The purpose of this study was to determine a model to integrate managerial and non-managerial expectations, regarding performance appraisals, in an organisation-specific performance appraisal system’s design. The sample consisted of 178 respondents that completed a newly developed questionnaire, aimed at obtaining the respondents input in the performance appraisal system’s design. The results of the managerial group were compared to the non-managerial group. Some significant differences were obtained regarding the design of the performance appraisal system. The results and implications are discussed. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

The performance management and development system (PMDS) is a tool that is used by government to measure the performance of individuals in the organisation. PMDS was developmental in its nature in identifying the development of employees and training in case of poor performance. The main aim of the PMDS is to motivate officials in the organisation by rewarding a performance bonus at the end of the financial year. There are challenges that affect the PMDS: officials felt that the system did not motivate them; it is perceived as a 14th cheque and some of them felt the system should be terminated. The main aim of the study is to evaluate the performance management and development system at the Department of Safety and Liaison in the Eastern Cape. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected through questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaires were distributed to officials from levels 1 - 8 and interviews were conducted with assistant managers, managers and senior managers. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the questionnaires and transcriptions were used to interpret the interviews. The results of the study reflect that most officials in the Department are young and new to the public service. The findings show that the employees of the Department are average in their performance and the Department perceives that the PMDS is not used to identify poor performance and training. The system is not implemented effectively and efficiently. Based on the findings and recommendations made to management to facilitate the training on PMDS and also to allow the processes and procedures to be more efficient. Furthermore allowing performance from all staff to achieve the core objectives of the department.

We are living in a changing world. Performance management is becoming a major challenge for organisations. The aim of this study is to review the current status of the Performance Management and Development System at the Department of the Premier and to look into the reasons why it has become a pain rather than a gain to both the organisation and its employees. This document will also look at the possible causes of the failure of the performance management system and will then propose useful guidelines to overcome obstacles to the benefit of all the affected parties. To achieve this objective a comprehensive literature study was performed to the Department of the Premier to determine the views on performance, and on performance management programmes. The study also included an investigation into the extent to which a performance management programme should be aligned with Provincial Government Western Cape (PGWC) and individual goals. Questionnaires developed from the literature study, were distributed amongst randomly selected respondents, in order to determine the extent to which a specific directorate manages performance, in line with the guidelines provided by the literature study. The information obtained from the questionnaires were compared with the guidelines provided by the literature study in order to identify shortcomings in the influence that the performance management programme has on the achievement of Department and individual goals at the selected Directorates. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of the current performance management system, in the Department at Provincial Government Western Cape, as a facilitation tool in aiding or assisting management in achieving individual and departmental goals. To achieve this objective a comprehensive literature study was performed to determine the views on performance, and on performance management systems. A questionnaire was designed based on the guidelines in the literature study, in order to establish the extent to which the organisation manages performance. The completed questionnaires were returned and these were processed and analysed using Microsoft Office Excel 2003, running on the Windows XP suite of computer packages. The respondent’s opinion obtained from the questionnaires were compared with the guidelines provided by the literature study in order to identify shortcomings of the influence that the performance management system has on the achievement of individual and departmental goals at the selected organization. The research results indicate that the majority of staff supports and understands the process.

This study is a mixed methods investigation, based on a case study of The Ottawa Hospital’s recent and ongoing implementation of an integrated performance management system (IPMS). It is the first empirical investigation to identify the reasons why Canadian healthcare leaders choose to implement an IPMS in a hospital setting, the core components of hospital-based IPMSs, the challenges that senior leaders face when implementing such systems, and how these challenges might be mitigated to increase the likelihood of a successful implementation. Key findings include the need for senior leaders to carefully consider organizational culture prior to fully implementing an IPMS, engaging physicians early in the journey, and coordinating the implementation so that knowledge, skill, and expertise, as it relates to the IPMS, are distributed across the organization in tightly knit waves. Recommendations for future research include the development of frameworks for the design, implementation, and use of IPMSs

Performance of Emergency Department (ED) physicians (MDs) is multi-faceted since it impacts multiple dimensions such as health outcomes of patients, utilization of resources, throughput of patients and timeliness of care. Therefore, the assessment of their performance demands the use of a tool that allows considering multiple evaluation criteria. However, commonly used multi-criteria evaluation methods often require assigning weights to dimensions in order to define their relative importance on a final performance score. This feature introduces subjectivity in the development of weights and has the potential to produce biased results. The purpose of this thesis research is to develop a multi-dimensional evaluation tool for evaluating performance of ED MDs. The proposed evaluation tool relies on a mathematical programming model known as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The use of DEA does not ask for subjective weighting assignments for each dimension that describe the ED MDs’ performance. It is capable of considering multiple heterogeneous performance measures to identify benchmark practice and the individual improvements leading to best practice of each evaluated unit. The DEA model described here was developed from real data to assess the performance of 20 PED MDs from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO). Multiple evaluations were run on stratified data in order to identify benchmark practice in each of seven categories of patients’ complaints and to determine the impact of accompanying MD trainees on PED MDs’ performance. For each PED MD, performance scores and improvements in each category of patients’ complaints (i.e. respiratory, trauma, abdominal, fever, gastroenterology, allergy and Ear-Nose-Throat complaints) were determined. This helped identifying the required improvements that would lead PED MDs to achieve benchmark performance. Regarding the influence of MD trainees on PED MDs’ performance, results show that most PED MDs (15 out of 20) perform better when they are not accompanied by a trainee which motivates further research to assess trade-offs between teaching and clinical performance. In summary, DEA proved to be an appropriate tool for performance evaluation of PED MDs because it helped to identify benchmark performers and provided information for performance improvements under a multi dimensional performance evaluation framework.

Ce manuscrit s'inscrit dans le domaine du calcul intensif (HPC) où le besoin croissant de performance pousse les fabricants de processeurs à y intégrer des mécanismes de plus en plus sophistiqués. Cette complexité grandissante rend l'utilisation des architectures compliquée. La modélisation des performances des architectures multi-cœurs permet de remonter des informations aux utilisateurs, c'est à dire les programmeurs, afin de mieux exploiter le matériel. Cependant, du fait du manque de documentation et de la complexité des processeurs modernes, cette modélisation est souvent difficile. L'objectif de ce manuscrit est d'utiliser des mesures de performances de petits fragments de codes afin de palier le manque d'information sur le matériel. Ces expériences, appelées micro-benchmarks, permettent de comprendre les performances des architectures modernes sans dépendre de la disponibilité des documentations techniques. Le premier chapitre présente l'architecture matérielle des processeurs modernes et, en particulier, les caractéristiques rendant la modélisation des performances complexe. Le deuxième chapitre présente une méthodologie automatique pour mesurer les performances des instructions arithmétiques. Les informations trouvées par cette méthode sont la base pour des modèles de calculs permettant de prédire le temps de calcul de fragments de codes arithmétique. Ce chapitre présent également comment de tels modèles peuvent être utilisés pour optimiser l'efficacité énergétique, en prenant pour exemple le processeur SCC. La dernière partie de ce chapitre motive le fait de réaliser un modèle mémoire prenant en compte la cohérence de cache pour prédire le temps d'accès au données. Le troisième chapitre présente l'environnement de développement de micro-benchmark utilisé pour caractériser les hiérarchies mémoires dotées de cohérence de cache. Ce chapitre fait également une étude comparative des performances mémoire de différentes architectures et l'impact sur les performances du choix du protocole de cohérence. Enfin, le quatrième chapitre présente un modèle mémoire permettant la prédiction du temps d'accès aux données pour des applications régulières de type \openmp. Le modèle s'appuie sur l'état des données dans le protocole de cohérence. Cet état évolue au fil de l'exécution du programme en fonction des accès à la mémoire. Pour chaque transition, une fonction de coût est associée. Cette fonction est directement dérivée des résultats des expériences faites dans le troisième chapitre, et permet de prédire le temps d'accès à la mémoire. Une preuve de concept de la fiabilité de ce modèle est faite, d'une part sur les applications d'algèbre et d'analyse numérique, d'autre part en utilisant ce modèle pour modéliser les performance des communications \mpi en mémoire partagée. / In the race for better performance, computer architectures are becoming more and more complex. Therefore the need for hardware models is crucial to i) tune software to the underling architecture, ii) build tools to better exploit hardware or iii) choose an architecture according to the needs of a given application. In this dissertation, we aim at describing how to build a hardware model that targets all critical parts of modern computer architecture. That is the processing unit itself, memory and even power consumption. We believe that a large part of hardware modeling can be done automatically. This would relieve people from the tiresome task of doing it by hand. Our first contribution is a set of performance models for the on-core part of several different CPUs. This part of an architecture model is called the computational model. The computational model targeting the Intel SCC chip also includes a power model allowing for power aware performance optimization. Our other main contribution is an auto-tuned memory hierarchy model for general purpose CPUs able to i) predict performance of memory bound computations, ii) provide programmer with programming guidelines to improve software memory behavior.

Performance appraisal satisfaction is the extent to which the employee perceives performance ratings, which reflect those behaviours that contribute to the organisation. Even though performance appraisal satisfaction is the most frequently measured appraisal reaction, there are relatively few meta-analysis studies which link determinants of appraisal system to satisfaction with employee performance. The focus of this research is to examine the determinants affecting employee performance appraisal satisfaction in the Brunei public sector using data collected from among public sector employees, with particular emphasis on how performance is viewed and measured in the public sector. Data for this research were gathered across ten government ministries in Brunei. This research study adopts a ‘mixed method approach’, which utilises quantitative data supported by qualitative data. The qualitative interviews involved 14 participants, while the main quantitative data had 355 samples. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive analysis and exploratory factor analysis run on SPSS, while confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis and structural equation modelling were also employed on applied analysis of moment structure (AMOS) to assess the model fit of the study and hypotheses testing. Results indicated that latent constructs (goal-setting and the purposes of performance appraisal; alignment of personal objectives with organisational goals; fairness of the appraisal system; types of performance evaluation measures; format of rating scales; appraiser-appraisee relationship and credibility of appraiser; in-group collectivism; power-distance; and pay-for-performance constructs) were positively and significantly correlated to performance appraisal satisfaction. The results also showed that the goodness of fit indices offered an acceptable fit to Brunei’s data. The study findings advance current knowledge in the performance management domain by extending individual level theory of performance appraisal satisfaction and provide empirical evidence for performance appraisal and employee satisfaction at the individual level in the public sector. This study contributes theoretically by highlighting the unique effects of latent factors on employee performance appraisal satisfaction. The research also contributes in terms of methodology, in that this study contributes to the examination of the predictors of established models of performance management in a country which is culturally different from the environments in which these constructs were developed. This research has filled gaps by testing predictor variables in cross-cultural work settings, which may be useful in generalising these predictors. Furthermore, the examination of the conceptual framework using structural equation modelling is a methodological contribution in its own right. The presence of multivariate normality encourages the assessment of the measurement model by a confirmatory factor approach, using maximum likelihood estimation, which is an additional contribution to the method analysis.

In this study I outline seven characteristics of a traditional Happening (the use of games and play, an inherent intertextual element, an emphasis on place/space, an element/spirit of anarchy, an element of chance, an emphasis on the fusion of art with everyday life, and the existence of both a purpose and a meaning) and seek to determine which characteristics contribute to the Happening's current usage as a rhetorical tool. I created a traditional Happening containing a message of environmental consumption and destruction, and surveyed audience members regarding their interpretation and experience. The survey responses were coded using a top-down narrative analysis. I discovered that intertextuality, place/space, and the fusion of art with everyday life are particularly effective communicators of a message in a socially or politically conscious Happening.

Este trabajo analiza la cultura corporal de los gimnasios. Propone que si antes estos espacios eran el reducto de boxeadores y fisicoculturistas que buscaban construir cuerpos fuertes y musculosos, hoy están pensados para la construcción del sujeto performativo de la postmodernidad. Así, el cuerpo que se materializa en el contexto de la cultura fitness no es una metáfora de la máquina ni de la herramienta de la conciencia que requiere disciplina y entrenamiento. El sujeto de la cultura fitness es el que performa para seguir performando. Su sino es el movimiento constante para responder constantemente y de manera flexible a los mandatos cambiantes de la postmodernidad. / The purpose of this paper is to analyze the culture of the body in gymnasiums. It suggests that if these spaces were, before, the redoubt of boxers and of body-builders, who sought to build strong and muscular bodies for physical competition, today they are used to build the post modern performative self. In this way, they propose new technology, practices, norms and knowledges that leave not much space for individual agency. Thus, the body that is attained within the context of the fitness culture is not a metaphor of the machine, or of the conscience’s tool, which requires discipline and training, it isn’t even the mediator of an inner being. The individual who follows the fitness culture is one who performs to keep performing. His fate is constant movement in order to respond constantly and in a flexible way to the changing commands of post-modernity.

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