Gas turbine engines are conceptually designed using performance maps that describe the compressor’s effect on the cycle. During the traditional design process, the cycle designer selects a compressor design point based on criteria to meet cycle design point requirements, and performance maps are found or created for off-design analysis that meet this design point selection. Although the maps always have a pedigree to an existing compressor design, oftentimes these maps are scaled to account for design or technology changes. Scaling practices disconnect the maps from the geometry and flow associated with the reference compressor, or the design parameters which are needed for compressor preliminary design. A goal in gas turbine engine research is to bridge this disconnect in order to produce acceptable performance maps that are coupled with compressor design parameters. A new compressor conceptual design and performance prediction method has been developed which will couple performance maps to conceptual design parameters. This method will adapt and combine the key elements of compressor conceptual design with multiple-meanline analysis, allowing for a map of optimal performance that is attached to reasonable design parameters to be defined for cycle design. This method is prompted by the development of multi-fidelity (zooming) analysis capabilities, which allow compressor analysis to be incorporated into cycle analysis. Integrating compressor conceptual design and map generation into cycle analysis will allow for more realistic decisions to be made sooner, which will reduce the time and cost used for design iterations.

Many scholars in the field believe that identities are fluid without question. Butler’s “fluidity of identities,” for instance, describes the numerous variations in gender identities that denaturalize gender, but not consider its racial dimensions (179). Butler analyzes drag performance as a model to show how gender identities are fluid, suggesting agency and social mobility in everyday life. But what is most striking to me about fluidity of identities is the assumption that everyone has fluid identities with scarcely any regard for how racialized stereotypes fix identities (Hall 1997, 258). Fixity is the repetition of colonial power over racialized subjects rendering them without agency and access (Bhabha 94). Fixity uses stereotyping, which is a process of constructing “composite images” about groups of people, and that hold certain identities within “symbolic boundaries” (Brantlinger 306). As a result, this dissertation challenges the universality in a fluidity of identities by examining three case studies in Caribbean racialized gender identities, often thought to be fluid because of multi-ethnicity, but discriminate against, and erase blackness or “Africanness,” in race theories of “whitening” (blanquemiento), “darkening” (negreado), color-casting, and colonial stereotypes of “miscegenation” throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Through performance analyses of three black and "miscegenated" Anglophone Caribbean performers Denise “Saucy Wow” Belfon in Trinidad carnival crossdressing, Carlene “The Dancehall Queen” Smith in Jamaican dancehall transvestism, and Staceyann Chin in American performance poetry with racialized “androgyny,” I examine the figures of Creole, La Mulata, Dougla and “half-Chiney” by these women in their performance genres in order to investigate whether identities are as fluid as Butler suggests, and to chart their fixities. Focusing on fluidity alone risks denying inequalities and the lack of social mobility restricting access to marginalized people. Belfon, Smith and Chin manipulate racialized “drag” by simultaneously crossing race and gender in masquerade traditions of Trinidad carnival, Jamaican dancehall, and in the orality and embodiment in American performance poetry in performances I call black liminal displacements, defined as self-stereotyping and self-caricaturing. However fluid racialized gender identities may appear to be, I argue that racialized gender identities are not definitively fluid because racial stereotypes fix identities. / text

"Realizing corporate vision through balanced scorecards" Date: May 28, 2015 Level: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 ECTS Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors: Roman Alam Olof Hällman July 2, 1987 May 11, 1989 Title: Realizing corporate vision through balanced scorecards Supervisor: Magnus Hoppe Keywords: Balanced scorecards, corporate vision, key performance indicators, performance measurement, strategy. Research question: Why are balanced scorecards implemented and how are they adapted and developed? Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe what reasons companies claim for implementing balanced scorecards and how these companies adapt and develop the scorecards. Method: To conduct a qualitative research, a literature review, a case study and interviews were carried out to draw the conclusions of the thesis. Conclusion: The study identified industry-, business- and organization-specific adaptations of the balanced scorecard as a performance measurement tool to link strategy and corporate vision to future decisions and actions.

Performance feedback plays an important role in management accounting, as it is integral to performance measurement and evaluation. The timing of performance feedback is a critical characteristic of accounting information systems and is often a choice variable for managers and management accountants. In this dissertation, I examine the relation between the timing of outcome-based performance feedback and individual performance. I find that immediate outcome-based performance feedback, while benefiting current performance, can limit individuals’ propensity to seek learning opportunities, reducing future performance. Further, I find that feedback given after intermediate delays benefits future performance with a small cost to current performance. Lastly, feedback given after too long of a delay not only limits current performance, but also limits future performance due to the effects of information overload. Overall, I find support for an inverted-U relation between the timing of performance feedback and future performance. In a two-period setting in which the timing of outcome-based performance feedback is manipulated in the first period and feedback is unavailable in the second period, I find that participants given intermediate feedback perform significantly better in the second period than those given feedback either after no delay or after a long delay. I also investigate the processes by which performance is affected by the timing of performance feedback. These results contribute to a better understanding of the effect of performance feedback timing in complex task environments and provide insight into how delays in performance feedback can benefit or harm future performance. / text

This dissertation presents an instrumentalist’s perspective on cognition and meta-cognition in music performance. The goal of the study is to identify and apply methods of inquiry that are phenomenologically resonant with instrumental practice. The first chapter, situating the study in the context of the writer’s musical training, examines ways of studying and representing performance knowledge. The second chapter presents a case study of the preparation of Tōru Takemitsu’s Masque for Two Flutes (1959-1960). Using grounded theory methodology, this chapter investigates the role of gesture in the negotiation of musical understanding. Chapters 3 through 5 draw on Herbert H. Clark’s joint activity theory of language use to conceptualize music-making, taking into account context, process, and other domains of musical activity. Finally, Chapter 6, in addition to re-defining "virtuosity" for the 21st century instrumentalist, presents a set of philosophical considerations for cognitive studies in music performance.

This study investigates the challenges of implementing a performance management development system (PMDS) in the Department of Transport as a learning organisation. The objectives were: * To evaluate the PMDS that is currently utilised to motivate employees and to determine problems encountered in the implementation thereof with a view to employing a learning organisation approach. * To determine new approaches to the implementation of the PMDS. * To uncover problems encountered in the implementation of the PMDS. The study focused on managers and supervisors as the main role-players in the assessment of the PMDS. Supervisors were given questionnaires concerning issues pertaining to PMDS and learning organisations. Respondents were asked whether the role of trainers is visible in strengthening communication structures allowing employees to participate meaningfully in the decision-making processes of their organisation. The following research questions were asked: * What challenges do the Department of Transport in KZN, Pietermaritzburg faces concerning the PDMS and in becoming a mature learning organisation? * Is the PMDS compatible with a learning organisation? * How has the PMDS been utilised to motivate employees and to uncover problems encountered in the implementation of the PMDS? * How does the Department of Transport identify new approaches required for the implementation of the PMDS? / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2010.

The purpose of this thesis is to point out how a company can gain a better process by using PM in an effective way. The report concludes that the existence in practice of theoretically important aspects are different, also that the most correct way of leading the aspects are through the creation of a PM process. During this thesis work the benefits with performance measurements have been analyzed. Since the genesis of the industrialisation there have been growing needs to identify ways of understanding how a company functions. One of the main events historically leading to the broad adoption of PM was the introduction of the DuPont model. The DuPont model developed by DuPont and General Motors during the beginning of the 20th century quickly became the industry standard in the US for financial analysis. The Dupont model gave PM a central role in evaluating the performance of a company. Companies are today driven towards a higher level of responsiveness and flexibility in order to remain competitive. In order to measure the advancement towards these objectives, an increasingly complex set of activities collection of PM to monitor performance satisfactorily. Often however, PM are still developed around traditional, functional metrics focusing on departmental issues, rather than on the whole value stream. There has also been analyzed how a manufacturing company can use PM in an effective way. Under this thesis it emerged that the most crucial factor affecting the companies PM was that it was hard to understand how to use it correctly. When a company use it correctly it determines where the company stands, if they want to be competitive in the future and a method to maintain a good value stream flow. The economical factors for the company are at least important because all decisions always include costly investments. At the same time a company’s PM must be as efficient as possible and generate a good investment. Also other factors have been presented in this thesis but do not affect the effectiveness of the PM. The most important factors found to a more effective PM were; does the PM fulfil its purpose, is the performance attained, to make the purpose explicit and at last boost the education around the subject. The whole research has been carried out over a twenty-week period, during that period data collection has been performed via case studies. The rest of the data collection has been collected through a literature review by examining relevant data to answer the two research questions. This thesis have led to a better understanding regarding how to use PM and the benefits of it. This are based on the collected data from the case studies and from the theoretical findings, the empirical data were analyzed in a way that the company understood what was wrong with today´s PM.

Performance management and goal attainment are two subjects over which thousands of books and articles have been written. The manufacturing sector in South Africa is competitive and companies have to continuously strive to better themselves to meet the ever changing requirements of their customers. What is important to the company of today is that the goals and strategies must be reviewed on a regular basis. The question that can now be asked, is the following: How can corporate goals be attained through the management of the company's performance? The purpose of this study is to establish how companies achieve their set goals through the management of their performance. The focus was not only placed on the financial indicators of performance, but also placed on how the companies manage their non-financial performance. In the current competitive environment in which manufacturing companies find themselves, the importance of non-financial performance has increased to the same level as financial performance. Empirical research was performed by means of a questionnaire and interviews in order to determine how companies operate to achieve their set goals and to arrive at conclusions and recommendations based on this research. It was found that companies give the same amount of attention to the financial and non-financial indicators of performance, but that there is room for improvement in the use of non-financial indicators. There was also found that companies achieve their set goals through the use of performance management. / Thesis (M.Com. (Management Accounting))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Poor employee performance is one of employer’s most common challenges. The study aims to explore the effectiveness of a Performance Enhancement Programme (PEP) used within an electricity supply company and identifying the contributing factors for managers and supervisors not utilizing the programme. The research method consists of two parts, a literary review and an empirical study. The empirical study was done by means of a survey conducted on a sample of 210 Eskom supervisors and managers of the North Western Region of Eskom. The measuring instrument consisted of a structured questionnaire, developed by the researcher. The results revealed that supervisors and managers are using PEP and that they see it as a good tool to manage poor performance. Respondents indicated very clearly that they need training to be able to address poor performance. The findings concerning the effectiveness of the PEP were inconclusive. The small sample size was a limitation to the study. The questionnaire proved to be lacking in determining the effectiveness of the Performance Enhancement Programme. The sample only included supervisors and managers in the North Western Region of Eskom. Further research needs to be conducted with a larger sample including employees on all levels. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Performance management at all levels of employees within the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) is a key challenge, currently only applicable to senior managers. The employer was proactive in introducing the Ekurhuleni Excellence Awards to the gap that is created by the legislation, but the effort seems not to be working as employees do not understand the criteria that are used for nominations. The empirical study entailed 54 respondents who completed the questionnaire, in five different departments which are Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology, Legal and Administration. In this study, the Performance Management System (PMS) of the EMM was analysed, and the biggest challenge being faced by the EMM is the inability of the EMM to address staff retention (at 57%) and succession when employees leave the EMM (at 62%). The two challenges identified by the study are most crucial for the success of the PMS. The PMS of municipalities is legislated by different Acts, and in order to address service delivery challenges, the Acts need to be reviewed to include all levels of employees. National and Provincial Government have implemented the PMS so that municipalities, as another sphere of Government, will improve service delivery as well as employee motivation. The EMM senior managers, together with the Human Resources department, should craft a strategy or action for the future in order to successfully cascade the PMS to other levels of employees. The EMM Performance Management Policy that is currently operational is in line with the Municipal Regulation no. R805, so the Policy complies fully with the legislation. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010.