The effects of an Extended School Year Program on student achievement, attendance, and stakeholder satisfaction were examined at one middle school in the Henrico County Public School Division. Several populations were used for this study: participating students, teachers, and parents. Data on English-social studies, math, and science were collected using pretests and posttests. Attendance was taken daily and maintained for participating students. Student and parent satisfaction data were collected using satisfaction surveys. Focus group interviews were conducted to collect teacher satisfaction data. The difference between pretest and posttest scores was used to measure achievement in English-social studies, math, and science. The Average Daily Attendance (ADA) during the Extended School Year Program was compared to the ADA of the school and the division during the previous year. Each student and parent survey response was averaged and reported. Teacher focus group responses were assigned domains and placed into categories and themes. Findings Achievement gains were reported in all subject areas. Attendance results indicated that when compared to the school and the division during the previous year, the Average Daily Attendance (ADA) during the Extended School Year Program was lower. Students were most satisfied with their teachers. Parents were most satisfied with the program being offered at no charge, and the transportation provided. Teachers were most satisfied with the daily schedule. / Ed. D.

Stakeholder satisfaction has in the modern day, become an imperative criterion to achieve project success. Satisfaction of stakeholders’ requirements however is challenging because these requirements evolve as the project progresses. Previous research indicates that as stakeholders continuously interact with a project, they gain more information and new requirements or request for modifications are likely to emerge as a result of this increased intelligence.  Nonetheless, conventional project management elicits requirements from stakeholders at the onset of the project, and uses these pre-defined requests to design the project. This practice hinders the ability of stakeholders to influence the project as it advances, and ill equips managers to handle and implement stakeholder requirements that materialize at subsequent phases. It is therefore important to investigate how emergent requirements of stakeholders come about and how they are managed in practice.  The objective of this thesis is to answer the research question, “From the perspective of managers, in the Scandinavian management context, how do emergent requirements of key stakeholders materialize, and how are they managed?” by probing into the ways via which emergent requirement of stakeholders come about, and investigating how managers deal with these emergent requirement upon their occurrence.  This qualitative study was conducted in the Scandinavian region using semi-structured interviews. Five respondents in managerial positions of the Umeå wastewater treatment plant project participated in the research and data collected concerned materialization and management of emergent requirements that surfaced during different phases of the project. The resulting data was then analyzed with reference to previously established theoretical frameworks.  Results from this study confirm that, new or modified requirements and consequently, requests for changes do emerge at even the execution phase of projects, despite careful planning. These emergent requirements are traced to three different sources and are managed in different ways depending on the type of requirement, whether strategic and critical or minor.

Background: Due to the commercialization of football, clubs have put more focus on management in general, and stakeholder management in particular. Despite this, research on stakeholder management in football is in its infancy. Therefore, little is known about how football clubs manage their stakeholders that also possess unique characteristics. Furthermore, these characteristics are more prevalent in Swedish football because of the ownership structure that allows the stakeholder to possess multiple roles at once. Thus, Swedish football was selected as the area to study, as the unique features of Swedish football provide interesting implications.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the concept of stakeholder management in Swedish football. This study aims to understand the managerial implications that arise when managing stakeholders in Swedish football, how tensions are managed, and how to keep stakeholders satisfied.  Method: In order to fulfill the purpose of this thesis, a qualitative multiple case study approach was adopted since the nature of the study is exploratory. Through twelve semi-structured interviews, empirical data was gathered. This study adopted an inductive approach, and the data were analyzed using thematic analysis.  Conclusion: This study has found that tensions are managed through the use of good communication tools, as well as the building of relationships. These relationships later affect the level of influence stakeholders have on the club. Furthermore, clubs keep their stakeholders satisfied by listening, being clear and transparent, having good values for the stakeholders to be proud of, as well as giving stakeholders a good return on their investment. These findings emerged into a suggested framework that displays the relationship between the different aspects of stakeholder management in football.

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The study identifies how different stakeholders perceive service quality improvement initiatives in public higher education institutions in Ethiopia. For this purpose, a mixed research methodology was employed. Furthermore, secondary data were collected from a variety of literature and primary data were collected from academic staff and final year students at public higher education institutions using the SERVQUAL scale and through focus group interviews. The collected data were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The research findings indicated that all dimensions of the service quality improvement initiatives were perceived by academic staff and studentsto be verypoor. The reasons for these poor or low perceptions were: the high expectationsof the stakeholders, the government’s intention to expand, lack of adequate knowledge regarding the implementation of the BPR process, the lack of motivation by service providers, poor management and the lack of good governance by the universities, inexperienced workers, non-empowered and task specific frontline employees, the low quality of the infrastructure, non-value adding hierarchical structures and approval systems, ethical problems with some service providers, the high staff turnoverand the lack of experienced staff. In addition, at all new universities, construction is underway and as a result,there are problems such as the poor state of the dormitories, classes,bathrooms, recreation areas, lounges, TV rooms, sport fields and internet connectivity, while the libraries are not well stocked with books and periodicals either. This study has recommended that the institutions should have standardised instruments that can be used to measure the status of service quality improvement and deliveryperiodically and to identify the areas that have the highest perceived performance gap scores in order to redeploy some of the resources. It also needs to be pointed out that the service providers lack sufficient knowledge and skillsconcerning the implementation of BPR, thus training is recommended in this regard.It is further recommended that for effective implementation of the BPR process, the importance of the provision of different guiding documents, continuous monitoring of activities and top management support should be kept in mind. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed. (Educational Management)

The study identifies how different stakeholders perceive service quality improvement initiatives in public higher education institutions in Ethiopia. For this purpose, a mixed research methodology was employed. Furthermore, secondary data were collected from a variety of literature and primary data were collected from academic staff and final year students at public higher education institutions using the SERVQUAL scale and through focus group interviews. The collected data were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The research findings indicated that all dimensions of the service quality improvement initiatives were perceived by academic staff and studentsto be verypoor. The reasons for these poor or low perceptions were: the high expectationsof the stakeholders, the government’s intention to expand, lack of adequate knowledge regarding the implementation of the BPR process, the lack of motivation by service providers, poor management and the lack of good governance by the universities, inexperienced workers, non-empowered and task specific frontline employees, the low quality of the infrastructure, non-value adding hierarchical structures and approval systems, ethical problems with some service providers, the high staff turnoverand the lack of experienced staff. In addition, at all new universities, construction is underway and as a result,there are problems such as the poor state of the dormitories, classes,bathrooms, recreation areas, lounges, TV rooms, sport fields and internet connectivity, while the libraries are not well stocked with books and periodicals either. This study has recommended that the institutions should have standardised instruments that can be used to measure the status of service quality improvement and deliveryperiodically and to identify the areas that have the highest perceived performance gap scores in order to redeploy some of the resources. It also needs to be pointed out that the service providers lack sufficient knowledge and skillsconcerning the implementation of BPR, thus training is recommended in this regard.It is further recommended that for effective implementation of the BPR process, the importance of the provision of different guiding documents, continuous monitoring of activities and top management support should be kept in mind. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed. (Educational Management)