published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

Managing on the middle level of the academic environment has become an essential managerial competency, particularly in a large library of an Open Distance Learning (ODL) institution which serves 400,000 students with a diverse student profile. The research focus of this study in the ODL environment is thus on management and organisational theories that indicate what it takes to be a good manager. This is a positivist case study which triangulates data collection methods. Quantitative data and qualitative data were collected. The findings indicate a 94,7% response rate to the survey questionnaire and 100% participation of the invited ODL middle managers in interviews. Interviews were conducted with ODL Library middle managers who operate on the level of supervisor, manager, deputy director and director. Findings revealed ODL Library middle managers‟ perception of success and that they worked and planned for career progression that was facilitated by relevant qualifications and experience, that the external support received from their families and the use of develop ment strategies and various approaches, such as personal career planning; performing secondary management roles in the ODL Library; attendance at management short courses, all influenced their successful appointment as middle managers. It further indicates that an optimum career path is influenced by factors such as ability, communication, hard work and determination. Development strategies pertain to management and leadership development which enable ODL Library middle managers to perform the role of manager in both a Library and Information Science environment, ODL environment and management environment which foster an understanding of their role in strategic planning. The most important competencies to be acquired are planning and administration, emotional intelligence and self-management, communication and teamwork. The study reveals that a high premium was placed on the importance of the selected success definitions, strategies and competencies, but that own success measured against these was lower. The subsequent recommendation is to develop ODL Library middle managers in terms of factors and strategies that lead to career success and to ensure the use thereof. / Information Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Information Science)

by Cunningham King, Mimi, Li, Yuen Yu Vivien. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1990. / Bibliography: leaves 105-108. / ABSTRACT / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF EXHIBITS --- p.viii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.ix / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.x / Chapter CHAPTER ONE --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Staff Turnover in Service Industry --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Outlook of Supply of General Staff --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- Objective and Scope --- p.4 / Chapter 1.4 --- Significance of the Study --- p.4 / Chapter 1.5 --- Case Brief --- p.5 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1 --- Definition --- p.8 / Chapter 2.2 --- Effects of Turnover --- p.10 / Chapter 2.3 --- Costs of Turnover --- p.13 / Chapter 2.4 --- Measurement of Turnover --- p.14 / Chapter 2.5 --- Causes of Turnover --- p.14 / Chapter 2.6 --- Causes for Staying --- p.15 / Chapter 2.7 --- Developing the Theoretical Framework --- p.16 / Chapter 2.8 --- The Theoretical Framework --- p.29 / Chapter THREE --- METHODOLOGY --- p.31 / Chapter 3.1 --- Overview --- p.31 / Chapter 3.2 --- Population and Sample --- p.31 / Chapter 3.3 --- Preliminary Survey Method --- p.3 2 / Chapter 3.4 --- The Hypotheses --- p.34 / Chapter 3.5 --- Data Collection Method --- p.36 / Chapter 3.6 --- Variables --- p.38 / Chapter 3.7 --- Measurement of Variables --- p.40 / Chapter 3.8 --- Data Analysis Techniques --- p.41 / Chapter FOUR --- RESULTS --- p.44 / Chapter 4.1 --- Response Rate --- p.44 / Chapter 4.2 --- Feel for Data --- p.45 / Chapter 4.3 --- Factor Analysis --- p.49 / Chapter 4.4 --- Hypotheses Testing --- p.51 / Chapter 4.5 --- Other Analyses --- p.55 / Chapter 4.6 --- Summary of Results --- p.59 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE --- DISCUSSION --- p.60 / Chapter 5.1 --- Significant Factors Affecting Propensity to Stay --- p.60 / Chapter 5.2 --- Factors not Correlated to Propensity to Stay --- p.62 / Chapter 5.3 --- Relationship Between Demographics and Propensity to Stay --- p.63 / Chapter 5.4 --- Departmental Variationin Propensity to Stay --- p.64 / Chapter 5.5 --- Conclusion --- p.64 / Chapter SIX --- RECOMMENDATIONS --- p.65 / Chapter 6.1 --- Recommendations to the Airline --- p.65 / Chapter 6.2 --- Recommendations for Further Research --- p.70 / APPENDIX / Chapter I --- "Places Offered by Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges" --- p.71 / Chapter II --- Title and Job Nature of Sample --- p.72 / Chapter III --- Questionnaire (in Chinese) --- p.73 / Chapter IV --- Questionnaire (English Translation) --- p.86 / Chapter V --- Distribution of Valid Cases by Rank --- p.93 / Chapter VI --- Demographics of Respondents --- p.94 / Chapter VII --- List of Mean Scores for items Measuring Independent Variables --- p.99 / Chapter VIII --- Results of Hypotheses Testing --- p.101 / Chapter IX --- "Correlation Between Number of Children, Education, Salary, Age and Length of Service" --- p.104 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.105

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

by Chow Chiu Mei, Loletta, Fok Hoi Yun, Irene. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [67-70]). / ABSTRACT --- p.i -ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii -iv / CHAPTERS / Chapter 1. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1-5 / Chapter 2. --- ARTHUR ANDERSEN & CO --- p.6 -15 / Chapter 2.1 --- Vision and Mission --- p.7 / Chapter 2.2 --- Arthur Andersen Strategic Framework --- p.7-15 / Chapter 3. --- RESOURCE-BASED FRAMEWORK --- p.16 -30 / Chapter 3.1 --- Firm Resources --- p.16-18 / Chapter 3.2 --- Competitive Advantage and Sustained Competitive Advantage --- p.18-19 / Chapter 3.3 --- Resource Homogeneity and Mobility and Sustained Competitive Advantage --- p.20 -21 / Chapter 3.4 --- Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage --- p.21 -27 / Chapter 3.5 --- Applications of Resource-based Approach --- p.27 -30 / Chapter 4. --- METHODOLOGY --- p.31-33 / Chapter 4.1 --- Data Sources --- p.31 -32 / Chapter 4.2 --- Measurement --- p.32 / Chapter 4.3 --- Method of Analysis --- p.33 / Chapter 5. --- FINDINGS --- p.34 -47 / Chapter 5.1 --- Valuable --- p.35 -39 / Chapter 5.2 --- Rareness --- p.39 -45 / Chapter 5.3 --- Imperfectly Imitable --- p.45-46 / Chapter 5.4 --- Substitutability --- p.46-47 / Chapter 6. --- DISCUSSIONS --- p.48-52 / Chapter 7. --- CONCLUSION --- p.53-54 / Chapter 7.1 --- Limitations of the Study --- p.54 / APPENDICES / Chapter A. --- Big-Six Accounting Firms Comparative Data / Chapter B. --- Andersen Worldwide Facts1996 / Chapter C. --- Structure of Andersen Worldwide / Chapter D. --- Arthur Andersen Strategic Framework / Chapter E. --- Arthur Andersen Range of Services / Chapter F. --- 1996 Manpower Survey Report of Accountancy / REFERENCES

The climate in which communication occurs is a result of how employees in an organization perceive and react to such factors as rewards, support, trust, openness, decision making, and leadership. The purpose of this case study is to identify and describe communication climate factors in a health care organization which are negatively influencing employee productivity and morale. A literature review provides information which describes research in areas of health care communication, communication climate, and leadership. A multi-method approach is used to gather information from the twelve employees and the manager of this organization. / Graduation date: 1992

Though turnover researchers have called for a deeper understanding of the temporal and contextualized process of individual voluntary turnover, little empirical progress in this direction has been made. Adopting Price's (1977) dynamic conceptualization of turnover as moving from one social system to another, and drawing upon knowledge across organizational, social psychological and psychological domains, this exploratory thesis uses in-depth topical life histories to examine individual experiences with stay/leave decision processes in their construed context. / Findings challenge longstanding assumptions of linearity and continuity in turnover decision processes, as well as the conventional wisdom that utility-maximizing logic underlies these decisions. The data suggest that the pursuit of context-self congruence is a driving force in stay/leave decision processes, and that self-concept, emotions and psychological states may be under-studied influencers of these decisions. Results further uncover decision process characteristics previously rendered inaccessible to researchers, due to the predominant use of correlational studies in turnover research. These characteristics include: a) pivotal points of transition; b) the story lines that underlie influencing factors; c) the nature and role of context; and d) the consequences of engaging in these decision processes, for participants and for their workplaces, regardless of the outcome. / This idiographic study, using a purposive sample from a single population of Quebec physicians, is intended to provide turnover researchers with a starting point for cross-group retrospective and longitudinal comparisons. It also aims to stimulate hypothesis generation that accounts for time and the contextual conditions under which particular factors are likely to affect the turnover decision. From a practical viewpoint, this thesis begins to answer the call from Canadian and Quebec Health Care Human Resource specialists for a deeper understanding of the psychosocial aspects of Canadian healthcare worker turnover and retention (British Columbia Office of the Auditor General, 2004; Dubois & Dussault, 2002).

M.Ed. (Educational Management) / Why seek to develop school leadership? Apartfrom the advantages that accrue to one'scareerfrom the demonstrated ability topersuade others to work towards intended results, what does the practice of continuous small acts of leadership do for the development of one's character and accomplishment of organisational aims (Caroselli,1990:199) ? How do we persuade others? Do we persuade by resorting to Taylor's scientific management ( Sergiovanni and Starratt.1993 : 12 ) where control, accountability and efficiency are emphasised within the atmosphere of clear-cut manager-subordinate relationship, where the recipe is to identify the best way, develop a work system based on the research of, communicate expectations to workers, train workers in the system, monitor and evaluate to ensure compliance? Or as Kok, Smith and Swart (1992 : 9 ) put it, through an invitational stance of the school leader, where intentionality, respect, trust and optimism are the basic qualities of the school leader ? The invitational stance which is based on the assumptions that all persons are valuable, able and responsible and ought to be treated accordingly, that education is a co-operative process which cannot succeed without the participation of all concerned parties, that the process is just as important as the end product, that all persons have relatively untapped potential in all facets of living given the right condition, and that potentials can best be realised through places, policy, procedures and programmes which are specifically designed to invite development and by people who intentionally behave invitationally, both personally and professionally, towards others ( 1992: 2). What are these small acts of leadership? These are some of the questions which come to mind after analysing Caroselli's statement above as far as educational leadership is concerned. .Total Quality Management represents a line of thinking which resembles the ideas of many writers on business and educational management, since the start of the eighties. On the one hand writers like Sergiovanni and Starratt ( 1993 :287) see schools as non-linear and looselycoupled organisations, where employees should be bounded by a common vision and shared set of values, where colleagiality and enablement could become the main motivational factor in committing members of the organisation to a common cause. On the other hand, Blanchard, Zigarmi and Zigarmi (1987 :75) summarise four leadership styles which are appropriate for different development levels based on competence and commitment of the employee-teacher as changing from directing to coaching to supporting to delegating as performance improves. In organisations which are moulded according to the Taylor model ( Sergiovanni and Starratt, 1993 : 12) leadership is through issuing commands, enforcing compliance and controlling the activities of employees. The philosophy of Taylorism, is still in place in many schools today. The hierarchical nature of this form of organisation, implies that the teacher's priority is to please the superiors first at the expense of the customer- the student.

No description available.

Thesis (MPA)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The new management model for the Government places the responsibility for the execution of the human resources function within the management domain of the executive authority, department heads and line managers. Other than in the past, the human resources function has been decentralised at all provincial departments within the Western Cape. Departments subsequently went ahead and established their own human resources components. However, the creation and structuring of the said function within the different departments were completed, to a great extent, in isolation with each other. Although all departmental components had to perform the same functions within the same regulatory framework, there was little consistency in the way it was structured. The purpose of the research is to create a generic organisational structure to serve as a guideline whereby departmental human resources components could be organised. In order to design a model a literature study has been undertaken with the emphasis on structuring of organisations and a functional analysis of the human resources function has been done. The focus was on literature that deals with the structuring of human resources components. An analysis was also done on the regulatory framework in which the human resource function should function, within the Government. In view of the preceding discussions and due to specific principles, a generic organisational structure has been developed and is recommended that it serve as a guide to be applied within the Western Cape Provincial Administration. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die nuwe bestuursmodel vir die staatsdiens plaas die verantwoordelikheid vir die uitvoering van die menslike hulpbronbestuursfunksie binne die bestuursdomein van die uitvoeringsgesagte, departementshoofde en lynbestuurders. Waar die menslike hulpbronbestuursfunksie ten opsigte van bepaalde departemente binne die Wes-Kaapse Provinsiale Administrasie voorheen vanuit 'n gesentraliseerde komponent gelewer is, is die funksie gedesentraliseer en het departemente gevolglik begin om hul eie menslike hulpbronbestuur komponente te vestig. Die vestiging en strukturering van hierdie komponente het in isolasie tot mekaar plaasgevind, en was daar weinig sprake van patroonmatigheid in die wyse waarop dit gestruktureer is, alhoewel almal dieselfde funksies ingevolge dieselfde regulatoriese raamwerk moet verrig. Die doel van die navorsingstudie is om 'n generiese organisasiestruktuur te ontwerp om as riglyn te dien waarvolgens hierdie departementele menslike hulpbronbestuur komponente gestruktureer kan word. Ten einde die model te ontwerp is 'n literatuurstudie ten opsigte van organisasie-teorie met die klem opdie strukturering van organisasies onderneem, en is 'n funksionele analise van die menslike hulpbronbestuur funksie gemaak. Aandag is geskenk aan literatuur ten opsigte van die strukturering van menslike hulpbronbestuur komponente en is daar ook 'n ontleding van die regulatoriese raamwerk waarbinne die menslike hulpbronbestuur funksie binne die staatsdiens verrig staan te word, gedoen. Op grond van die voormelde en aan die hand van bepaalde beginsels is 'n generiese organisasiestruktuur ontwerp, en word aanbeveel dat dit dien as riglyn vir toepassing binne die Wes-Kaapse Provinsiale Administrasie.