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The purpose of this study was to develop a manager's planning guide to aid in the development and improvement of international training projects through the use of the Total Project Acculturation (TPA) concept. The use of TPA promotes comprehensive learning through the use of project specific and culturally adaptive learning and teaching methodologies. The study focuses on individual differences, as they pertain to learning and teaching styles, and their interaction with individual subjective cultures. The TPA concept assert that once individual differences have been identified, training projects can be effectively designed and taught to accommodate them. TPA, as conceptualized by the author, visualizes all training projects as having three areas of major influence: 1) project management; 2) project learning; and 3) project culture. Within this context, TPA asserts that there is an intense relationship between individual subjective cultures, learning and teaching styles and comprehensive learning and teaching experiences. When the TPA concept is properly implemented, project personnel, training project designs and training methodologies can be culturally as well as characteristically matched to promote more effective learning. A comprehensive Project Manager's Planning Guide was developed to act as a pathfinder for providing logical direction to the design and implementation of a totally acculturated training project. It was designed to be implemented with both new and existing international training projects. The guide describes a step-by- step sequence that allows the user to track the acculturation process as it is being developed. The Project Manager's Planning Guide is designed around an Acculturated Learning Component which divides international training into four primary areas: 1) project inputs; 2) project personnel; 3) project planning and design; and 4) project learning. Each area is designed to complement the TPA concept. This study suggests that Total Project Acculturation can enhance the effectiveness of international training projects by: 1) Characteristically and psychologically matching the international training project management, technical assistance teams, project designs and methodologies to the training participant's individual learning styles 2) Perfecting the project's learning and teaching proficiency by encouraging the "learning to learn" concept through the design and implementation of whole brain learning opportunities that promote equal practice in each of Kolb's (1976, 1985) four learning dimensions 3) Utilizing project specific, culturally adaptive learning and teaching methodologies throughout every phase of the training project to include staff and training participant selection and development, project planning and design activities, learning environments and teaching and learning methodologies. / Graduation date: 1992

Investigations reveal that the failure rate of e-governance projects in developing countries is between 35% and 50% whereby, 35% is classified as a total failure and 50% is considered a partial failure. Furthermore, previous e-governance frameworks lack reliable project discipline to deliver e-governance systems effectively to stakeholders for further exploits. This is one of the major reasons why e-governance projects fail to deliver the expected value to the citizenry and thereby, negatively impacting on socio-economic development. The purpose of this study was to develop a framework for benchmarking e-governance projects for socio-economic development in developing countries. The Design Science Research methodology was relied upon for the purpose of the study in order to answer its various research questions. Preliminary research investigations led to the identification of a range of critical success factors necessary for effective and efficient delivery of an e-governance project that fulfils expectations throughout the project lifecycle. Further investigations demonstrated that the foregoing critical success factors represent crucial and effective mechanisms for performing project assurance in the ambit of Monitoring and Evaluation. A generic framework for benchmarking e-governance projects was proposed. Further evaluation and validation exercises were undertaken on the framework through a survey involving a comprehensive sample of participants recruited from the Ghana ecosystem, a country considered a developing country. Experts who had comprehensive knowledge of challenges experienced when engaging in e-governance projects were also recruited from the international community as additional respondents in the survey. The study used a combination of simple random sampling and purposive sampling. Simple random sampling method was used to select 19 practising project managers, while purposive sampling method was employed to include e-governance experts in academic and research institutions as well as non-governmental organizations, with valuable insights concerning the research questions being addressed. The data collected was analysed using thematic analysis, and Pearson Chi-square test. The outcome of the evaluation and validation exercises produced an improved framework of which an appropriate prototyped proof of concept was developed for the purpose of enabling e-governance project stakeholders to perform project quality assurance throughout its lifecycle. Such as prototype, if implemented in real-life will go a long way in addressing many challenges faced in the entire e-governance project value chain from a prioritization, learning, cost, quality, time and impact perspectives. The overall outcome of this study showed that despite the reality that the failure rate of e-governance projects remains high in developing countries, there is strong evidence indicating that the aforementioned situation could be circumvented. The research found that success is achievable by embarking on a rigorous process of monitoring and evaluation based on well-defined performance metrics that embody time, quality, budget and scope. As such, the significant minimization of the failure rate of e-governance projects in developing countries would become reality provided that sound monitoring and evaluation are performed in all phases of the project even after its deployment. / Information Science / Ph. D. (Information Systems)