that the talks will be held more frequently than once a year. One of the managers has in cooperation with his co-workers devel-oped a model based on that each year, in addition to salary talks, have an individual conversation, a conversation with each group and individual follow-up talks. Having a clear objective or goal of the discussions is also something that is requested and it is interesting that managers and employ-ees do not know what the management and staff units' purpose of the discussions is. The value of the talks could be that it is time to reflect and quietly get the chance to talk ready for what is set mode. Something that many had opinions about where the material used and they ex-pressed different views on how it could change. / Syftet med studien är att beskriva hur medarbetarsamtalen uppfattas av chefer, medarbetare och representanter för personalavdelningar. Empirin består av 15 intervjuer: respondenterna var två representanter för personalavdelningar, fyra enhetschefer och nio medarbetare, som arbetar på ett statligt verk eller en kommunal förvaltning. I studien utgår jag från ett sociokulturellt perspektiv tillsammans med det kommunikativa relationsinriktade perspektivet. Det senare utgör ett specialpedagogiskt perspektiv där sammanflätningen av delaktighet, kommunikation och lärande betonas. Resultatet visar att flertalet av medarbetarna gärna ser att samtalen hålls tätare än en gång om året. En chef har tillsammans med sina medarbetare utarbetat en modell som bygger på att varje år, förutom lönesamtal, ha ett individuellt samtal, ett samtal med varje grupp och ett individuellt avstämningssamtal varje år. Att ha ett uttalat syfte eller mål med samtalen är också något som efterfrågas och det är intressant att chefer och medarbetare inte vet vad ledningens och personalenheternas syfte med samtalen är. Värdet av samtalen kan vara att det blir tid att reflektera och i lugn och ro få möjlighet att prata färdigt om det som är angeläget. Något som många hade synpunkter på var det material som används och det uttrycktes olika uppfattningar om hur det kunde förändras.

This thesis combines the fundamental teachings of the IMBA program that are critical to the success of running a business: market research, accounting, corporate finance, and strategic management. The purpose of the study is to analyze Gi He Chen Environmental Technology Co. Ltd.’s performance in the past years and provide suggestions to its investors on the company’s health and growth potential. The research was done by interviewing with Gi He Chen’s Managing Director, Taiwan car recycling market research, literature reviews, comparing the company’s financial statements with a Taiwan IPO listed recycling company Super Dragon Technology Co. Ltd., and last but not least, Professor James Liu’s teaching of profit models.

In the first part there are theoretical basis of work performance. The essential stages of the work performance process are described. The object of the analysis in the practical part is the process of work performance and its stages. The work mostly focuses on the stage of goal setting and monitoring of work performance. The impact of the most recent changes was examined through research and survey on the satisfaction of the employees with the new BI system. In the conclusion there are stated few possible changes that can be made to improve the system and work performance in the company.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to find the organizational practices in place for the performance evaluation of temporary employees and how that varies from permanent employees. Method – The study takes an inductive and interpretive approach to find out the unknown practices. The study is conducted over 7 respondents from different organizations split between recruitment agencies and client organizations and represents practices maintained by both set of industries. Findings – The study identifies low standardization in performance evaluation and discusses the variance from literature over the subject matter. Also a model is drawn based on the amalgamation of literary review and empirical results. Implications – The study presents variance in the processes for temporary employees and the prime areas where the variance occurs. For the organizations to have fair and just performance management system and for equality towards temporary employees, these issues must be addressed. Limitations – Cultural practices are not taken into consideration and literature might be based on different cultural practices than the respondents country and for a wholesome study, more respondents might be needed.