Social media has become a large part of today’s pop culture and keeping up with what is going on not only in our social circles, but around the world. It has given many a platform to unite their causes, build fandoms, and share their commentary with the world. A tool in helping group posts together or give commentary on a thought is the hashtag. In this paper I explore the evaluative roles of hashtags in social media discourse, specifically on Twitter. I use a sample of randomly selected tweets from the Twitter API stream I collected and compiled myself. I collected a total of 200,000 tweets and filtered out Re-tweets. Looking at each individual hashtag I sorted them into the categories outlined by the Appraisal Theory proposed by Martin and White (Martin & White, 2005). I explore the types of evaluation expressed in hashtags, the relationships between evaluative hashtags and how users negotiate evaluations using meme hashtags.

Globalisation is affecting businesses worldwide. As a result of this, organisations are realising that the key to competitive advantage is not in modern technology or production; rather, it is in attracting and maintaining a committed workforce. Performance management is a widely advocated way to develop human resources. By conducting a case-study, this paper took a qualitative approach, to understand what elements of the performance appraisals are important to managers at the Organisation. The managers at the Organisation were interviewed and a thematic analysis was applied to the data. Results show that trust and honesty are important components of the performance appraisals, to managers at the Organisation. Also, the feedback the managers received from the employees was said to be the greatest contributor to the managers’ own development. The managers further requested additional support to be able to conduct successful performance appraisals, as well as increased clarity in goal- setting for employees, career development and in taking over employees.

Thesis (M.A. (Human Resource Management))-- University of Limpopo, 2009. / While the current trend among a number of organisations is to integrate performance appraisal with performance management systems or even ‘replace’ it with performance management systems, it is still extremely highly utilized process. The probable reason for this is that the major use of performance appraisal is as a management tool whereby the quality of personnel decisions can be enhanced when an effective system is in place. Ideally the use of a formal process, focused on objective, job orientated criteria, will empower management to make meaningful decisions which will not only be to the benefit of individual workers but will contribute to the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the organisation. Some other objectives apart from fact that it is used as management tool are to determine the administrative and development as well as that of the organization. There are therefore, two fundamental parties involved in appraisal, being the appraisee and the appraiser and it is inevitable that the approach to, or the perception of the subject should be different in some, or many ways. Aspects such as ethics, fairness, motivation, accuracy, validity, rating errors, effectiveness and feedback, should therefore be examined in more detail in order to determine where specific problem areas may lie between males and females. Serious perceptual differences concerning the process will surely create obstacles and eventually lead to an inefficient system. The aim of the study was to determine the extent to which differing perception play a role in the acceptance or rejection of the system with regard to males and females in terms of the aspects mentioned above. The diagnostic instrument used in this study was adapted from those of Mount (1983) (named the Leadership Analysis Questionnaire) and Le Roux (1989) to IV include aspects which are more in line with features of the performance appraisal system unique to the participating organisation. The results indicated statistically significant differences in perception between males and females in terms of fairness, motivation, and feedback. It is recommended that future research should be directed at the underlying reasons for perceptual differences between supervisors and subordinates, regarding the factors mention above, with the aim of improving communication and relationships.

Organizational justice theory suggests employees are more likely to accept appraisal outcomes if they believe the process to be fair. As an increasing percentage of the workforce is made up of knowledge workers with job characteristics that are less structured and more autonomous, the shift in appraisal research from measurement accuracy to perceptions on fairness is fitting. This research investigates the relationships between justice perceptions and performance appraisal satisfaction by knowledge workers. The study extends previous research with the creation of composite measures to examine whether perceptions of fairness vary according to the characteristics of work performed. The research was conducted at a medium-sized, niche consultancy that specializes in data analytics and data science. Interviews served as an initial pilot study to obtain contextual data to identify relevant justice measures in the procedural and informational justice domains. A questionnaire survey was selected to analyze whether knowledge work characteristics moderate the relationship between justice perceptions on appraisal satisfaction. Results support the underlying premise that positive justice perceptions lead to greater overall appraisal satisfaction. Median regressions were used to model the significant effect of procedural justice and informational justice on appraisal satisfaction. Consistent with prior research, the most autonomous workers reported the lowest levels of appraisal satisfaction. This may be explained by the heightened challenge in evaluating autonomous work that is not observed directly and may be difficult to measure. However, the moderating effect of knowledge work components produced some puzzling results. As expected, the knowledge work component of autonomy correlated negatively with the knowledge work components related to structure. Yet, autonomy and structure had similar moderating effects on the relationship between procedural justice and appraisal satisfaction. Although it was speculated that more autonomous workers would place less importance on procedural justice, the results indicated greater levels of autonomy strengthened the effects between the justice perceptions and appraisal satisfaction. Justice theory as it is applied to appraisal satisfaction is limited without considering the impacts on other constructs such as job satisfaction and motivation. Herzberg’s two-factor (hygiene) theory provides an example of how knowledge work components and procedural justice might be viewed as job “satisfiers” versus job “dissatisfiers”. The theory posits there are factors that contribute to job satisfaction that are separate and distinct from factors that contribute to dissatisfaction. "Satisfiers” include factors such as autonomy and achievement. In contrast, performance appraisals represent administrative processes within the category of “dissatisfiers”, or hygiene factors. When absent, these processes cause frustration and result in dissatisfaction. Practical implications from this study include the creation of composite measures for describing the abstract nature of latent measures such as justice perceptions and knowledge work. These measures serve as a heuristic to facilitate the analysis of human resource processes such as performance management.

In project appraisal of infrastructure projects, cost benefit analysis has an important role. One of the central concerns is to adjust the distortions in markets to provide a better guide to a more effective allocation of scarce resources. The objectives of this thesis are : to establish the lack of a comprehensive estimation of the shadow wage rate (SWR) in most project appraisals in the Australian context; to develop a model for the estimation of the SWR for groups of occupations; to estimate the SWRs for the major groups of occupations in Australia; to forecast the number of employees required for Sydney's second airport project and to apply the estimated SWRs to the project, followed by estimation of the total social cost of the project. The latter estimation is done using a novel approach which, unlike many previous studies of transport infrastructure projects, estimates the SWR entirely from published statistical sources. Overall, the results are significant not only in the context of Sydney's second airport, but for other airports, the transportation sector, and in general for Australian project appraisal. The study proposes the need to change the traditional approach to the treatment of labour costs in project appraisal in Australia and provides a framework which can be useful to other researchers and analysts who wish to examine the pricing of labour in Australian project appraisal. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis is concerned with explicating the role of language in mobilising action through management emails. Situated within the context of organisational change in a globalised manufacturing business, the project is framed by behavioural observations from management scholars Palmer and Hardy (2000) of mobilisation strategies that utilise linguistic resources since they: (a) involve a sense of obligation or inclination in directives; (b) show how co-operation will produce mutual benefits; (c) construct desired actions as legitimate, beneficial or inevitable; and (d) use past or anticipated meanings, for or against certain actions. Systemic Functional Linguistics is the underlying framework employed to provide a theoretically principled account of the intuitively derived observations from Palmer and Hardy (2000) which are applied to a sample of twenty-seven email texts, through corpus- and text-based analysis. A major finding is that the representation of action is enacted interpersonally through the verbal group. This view complements experientially dominated accounts of the verbal group which focus on the tense system. Further, action is found to be motivated through the negotiation of evaluative stance. By relating the grammar of the verbal group as well as other resources to the discourse semantics of Appraisal, modulation (of obligation or inclination) is found to be enabled by both negative as well as positive judgements of capacity. Specifically, judgements of capacity are re-interpreted as invocations of high obligation as managers seek to mobilise (further) positive performance. The analysis demonstrates that elements in the verbal group (complex) and Appraisal co-opt action through enabling positioning of the writer, in terms of assessing and grading categorical meanings, manipulating interpersonal time, or foregrounding solidarity. A significant contribution to the thesis is an extension of the system of GRADUATION: FOCUS (Hood, 2004a) through the demonstration of how resources of the verbal group negotiate expectations of appearances and achievements. This study has also extended the resources of GRADUATION: FORCE by applying it to the management context. The practical contribution of the study is that these insights may more explicitly inform management training and enable managers to participate more effectively within their community of practice.

This thesis is based on the analysis of all rural property sales transactions that occurred in NSW over the period 1990-2000 and is the first complete state wide analysis of a rural property market in Australia. Previous studies on rural land performance have been restricted in both limited time periods and limited location areas. The importance of rural property, as an investment asset has been recognised in the US and UK with both countries having a rural property performance index. These indices are similar in construction, quality and reliability as the commercial property, residential property and share market indices that are also available in these countries to analyse the performance of these investment assets. Until the development of the rural property capital and total return indices in this thesis, there has never been a comprehensive and complete set of rural property investment indices available to assess the risk/return performance and investment portfolio benefits of rural property in Australia. The actual construction of the indices in this thesis have been based on the current indices produced by the Property Council of Australia for office, retail, industrial and hotel property in Australia. Based on the work in this thesis, rural property investment performance can now be compared to all major investment assets available in Australia. This research will be ongoing to ensure that the performance of rural property will be available on a semi-annual basis for use by all institutions, companies and individuals with an interest in the investment potential of rural property in Australia / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

社會福利領域運用志願服務者提供服務，已經有很長的一段歷史，各種不同型態的志願服務工作往往扮演社會功能維繫的角色，儘管歷經了世代的轉變，人們對於群己關係互賴依存的需求依然不曾改變。而在政經結構急劇變遷的今日，志工及志願服務組織甚至更成為維繫人與人、地區與地區、乃至政府與民間關係的重要機制。 本研究主要在探討：1、志工對於影響我國地方政府推動志願服務團隊之重要面向及其各構面的評價程度情形。2、探討志工對於地方政府推動志願服務團隊績效的評價程度情形。3、志工的性別、年齡、婚姻狀況、教育程度、職業、宗教信仰、是否參加過志願服務團隊、目前是否同時參加其他的志願服務團隊及參加志願服務的工作時間等個人基本屬性資料，是否會影響我國地方政府推動志願服務團隊之各重要面向及績效的評價程度差異情形之產生？4、影響我國地方政府推動志願服務團隊之重要面向與其績效的關聯性如何？5、影響我國地方政府推動志願服務團隊之各重要面向對績效預測的程度如何？ 本研究係以新竹市社會福利志願服務團隊為研究對象，運用問卷調查法等進行實證研究。從實證分析中，本研究發現志工對影響地方政府推動志願服務團隊之重要面向中之志工的人力資源管理活動及相關配套措施的評價程度較高，而對於志工管理制度及經費補助之評價程度則較低。一般而言，對影響地方政府推動志願服務團隊各重要面向及績效的評價程度上，女性高於男性，中高年齡者高於低年齡者，中等學歷者高於高學歷者，已婚者高於未婚者，參加過志願服務團隊者高於未參加過志願服務團隊者，服務年資深者高於服務年資淺者。另影響地方政府推動志願服務團隊之重要面向及其四個構面均與服務品質、與志願服務團隊互動程度、資源運用的程度、目標達成的程度及績效均有顯著相關存在。再者，對於績效的預測方面，一般而言，以相關配套措施的預測力最佳，經費補助次之。 基於前述的研究發現，為了因應未來志願服務工作的發展，地方政府在推動志願服務團隊工作上政策面應朝向制度明確化、管理合理化、和服務品質化三個方向來發展；另外要加強政府與志願服務團隊的互動關係。而地方政府在推動志願服務工作上所扮演的角色功能與工作重點，則應著重在輔導、資助、監督、諮詢、考核志願服務團隊，以確立各團隊能 依照服務宗旨及能力來提供服務，並透過經費補助、活動補助和培訓志願服務規劃與志工管理人才等方式，來引導與監督志願服務朝有品質的方向發展，以協助推動志願服務工作。 / The field of social welfare has already used volunteers for a very long time. Often all the different types of voluntary service work play the role of holding society together throughout generations of change. Just like in the past, people of today still require groups for mutual reliance and dependence. With the rapid changes occurring within today's political and economic structures, volunteers and voluntary service organizations hold people and districts together to an even greater extent, and so represent an important mechanism in the area of relations between the government and the people. The main points of the research are as follows: 1. Evaluate the extent to which volunteers are able to effect the important aspects and every dimension of our local government promoted voluntary service groups. 2. Inquire into the volunteers' appraisal level of local government promoted voluntary service group achievements. 3. The elicitation of the volunteers' sex, age, marital status, education level, profession, religion. Whether the volunteer has taken part in previous voluntary work. Whether the volunteer is also taking part in other voluntary work, and the amount of time the volunteer is donating to the work. All the above information will be collected for each individual. We hope to see if this information effects how different people evaluate the important aspects and achievements of our local government promoted voluntary service groups. 4. What is the connection effecting the important aspects and achievements of the local government promoted voluntary groups? 5. To what extent do achievement forecasts effect the important aspects of our local government promoted voluntary service groups? The objects of this research are social welfare voluntary service groups in Hsinchu City. An investigative questionnaire is used to carry out actual evidence research. From an analysis of this actual evidence research, it was discovered that volunteers, in relation to our local government promoted voluntary teams, evaluated human resource management activities and related complementary procedures to be comparatively more important than the volunteer system of management and subsidies. Generally speaking, when considering the extent to which the volunteers effected the important aspects and achievements of the local government promoted voluntary service groups, the following conclusions were drawn: - Women were more effective than men. - Middle-aged and senior-aged people were more effective than younger people. - Those educated to a high school level were more effective than those educated to a college level. - Those married were more effective than unmarried volunteers. - Those who had previously taken part in voluntary work were more effective than those who had not. - Those who had volunteered for many years were more effective than those who were new to volunteering. A related existence was displayed between the important aspects of local government promoted voluntary service groups and the following four dimensions: - Service quality - The extent to which voluntary service groups interacted. - The extent to which resources were used. - The extent to which the goals were achieved. Furthermore, concerning the aspect of forecasting achievements, generally speaking, the best forecasts come from related complementary procedures. The next best involve subsidies. Based on the above research discoveries, in order to lead to the development of voluntary service work in the future, the government when promoting voluntary service group work, should develop policy in the areas of system clarification, management rationalization and service qualification. In addition it is necessary to strengthen the relationship between government and voluntary service groups. Local government in order to assist in the promotion of voluntary service work should play the role of and emphasize coaching, provision of financial aid, supervision, consultation and examination. Furthermore, based on the service purpose and abilities of every group, the government should establish the provision of service. This can be done with the aid of subsidies and activity subsidies and through voluntary service training schemes and volunteer management personnel who can guide and supervise the development of quality voluntary services.

This qualitative study identified the formal and informal performance management (PM) practices in use in Australian public universities for academic staff Levels A, B and C. It asked the following research questions. • What PM practices are currently in use in these universities? • What are the similarities in approach and what issues does PM raise? • How do academic staff who take part in these practices (as either staff or management) experience them? • What cultural and contextual factors (if any) contribute to this experience? • What are the perceived effects of these practices on the performance of individuals, teams and the organisation? • Which system elements do academic staff and academic managers perceive to be most effective in academic cultures and why? The context of substantive change within Australian universities was outlined and literature pertaining to the field of PM in general, and in educational organisations in particular, was explored. The existence, structure, purposes and other factual details of formal PM systems were identified, although the study focused on the opinions, perceptions and attitudes of the respondents. Findings suggested that current PM practice in Australian public universities did little to meet the needs of any of the key stakeholders and remained fundamentally unsatisfying to all concerned. Furthermore, the failure to clearly articulate the purposes and to consider the implementation and ongoing costs of a formal PM system typically resulted in widespread cynicism and a ritual dance of compliance that demonstrated palpably low engagement with systems. Formal PM systems helped to clarify objectives and workload allocation for some staff, but were found to be poorly linked to organisational planning processes, poor at differentiating levels of performance, not valued by academic staff as a vehicle for meaningful feedback, failing to follow through on development outcomes and thus did little to build team, individual or organisational capability. Study recommendations suggested that developmental models of PM were more appropriate and acceptable in academia and that considerable work would be required to incorporate evaluative links such as performance-related pay successfully. More rigorous evaluation, consultation processes regarding user preferences, piloting of PM systems prior to full implementation, and dedicated resources for the PM function and its outcomes (such as staff development), would be required as a part of a comprehensive change management strategy to overcome historical resistance. A thorough capability analysis of the people management skills for Heads of School and above was seen as a priority, given that feedback skill and the management of under-performance were consistently identified as problematic. The costs of under-performance warranted this expenditure. A national evaluation study of PM practice in higher education was recommended to assess the real outcomes, costs and benefits and determine whether continued investment in PM systems was actually merited. Alternative models and approaches such as modular PM systems for the different stages of an academic career, promotion portfolios, reflective practice or peer learning groups were suggested as potentially more successful in enhancing the accountability and performance of academic staff than mandated hierarchical PM.

This thesis explores the application of personal construct psychology and the repertory grid to performance management in a technical consulting organisation. The research examines what is important for a manager in assessing work performance and how each manager's mental model for performance compares with his/her peers. Managers acting as raters are the critical link in the observation and assessment of performance and in the feedback process. Rater observations and judgements are affected by their personal mental models regarding what is important. These views may or may not accord with those of their peers, resulting in inconsistency and unfair assessments, or with what the organisation's strategy demands. Understanding rater views on what is important, and how well these align with strategy, is a key to ensure that the appraisal process supports, rather than hinders, both individual and organisational needs. Each manager's personal constructs relating to appraisal were elicited through a repertory grid interview. The elicited constructs were taken together and categorised to derive broad performance categories summarising the views of the entire management team. Each individual's personal constructs were then allocated to the relevant common category to develop a view of how each manager related to the group's overall approach to appraisal. A measure for the importance of each category in making performance judgments (importance score) was derived based on the correlation of the constructs in each category with an overall performance construct. A second measure of a manager's preparedness to discriminate between levels of performance was also derived (discriminant score) based on the variation in each manager's construct structure. In keeping with the personal construct psychology approach, the process emphasizes the importance of discussion with the individual concerned to verify the sorting and ranking pro cess. A ranking process to establish the overall management group priorities for judging performance (team mental models) was demonstrated and a charting process was developed to facilitate presentation and discussion of the results. The research has demonstrated the strength of the repertory grid process as a means of getting at a rater's framework for thinking about appraisal and provides a way to identify possible voids or blind spots in a rater's approach. Understanding the most important categories of performance used by raters provides an opportunity for management to determine whether these are likely to achieve the objectives of the company, and if necessary, to introduce and inculcate different approaches.