The purpose of this study is to develop a performance management framework for public schools. / This study examined the relationship between the various dimensions of performance determinants, and the overall performance level of performance determinants of the schools. First, the schools current level in the four dimensions of performance determinants; financial management, learning and growth, internal process, and customer orientation as perceived by the school administrators and teachers, was assessed. Then, structural models were constructed to examine how the performance determinants affect the overall performance of the schools. Since the data was gathered from two distinct populations, school administrators and teachers, separate models were used to explore the relationships. In addition, this study also explores how the performance appraisal moderates the relationship between performance determinants and the overall performance of the schools. The instrument for this study was developed using focus group interviews. The SSM intervention was used during the focus group interview. The instrument was subjected to various types of validity and reliability check to ensure that it has sound psychometric properties. The sample consisted of 521 school administrators, consisting of school principals, senior assistants, and heads of units) and 931 teachers. / The multistage random sampling technique was employed, first the systematic sampling technique was used to select the schools from a complete list of secondary schools in Sarawak, and then the simple random sampling method was employed to select the respondents. Two sets of questionnaires were used in this study: the school administrator questionnaire and teacher questionnaire, each consisting of four sections. Section one elicits background information, section two assesses the performance determinant level of the schools, section three determines the overall performance of the schools, and section four evaluates the performance appraisal practices of the schools. The performance determinants of the schools are assessed from four dimensions; financial management, learning and growth, internal process, and customer orientation. The overall performance of the schools is assessed from three perspectives: effectiveness of services, efficiency of the staff, and academic performance and student quality. / Thesis (DBA(DBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2005.

Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2004.

Thesis (MSocSc)--University of South Australia, 1997

Thesis (MEng)--University of South Australia, 1998

Thesis (M Ed)--University of South Australia, [1997?]

University of Technology, Sydney.Faculty of Business. / Organisations depend on teams to implement its strategies and enables organisations to be flexible and responsive in the competitive global environment. Teams contribute to the organisation while at the same time providing opportunities to team members to develop relationships within team. Teams are viewed as a major source of ‘environmental forces’ that help shape team members (McGrath and Kravitz, 1982). Previous research by Taggard and Brown (2001) shows that there is a statistically significant relationship between team members’ behaviour and team performance (e.g., participation and involving others, goal setting, feedback, team commitment, reaction to conflict, addressing conflict, averting conflict and communication). There is noticeably a lack of research on team behaviours in Malaysia. The first objective of this thesis is to explore the relationships between team performance and ‘behavioural’ characteristics in the Manufacturing and Telecommunication industries in Malaysia. Past findings suggest that ‘behavioural’ characteristics of well developed team tend to possess certain ‘behavioural’ characteristics (e.g., Wheelan and Hochberger, 1996; Woodcock and Francis, 1996). The literature (e.g., Hoigaard, et. al., 2006; Stevens and Champion, 1994) has shown that that ‘behavioural’ characteristics such as role clarity, role satisfaction, liking, goal agreement, openness to change and differences, participative leadership style, division of task into sub-teams, informal leadership role, effective handling of intra-team conflict and inter-team conflict are critical in team performance. The second objective seeks to investigate the relationship between team ‘structural’ factors (such as team size, team types, organisation size) and team behaviours. Team structure is viewed as ‘inputs’ to team behaviour (Gist et al., 1987). Goal contribution by teams (e.g., Hoegl and Parboteeah, 2003), customers (e.g., Kaczynski and Ott, 2004) and management (e.g., Samson and Daft (2003) were also included in the study. The third objective seeks to investigate the relationship between team members’ demographic variables (such as gender, ethnicity, age and education) and team behaviour and team performance. Scholars suggest that there is a link between team’s demography and team performance (e.g., Eisenhardt and Schoonhoven, 1990; Michael and Hambrick, 1992). Questionnaire data were collected from 59 work teams comprising of 137 individual team members) from both small and large organisations located in four regions in Malaysia (Penang, Kuala Lumpur Seremban and Malacca). The respondents were mainly Malay (52.9 percent), followed by Chinese (31.4 percent), and Indian (15.7 percent). Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlations and one way analysis of variance. The findings suggest that ‘behavioural’ characteristics such as role clarity, role satisfaction and division of task into sub-teams are critical for all aspects of team performance. Goal agreement, role clarity, role satisfaction and division of task into sub-teams and participative leadership style correlate with the team performance indicator of downtime reduction. Role satisfaction and division of tasks into sub-teams correlates positively with waste reduction. The findings indicate that team type and organisation size correlates with team performance. The findings suggest that involvement from team members drawn from cross-functional areas complement each other and these teams tend to have less conflict in task performance. Team members from large organisations seem to have a majority of effective team behaviours such as cohesiveness, liking for each other, goal agreement, role clarity, and openness to differences. These teams also have a preference for structured activities such as division of tasks into sub-teams, participative leadership style and are motivated to achieve team goals. Goal contribution by teams and customers are critical for team performance. Celebrations of team success provide opportunities for reinforcing team values and bonding team members to one another, thus creating a cohesive team. However, team size does not impact team performance. The findings show that teams with a majority of Malay members tend to be more cohesive, like each other more, agree to team goals, open to change and accept each other’s differences. They also tend to prefer structured activities such as the division of tasks into sub-teams and participative leadership style. Teams with a majority of Chinese and Indian members tend to have higher inter-team conflict and tend to focus on the team’s outcome. The findings have important practical implication for managers and supervisors who need to be sensitive to the differences and needs of the multi-ethnic race team. Intra-team and inter-team conflict could be minimised by providing interpersonal training and conflict resolution skills for team members to communicate positively and build rapport. The findings show that there is a strong relationship between team performance and team type, and team membership composition. Therefore, teams need to be labelled accurately according to the different team expectations and needs of the team (e.g., training, supervision, motivation). The findings found that team involvement in team goals is associated with team performance. This finding suggests that managers need to involve team members in setting reachable goals which provide a sense of direction to teams. In conclusion, the study found that there is a relationship between team ‘behavioural’ characteristics such as role clarity, role satisfaction and division of task into sub-teams and team performance in the Malaysian context. Ethnic values and cultural differences also influence team members’ behaviour. The study suggests that goal contribution by team and customer provide a sense of direction to teams in achieving the teams’ outcomes. Celebration of team success and team participation in convention enhances team performance.

This thesis examines the politics of twenty-first century ???guerrilla??? performance. It historicises site-specific, political performance by examining ???guerrilla??? art forms from the 1960s to the present. It argues that recent community-based, site-specific performance events can be seen as a ???new??? type of guerrilla work, as they utilise techniques which challenge public space, authorship and control without resorting to traditional guerrilla forms of didactic street protest. The author establishes two main political tactics of the community-based guerrilla artist. The first is the utilisation of a problematised definition of ???community??? and the second is an understanding of physical, conceptual and experiential ???space??? as open to intervention. Community-based performance and site-specific art practices are investigated and space and community are placed into critical theoretical frameworks using post-structural and spatiality theory. The author then argues that post-structured communities which are based on an ethics of difference can trouble and create site, conceptual space and place (site/concept/place) through contemporary guerrilla performance events. Three examples of community-based guerrilla performance in Australia are examined. The first case study explores Western Sydney based Urban Theatre Projects and their 1997 performance event TrackWork. The second focuses on community-based hip-hop artist Morganics and his facilitation of two hip-hop tracks Down River and The Block in 2001. The third considers US theatre director Peter Sellars??? problematic curation of the 2002 Adelaide Festival of the Arts. In all three case studies, guerrilla artists are shown working with post-structured communities to challenge and trouble site/concept/place in order to improve the lives of their participants and audiences. This thesis proposes new post-structural frameworks for the powerful presence of community and site in performance events, thus contributing to performance and cultural studies and to the emerging field of community-based performance scholarship.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / In this thesis, I examine the role performance plays in the adversarial criminal jury trial. The initial motivation behind this inquiry was the pervasiveness of a metaphor: why is the courtroom so frequently compared to a theatre? Most writings on this topic see the courtroom as bearing what might be termed a cosmetic resemblance to a theatre, making comparisons, for instance, between elements of costume and staging. I pursue a different line of argument. I argue that performance is not simply an embellishment of the trial process but rather a constitutive feature of the criminal jury trial. It is by means of what I call the performance of tradition that the trial acquires its social significance as a (supposedly) timeless bulwark of authority and impartiality. In the first three chapters I show that popular usage of the term ‘theatrical’ (whether it be to describe the practice of a flamboyant lawyer, or a misbehaving defendant) is frequently laden with pejorative connotations and invariably (though usually only implicitly) invokes comparison to a presupposed authentic or natural way of behaviour (‘not-performing’). Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu I argue that, whatever legal agents see as appropriate trial conduct (behaviour that is ‘not-performing’), they are misrecognising the performative accomplishments and demands required of both legal agents and laypersons in the trial. This performance constructs and maintains a gap between legal practitioners and laypersons which is essential to maintaining the status of the legal profession, and which continually positions the trial in legal and popular belief. I then look at specific moments of ‘anxiety’ where alterations to traditional procedure provoke debate as to the otherwise unnoticed or unarticulated value of live performance. In Chapter 4, I examine the growth of the private advocacy training industry that frequently positions lawyers as actors. Resistance to the idea of acting demonstrates the tainted status of performance terminology as well as legal agents’ belief that lawyers are acting naturally. I argue instead that lawyers have always been trained in acting: an habituated performance style I term legal naturalism. In Chapter 5, I examine the television broadcasting of trials. Some legal agents argue that broadcasting risks ‘theatricalising’ the trial—causing participants to ‘act up’. However, this overlooks the fact that the court has a long history as a source of popular entertainment. I argue that resistance to broadcasting also stems from a reluctance to remit control of the trial to external producers. Broadcasting invites greater scrutiny into a process that if not always fair, needs to be believed in as fair and has historically been tightly self-regulated by the legal field, through its reliance on live performance’s ‘essential’ quality—its inability to be captured and subsequent disappearance. In Chapter 6, I examine the debates around CCTV testimony, which demonstrate a consistency of belief in live or ‘face-to-face’ confrontation to produce juridical ‘Truth’ that can be traced back over 800 years. The final chapter of this thesis examines sexual assault trials. This chapter brings together all of these sources of anxiety. Although often termed ‘exceptional’, sexual assault trials highlight how essential live performance is to manufacturing the authority of ‘The Law’ through the weight given to demeanour assessment, and because these trials make visible the sustained symbolic violence characteristic of adversarial criminal trials that is particularly traumatic for sexual assault complainants. Examination of sexual assault trials also reveals the double-edged position of performance in the trial. The exploitation of the symbolic value of live performance is the source of much trauma, yet the performance of tradition is also essential to maintaining popular belief in the adversarial criminal jury trial.

The quest of this project is to question and better understand the effects of a widening gap between Middle East and West on Middle Easterners’ experiences and feelings in exile, inbetween. This is to articulate this separation, but also to invent a visual and spatial experience that may enable us to traverse the space of the border. For those not in and of this space, as well as for those in it, a new way of looking may furnish a better understanding of both positions and facilitate communication.

The quest of this project is to question and better understand the effects of a widening gap between Middle East and West on Middle Easterners’ experiences and feelings in exile, inbetween. This is to articulate this separation, but also to invent a visual and spatial experience that may enable us to traverse the space of the border. For those not in and of this space, as well as for those in it, a new way of looking may furnish a better understanding of both positions and facilitate communication.