The purpose of this study is to describe how the employee appraisal is perceived by managers, employees and representatives from human resources departments. The empirical material con-sists of 15 interviews: respondents were two representatives of the human resources departments, four unit managers and nine employees who work at a state institution or municipal management. In the study, I adopt a sociocultural perspective, with the communicative relational perspective. The latter is a special education perspective in which the interpenetration of participation, com-munication and learning emphasized. The result shows that the majority of employees would like to see that the talks will be held more frequently than once a year. One of the managers has in cooperation with his co-workers devel-oped a model based on that each year, in addition to salary talks, have an individual conversation, a conversation with each group and individual follow-up talks. Having a clear objective or goal of the discussions is also something that is requested and it is interesting that managers and employ-ees do not know what the management and staff units' purpose of the discussions is. The value of the talks could be that it is time to reflect and quietly get the chance to talk ready for what is set mode. Something that many had opinions about where the material used and they ex-pressed different views on how it could change. / Syftet med studien är att beskriva hur medarbetarsamtalen uppfattas av chefer, medarbetare och representanter för personalavdelningar. Empirin består av 15 intervjuer: respondenterna var två representanter för personalavdelningar, fyra enhetschefer och nio medarbetare, som arbetar på ett statligt verk eller en kommunal förvaltning. I studien utgår jag från ett sociokulturellt perspektiv tillsammans med det kommunikativa relationsinriktade perspektivet. Det senare utgör ett specialpedagogiskt perspektiv där sammanflätningen av delaktighet, kommunikation och lärande betonas. Resultatet visar att flertalet av medarbetarna gärna ser att samtalen hålls tätare än en gång om året. En chef har tillsammans med sina medarbetare utarbetat en modell som bygger på att varje år, förutom lönesamtal, ha ett individuellt samtal, ett samtal med varje grupp och ett individuellt avstämningssamtal varje år. Att ha ett uttalat syfte eller mål med samtalen är också något som efterfrågas och det är intressant att chefer och medarbetare inte vet vad ledningens och personalenheternas syfte med samtalen är. Värdet av samtalen kan vara att det blir tid att reflektera och i lugn och ro få möjlighet att prata färdigt om det som är angeläget. Något som många hade synpunkter på var det material som används och det uttrycktes olika uppfattningar om hur det kunde förändras.

<p>This research is interested in the linguistic choices people use to express and negotiate subjective, inter-subjectiveand ideological positions through the graffiti within the confines of selected men's and women's toilets on the UWC main campus. The focus is on attitudes, one aspect of appraisal theory. The aim of investigating the attitudes inherent in the toilet graffiti is to obtain an insight into the evaluative discourse of men and women with regard to their emotional, judgmental and evaluative stance in their writings. This form of analysis is on the level of meaning. Differences with regard to the attitudinal content in terms of occurrence (quantitative) and content (qualitative) are investigated. The data shows that &lsquo / male&rsquo / (gender) are implicit when expressing emotions, whereas female is explicit in its expression of emotions. In addition, in terms of the evaluation of emotions, the data indicates that &lsquo / females&rsquo / are insecure in terms of their emotional disposition, whereas males mostly express emotions of unhappiness in the toilet graffiti analysed. Both males and females have a tendency to judge each other with regard to their capacities. In terms of judgement of behaviours and things, males can be said to have interesting and even creative ways of evaluation, which include punctuation, taboo varieties and pictures.</p>

Teacher evaluation is a management tool for all educational organizations as it is used to research information on teacher performance. Information on teacher performance is important in the decision making process regarding employment of teachers, confirmation of appointment, and identifying potential for promotion and staff development. Over the years teachers have raised serious reservations about teacher evaluation procedures in South Arica. In the apartheid days teacher evaluation was summative and contentious. It was marked by unannounced visits by inspectors to observe teachers' lessons. No feedback would be offered after they left. This system was not very well received by educators and teacher unions. Teacher lobby groups, belonging mainly to S.A.D.T.U rejected this system and demanded that it be removed. This case study is a qualitative study of the perceptions of educators in the ex Model C schools in the Queensburgh area, these schools were previously under The House of Assembly and only admitted white children. The study aims to capture to some extent the feelings, views, attitudes and perceptions of the educators towards DAS. The interviews with these educators have provided me with direct evidence of teachers' perceptions towards DAS. DAS was introduced in 1998 and it replaced an autocratic, judgmental and summative system. This system allowed the educator to identify his own developmental needs, through a democratic and formative process with the participation of education managers, peers and experts. This is a developmental approach and it is important at the planning stage to build in time for reflection and improvement in developing strategies. The overall impression gained from the study was that most educators were favorably disposed towards DAS. DAS was found to be a good system and that it would definitely have a positive impact on the professional development and growth of the teacher. However, some educators had reservations about this new system of evaluation. They felt that it was too time consuming and the system allowed for abuse. The policy gave educators the opportunity to review their work output, their strengths and weaknesses, but most of all DAS allowed for helpful and supportive advice and guidance This is a developmental approach and it is important at the planning stage to build in time for reflection and improvement in development strategies for educators to identify their own developmental needs, through a democratic and formative process, together with the participation of education managers, peers and experts. If implemented correctly DAS can make a positive impact on our present education system. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Durban-Westville, 2003.

The public sector often invests in large projects in different sectors, such as education, health care and infrastructure. It can be argued that investment appraisal process in these projects should differ from conventional approaches due to the complex interests the public sector holds, which often implies that several aspects need to be considered. Conventional techniques may not suffice and therefore this thesis aims to investigate the applicability of real options analysis and multi-criteria analysis in a combined approach. The study is conducted in the form of a case study at publicly owned Sundsvalls Logistikpark, where options in the form of the utilization of development areas and the non-monetary aspect reduction of carbon dioxide are included in the appraisal. The model developed compares two alternative strategies where one is based upon conventional usage of the area and the other represents the environmentally friendly alternative. The results show that including the value of flexibility in the appraisal significantly raises the initial valuation, whereas the comparison of the strategies show that the results either details which strategy is preferred, if input to both strategies are available, or where the threshold for indifference lies. It is concluded that this model is applicable in terms of its ability to capture the value of flexibility and inclusion of several aspects of the decision problem. However, it is also concluded that the numerous simplifications made may lead to unreliability in the results, and the process of obtaining accurate input may time-consuming, depending on the case. The usability of the model is high in terms of its potential, but lower in terms of the knowledge-based threshold required of the user.

Varje år diagnostiseras 10 000 män med sjukdomen prostatacancer i Sverige. Att drabbas av sjukdomen prostatacancer är emotionellt ansträngande. Väntetiden vad gäller behandling för patienter med prostatacancer är lång. Detta gör att patienter med prostatacancer lever med sjukdomen prostata-cancer och känslorna kopplade till diagnosen prostatacancer under en lång tid. Syftet med den aktuella studien var att beskriva copingprocessen för patienter med prostatacancer innan medicinsk behandling. Metoden som använts till studien var en litteraturstudie baserad på 15 vetenskapliga artiklar. Resultatet visade att den kognitiva bedömningen av sjukdomen prostatacancer präglades av den information som patienter med prostata-cancer fick. Den kognitiva bedömningen av sjukdomen prostatacancer påverkades också av ålder och tid efter diagnos. Copingresurser som hade betydelse för patienter med prostatacancer var socialt stöd, personlighet och psykisk hälsa. De copingstrategier som användes av patienter med prostatacancer var främst emotionellt fokuserade. Patienter med prostatacancer är under stor emotionell belastning. Information och socialt stöd från vårdpersonal hjälper patienter med prostatacancer att hantera den emotionella belastningen. Ytterligare forskning krävs för att identifiera effektiva copingstrategier i ett tidigt stadium av diagnosen prostatacancer. / Every year 10 000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in Sweden. Affection of the disease is emotionally strenuous. The wait for treatment among patients diagnosed for prostate cancer is long. This result in patients diagnosed with prostate cancer living with the disease and the emotions associated with the diagnosis of prostate cancer for an extended time. The aim of the current study was to describe the coping process used by patients diagnosed with prostate cancer prior to treatment. The method of the current study was a literature study based on 15 scientific articles. The results indicated that appraisal of prostate cancer was influenced by the information that patients diagnosed with prostate cancer received. Furthermore appraisal of prostate cancer was affected by age and time since diagnosis. Social support, personality and mental health were coping resources that were of significance to patients diagnosed with prostate cancer. Emotion focused coping strategies were primarily used by patients diagnosed with prostate cancer. Patients with prostate cancer are emotionally distressed. Information and social support from healthcare personnel reduces the emotional distress. Further research should investigate what coping strategies are effective in an early stage of prostate cancer diagnosis.

Cultural values provide a system for evaluating situations we encounter; yet, they have seldom been tested in psychosocial oncology. The present research addressed this gap by testing the hypothesis that cancer-related events are stressful because they threaten highly regarded cultural values. As part of a larger study, 417 Western-born Caucasians and 121 Asian-born Chinese immigrants with head and neck cancer (HNC) completed the Individualism-Collectivism Scale (ICS), which measures their endorsement of four cultural syndromes (i.e., vertical-individualism, horizontal-individualism, vertical-collectivism, and horizontal-collectivism). However, the ICS did not tap these constructs identically across these samples. Consequently, I extracted a new common 3-factor measurement model: (a) Camaraderie with Co-workers; (b) Commitment to Family; and (c) Competitiveness. I cross-validated the new model in the HNC samples from which it was derived and in three independent chronic-disease samples. In all cases, results indicated weak invariance. To test the hypothesis, respondents reported the causes of stress (i.e., stressor appraisals) for 24 common HNC-related events. Stressor appraisals reported by a subset of respondents (196 Western-born Caucasians and 44 Chinese immigrants) were categorized based on whether they reflected threats to the cultural values tapped by the new scales. Because only stressor appraisals reflecting threats to commitment to family were identified, I tested the association between commitment to family and the numbers of stressor appraisals reflecting threats to that value. Hierarchical Poisson regression analysis indicated a significant Culture Group x Commitment to Family interaction effect (p = .045): the number of stressor appraisals reflecting threats to commitment to family increased with increasing sense of commitment to family in Chinese immigrants, but not in Western-born Caucasians. Hence, cultural values, in part, explain cross-cultural variation in the experience of cancer stresses. Attention to cultural values can facilitate culturally sensitive patient-centered care by identifying culturally specific causes of stress for targeted psychosocial interventions.

The aim of the thesis is to explore, from a linguistic perspective, the construction and maintenance of interaction in documents in which directives are conveyed in business communication correspondence, in order to input directly into the pedagogic practice in written business communication. The focus is research into ways of scaffolding relationships in documents for correspondence, an area that represents an important aspect of language use in business communication practice. The data for the study includes letters, memoranda and saving rams in which directives are conveyed written by writers of English as a second language and following various channels of communication. Two methods are used to extract the relevant data in which evaluative meanings are conveyed. These are Wordsmith to extract evaluative and patterns and a manual analysis to identify the evaluative structures of the texts. The linguistic construal of interpersonal scaffolding is investigated drawing on the model of APPRAISAL (Martin, 2000), which is located within the Hallidayan grammar as the theoretical point of departure. The choice of language used in the texts is interrogated and interpreted with reference to the theory. analysis focuses on the linguistic systems that appropriately serve or construe the interactive function of language and addresses issues such as kinds of semantic values that are conveyed, the patterns in which they are expressed and their texture. The objective is not to make generalizations about how writers of documents manage interaction and persuade their recipients to carry out the actions they desire. Rather the aim is to develop a theoretical framework to explain the evaluative strategies that are encoded in the texts and the implications of choosing amongst different strategies. ii The thesis therefore contributes a theoretically motivated and dynamic explanation of the ways in which interaction is managed in the context of texts in which directives are communicated especially amongst Batswana writing in the English language. From a pedagogic perspective the explanations of managing interaction developed in the study provide insights and resources for teachers of business communication writing to assist them in modelling evaluative strategies in business correspondence writing and helping their students to develop effective written communication strategies. / Thesis (Ph.D. (English)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Performance Effectiveness Appraisal, Performance Effectiveness Review as well as Coaching and training are crucial elements of the performance management process included in a set of managerial competencies required by managers in a deep level gold mine in South Africa. This dissertation provides a contemporary review of performance management and gold mining in a South African deep level gold mine context. It provides a theoretical framework for the processes of Performance Effectiveness Appraisal, Performance Effectiveness Review and Coaching and training as integral parts of effective performance management. It investigates if shared meaning exists between the views of the organisation’s managers and the views of the organisation as set apart in a System for People handbook to be used by managers in the organisation. Managerial competencies are discussed and compared with literature found. Following this, the responses from the participants are discussed. The responses are compared with literature reviews done and the view of the organisation. Performance management challenges that face the organisation in the future are investigated and proposals are made to the organisation management team and future research proposals are suggested, before concluding. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Archival records are essential for understanding changes in the environment. However, these records are largely ignored by archivists, who overwhelmingly focus on records of human history. Algonquin Provincial Park in east-central Ontario was established in 1893 and is the oldest park in the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Provincial Parks system. In addition to the many official functions and activities that occur in Algonquin Provincial Park, it is host to extensive environmental monitoring, assessment and research. However, no adequate system is in place to ensure that the records of archival value are identified, appraised, and preserved. An appraisal methodology is required to assist archivists to identify environmental records of long-term value. Using Algonquin Provincial Park as a case study, through primary source analysis of its structures and functions and comparisons with other park systems, various archival appraisal theories and methodologies are tested in order to determine the best method for appraising environmental records in general and the records of parks. It is determined that macroappraisal is the best method for appraising only the records created by the official functions and activities of Algonquin Provincial Park. However, the park depends on and interacts with many external affiliated organizations, including the Algonquin Forestry Authority, The Friends of Algonquin Park, Algonquins of Golden Lake First Nation, leaseholders, researchers, protest groups, anglers, businesses and contractors. The creation of environmental monitoring, assessment and research records is increasingly accomplished external to official government functions and activities. Many of these external groups create environmental records of archival value, yet, no formal strategy to preserve irreplaceable records is implemented in Algonquin Park. Elements from archival appraisal methodologies such as macroappraisal, the documentation strategy and the Minnesota Method are helpful for determining the relative archival value, and therefore level of documentation, of these external individuals, groups and organizations. This combination of methodologies is the most effective for ensuring the preservation of important environmental information and subsequently the environment. Various preservation partnership strategies are also suggested for these records identified as having archival value.

The aim of the thesis is to explore, from a linguistic perspective, the construction and maintenance of interaction in documents in which directives are conveyed in business communication correspondence, in order to input directly into the pedagogic practice in written business communication. The focus is research into ways of scaffolding relationships in documents for correspondence, an area that represents an important aspect of language use in business communication practice. The data for the study includes letters, memoranda and saving rams in which directives are conveyed written by writers of English as a second language and following various channels of communication. Two methods are used to extract the relevant data in which evaluative meanings are conveyed. These are Wordsmith to extract evaluative and patterns and a manual analysis to identify the evaluative structures of the texts. The linguistic construal of interpersonal scaffolding is investigated drawing on the model of APPRAISAL (Martin, 2000), which is located within the Hallidayan grammar as the theoretical point of departure. The choice of language used in the texts is interrogated and interpreted with reference to the theory. analysis focuses on the linguistic systems that appropriately serve or construe the interactive function of language and addresses issues such as kinds of semantic values that are conveyed, the patterns in which they are expressed and their texture. The objective is not to make generalizations about how writers of documents manage interaction and persuade their recipients to carry out the actions they desire. Rather the aim is to develop a theoretical framework to explain the evaluative strategies that are encoded in the texts and the implications of choosing amongst different strategies. ii The thesis therefore contributes a theoretically motivated and dynamic explanation of the ways in which interaction is managed in the context of texts in which directives are communicated especially amongst Batswana writing in the English language. From a pedagogic perspective the explanations of managing interaction developed in the study provide insights and resources for teachers of business communication writing to assist them in modelling evaluative strategies in business correspondence writing and helping their students to develop effective written communication strategies. / Thesis (Ph.D. (English)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.