Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2004--Berlin.

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Masters in Public Administration - MPA / Monitoring and evaluation has in recent years been embraced by the South African government as a key feature of public service delivery. This has been used to promote efficiency in service delivery, good governance, to promote transparency in expenditure and promote financial accountability, so that set objectives can be achieved objectives. However, implementing Monitoring and Evaluation has also been challenging as a result of poor policy design, poor policy implementation, the lack of accountability and the lack of exemplary systems. The issue of service delivery efficiency remains paramount in South Africa, due to the increasing inequality gap, high levels of unemployment, service delivery protests and rising poverty. Assessing policy outcomes and impact is a weak point and major gap in policy evaluation in South Africa. This is reflected in the manner in which duplicate policies are continuously being created instead of making existing ones work, or improving upon them. More efforts should be invested into policy monitoring and evaluation instead of policy development. The study will investigate the above assertion by investigating monitoring and evaluation policy and practice in the National Youth Development Agency. The structure of this framework will be examined against the Government-wide Monitoring and Evaluation framework established by the South African government. The research will also examine monitoring and evaluation practice as carried out by the United Nations and the World Bank as they have a long history of practice. This investigation will look at activities, inputs, outputs, implementation constraints, outcome and impact assessment; it will also discuss monitoring report and policy/programme evaluation. The study will adopt a descriptive case study investigation by drawing on the viewpoints expressed by various scholars. It will also highlight policies which support and enable the practice of M & E in South Africa. This research is noteworthy in the sense that it bridges the gaps between Monitoring and Evaluation literature and Monitoring and Evaluation practice in an institution. Furthermore, it explores the complexities of Monitoring and Evaluation implementation in a department running various programmes.

Crises disrupt an organisation’s operations and harm its stakeholders. How an organisation-in-crisis is perceived to respond to the needs of affected stakeholders may significantly affect the firm’s recovery and future viability. Stakeholders and observers acquire much of their information about a crisis from news media coverage. This study accepts the principle that media framing can influence audience’s perceptions of reported stories. The research explores how three news media sources in Taiwan and Singapore framed the salience of stakeholders affected by the October 2000 crash in Taipei of Singapore Airlines’ flight SQ006. The study introduces a conceptual framework of crisis stakeholder salience drawn from stakeholder theory, crisis communication and media framing of crises and disasters. Using a mixed methods content analysis approach, the framework is applied to investigate the news media framing of SQ006 stakeholders in the sampled media texts. The findings show that the SQ006 crisis stakeholders were framed as salient through more dimensions than the three attributes of power, legitimacy and urgency recognised in a seminal stakeholder theory model of stakeholder salience. The findings have implications for further research and applications for crisis management practice, which are discussed.

Cílem diplomové práce je pomoci firmám překonat bariéry úspěšného fungování konceptu společenské odpovědnost firem (CSR) a poskytnout jim návod, jak efektivně CSR zavést. Pro účely této práce bylo vytvořeno několik praktických nástrojů určených k analýze současného odpovědného přístupu firmy. Jedná se zejména o sebehodnotící dotazníky a formulář zaměstnaneckého průzkumu na téma CSR. Práce také nabízí velké množství příkladů z praxe zahraničních firem, které mohou posloužit jako cenný zdroj inspirace.

The thesis focuses on describing the transformation process of the merger of five hospitals Vysocina region in one functional unit, through the use Kotter model of changes. Due to influence the process of changing interest groups, to the extent described the process of analysis of the influence of interest groups in order to determine the method of communication between these groups and the team implementing change. The content of the thesis is also developing an action plan to implement the changes by determining the time frame for individual operations.

Research has consistently highlighted the short term and familial difficulties (Munn, 2000), long term difficulties (SEU 1998) and the financial costs to society (Parsons, 2011) resulting from the permanent exclusion of young people from education. Key legislative changes and government publications (DCSF 2004; 2005 & 2010) have repeatedly recommended the use of managed transfers as an alternative to permanent exclusion, yet there is very little research evidence to support this. National and local exclusions statistics suggest that the implementation of managed transfers has contributed to a reduction of the numbers of young people being permanently excluded from school, but does this statistical phenomenon equate to an increase in the inclusion of young people? This research aims to explore the experiences of young people, their families and professionals working within the managed transfer system, to address the research question What are different stakeholders’ experiences of the managed transfer process?Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was core to the design of the study and was used to analyse individual interviews from five young people and five parents, and focus group data from eight professionals working in mainstream settings, all of whom had experienced at least one managed transfer in the same local authority. Individual analysis of pupils’ experiences raised superordinate themes relating to relationships, control, identity, rejection and education. Individual analysis of parents’ experiences produced themes relating to relationships, agendas, control, pupil identity, flexibility, communication, acceptance, education and statementing. Analysis of focus group data relating to professionals’ experiences of managed transfers, produced themes around cognitive dissonance, relationships, agendas, exclusion/inclusion, motivation and feelings of failure. A deeper level of analysis, including all stakeholder experiences, produced two global superordinate themes; cognitive dissonance and relationships. The theme cognitive dissonance represented the behaviours that participants engaged in to reduce conflict, often between their own beliefs and the beliefs or actions relating to the managed transfer. Although this theme encompassed many of the earlier themes, the behaviours and mechanisms employed by different individuals to reduce dissonance differed, as did the cause of conflict causing the dissonance. Relationships were highlighted by nearly all of the participants, but different relationships were valued by different individuals and at different stages during the managed transfer process. Despite the initial similarities across the experiences, this research highlights the individuals’ sense making activities in relation to this complex social phenomenon and drew many parallels to research with young people and their families whom had experienced permanent exclusions from school. This research concludes with some overarching recommendations to improve the experiences of all stakeholders, not by applying a stringent set of rules or procedures, but through the development of a shared ethos and rationale, with greater inclusion of all stakeholders, allowing for processes to be flexibly applied and reasonable adjustments to be made in response to individual need, making inclusion central to the transfer rather than focusing on top down processes.

Software engineers need to anticipate unintended consequences, including negative impacts on society, individuals, and the environment. Even developers with the best of intentions can walk into ethical traps. This article includes four suggestions for software engineers during system development to help recognize these traps: (1) Look for humans values in technical decisions. (2) Identify stakeholdersgroups and individuals likely to be affected by the system. (3) Examine how the system will affect the stakeholders' rights and obligations. (4) Review relevant professional standards.

In 2014, 547 new breweries opened in the United States and more than 2 million barrels of beer were produced by American homebrewers. Craft brewery owners face challenges in increasing profit because of intense competition from existing breweries, new ventures, and homebrewers. The purpose of the study was to explore the strategies that craft brewery owners used to increase profits by collaboratively working with internal and external stakeholders, such as employees, distributors, customers, suppliers, lending groups, and community organizations. The conceptual framework of this multiple-case study was the stakeholder theory. The basic tenet of the stakeholder theory is that a business owner can maximize the firm's financial performance if the business owner proactively meets the needs of the relevant stakeholders. Face-to-face interviews were conducted on a purposeful sample of 5 craft brewery owners who met the study criteria of operating a profitable brewery in southern Maine for a minimum of 5 years. Transcripts, direct observations, and industry documents were organized to create common themes for coding in accordance with Yin's method of data analysis. Through methodological triangulation, the following 4 themes emerged: employee satisfaction and retention, nontraditional marketing, commitment to quality, and development of local relationships. Within these themes, craft brewery owners can apply a number of strategies to increase profits through stakeholder collaboration. The implications for social change include partnering of breweries with local establishments, which can foster increased sales for both businesses and provide better jobs for the local community.

Thesis (M.M.) (Strategic marketing)). University of the Witwatersrand, Wits Business School, 2013. / Stakeholder theory has increasingly become an area of academic and management research. Every organisation has different stakeholders, upon which organisational outcomes are dependent on managerial decision making regarding the multiple relationships that exist, the various options and resources available to them, and the influence that corporate reputation has on the managers’ response to any given stakeholder claim. The purpose of this research is to offer a greater understanding of how executive managers of an emerging market company strategically identify and manage their stakeholders and consequently, the reputation of the firm. Various streams of literature were supported by the findings of the research conducted. This included the descriptive, instrumental, and normative aspects of managers’ behaviours and traits; stakeholder coalitions; and reciprocity. Areas of conflicting evidence stemming from the research included the classification of stakeholders through primary and secondary groups; stakeholder attributes of power and urgency; and “dangerous stakeholders” within stakeholder salience. There is a gap in the literature involving the effect of corporate reputation with regards to management salience and prioritising stakeholder demands. Sixteen semi-structured in-depth interviews were executed in a leading South African paint manufacturing company that forms part of a large global organisation. The respondents consisted of eight executive managers of the company, each from a different functional area, and eight stakeholders of the company comprising employees, suppliers, and customers. As a leading company within their industry, they frequently experience claims of various natures which the directors deal with on a regular basis, many of which have the potential to harm the corporate reputation. Real life cases are transcribed and reflected upon within this research report. The research findings show that the company’s corporate reputation has a direct influence on how managers prioritize and attend to stakeholder claims, mainly based on legitimacy as a core attribute. Furthermore, that managers identify their stakeholders differently to what the literature proposes, and that there are more learnings to be taken from reciprocity in stakeholder relationships.