The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of school governing bodies (SGBs) regarding their overall mandate in the Free State Province. The governance mandate, as stated in the South African Schools Act, requires the SGB to ―promote the best interests of the school and strive to ensure its development through the provision of quality education for all learners at the school‖. An in-depth literature review on governance and international and intercontinental practices revealed the school governance mandate as meaning that the SGB must provide the school with a strategic direction; act as critical friend to the school; and hold the school to account. These roles essentially describe the school governance mandate. To this end, a questionnaire was used to determine how effective SGBs executed this mandate in the Free State Province, with a population of principals, SGB chairpersons, educator- governors and non-teaching staff-governors. Results obtained through computing frequency analyses, rank orders, Pearson‘s correlation, ANOVA and the Tukey HSD tests of respondents‘ perceptions of governance effectiveness items and dimensions indicated that there were statistically different perceptions regarding how effective SGB were and that these were of significant and practical effect. This meant that the effectiveness of SGBs regarding their overall mandate was indeterminate and that SGB did well in some areas of governance and not too well in others. The conclusion drawn from the study was that the structural composition of SGBs was limited SGBs‘ effectiveness regarding their governance mandate. Therefore, the main recommendation is that the SGBs need to be restructured. The recommended Two-Tier Approach to school governance proposes a structure consisting of the executive tier: responsible for policy formulation and implementation, which is a strategic-accountability role; and the non-executive tier: responsible for scrutiny-accountability, which entails the roles of acting as a critical friend and holding the school to account.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of school governing bodies (SGBs) regarding their overall mandate in the Free State Province. The governance mandate, as stated in the South African Schools Act, requires the SGB to ―promote the best interests of the school and strive to ensure its development through the provision of quality education for all learners at the school‖. An in-depth literature review on governance and international and intercontinental practices revealed the school governance mandate as meaning that the SGB must provide the school with a strategic direction; act as critical friend to the school; and hold the school to account. These roles essentially describe the school governance mandate. To this end, a questionnaire was used to determine how effective SGBs executed this mandate in the Free State Province, with a population of principals, SGB chairpersons, educator- governors and non-teaching staff-governors. Results obtained through computing frequency analyses, rank orders, Pearson‘s correlation, ANOVA and the Tukey HSD tests of respondents‘ perceptions of governance effectiveness items and dimensions indicated that there were statistically different perceptions regarding how effective SGB were and that these were of significant and practical effect. This meant that the effectiveness of SGBs regarding their overall mandate was indeterminate and that SGB did well in some areas of governance and not too well in others. The conclusion drawn from the study was that the structural composition of SGBs was limited SGBs‘ effectiveness regarding their governance mandate. Therefore, the main recommendation is that the SGBs need to be restructured. The recommended Two-Tier Approach to school governance proposes a structure consisting of the executive tier: responsible for policy formulation and implementation, which is a strategic-accountability role; and the non-executive tier: responsible for scrutiny-accountability, which entails the roles of acting as a critical friend and holding the school to account.

Esta tesis tiene como objetivo diseñar un Sistema de Gestión de Calidad que funcione de acuerdo a los requisitos de la norma ISO 9001:2008 para dar soporte a la empresa Consorcio Textil Vianny SAC en su desarrollo por la mejora continua y su exitosa implementación, en búsqueda de la satisfacción de nuestros clientes. En una primera etapa del desarrollo de la tesis se realizó un diagnóstico de la situación actual de la empresa Consorcio Textil Vianny SAC que incluye el chequeo del cumplimiento de los requisitos de la norma por la organización, un análisis de los defectos más comunes y sus consecuencias económicas debido a penalidades y devoluciones, una encuesta de satisfacción de los clientes en cuanto a la calidad de nuestros productos y atención que ofrecemos. Luego del análisis general de la empresa se realizó el desarrollo de la documentación según los requisitos de la norma ISO 9001:2008 que incluye el Manual de la Calidad, Procedimientos, Instructivos, Planes, Fichas e Indicadores con el propósito de facilitar a la empresa en su futura certificación. Incluimos además en la tesis un enfoque al direccionamiento Estratégico que es la principal base para la mejora continua, debido a que es el lineamiento que debe seguir la empresa Consorcio Textil Vianny SAC para el logro de sus objetivos en base a su política de calidad, planes, valores, misión y visión. This thesis aims to design a Quality Management System which operates in accordance with the requirements of ISO 9001: 2008 to support the company Consorcio Textil Vianny SAC in its development by continuous improvement and its successful implementation, search the satisfaction of our customers. In a first stage of development of the thesis a diagnosis of the current situation of the company Consorcio Textil Vianny SAC including checking compliance with the requirements of the standard by the organization, an analysis of the most common defects and their consequences are made due to economic hardships and returns, a survey of customer satisfaction in terms of product quality and care we provide. After the general analysis of the company's development of documentation it was performed according to the requirements of ISO 9001: 2008 including the Quality Manual, procedures, instructions, plans, Sheets and indicators in order to facilitate the company in future certification. We also include in the thesis an approach to strategic direction which is the main basis for continuous improvement, because it is the guideline to be followed by the company Consorcio Textil Vianny SAC to achieve its objectives on the basis of its quality policy, plans, values, mission and vision.

The theme of the completed diploma thesis is A Marketing Strategy for Protected Work Places of NGOs in South Bohemia. In the theoretical part I focus on the definition and meaning of marketing, stategic management, the marketing process, the marketing environment, the buying behavior of consumers, marketing research. In the next section I describe the legislative basis for protected work places and I name protected work places of NGOs in South Bohemia. Then I describe the employment of people with disabilities, and I attempt to define the concept of a non-profit organization. For completion purposes, I briefly define the term South Bohemia. In the practical part I deal with the results of the research and draft a proposal for marketing strategies for the sale of products from protected work places. The practical part relates to the main goals of the diploma thesis. The first goal of the work was to map out a marketing strategy for protected work places of NGOs in South Bohemia. The second goal was to map out the opinions of the wider public in relation to the purchase of products from protected work places. The first stated hypothesis was: Protected work places of NGOs in South Bohemia do not optimally use the tools of the marketing mix to sell their products. The second stated hypothesis was: A marketing strategy has an effect on the sale of products in protected work places of NGOs in South Bohemia. I chose quantitative research with subsequent statistical data processing. The data was collected through standardized interview techniques and surveys. In both cases, the improbability of sampling techniques was used. The basic collection in terms of quantitative research was the management of protected work places of NGOs in South Bohemia and the wider public. Through standardized telephone interviews, the chosen collection of required data for the research was acquired. Due to the chosen technology. The survey, which in its form came close to being a questionnaire, was used in this thesis as an additional source of information, and was also used to acquire the primary data from the chosen sample. The sample was chosen at random. There were 94 total respondents. Through the research results which are related to the first goal, we can say that the explanatory function of the first hypothesis was not confirmed. In fact, protected work places of NGOs in South Bohemia use optimal tools of the marketing mix for the sale of their products. From the research results which are related to the second goal, we can say that the explanatory function of the second hypothesis was confirmed. With certainty we can say that a marketing strategy has an effect on the sale of products of protected work places of NGOs in South Bohemia.From the research results of controlled interviews with management of protected work places, it is evident that in addition to the long-term interests of the organization, protected work places are beginning to be interested in the desires and needs of their customers. They prefer segmented marketing, they monitor their competitors and concern themselves with competitive advantage. On the other hand, they do not engage in comprehensive marketing research and they do not create strategic marketing plans. In terms of the marketing mix, it was discovered that the quality of the products is important to those surveyed. In the communication mix, organizations mainly work with tools which can be used with lower costs.The research results of the wider public showed that the majority of respondents are aware of protected work places, but they consider their products to be unavailable. The main reason for the purchase of products from protected work places is to provide financial assistance. While respondents expect quality and attractively designed products for which they are willing to pay a higher price, the decisive incentive for the purchase may be lower-price products.

Problembakgrund och problemdiskussion: Som följd av samhällets ökade medvetenhet avseende hållbarhet står näringslivet inför utmaningar av att möta de förändrade förhållandena, som externa och interna drivkrafter bidragit till, för att bibehålla en etablerad marknadsposition. Dessa utmaningar reflekteras även i företags förmågor att inkludera hållbarhet inom verksamhetsstyrningens komponenter, vilket ramverk som “Sustainability Control System as a Package” ämnar att underlätta. Däremot varierar beslutet av att inkludera hållbarhet inom verksamheter och dess styrning utifrån olika motiv, vilka förklaras som kognitiva, normativa och regulativa fundament. Hur dessa fundament påverkar den hållbara verksamhetsstyrningen har inte tidigare tagits till hänsyn vid forskning, vilket följande studie ämnar att göra.   Metod: Den kvalitativa studien har utförts som en flerfallstudie där semistrukturerade intervjuer från fallföretag, som representerat de tre kognitiva, normativa och regulativa fundamenten, utgjort grunden för studiens empiriska materialinsamling. Detta för att gentemot den teoretiska referensramen kunna urskilja mönster för hur hållbara element genomsyrar respektive verksamhetsstyrning.   Syfte: Syftet med följande studie är att bidra med analyser och förklaringar över hur företags kognitiva, normativa och regulativa fundament genomsyrar den hållbara verksamhetsstyrningen. Detta för att sedan kunna urskilja varför verksamhetsstyrningen är utformad på ett visst sätt, med utgångspunkt i “Sustainability Control System as a Package”.   Slutsats: Utifrån studien anses företags hållbara verksamhetsstyrning utformas olika utifrån de fundament som grundat vilka samt till vilken grad hållbara aspekter prioriteras. För verksamheter som drivs utifrån kognitiva fundament genomsyrar deras hållbarhetsarbete verksamhetsstyrningen med grund i ett företags affärskoncept och influerar främst informella styrsätt som kulturen, värderingar, en transparent och tvärfunktionell kommunikation samt en allokerad ansvarsfördelning, vilket understöttas av ett antal formella styrmedel. För företag med normativa fundament genomsyrar hållbarhet verksamheten som en utav flera delar av det grundläggande affärskonceptet via den överordnade strategin. Formella styrsätt som tydliga strategier och målsättningar, uppföljning av dessa samt tydlig arbetsfördelning, influerar verksamhetsstyrningen för att strukturerat samordna hållbarhet med de övriga affärskonceptens områden. Företag med regulativa fundament bibehåller det grundläggande affärskoncept, där hållbarhet istället genomsyrar verksamhetsstyrningens komponenter direkt med övervägande formella styrsätt, främst målsättningar och riktlinjer, för att strukturerat etablera och upprätthålla ett accepterat hållbarhetsarbete utifrån lagar och externa krav. / Background and Problem: As a consequence from the society's increased sustainability awareness, companies face challenges of meeting the changed conditions, which external and internal incentives have contributed to, in order to attain an established market position. These challenges also reflect the constitution of the management control system, which frameworks like the “Sustainability Control System as a Package” intends to facilitate. However, the choice of including sustainability within companies and their management control varies between different motives, which are described as cognitive, normative and regulatory reasons. How these underlying reasons affect the sustainable management control haven’t been researched before, which is the aim of this study.                                                                  Method: The qualitative study has been made by a multiple case study on companies, that represents the three cognitive, normative and regulative underlying reasons, using semi structured interviews which has constructed the basis for the empirical data collection. This has been compared to the theoretical framework in order to distinguish patterns of how sustainability permeate each management control system. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to contribute with an analysis and explanations of how a company’s regulatory, normative or cognitive underlying reason permeate its sustainable management control system. This will be made in order to distinguish why the management control is constructed in a certain way, by using the framework “Sustainability Control System as a Package”.   Conclusion: Based on the made study, companies sustainable management control is considered to be constructed based on what underlying reasons that have formed which, and how much, sustainable elements are prioritized. Companies who are driven by cognitive reasons permeate their business with sustainable elements by making sustainability their business concept. Mostly the informal control systems like culture, values, a transparent and cross functional communication as well as an allocated responsibility have been affected, which are supported by a number of formal control systems. Companies who have normative reasons permeate their business with sustainability by making it as one of several parts in their business concept, through their overall strategy. Formal control systems like distinctive strategies and goals, performance measurements and a clear division of responsibility are being used as a way to coordinate the sustainability in a structured way, to facilitate with the other parts of the business concept. On the contrary, companies who have regulative reasons keep their already established fundamental business concept, where sustainability directly permeate the different components of their management control system. Formal control systems, mainly goals and policies, are used, in order to create and keep a structured sustainability implementation according to laws and external demands.

Aquesta tesi té la intenció de realitzar una contribució metodològica en el camp de la direcció estratègica, per mitjà de tres objectius: la revisió del concepte de risc ex post o realitzat per l'àmbit de la direcció estratègica; la concreció d'aquest concepte en una mesura de risc vàlida; i l'exploració de les possibilitats i l'interès de la descomposició del risc en diferents determinants que puguin explicar-ne la seva naturalesa.El primer objectiu es du a terme prenent com a base el concepte intuïtiu de risc i revisant la literatura en els camps més afins, especialment en la teoria comportamental de la decisió i la direcció estratègica. L'anàlisi porta a formular el risc ex post d'una activitat com el grau en què no s'han assolit els objectius per a aquesta activitat. La concreció d'aquesta definició al camp de la direcció estratègica implica que els objectius han de portar a l'obtenció de l'avantatge competitiu sostenible, el que descobreix l'interès de realitzar la mesura del risc a curt termini, és a dir, estàticament, i a llarg termini, és a dir, dinàmicament, pel que es defineix una mesura de Risc Estàtic i una altra de Risc dinàmic, respectivament. En l'anàlisi apareixen quatre dimensions conceptuals bàsiques a incorporar en les mesures: sign dependence, relativa, longitudinal i path dependence. Addicionalment, la consideració de que els resultats puguin ser cardinals o ordinals justifica que es formulin les dues mesures anteriors per a resultats cardinals i, en segon lloc, per a resultats ordinals.Les mesures de risc que es proposen sintetitzen els resultats ex post obtinguts en una mesura de centralitat relativa dels resultats, el Risc Estàtic, i una mesura de la tendència temporal dels resultats, el Risc Dinàmic. Aquesta proposta contrasta amb el plantejament tradicional dels models esperança-variància.Les mesures desenvolupades s'avaluen amb un sistema de propietats conceptuals i tècniques que s'elaboren expressament en la tesi i que permeten demostrar el seu gra de validesa i el de les mesures existents en la literatura, destacant els problemes de validesa d'aquestes darreres. També es proporciona un exemple teòric il·lustratiu de les mesures proposades que dóna suport a l'avaluació realitzada amb el sistema de propietats.Una contribució destacada d'aquesta tesi és la demostració de que les mesures de risc proposades permeten la descomposició additiva del risc si els resultats o diferencials de resultats es descomponen additivament.Finalment, la tesi inclou una aplicació de les mesures de Risc Estàtic i Dinàmic cardinals, així com de la seva descomposició, a l'anàlisi de la rendibilitat del sector bancari espanyol, en el període 1987-1999. L'aplicació il·lustra la capacitat de les mesures proposades per a analitzar la manifestació de l'avantatge competitiu, la seva evolució i naturalesa econòmica.En les conclusions es formulen possibles línees d'investigació futures. / The principal aim of this dissertation is to make a methodological contribution to the field of strategic management, by means of pursuing three objectives: the revision of the concept of ex post risk for strategic management; the implementation of such concept in a measure of risk with concept validity; and the exploration of the possibilities and significance of the decomposition of risk into different determinants which explain its nature.The first objective is attained by considering every-day usage of risk and the existing research on the concept of risk in related literature, mainly in the fields of behavioural decision theory and strategic management. This revision leads to define risk ex post for an activity as the degree of failure in achieving the expected results for that activity. For the purposes of strategic management, the expected results must be aligned with the pursuit of sustainable competitive advantage. This, in turn, uncovers the importance of measuring short term and long term risk, providing the basis to propose the corresponding two measures: Static risk and Dynamic risk.In contrast with the traditional mean-variance approach, static risk summarises the information contained in a time series of results in a measure of relative centrality, and Dynamic risk measures the time trend of results. As it is considered that relevant results can be ordinal or cardinal, Static and Dynamic risk are particularised for both types of results.The revision of the concept of ex post risk for strategic management highlights the importance of four basic dimensions: sign dependence, relativity, longitudinal analysis and path dependence.Based on those dimensions and others found dispersed in literature, the thesis develops a system of axioms and properties to evaluate the concept and technical validity of risk measures. Traditional and proposed measures are confronted to that system to proof the degree of validity of the new measures and the failures of the traditional ones. A simulated example is given to illustrate the measures proposed and provide some support to the former evaluation.An outstanding contribution of that thesis has been to prove that the proposed cardinal risk measures can be additively decomposed in determinants when results or results differentials are originally additively separable.Finally, the thesis provides an empirical application of the cardinal Static and Dynamic risk, together with its decomposition, to the Spanish banking sector from 1987 through 1999. The application aims at illustrating the possibilities of the new measures to analyse ex post risk, its temporal dynamics and its economic nature.In the last chapter, conclusions and further research possibilities are presented.

In the global economy of the 21st century, competition is complex, challenging and fraught with competitive opportunities and threats. Strategic leadership is increasingly becoming the main focus for business and academics alike and is the key issue facing contemporary organisations. Without effective strategic leadership, the capability of a company to achieve or sustain a competitive advantage is greatly constrained. More than 30 years of Harvard Business School research have shown that aligned and integrated companies outperform their nearest competitors by every major financial measure. The organisational effectiveness emanating from alignment is a significant competitive advantage. Alignment is that optimal state in which strategy, employees, customers and key processes work in concert to propel growth and profits. Aligned organisations enjoy greater customer and employee satisfaction and produce superior results. Can leadership make a difference? Some leaders do, some do not - and many more could. Effective strategic leadership can thus help organisations enhance performance while competing in turbulent and unpredictable environments. However, there has been little empirical evidence of the effects of strategic level leadership on organisational processes that have distinctive strategic significance. A greater understanding of the criteria that influence success in organisations will enable organisations to take positive action to become more successful. iv This study examines the importance of critical leadership criteria and the degree of alignment in high-performing organisations. A quantitative research design was used in this study to assess the impact of strategic leadership on strategic alignment of business organisations in South Africa. The research instruments to test the research questions comprised two questionnaires. The first was used to establish the value top leadership place on selected critical leadership criteria, and the second to establish the level of alignment in the organisations under investigation. The population selected for this study consisted of the companies included in the 200 top-performing organisations which appeared in the 2007 Financial Mail. Six companies participated in the research. The data was electronically collated into a database and the results were then analysed using the statistical inferential techniques of correlation and linear regression analysis. The study proposes that strategic leadership will positively influence strategic alignment which, in turn, will have a beneficial effect on organisational performance. / Graduate School for Business Leadership / D. B. L.

This dissertation is written on the company belonging to the group of the world largest producer of passenger cars and light trucks.There were identified major problems during last few years. During the first half of 2006 there was announced a sale of 51 % of company to an investor. The original mission was to serve and support sales of concern brands. The new shareholder is an investment corporation and has already announced the expectation of high increase of volumes and also the level of profitability. The subject of this dissertation is to provide Strategic analyze and redefine the Business Strategies of the selected Strategic Business Units in accordance with new needs and requirements related to the new investorś entry.