Distance learning has been playing an ever more influential role. Yet there remains little rigorous academic research into distance learning pedagogy, lacking of serious study in management, delivery and organization of distance learning has destabilized the field. Recently, the boom of Web 2.0 has made websites a lot more intuitive, interactive and interesting; Web 2.0 is also widely used in distance education. Study of distance education as a result sometimes has been misdirected, instead of understanding and solving the real issues facing distance education, research in the field devoted entirely to technology usage discarding the very issue of effective education in distance context. In other words, instead of pursuing technology-relevant policies we focus on technology-driven policies. This thesis starts by reviewing learning theories and arguing for the case of why one is more suitable for distance learning than others. The author argues that constructivism, which favors a dynamic learning process, encourages people to interact, share ideas and bounce ideas is the more effective learning theory. But deploying constructivist pedagogy into real life is difficult. We need more concrete ideas as to how to organize distance learning, a framework to benchmark distance education, to evaluate distance education. That is where Moore’s transactional theory which actually derives from constructivist pedagogy comes into the picture. Moore pointed out 3 key areas of distance education: dialogue, structure and learner autonomy. Moore argues that by having enough constructive dialogue, flexible structure catering individualism and a high level of learner autonomy to execute learning; we can reduce “distance” in distance education. Moore is equally concerned about pedagogy as he is about technologies and he has incorporated into his theory how technological changes have influenced the way distance education has been delivered for the better. This is the brilliance of Moore’s, he has not sided with either pedagogy or technology, he observed the rise of technology and the influence it has on distance education but refused to see technology as the sole factor that makes distance learning more effective or reduces “distance” in distance education. The linkage between constructivism and Moore’s theory is of significance although it is only barely acknowledged in Moore’ writing. The magnitude of this connection is that first it highlights that the work that Moore has done has been based on strong theoretical pedagogy, his contribution is that he has simplified a grand ideology into something that can be applied in the class room. Also he has succeeded in refining elements of constructivism into working variables for quantitative research. His theory is still highly relevant today but his analysis of technologies’ roles has not yet included the latest explosion of technologies in the post-1993 age: the Internet, the booming Web and especially the new Web 2.0. The aim of this thesis is to extend his analysis to these new technologies. We studied how the explosion of Web 2.0 services have been facilitating rich dialogue among peers, teachers and learning materials, allowing more individualization to educational settings and structures. Also Web 2.0 lowers the barrier to participation and content generation and thus would be expected to encourage learner autonomy. A large part of the thesis has been dedicated to literature review. This is because the author believes that in order to improve distance education, it is necessary to first understand learning theory to know when and how people learn, and explore the nature of distance education to see the differences between distance and non-distance education, and then have a comprehensive plan to implement distance education, and evaluate that plan. The implementation bit is of course a practical project; the author used a real-life course at Umeå University where students from various backgrounds signed-up to learn about how Web 2.0 can be leveraged to enhance distance education. A constructivist approach was adopted so we had a chance to see how it actually turned out. We used Moore’s transactional distance theory to evaluate the impact of introducing Web 2.0. / In my thesis, I have discussed the role of distance-learning and have discussed how constructivism makes better education, Moore’s analysis that distance education is naturally education and thus what makes education makes good distance education. Better education according to Moore is when you can reduce “transactional distance” by influencing its makeup dialogue, structure and learner autonomy. I also looked at examples of where Web 2.0 has been successfully applied to reduce “transactional distance” grounded in Moore’s theory. I looked at the humble historical context of distance-learning and the spectacular achievements that distance-education teachers and students despite all those forces against change. I discussed the development of distance-education to become what it is today. I believe technologies are part of the solution but also we need strong pedagogy and a rigorous framework to guide it. The discussion of constructivism vs. objectivism showed the contrasting differences as well as certain overlapping elements of both ideologies. I believe constructivism was the pedagogy of the 21st century which involves a great deal of personal reflection, interaction among course peers and teachers as well as a shift in how education must be organized. Moore’s theory of transactional distance is grounded in constructivist pedagogy but has his fair share of genius thought. First, he convinced us that distance education is also education because the distance in distance education or what Moore called “transactional distance” also exists in face-to-face classroom education, to make better distance learning means to reduce “transactional distance”. Second, his ability to benchmark an operational framework to organize distance education and measure transactional distance as a result or influencing the three variables dialogue, structure and learner autonomy. His work has been proved by Saba (1994) with dynamic systems modeling as well as questioned by few critics of his poor theory construction as well as unconvincing empirical data gathered from a few studies. However, Moore’s theory of transactional distance is still the prominent theory and Moore himself a leading figure in the field. Transactional theory is realized by a new wave of highly interactive web technologies built on the architecture of openness and participatory. This plays well into constructivism of build a virtual learning community for collaborative learning. We looked at a prime example of employing Web 2.0 technologies for better distance education by Kane and Fichman (2009). The benefits of instruction activities that otherwise would not be possible without Web 2.0 have been analyzed and evaluated using Moore’s variables to yield a positive result. I also demonstrated a personal experience being part of a distance learning course at Umea University in Spring semester 2010 where we all learned about distance learning in the modern age and apply constructivism pedagogy and Moore’s transaction theory distance in evaluating the course. Understanding the theory makes me a better student because I know what makes effective learning and also further confirm my belief in the mandate of distance education, a distance education for all because you can’t learn individually. Kane and Fichman (2009) have surprised me to the extent of their creative ideas of applying Web 2.0 in education such as the idea of crowdsourcing and peer review by wikis. Able to use technologies especially in a live environment such as the course at Umea University gave me a real sense of gaps between theory and practice. / Author: Tran Huy Duc Mobile: 00-84-1283 27 47 09 Address: CC23 Truong Son St, Ward 15, District 10, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam E-mail: ductranhuy@yahoo.com

The focus of this study is on the development of an original script designed to introduce concepts of structural and transactional analysis to elementary school children. Included in Chapter One are reviews of Transactional Analysis and the PAC communication model. Classroom application of Transactional Analysis principles is examined in Chapter Two. Chapter Three examines needs and characteristics of young children. Qualities of good children's literature are discussed in relationship to the selection and explication of script material. The manuscript appears in Appendix B. This report accepts evidence that Transactional Analysis training can be an additive part of the elementary school curriculum. It further proposes that story material conscientiously designed for young children could prove effective and entertaining training vehicles for Transactional Analysis concepts.

Inledning och Bakgrund: Vid arbete tillsammans med personer som drabbats av stroke är det vanligt att arbetsterapeuter använder sig av både funktionsbedömningar och av aktivitetsbaserade bedömningar. Flera studier belyser vikten av att sätta mål tillsammans med patienten, men det finns faktorer som hindrar eller möjliggör att målformulering utförs.  Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva hur arbetsterapeuter på strokeenheter i Sverige arbetar med utredning och målformulering tillsammans med personer som drabbats av stroke. Metod: Designen är en beskrivande, kvalitativ intervjustudie med induktiv ansats. Avsiktligt urval användes för att rekrytera deltagare. Datainsamling utfördes genom semistrukturerade intervjuer av nio arbetsterapeuter. Dataanalys utfördes genom kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: Resultatet kunde sammanfattas i den övergripande huvudkategorin Aktivitetsförmåga bedöms med olika tillvägagångssätt. Den bestod av fyra kategorier: Lära känna patienten, Funktions- eller aktivitetsbedömning?, Hinner inte sätta mål, MEN... samt Kliniskt resonemang.  Slutsats: Genom angreppsättet True top-down får arbetsterapeuten verktyg att skapa sig en bättre helhetsbild av den strokedrabbade personens aktivitetsförmåga. Motor and Process Skills Rating Form kan erbjuda ett stöd i att beskriva och dokumentera vad som observerats i en aktivitetsbedömning. För att målformulering ska utföras i större utsträckning på strokeenheter, behöver rutiner utarbetas. / Introduction: When working with individuals suffering from stroke, it is common that occupational therapists use both function-based and occupation-based assessments. Several studies highlight the importance of goal-setting together with the patient, but there are factors that either prevent or enable goal-setting to be carried out. Aim: The aim was to describe how occupational therapists at stroke units in Sweden work with evaluation and goal setting together with persons who has suffered a stroke. Method: The study was performed using a descriptive, qualitative interview design with an inductive approach.  Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews with nine occupational therapists. The collected data was analysed in line with qualitative content method.   Results: The results was summarized in the overarching main category Occupational capacity is assessed using different approaches. The main category contained four categories: Getting to know the patient, Function- or activity assessment?, Not having the time for goal-setting, BUT... and Clinical reasoning.   Conclusions: Through the True top-down approach, the occupational therapist gets tools to create a better overall picture of the occupational capacity of the stroke patient. The Motor and Process Skills Rating Form can offer support in describing and documenting an observation. An elaborate process and routines need to be carried out to enable goal-setting in a greater extent at stroke units in Sweden.

Purpose: The population of Sweden is steadily increasing, which raises the need for new infrastructure and new buildings. To meet these demands the construction industry must become more efficient. According to several researchers, better leadership can be a part of accomplishing this. Discussions regarding leadership are mostly from the leaders’ perspective and usually the decisions about what kind of leadership is needed is made by the leaders themselves. Not very often do the followers get a chance to share their thoughts on what they need to become more efficient. Earlier research shows a correlation between motivation and efficiency. Therefore, this study attempt to find out what motivates construction workers. This study intended to examine what type of leadership construction workers think they need to become more efficient. The study’s aim was to contribute knowledge about how leadership can increase the efficiency on the construction site. Method: Two methods for data collection were used. A literary review based on effective leadership and interviews with construction workers about their thoughts on what type of leadership would increase their motivation and efficiency. Findings: This study has, by answering the research questions, contributed knowledge about how leadership can increase the efficiency on the construction site. The construction workers are of the opinion that their leaders have a big impact on their efficiency. The leaders’ knowledge and experience of the production phase as well as their ability to communicate and plan ahead were all seen as factor that affect their efficiency. The literary review for this study found 23 effective leadership traits. According to the construction workers the leadership skills that contribute the most to their motivation and efficiency are humility, relationship-management, and self-awareness. Connecting the construction workers responses to the efficient leadership theories showed that the most relevant theories for increasing the workers motivation and efficiency are Transformational and Servant Theory. The theory of Servant is the most relevant since it focuses on the followers. Implications: To increase the efficiency one must focus on the people in the industry. By changing the leadership based on the construction workers' opinions their efficiency can be increased. Therefore, it is recommended that leaders on the construction site work with the leadership theories Transformational and Servant and that they develop the effective leadership traits, especially the traits the construction workers find most important. Limitations: This study was limited to the leadership from the site supervisor to the construction workers. The focus was on what type of leadership the construction workers wanted to become more motivated and efficient. Furthermore, the study was limited to four leadership theories and effective leadership traits. Keywords: Efficiency, motivation, effective leadership traits, Contingency Theory, Transformational Theory, Transactional Theory, and Servant Theory. / Syfte: Sveriges befolkning växer stadigt vilket medför en ökad efterfrågan på nya bostäder och ny infrastruktur. För att tillgodose denna ökade efterfrågan behöver byggbranschen bli effektivare. Enligt flera forskare kan effektiviteten delvis ökas genom bättre ledarskap. Diskussioner om ledarskap utgår nästan enbart från ledarnas perspektiv och det är vanligt att ledarna bestämmer vilken typ av ledare som behövs. Det är sällan följarna får chansen att framföra åsikter sina om vad de behöver för att bli mer effektiva. Tidigare forskning har också visat att det finns ett samband mellan motivation och effektivitet. Därför undersöktes även vad som motiverar yrkesarbetarna. Denna undersökning avsåg att ta reda på vad yrkesarbetarna anser sig behöva för ledarskap för att bli mer motiverade och effektivare. Målet med undersökningen var att bidra med kunskap kring hur ledarskap kan öka effektiviteten i byggproduktionen. Metod: I undersökningen användes två metoder för datainsamling. En litteraturstudie med utgångspunkt i effektivt ledarskap samt intervjuer med yrkesarbetare om deras syn på vilket ledarskap som skulle öka deras motivation och effektivitet. Resultat: Genom att svara på frågeställningarna har undersökningen bidragit med kunskap kring hur ledarskap kan öka effektiviteten i byggproduktionen. Yrkesarbetarna anser att produktionsledaren har stor inverkan på deras effektiviteten. Det som påverkar är produktionsledarens kunskap och erfarenhet om produktionen samt deras förmåga att kommunicera och planera arbetet. Under litteraturstudien påträffades 23 effektiva ledaregenskaper. Enligt yrkesarbetarna är det egenskaperna ödmjukhet, relationshantering och självkännedom som bidrar mest till att öka deras motivation och effektivitet. Genom att koppla yrkesarbetarnas svar till de effektiva ledarskapsteorierna har det visat sig att Transformational och Servant Theory är de mest relevanta teorierna för att öka yrkesarbetarnas motivation och effektivitet. Eftersom Servant Theory fokuserar på följarna anses den mest relevant. Konsekvenser: För ökad effektivitet ska fokus läggas på de människor som branschen består av. Genom att anpassa ledarskapet efter yrkesarbetarnas åsikter kan deras effektivitet öka. Med anledning av detta rekommenderas det att ledare i byggproduktion arbetar med ledarskapsteorierna Transformational och Servant, samt att ledaren utvecklar de effektiva ledaregenskaperna, framförallt de egenskaperna som yrkesarbetarna efterfrågade. Begränsningar: Undersökningen behandlade endast ledarskapet mellan produktionsledaren och yrkesarbetarna. Fokus låg på vilket ledarskap yrkesarbetarna ville ha för att bli motiverade och effektiva. Vidare begränsningar var att enbart undersöka fyra ledarskapsteorier samt de effektiva ledaregenskaperna. Nyckelord: Effektivitet, motivation, effektiva ledaregenskaper, Contingency Theory, Transformational Theory, Transactional Theory, och Servant Theory.

The aim of this study was to identify what were the requirements placed on the design of distance education programmes as regards discipline or dialogue and how did these factors impact on student-support in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). Education in general is used to classical behavioural objective that outlines precisely for the student what has to be done and is one way of structuring the learning materials. The South African National Defence Force (SANDF), by its very nature, is very familiar with this formal structure and style of doing things. It prescribes the way teaching has to happen and how the outcomes have to be achieved and at times in a very formal way. Opposed to the above is dialogue that calls for a move away from the prescriptiveness of doing something. Doing and thinking now becomes more open through dialogue. Education stakeholders now debate the value of certain content, since content is no more fixed, the admission of students into the programme is not fixed any more and the way examinations are set is also not fixed or prescriptive. There is now a move away from the disciplinary way of thinking, that is, thinking in terms of fixed boundaries or discipline any longer – dialogue has opened up options and opportunities. This research is based on the belief that distance education problems in the Department of Defence (DoD) are as result of outdated and inadequate instructional or programme design methods or approaches, and thus lack student-support. The four sub-research questions that emanate from the main research question as posed in this research are summarized as follows: (1) What is the distance learning teaching and learning character of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF)? (2) What is the role dialogue in the design of teaching and learning? (3) How are ‘outcomes’ in transactional distance or dialogue achieved? (4) What is the role of dialogue in student empowerment or student support? The design of this research was based on qualitative approach. The feasibility of the research was assured by focusing on distance learning institutions and practitioners. Literature study and document analysis was utilized as data-collection method. Face-to-face interviews with focused groups and individual interviews utilizing unstructured, open-ended questions on interview schedules were also conducted. In addition, anonymous student reports collected by programme managers at the end of a programme replaced the unavailability of student interviews were utilised. The findings of the study were that the character of structural design of distance learning programmes in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) resembles that of the disciplinary approach, and is thus prescriptive. Structure, in terms of the teaching and learning strategies and the substance of the content is largely the mode of practice in the SANDF’s distance education system. Communication finds its way into the distance learning system of the Department of Defence as authoritative power source. The main function of dialogue in the system is to vest the interest of this organization as programme directors and instructors are not fully emancipated. Students and instructors find it difficult to engage constructively academically. Learner-to-learner interaction and freedom of academic discourse is hampered as the result of authoritarian and prescriptive doctrine of a structured curriculum. It is then concluded that student support in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) distance education settings does not address requirements of dialogue. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / unrestricted

Transactional memory (TM) has emerged as a promising synchronization abstraction for multi-core architectures. Unlike traditional lock-based approaches, TM shifts the burden of implementing threads synchronization from the programmer to an underlying framework using hardware (HTM) and/or software (STM) components. Although TM can be leveraged to implement transactional data structures (i.e., those where multiple operations are allowed to execute atomically, all-or-nothing, according to the transaction paradigm), its intensive speculation may result in significantly lower performance than the optimized concurrent data structures. This poor performance motivates the need to find other, more effective, alternatives for designing transactional data structures without losing the simple programming abstraction proposed by TM. To do so, we identified three major challenges that need to be addressed to design efficient transactional data structures. The first challenge is composability, namely allowing an atomic execution of two or more data structure operations in the same way as TM provides, but without its high overheads. The second challenge is integration, which enables the execution of data structure operations within generic transactions that may contain other memory- based operations. The last challenge is modeling, which encompasses the necessity of defining a unified formal methodology to reason about the correctness of transactional data structures. In this dissertation, we propose different approaches to address the above challenges. First, we address the composability challenge by introducing an optimistic methodology to effi- ciently convert concurrent data structures into transactional ones. Second, we address the integration challenge by injecting the semantic operations of those transactional data struc- ture into TM frameworks, and by presenting two novel STM algorithms in order to enhance the overall performance of those frameworks. Finally, we address the modeling challenge by presenting two models for concurrent and transactional data structures designs. • Our first main contribution in this dissertation is Optimistic transactional boosting (OTB), a methodology to design transactional versions of the highly concurrent optimistic (i.e., lazy) data structures. An earlier (pessimistic) boosting proposal added a layer of abstract locks on top of existing concurrent data structures. Instead, we propose an optimistic boosting methodology, which allows greater data structure-specific optimizations, easier integration with TM frameworks, and lower restrictions on the operations than the original (more pessimistic) boosting methodology. Based on the proposed OTB methodology, we implement the transactional version of two list-based data structures (i.e., set and priority queue). Then, we present TxCF-Tree, a balanced tree whose design is optimized to support transactional accesses. The core optimizations of TxCF-Tree's operations are: providing a traversal phase that does not use any lock and/or speculation and deferring the lock acquisition or physical modification to the transaction's commit phase; isolating the structural operations (such as re-balancing) in an interference-less housekeeping thread; and minimizing the interference between structural operations and the critical path of semantic operations (i.e., additions and removals on the tree). • Our second main contribution is to integrate OTB with both STM and HTM algorithms. For STM, we extend the design of both DEUCE, a Java STM framework, and RSTM, a C++ STM framework, to support the integration with OTB. Using our extension, programmers can include both OTB data structure operations and traditional memory reads/writes in the same transaction. Results show that OTB performance is closer to the optimal lazy (non-transactional) data structures than the original boosting algorithm. On the HTM side, we introduce a methodology to inject semantic operations into the well-known hybrid transactional memory algorithms (e.g., HTM-GL, HyNOrec, and NOre- cRH). In addition, we enhance the proposed semantically-enabled HTM algorithms with a lightweight adaptation mechanism that allows bypassing the HTM paths if the overhead of the semantic operations causes repeated HTM aborts. Experiments on micro- and macro- benchmarks confirm that our proposals outperform the other TM solutions in almost all the tested workloads. • Our third main contribution is to enhance the performance of TM frameworks in gen- eral by introducing two novel STM algorithms. Remote Transaction Commit (RTC) is a mechanism for executing commit phases of STM transactions in dedicated server cores. RTC shows significant improvements compared to its corresponding validation based STM algorithm (up to 4x better) as it decreases the overhead of spin locking during commit, in terms of cache misses, blocking of lock holders, and CAS operations. Remote Inval- idation (RInval) applies the same idea of RTC on invalidation based STM algorithms. Furthermore, it allows more concurrency by executing commit and invalidation routines concurrently in different servers. RInval performs up to 10x better than its corresponding invalidation based STM algorithm (InvalSTM), and up to 2x better than its corresponding validation-based algorithm (NOrec). • Our fourth and final main contribution is to provide a theoretical model for concurrent and transactional data structures. We exploit the similarities of the OTB-based data structures and provide a unified model to reason about the correctness of those designs. Specifically, we extend a recent approach that models data structures with concurrent readers and a single writer (called SWMR), and we propose two novel models that additionally allow multiple writers and transactional execution. Those models are more practical because they cover a wider set of data structures than the original SWMR model. / Ph. D.

In transactional systems development literature, maintenance is reported as being a phase in the software development life cycle. In practice, this phase is often neglected as it occurs post-deployment and other ongoing projects take a higher priority. In data warehouse (DW) systems development literature, maintenance is not reported as being a phase but an ongoing iteration to the DW development project. It should therefore not be treated as a phase by DW systems professionals. Although there is this fundamental difference in the approach to maintenance, transaction systems maintenance and DW maintenance share many of the same challenges. DW literature and methodologies inherently contain utilities and methods to assist in alleviating these challenges in a DW system. Transactional systems do not deal with these challenges inherently. Research aspects were extracted from the literature review conducted. The literature review conducted demonstrates what the challenges in maintenance are, how the challenges of transactional systems compare to the challenges of DW maintenance and how the utilities and methods used in DW methodologies can inherently assist in managing these challenges from DW perspective. These research aspects were used to formulate an interpretive questionnaire. This research portion of the study explores the use of DW systems development and maintenance methodologies in the industry among DW professionals. This is done by conducting an interpretive study using the interpretive questionnaire developed from the literature review. The interpretive questionnaire focusses on maintenance and dealing with the challenges thereof. Many themes evolved from the analysis of the interpretive study by using the content analysis method. The final conclusions of this study is drawn by comparing and combining the information gathered from the literature review with the information gathered from the interpretive study. Gaps are identified between practice and literature and recommendations are made based on these gaps. / MSc (Computer Science), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The study was conducted to assess the state of leadership characteristics and the impact these variables have on employee self-esteem and employee work-related outcomes in a South African power utility in particular power station environment. The inquiry was conducted in a natural working environment of an organisation where respondents are situated/ located (i.e. a field study). A stratified convenience sampling approach was used to carry out the study using a structured questionnaire developed from predictors used by other researchers. The questionnaire, based on a four-point, five-point and seven-point Likert scale with leader’s characteristics such as articulation of vision, individualised support, intellectual, stimulation, forcing acceptance of group goals, high performance expectations, appropriate role modelling and performance feedback, mediating variables such as self-esteem and work-related outcomes such as organisational commitment and work-success, was designed to capture the state of affairs within the organisation based on the employees perceptions of their experiences of these variables. 150 questionnaires were distributed of which 115 were returned and all 115 were useable. This data was analysed using statistical tools such as correlation and regression analysis. The descriptive statistics indicated that the majority of leader’s characteristics unveiled a moderate agreement whilst the work related outcomes indicated that employees were neutral to agree with statements. The correlations analysis showed predominantly strong relationship between leader’s characteristics, self-esteem and work related outcomes with some few small and medium relationships. Recommendations to improve work-related outcomes are provided to the organisation. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

This study was commissioned to examine the applied leadership styles that foster organisational commitment and product quality commitment levels of two groups of employees working at two different business units of same private sector steel manufacturing company in Gauteng. The samples included 226 production employees from business unit ‘A’ and 190 production employees from population ‘B’. The combined sample of 416 included 83 managers and 333 low level employees. Leadership style data was collected through the Multi-Factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) from the managers and Organisational and Product Quality data was gathered through the Employee Questionnaire (EQ). The MLQ measured nine constructs of the Full Range Leadership Theory while the EQ measured four constructs of identification, affiliation, exchange and product quality commitment levels among lower level employees. A total of 416 questionnaires were distributed and 274 were received. The data was analysed statistically to define the leadership styles, the levels of organisational and product quality commitment and come up with correlations. It was found that transformational and transactional leadership styles were predominant at both business units. Laissez-faire style was also being used at business unit ‘A’. The leadership styles were found to be below the ideal levels for effective leadership. Leaders were perceived to be active managers and not leaders. The organisational and product quality commitment levels among employees were found to be marginal at both units. The top leadership styles and commitment levels trended the same and scored closely for both business units with small variations. The results were comparable. Positive correlations were found between identification commitment (0.305 for ‘A’ and 0.481 for ‘B’) and product quality commitment among employees. It was concluded from the correlations that the higher the levels of organisational commitment, the higher the levels of product quality commitment among employees. By statistical averages, it was concluded that higher levels of transformational leadership fosters higher levels of identification commitment and product quality commitment among employees. Demographics affected the way the respondents answered the questions. A leadership model complete with recommendations was proposed with the intention of increasing leadership effectiveness in order to positively impact and foster product quality commitment among employees. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

In transactional systems development literature, maintenance is reported as being a phase in the software development life cycle. In practice, this phase is often neglected as it occurs post-deployment and other ongoing projects take a higher priority. In data warehouse (DW) systems development literature, maintenance is not reported as being a phase but an ongoing iteration to the DW development project. It should therefore not be treated as a phase by DW systems professionals. Although there is this fundamental difference in the approach to maintenance, transaction systems maintenance and DW maintenance share many of the same challenges. DW literature and methodologies inherently contain utilities and methods to assist in alleviating these challenges in a DW system. Transactional systems do not deal with these challenges inherently. Research aspects were extracted from the literature review conducted. The literature review conducted demonstrates what the challenges in maintenance are, how the challenges of transactional systems compare to the challenges of DW maintenance and how the utilities and methods used in DW methodologies can inherently assist in managing these challenges from DW perspective. These research aspects were used to formulate an interpretive questionnaire. This research portion of the study explores the use of DW systems development and maintenance methodologies in the industry among DW professionals. This is done by conducting an interpretive study using the interpretive questionnaire developed from the literature review. The interpretive questionnaire focusses on maintenance and dealing with the challenges thereof. Many themes evolved from the analysis of the interpretive study by using the content analysis method. The final conclusions of this study is drawn by comparing and combining the information gathered from the literature review with the information gathered from the interpretive study. Gaps are identified between practice and literature and recommendations are made based on these gaps. / MSc (Computer Science), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015