Higher Education in the late 1990’s experienced significant problems with capacity due to many black students applying to enter previously white institutions (Jansen, 2002:159). The main concern of the new ANC government was the status of historically black institutions. They were unstable due to the migration away from black to white universities and technikons. This reduced their financial status and viability. In addition, the anticipated huge increase in black enrolments in higher education had not materialised (Finweek Survey, February 2009). In order to overcome both of these problems, the then Minister of Education decided to press ahead with a merger programme aimed at reducing the number of higher education institutions from 36 to 21 (Jansen, 2002:6). The primary objective of this research is to investigate the factors that influence employee perceptions of a post-merger Working Environment and Organisational Commitment: a case study of the administration staff in the Finance Department at Walter Sisulu University. There seems to be a lack of efficiently and effectiveness in the he operations of the Finance Department of Walter Sisulu University which this research will investigate through finding solutions to factors of improving the relationship between employee perceptions of their post-merger Working Environment and their Organisational Commitment. This exploratory study collected primary data through the distribution of questionnaires to 59 employees from the Finance Department at the Walter Susulu University, with a 69.12% response rate. The survey included closed questions that were analysed using statistical techniques. The findings revealed overall low scores of 31% for employee perception of their post – merger Working Environment and 50.21% for Organisational Commitment, together with its sub-dimension Affective, Continuance and normative. These scores are disturbing and need to be urgently addressed by the management of the Institution. The implication of the Finance staff’s low perception of their post – merger Working Environment and organisation Commitment is that the institution’s goals will be difficult to be fulfilled due to the low morale of the staff and the non-conducive working conditions. The Institution’s Management should be more transparent, more trustworthy, and more supportive towards staff members and have a good overall communication strategy.

The design of any information management system (IMS) requires a clear strategy for its integration into the environment for which it is intended. Information management has been addressed in the objectives and plans of the Government of Uganda since independence in 1962, with varying degrees of success. The extensive changes that have taken place in the last few decades in Ugandan higher education have led to increased demands for managing student information. In turn a strategy for proper coordination of such data is necessary. The major aim of this study was to design such a strategy. The research therefore attempted to investigate the current state of the management and coordination of student information in Uganda. The needs and requirements of a student information management system (SIMS) and strategies for its integration in higher education programmes were established. The study carried out in the education sector was conducted using a qualitative research framework that provided a coherent set of propositions which explains the phenomenon of a SIMS. The researcher purposively selected the respondents (including key informants, administrators and student leaders) in this sector, who included people involved in the capture, storage, management and use of student information in various institutions in the given sector. Observably, the current state of the SIMS lacks a strategy to keep track of student information in Uganda. It was established that to ensure tracking of such data in the country, an identification system with standardised procedures in a coordinating structure is required together with a clear strategy for utilising the existing structures in the education sector. To design a strategy of this kind, a proposed framework for an integrated SIMS defined the principles, environment and contextual boundaries in terms of which the design is created. It defines the structure of a national student identification system and its coordination in the education sector in Uganda. Strategies for ensuring the sustainability of such a system and its implications for the socio-economic environment of higher education are considered. / Information Science / D. Lit. et Phil. (Information Science)

This thesis is entitled “Fostering collective teacher efficacy through values-based leadership in Ethiopian institutions of higher education”, which is delimited to the private universities. The main question was “What constitutes/determines the institutionalisation of values-based leadership (VBL) to foster collective teacher efficacy (CTE) in the context of Ethiopian private universities (EPrUs)?” The sub-questions were: 1) what does the current state of CTE and its perceived outcomes look like in EPrUs? 2) What sets of behaviours are desired to institutionalise VBL so as to foster CTE in EPrUs? 3) What are the institutional contexts required to institutionalise VBL so as to foster CTE in EPrUs? In addressing these issues, academic leaders, students and teachers from EPrUs participated in the study. As methods of data gathering both the survey method and interviews were used. Results revealed that CTE is not high enough in EPrUs and hence it needs to be fostered so as to bring the desired change in students’ learning. To foster this, institutionalisation of VBL is required that involves two inter-related aspects. The first one is about institutionalising desired values (behaviours), which are linked to the academic leaders’ yearning for positive sets of values and the teachers’ moral contract to their professional values. To this effect, the positive sets of values that academic leaders should yearn for and the sets of values that teachers should espouse as their professional values are explored. The commonalities between these values are also described and how these would be institutionalised is suggested. The values include integrity and trustworthiness, humility/selflessness, compassion and sense of gratitude, accountability and self-discipline, sense of collaboration and teamwork, and envisioning in leadership as the driving force. The second aspect is about institutionalising the contexts conducive to foster CTE and VBL support behaviours. The need to institutionalise those behaviours and contexts arise out of the perceived leadership gap (between what the teachers believe are the leadership priorities of the leaders and the behaviours they actually see in the leaders). This gap has been linked to CTE, and hence a model has been developed that would foster this efficacy. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed. (Educational Management)

The design of any information management system (IMS) requires a clear strategy for its integration into the environment for which it is intended. Information management has been addressed in the objectives and plans of the Government of Uganda since independence in 1962, with varying degrees of success. The extensive changes that have taken place in the last few decades in Ugandan higher education have led to increased demands for managing student information. In turn a strategy for proper coordination of such data is necessary. The major aim of this study was to design such a strategy. The research therefore attempted to investigate the current state of the management and coordination of student information in Uganda. The needs and requirements of a student information management system (SIMS) and strategies for its integration in higher education programmes were established. The study carried out in the education sector was conducted using a qualitative research framework that provided a coherent set of propositions which explains the phenomenon of a SIMS. The researcher purposively selected the respondents (including key informants, administrators and student leaders) in this sector, who included people involved in the capture, storage, management and use of student information in various institutions in the given sector. Observably, the current state of the SIMS lacks a strategy to keep track of student information in Uganda. It was established that to ensure tracking of such data in the country, an identification system with standardised procedures in a coordinating structure is required together with a clear strategy for utilising the existing structures in the education sector. To design a strategy of this kind, a proposed framework for an integrated SIMS defined the principles, environment and contextual boundaries in terms of which the design is created. It defines the structure of a national student identification system and its coordination in the education sector in Uganda. Strategies for ensuring the sustainability of such a system and its implications for the socio-economic environment of higher education are considered. / Information Science / D. Lit. et Phil. (Information Science)

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-26T13:28:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 texto completo.pdf: 1080452 bytes, checksum: db6124f7a0ffaa0cda654d1352db934e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-03 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Most studies dealing with the issue of managing architectural and engineering have as its object of study the project management and private works of architecture. The public sector, such as academic institutions, have an important role in construction, but it is rarely analyzed in the work area. With the expansion of their campi, it has been observed most of the projects developed in the IFES have been outsourced. One reason for this is the fact that institutions often do not have a project team trained, prepared and structured enough to answer the demands of project. Moreover, it is observed that the units trying to develop their projects have had recurring management problems that embrace throughout the design process to work. It is associated with the increasing demand of the construction supply chain to adopt methodologies for the development of sustainable buildings. In view of the above facts, the objective of this research is to identify the factors conditions and procedures for proposing a model for the structuring of a Project Management Office (PMO) driven to sustainable projects in IFES. For this, we attempted to through a literature review and survey of multiple mini‐cases basis for the proposal of three reference models for the structure and operation of PMO. As a main result, it is concluded that the adoption of a systemic vision and understanding of the building design process from product life cycle are essential for the development of such projects. / A maioria dos trabalhos que tratam da questão da gestão de projetos de arquitetura e engenharia tem como objeto de estudo a gestão de projetos e obras de arquitetura privadas. O setor público, como por exemplo, as instituições universitárias, tem importante papel na construção civil, mas raramente é analisada pelos trabalhos na área. Com a expansão dos seus campi, tem‐se observado que a maioria do projetos de AEC desenvolvidos nas IFES tem sido terceirizados. Uma das razões para isso é o fato de que essas instituições muitas vezes não possuem uma equipe de projetos treinada e preparada, e com estrutura suficiente para atender as demandas de projetos. Além disso, observa‐ se que as unidades que tentam desenvolver seus projetos têm tido problemas recorrentes de gestão, que perpassam por todo o processo de projeto até a obra. Associa‐se a isso ainda, a crescente demanda da cadeia produtiva da construção em adotar metodologias para o desenvolvimento de construções sustentáveis. Em virtude dos fatos mencionados, o objetivo da presente pesquisa é identificar os fatores, requisitos e procedimentos para propor um modelo para a estruturação de um Escritório de Gerenciamento de Projetos (EGP) direcionado a projetos de AEC sustentáveis em IFES. Para isso, buscou‐se através de pesquisa bibliográfica e de levantamentos de múltiplos minicasos embasamento para a proposição de três modelos referenciais para a estruturação e operação do EGP. Como principal resultado, conclui‐se que a adoção da visão sistêmica e do entendimento do processo de projeto de edificações a partir do ciclo de vida do produto são essenciais para o desenvolvimento de projetos dessa natureza.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology Design in the Faculty of Informatics and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology Supervisor: Prof J Messeter Cape Town, 2013 / The aim of this research project was to provide an answer to the question: “How can an understanding of online trust be used to build valuable online applications in Higher Education?” In order to present an answer to this question, a literature survey was conducted to establish: • An understanding of the phenomenon of online trust • What the factors are that influence a loss of trust in the online environment The literature survey highlighted several factors that influence a loss of trust in the online environment, called trust cues. These factors, however, were often tested within the E-commerce environment, and not in organization-specific contexts, such as online platforms in use in Higher Education. In order to determine whether or not these factors would influence the development of trust in context-specific environments, the author of this research grouped the indentified trust factors into three focus areas, i.e. content, ease of use, and navigation. These factors were then incorporated into a series of nine different prototypes. These prototypes were different versions of a particular online platform currently in use at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). The prototypes were tested over a three week period, with certain staff members at the institution in question recruited as test participants. During each week of user observations, a different focus area was targeted, in order to establish the impact that it would have on the perceived trustworthiness of the platform in question. User observations were conducted while test participants completed a standard process using the various prototypes. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted while participants completed the specific process. Participants were asked to evaluate each screen in the process according to its perceived trust worthiness, by assigning a trust level score. At the completion of the three rounds of user observations, in-depth interviews were conducted with test participants. The participants’ trust level scores for each prototype were captured and graphed. A detailed description for the score given for a particular screen was presented on each graph. These scores were combined to provide an analysis of the focus area tested during the specific round. After the three rounds of user observations were completed, an analysis of all the trust factors tested were done. Data captured during interviews were transcribed, combined with feedback received from questionnaires, and analysed. An interpretation of the results showed that not all trust factors had a similar influence in the development of trust in the online platform under investigation. Trust cues such as content organization, clear instructions and useful content were by far the most significant trust factors, while others such as good visual design elements, professional images of products, and freedom from grammatical and typographical errors had little or no impact in the overall trustworthiness of the platform under investigation. From the analysis done it was clear that the development of trust in organization-specific contexts is significantly different than developing trust in an E-commerce environment and that factors that influence the development of trust in one context might not always be significant in another. In conclusion, it is recommended that when software applications are developed in organization-specific contexts, such as Higher Education, that trust factors such as good content organization, clear instructions and useful content be considered as the most salient. Organization-specific contexts differ quite significantly in that the users of these systems often convey a certain degree of trust toward the online platforms that they work with on a daily basis. Trust factors that are geared toward developing an initial or basic trust in a particular platform, which is often the case with first time users engaging in an E-commerce platform, would therefore not be as significant in the development of a more developed level of trust, which is what is needed within the development of organization-specific online platforms.