South Africa has witnessed radical policy reforms since the advent of the new democratic dispensation in 1994. As provincial, district and local practitioners developed responses to those new national education policies, implementation issues were revealed in all their complexity. Policy implementation became one of the most difficult challenges South Africa had to contend with. It necessitated the development of the capacity of the state and its people to implement policy. The complexities of the people development environment in South Africa create a range of challenges for development. The lack of multi-level empirical data on training effects continues to exacerbate this state of affairs. This context requires that comprehensive assessment mechanisms be put in place for training programmes aimed at the realisation of policy goals. The broad purpose of this inquiry, therefore, is to determine the impact of an education management development training intervention as it passes through different levels of the education system in South Africa - national, provincial, district and local. The following key questions guided this investigation. Firstly, how do stakeholder understandings of “education management development” transfer from one level to another in a cascade model of training? And secondly, what is the operational impact of an education management development-training programme at the different levels (i.e., province, district and school) of the education system? Questionnaires, free attitude interviews and observations were used as key data collection instruments. Data was analysed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative strategies for making sense of the training information. Data was interpreted against the backdrop of the literature on the “transfer of training”, and these findings are represented in the last three chapters of this thesis. This research generated four major findings, with a variety of subsidiary findings, which deepen our insights into policy implementation as it relates to education management development in South Africa. Some of the major findings of this study are that: a) The organisers did not in the first place conduct the baseline study on training needs and secondly, they did not take into consideration the organisational requirements of the anticipated training. This anomaly could ultimately compromise the outcomes of this intervention. b) The policy deployment processes of the North West Department of Education (of ensuring that the governmental policies for quality, cost and service delivery are understood from the highest to the lowest level of the organisation) are fraught with problems that undermined basic understandings of the Education Management Development training programme which was conducted between 1998 – 2000. c) Successful policy implementation depends crucially on resource allocation and, in the case of the Education Management Development Training Programme, the nature and magnitude of allocated resources e.g., transport provision could not guarantee positive training results; and d) The overly rationalistic view adopted by the trainers of the Education Management development-training programme did not take into account the complex contexts within which change unfolds. Resultantly, the changing of the roles of facilitators could not be planned-for in advance. The significance of this study is that it identifies the barriers to learning in training events, and sheds new light on the transfer of training problem that continues to undermine organisational change and human resource development. Some of the unique findings of the study can be found in the fact that the Expert Trainers could only recall a few intentions of the EMD modular training. The District Facilitators displayed limited knowledge of the disciplinary procedures in their areas of operation and there was limited conceptualisation of the EMD by the principals of schools. / Thesis (PhD (Education Policy Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

This thesis is focused on Master Data Management (MDM), Customer Data Integration (CDI) area and its main domains. It is also a reference to a various theoretical directions that can be found in this area of expertise. It summarizes main aspects, domains and presents different perspectives to referenced principles. It is an exhaustive background research in area of Master Data Management with emphasis on practical use with references on authors experience and opinions. Secondary focus is directed to the field of business value of Master Data Management initiatives. Thesis presents a thought concept for initiations of MDM project. The reason for such a concept is based on current trend, where companies are struggling to determine actual benefits of MDM initiatives. There is overall accord on the subject of necessity of such initiatives, but the struggle is in area of determining actual measureable impact on company's revenue or profit. Since the MDM initiative is more of an enabling function, rather than direct revenue function, the benefit is less straight forward and therefore harder to determine. This work describes different layers and mapping of business requirements through layers for transparent linkage between enabling functions to revenue generating ones. The emphasis is given to financial benefit calculation, measurability and responsibility of business and IT departments. To underline certain conclusions thesis also presents real world interviews with possible stakeholders of MDM initiative within the company. These representatives were selected as key drivers for such an initiative. Interviews map their recognition of MDM and related terms. It also focus on their reasons and expectations from MDM. The representatives were also selected to equally represent business and IT departments, which presents interesting clash of views and expectations.

The Master thesis deals with the issue of evaluating the effectiveness of nonprofit organizations in culture. The aim of this work is to introduce commonly used methods of financial analysis in the non-profit organization and commonly used methods of measuring effectiveness in the nonprofit sector. The main goal of this work is to present an analysis of social return on investment and its subsequent application to the Children's Studies Ponec and other related activities non profit organization Tanec Praha o.s. for children.

The main objective of this thesis is to find out if and how education influence wage. Logical consideration and existing studies imply that there is a positive correlation in between achieved education and individual´s wage level. The studies, however, vary in size of influence and in the Czech Republic there are very few studies that deal with this topic. This master thesis is based on its own survey from which was obtained a total of 521 responses. The survey was conducted during the period of March to May 2015. Data were analysed and interval regression demonstrated positive correlation between achieved education and wage level. When reaching a bachelor´s degree, an individual´s wage increase on average by 8 % compared to individuals with secondary education with graduation. If an individual reaches master degree, his wage increases on average by 21.9 % compared to the wage of individual who achieved the secondary education with graduation. The analysis has also proven the existence of gender pay gap. According to the results, women in Czech Republic have lower wages by 21.3 % compared to men´s. The study also discusses the achievement of higher education for individuals older than 26 years. Regression analysis showed that obtaining bachelor education for this group has higher yield (14.4 %) than in the analysis of the whole data set. Conversely, obtaining master degree has for this group lower profitability (17.3 %). Part of this thesis was also to calculate the return on investment in higher education. Using the method of internal rate of return, it was found out that the return on investment is 8.3 %.

In an ever-changing world of work Absa, as a business, is faced with various challenges including the continuous development of skills. Due to technological advancements, eLearning can provide a mechanism to rapidly build the required strategic and tactical skills that the organisation needs. This study explored the challenge of articulating the contribution of eLearning to business performance in an unbounded way. The study focused on the creation of knowledge about how the contribution of eLearning to business performance can be improved. In the process of knowledge creation, the study focused on identifying the point of value creation between Business and an eLearning intervention. This point of value creation can be seen as a leverage point. Systems Thinking was implemented as an approach in order to identify the leverage point. The following research objectives were defined: · To identify the driver problem that prevents eLearning from improving business performance. · To design the systems dynamic model that represents the driver problem. · To identify the leverage point within the systems dynamic model. · To reflect on the effect that the behaviour of the individuals, participating in the research process, has on the research inquiry. The sample of 28 focus group participants was selected from two specific divisions of Absa – the eChannels: Contact Centre and the Learning and Development Department. This sample consisted of Operational Management, Team Leaders, Contact Centre Consultants and learning design experts. Executive Management was excluded from the focus groups, but was included in the process as verifiers. This created an opportunity for Executive Management to voice their opinions. The results of the study indicate that the leverage point for successful contribution of eLearning to business performance is … A shared mental model of expectations between the participating stakeholders. Once Business and the Learning and Development Department start going through the constructive cycle of the systems dynamic model repeatedly, they will continuously build the shared mental model of expectations. This cycle will also build on the: 1) Level of visible support of the line managers; 2) Level of clarity of business needs to all relevant stakeholders; 3) Number of requests from business for eLearning opportunities; and 4) Level of awareness and understanding of appropriate eLearning interventions per target population. The effect of the positive reinforcement of the recurring cycle will ensure that eLearning continuously contributes to business performance. During the study the effect of the research process on the focus group participants as well as the effect of the focus group participants on the research process was also accounted for. Observers reflected on the behaviour of the focus group participants and found that their opinions and thought processes influenced the outcome of the study. The focus group participants felt that they had learnt something new, that the tasks set to the groups was clear and that the topics they had learnt most about were ‘systems thinking’ followed by the ’ relationship between eLearning and business performance’. Copyright / Thesis (PhD (Curriculum Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted

The diploma thesis entitled The influence of building insulation on the costs associated with its operation deals with the design of several variants of building insulation, and subsequent evaluation based on a comparison of operating costs of individual building variants. The theoretical part deals with the history of thermal insulation of buildings, there are types of thermal insulation materials and variants of energy-efficient houses. Then the normative requirements, energy intensity of buildings and methods of thermal insulation of individual building structures are solved. Subsequently, the methods of economic evaluation of the investment and the method of compiling the general budget are addressed. The practical part contains a description of the construction and the proposed variants of insulation, including the calculation of costs, evaluation of the payback period of the investment and evaluation of the proposed variants.

The diploma thesis is elaborate in order to evaluate the economic returns of each proposed building insulation options for seniors in Šternberk. For the calculation use to secluded brick apartment building in the street Žitná. The theoretical section describes the types of buildings according to heating demand and a list of different variants of thermal insulation materials. The second part contains suggestions for building insulation in several variants. It worked certificate of energy performance of buildings, costs of proposed options and the costs of operating the apartment building before and after the insulation. Based on the comparison of results is elaborate economic returns for each of the proposed options.

This thesis solves assessment and project insulation of a block of flats in Trebic, on the expenses related to its operation. In the theoretical part of thesis are given the reasons for thermal insulation of buildings, requirements in terms of energy intensity of buildings, static and fire safety for insulation of buildings. In the practical part, the current state of the block of flats is evaluated from a thermal-technical point of view, three new thermal insulation options are proposed, their evaluation and their return time calculated.

Diploma thesis named The influence of insulating a block of flats in Židenice is divided into two parts. In the theoretical part there are mentioned types of the thermal insulation and their attributes, methods of insulation and types of assessment energy consumption of buildings. Basic concepts and legislation of the thermal technical properties are described in the theoretical too. In the practical part there are processed three variants in which I determine the calculation of the overall value for the insulation, energy consumption and simple payback period and influence for total price of the apartment building.

The aim of this diploma thesis is to evaluate the economic return of the investment in the passive house compared to the standard house. The thesis presents the common problems of passive construction, history, requirements, properties and used materials. The method of assessment is based on the return on initial investment in the passive house. The main part of the thesis focuses on materials with thermal insulating properties and software calculation of annual energy consumption. At the end of the thesis an analysis of energy prices at the time of return was made. The output of the work is the payback time of the initial investment in the passive house in years at two different prices of energy consumption.