Recent legislation in South Africa has changed education considerably, particularly in the move towards inclusive education. Previous educational provision in South Africa, as in many countries, assigned many learners with learning difficulties to segregated settings. Such placements tended to be based on the psycho-medical, intelligence-testing model of identifying learning difficulties. Much research has queried the effectiveness of this approach. However, as no alternative model has been researched, it was decided to research the effectiveness of using an ecosystemic approach in conjunction with a collaborative consultancy model as a method for identifying learning needs in high school learners in a South African public secondary school. Various methods of qualitative data collection were used during the intervention, and comparative analysis was employed to analyse the data. The findings of this study suggest that an ecosystemic approach used together with a collaborative consultancy approach to identify and understand learning diversity is a viable process in inclusive education contexts. However, it is acknowledged that a considerable body of research needs to be achieved before this finding can be considered conclusive. In addition, certain constraints to using this approach were acknowledged, and these include the time, expertise and money needed to facilitate the process successfully.

[pt] Os eventos organizacionais dos últimos 10 anos - outsourcing, downsizing, reengenharia, aquisições, fusões, etc - estão desafiando os departamentos de Recursos Humanos tradicionais e as práticas executivas estabelecidas desde a metade dos anos de 1970 (John P. Morgan, 2001). Como conseqüência destas mudanças surgiu, em meados da década de 1990, uma abordagem inovadora conhecida como HPWS (High Performance Work Systems ou Sistemas de Trabalho de Alto Desempenho): Conjuntos de práticas de alto desempenho com a finalidade de selecionar, desenvolver e reter a força de trabalho, com habilidades, conhecimentos e competências superiores e motivá-la à aplicar seu know-how no local de trabalho. Verificou-se, entretanto, que o resultado da aplicação destas práticas poderia variar em função: da indústria, da cultura da organização, dos valores dos empregados, da estratégia da empresa, etc. Considerou-se razoável, então, observar a teoria sobre Contratos Psicológicos de Trabalho como uma das ferramentas necessárias à maior compreensão do tema. O entendimento das bases de um Contrato Psicológico traz a possibilidade de compreensão dos acordos implícitos da relação empregado/empregador, o que pode ajudar no estudo da influência destes em uma aplicação tradicional de HPWS. A razão da escolha, como cenário de estudo, de uma operação de consultoria é simples: operações de consultoria são, por sua natureza, ambientes complexos e possuidores de uma cultura forte e singular onde a utilização de HPWS é uma prática bastante conhecida, reunindo, portanto, todas as variáveis necessárias à observação do fenômeno. O objetivo principal desta dissertação, é, portanto, ratificar que os consultores pesquisados percebem a aplicação de cada HPWS de maneira distinta. Esta verificação é metodologicamente fundamental para que se possa seguir na busca de possíveis relações entre: a importância que cada consultor dá aos HPWS, os tipos predominantes de Contratos Psicológicos e a Cultura da Organização; objetivos secundários desta dissertação mas não por isso menos importantes desde o ponto de vista do autor. / [en] The organizational events of the last 10 years - outsourcing, downsizing, reengineering, acquisitions, joint ventures, etc - are challenging the traditional HR and established executive practices since the decade of 1970 (John P. Morgan, 2001). As a consequence of these changes, an innovative approach was developed in the middle of 90´s, the HPWS (High Performance Work Systems): a group of high-performance practices with the objective of select, develop and retain the work-force with superior skills, knowledge and abilities, motivating them to the use of this know-how in the workplace. Although, verifying that these implementations could present different results, impacted by the industry, the organizational culture and strategy, etc, was reasonable to accept the theory about Psychological Contracts at Work as a necessary instrument to a deeply comprehension of the subject. To understand the basis of a Psychological Contract helps the comprehension of the implicit agreements built between the employer and the employee, what can help the study of the influence of these agreements in a traditional HPWS implementation. The reason of the choice of a consulting operation, as the environment of the survey, is simple: consulting operations are complex environments with a strong organizational culture where the utilization of HPWS is a usual aspect, resuming all necessary variables to the observation of the phenomenon. So, the primary objective of this dissertation is to verify if this evaluated group perceives the implementation of each HPWS in a different way. This verification is, methodologically speaking, a fundamental step to the search of possible relationships between: how important is each HPWS for these consultants, what is the predominant Psychological Contract in place and the typology of organizational culture, all secondary objectives of this dissertation but, from the point of view of the author, as important as the primary one.

Dagens konkurrenskraftiga arbetsmarknad har lett till att företag snabbt anpassar sig till förändringar i dynamiska miljöer. Projekt som arbetsform har blivit allt vanligare i verksamheter. Till varje projekt tilldelas en projektledare för att driva projektet. På grund av brist på personal anlitar organisationer konsulter som exempelvis projektledare, för att analysera och lösa specifika problem samt driva projekt. Studiens syfte är att undersöka vilka utmaningar uthyrda projektledare upplever. För att besvara undersökningens frågeställning och syfte har en kvalitativ metod använts. Genom semistrutkurerade intervjuer med tio olika uthyrda projektledare inom ett tekniskt konsultföretag utreds vilka utmaningar de upplever. Intervjuerna har därefter analyserats med hjälp av en tematisk analys och relevanta teman har identifierats. Undersökningen har visat att utmaningar som tekniska uthyrda projektledare upplever handlar om begränsad handlingsförmåga, där struktur, befogenheter, tillgång till budget samt rätt resurser, förhindrar uthyrda projektledare att utföra sitt arbete och driva ett projekt. Andra utmaningar som upplevs gäller identitetskris och känslan av tillhörighet, där tillhörighet till konsultföretaget och kundföretaget samt skillnaderna mellan uthyrda projektledare och anställda, inte har stor påverkan på projektledningen i sig utan inverkar på projektledaren som individ. / Today's competitive labor market has led companies to swiftly adapt to changes in dynamic environments. Projects such as work methods have become increasingly common in businesses. Each project is assigned a project manager to manage the project. Due to a lack of staff, organizations employ consultants such as project managers, to analyze and solve specific problems and manage projects. The purpose of the study is to investigate the challenges experienced by the consultant project manager. In order to answer the main question and the purpose of the study, a qualitative method has been used. Through interviews with ten different consultant project managers within a technical consulting company, the challenges they are experiencing investigated. The interviews have been analyzed by using a thematic analysis and relevant themes have been identified. The study has shown that challenges experienced by technical consultant project managers are about limited ability to act, where structure, authority, access to budget and the right resources prevent consultant project managers from carrying out their work and manage a project. Other challenges are about identity crises and the feeling of belonging, where relationship to the consulting company and the clients, as well as the differences between consultant project managers and employees, do not have a major impact on the project management itself, but affect the project manager as an individual.

Ao se visualizar o mundo organizacional nas últimas duas décadas, nos deparamos com um conjunto de organizações que aparecem em posição de destaque. As empresas de consultoria organizacional despontam como uns dos setores mais dinâmicos do período. Assim sendo, o presente estudo pretende contribuir com o entendimento do processo de crescimento do mercado de consultorias, suas formas de atuação e o relacionamento com as demais organizações, a partir de três pontos de referência. Num primeiro momento, enfocando o mercado de consultoria internacional, procurando identificar suas características, principais mudanças nas últimas décadas e as especificidades do setor no Brasil. Na segunda parte, enfoco as mudanças no espaço empresarial e gerencial no decorrer do período. O conjunto tem a função de ser uma forma de visualizar a atuação dos quadros gerenciais frente às novas configurações e demandas organizacionais, formadas a partir dos anos oitenta, e um contraponto ao ideário oriundo das consultorias. Como outro elemento componente da construção desta pesquisa, busca-se discutir as formas e os mecanismos de difusão de idéias gerências e os diversos setores envolvidos no processo, focalizando a atuação das empresas de consultoria e sua ligação com demais setores do campo de venda de novidades organizacionais, em especial a imprensa de negócios. A escolha pretende contribuir para o entendimento das relações empresas – consultorias, partindo da questão da difusão de novas referências gerenciais. / When visualizing the world organizational in the last two decades, we came across a group of organizations that appear in prominence position. The consulting firms blunt as some of the most dynamic sections of the period. Like this being, the present study intends to contribute with the understanding of the process of growth of the consulting market, your forms of performance and the relationship with the other organizations, starting from three point of reference. In a first moment, focusing the market of international consulting, trying to identify your characteristics, main changes in the last decades and the specificities of the section in Brazil. In the second it leaves, I focus the changes in the managerial and managerial space in elapsing of the period. The group has the function of being a form of visualizing the performance of the pictures managerial front to the new configurations, formed starting from the eighties, and a counterpoint to the ideas originating from of the consulting firms. As other component element of the construction of this research, is looked for to discuss the forms and the mechanisms of diffusion of ideas managements and the several sections involved in the process, focalizing the performance of the consulting firms and your connection with other sections of the field of sale of organizational innovations, especially the press of businesses. The choice intends to contribute for the understanding of the relationships companies – consulting firms, leaving of the subject of the diffusion of new managerial references.

Esta tese analisa as ações conjuntas do Estado e das empresas de consultoria voltadas à elaboração de planos no processo de produção de políticas públicas de turismo para o Nordeste do Brasil, considerando as possíveis consequências desta conjunção no processo de produção do espaço daquela região. Para tanto, elegeu-se como estudo de caso o PRODETUR/NE Programa de Desenvolvimento do Turismo no Nordeste, que se desenvolveu ao longo de duas décadas e abrangeu a quase totalidade dos municípios litorâneos da Região Nordeste. Orçado em um bilhão de dólares e tendo o BID como principal financiador, o PRODETUR/NE se desenvolveu em duas fases (PRODETUR/NE I - 1992-2002 e PRODETUR/NE II - 2002 a 2012) e tinha como objetivo reforçar a capacidade da Região Nordeste em manter e expandir sua indústria turística. Por meio desse Programa, os estados nordestinos investiram em grandes obras de infraestrutura urbana, como construção de estradas, reforma de aeroportos e implantação de saneamento básico, dotando o território do suporte necessário para o estabelecimento da atividade do turismo. O Programa tinha no planejamento um de seus pilares essenciais e, como parte desse processo, cada estado deveria elaborar planos que norteassem as ações a serem implantadas nos polos de turismo estabelecidos. Contudo, diante dessa exigência, revelou-se a fragilidade dos quadros técnicos das instituições públicas ligadas ao turismo e, nesse contexto, a solução adotada pelos estados, no âmbito do Programa, foi a delegação de uma função tipicamente estatal o planejamento de uma política pública de turismo a empresas de consultoria, supostamente especializadas no assunto. Assim, os Planos de Desenvolvimento Integrado do Turismo Sustentável (PDITS), principal instrumento de execução do planejamento turístico dos estados no PRODETUR/NE, tiveram sua elaboração completamente delegada a empresas de consultoria, traduzindo a forte institucionalização da terceirização no processo de produção da política pública de turismo, sobretudo, na segunda fase daquele Programa. Nesse sentido, importa destacar a atuação das consultorias como atores importantes, considerando que tais empresas atuam como agentes detentores de conhecimento sobre o território e, dessa maneira, possuem potencial para interferir, por meio de seu arcabouço ideológico e conceitual, no processo de planejamento e elaboração de políticas públicas. Partindo, pois, de um referencial teórico-metodológico calcado nas dimensões institucional, processual, material, e territorial das políticas públicas, buscou-se apreender os possíveis elos que ligam a terceirização presente na política pública de turismo ao processo de produção do espaço na Região Nordeste do Brasil. / This dissertation analyzes the partnership between the State and the consultancy firms aimed at drawing up plans in relation to the development of tourism policies to the Northeast of Brazil. It considers the eventual consequences of such conjunction to the production of space in that area. A case study was selected to perform such analysis: PRODETUR/NE Program of Tourism Development in the Northeast, which was carried out along two decades and incorporated almost all the coastal cities of the Northeast. With a budget of one billion dollars, PRODETUR/NE, whose main financial supporter was IDB, was developed in two stages (PRODETUR/NE I - 1992-2002 and PRODETUR/NE II 2002-2012). Its main objective was to reinforce the capacity of the Northeast in terms of sustainability and expansion of its tourism industry. This Program made it possible for the states of the Northeast to invest in large urban infrastructure projects, such as building roads, renovating airports, and implementing sanitation facilities, which provided the territory with the support necessary to the establishment of the tourism activity. Planning was one of the axes of the Program, hence, each state was supposed to draw up their own plans to guide the actions to be implemented in the designated tourism zones. Such requirement eventually revealed the deficiency of the technical staff in public institutions of tourism. In this context, the solution adopted by the states, for the effect of the Program, was to delegate a function which is typically performed by the state the planning of public policies for tourism to consultancy firms, which supposedly have expert knowledge on the topic. As a result, the Plans of Integrated Development for Sustainable Tourism (PDITS), main instrument of tourism planning implementation in the states under PRODETUR/NE, were completely commissioned to consulting companies. Therefore, there was a strong institutionalization of outsourcing in the development of public policies for tourism, especially in the second stage of that Program. In that matter, it is important to highlight the important role played by consulting companies, for they have acted as agents that detain knowledge about territory. Thence, they have the potential to interfere in the process of planning and drawing up public policies, by means of their ideological and conceptual framework. Having a methodological and theoretical basis anchored in the institutional, processual, material, and territorial dimensions of the public policies as a starting point, we searched to grasp the eventual links that connect the outsourcing in the tourism policy and the production of space in the Northeast of Brazil.

This diploma thesis deals with running of the financial market and goals of financial consulting, but mostly is about crucial differences in selection, recruitment and breaking new workers in as employees compared to cooperation of entrepreneurs. These differences are shown on a specific example of financial consulting company OVB Allfinanz a.s. The biggest contrasts are: more possibilities for hiring new workers, variability of the selection process, impossibility of introducing directive leadership, the need to offer a goal of the work for the people and also the team vision.

Ao se visualizar o mundo organizacional nas últimas duas décadas, nos deparamos com um conjunto de organizações que aparecem em posição de destaque. As empresas de consultoria organizacional despontam como uns dos setores mais dinâmicos do período. Assim sendo, o presente estudo pretende contribuir com o entendimento do processo de crescimento do mercado de consultorias, suas formas de atuação e o relacionamento com as demais organizações, a partir de três pontos de referência. Num primeiro momento, enfocando o mercado de consultoria internacional, procurando identificar suas características, principais mudanças nas últimas décadas e as especificidades do setor no Brasil. Na segunda parte, enfoco as mudanças no espaço empresarial e gerencial no decorrer do período. O conjunto tem a função de ser uma forma de visualizar a atuação dos quadros gerenciais frente às novas configurações e demandas organizacionais, formadas a partir dos anos oitenta, e um contraponto ao ideário oriundo das consultorias. Como outro elemento componente da construção desta pesquisa, busca-se discutir as formas e os mecanismos de difusão de idéias gerências e os diversos setores envolvidos no processo, focalizando a atuação das empresas de consultoria e sua ligação com demais setores do campo de venda de novidades organizacionais, em especial a imprensa de negócios. A escolha pretende contribuir para o entendimento das relações empresas – consultorias, partindo da questão da difusão de novas referências gerenciais. / When visualizing the world organizational in the last two decades, we came across a group of organizations that appear in prominence position. The consulting firms blunt as some of the most dynamic sections of the period. Like this being, the present study intends to contribute with the understanding of the process of growth of the consulting market, your forms of performance and the relationship with the other organizations, starting from three point of reference. In a first moment, focusing the market of international consulting, trying to identify your characteristics, main changes in the last decades and the specificities of the section in Brazil. In the second it leaves, I focus the changes in the managerial and managerial space in elapsing of the period. The group has the function of being a form of visualizing the performance of the pictures managerial front to the new configurations, formed starting from the eighties, and a counterpoint to the ideas originating from of the consulting firms. As other component element of the construction of this research, is looked for to discuss the forms and the mechanisms of diffusion of ideas managements and the several sections involved in the process, focalizing the performance of the consulting firms and your connection with other sections of the field of sale of organizational innovations, especially the press of businesses. The choice intends to contribute for the understanding of the relationships companies – consulting firms, leaving of the subject of the diffusion of new managerial references.

Dissertação apresentada para obtenção parcial do grau de Mestre em Gestão de Informação, na Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, sob a orientação do Prof. Doutor Joaquim Borges Gouveia

Information Technology project managers have found that collective turnover of consultants lowers code quality, increases knowledge loss and negatively impacts team performance. Within the last decade, companies have begun to see that offshore consultants have a turnover rate greater than 26%, more than double the rates for the rest of the IT consulting industry. Collective turnover also puts additional pressure on the project team, causing work exhaustion and thus additional turnover. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies that 6 successful project managers utilized to limit and reduce the impact of collective turnover of their hybrid sourced project teams. Participants were selected through purposeful sampling, based on career experiences and history of successful project execution. Data collection was completed through semi structured face to face interviews, acquisition of company documents including knowledge transfer plans, onboarding documents and turnover statistics. Data were analyzed using coding and key word analysis. Three themes emerged from data collection on the impact collective turnover has on hybrid sourced project teams. First, collective turnover of consultants decreased team performance. Second, improving global team dynamics reduced the negative impact of collective turnover. Last using knowledge transfer tools and project documentation practices reduced the negative impact of collective turnover. This research may contribute to effectively social change by providing managers information and techniques to improve global team dynamics and remove cultural barriers from the workplace.

[pt] O objetivo dessa pesquisa é identificar fatores que influenciem na determinação de gastos com auditoria e consultoria por parte das empresas abertas no mercado brasileiro. A principal motivação do presente estudo foi a falta de pesquisas sobre gastos com auditoria e consultoria no Brasil, enquanto que esse assunto já vem sendo explorado há anos em outros países. Cabe ressaltar que essa escassez de dados no Brasil é devido ao fato de que, só a partir de 2009, tornou-se obrigatória a divulgação das quantias despendidas com serviços de auditoria e consultoria de forma separada. A divulgação desses dados possibilita a análise dos determinantes dos valores pagos pelas empresas por tais serviços. Os resultados indicam que as despesas de auditoria estão positivamente relacionadas com o tamanho da companhia, price-to-book, qualidade da governança corporativa e com o fato de a empresa de auditoria ser uma Big Four e negativamente relacionadas com a alavancagem da firma. Já quanto aos gastos de consultoria, existe uma relação positiva com o tamanho da empresa e negativa com a presença estatal no controle da companhia contratante dos serviços. / [en] The objective of the present study is to identify factors that have an impact on the determination of audit and non-audit fees paid by Brazilian publicly traded companies. The main motivation of the present study was the lack of research in Brazil about audit fees and non-audit fees, while the subject has been discussed for many years in other countries. It is important to highlight that this shortage of research is due to the fact that, only in 2009, it become mandatory the disclosure of money spent in each type of service. Such transparency allows the analysis of the determinants of the values paid by enterprises for these services. The results indicate that the audit fees are positively related to firm size, price-to-book, corporate governance quality and the fact that the auditor is a Big Four, and negatively related to leverage. In terms of non-audit fees, there is a positive relation with firm size and they are lower in State-owned firms.