Thesis (Ph.D. (Nursing))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Seen from the viewpoints of politics and administration, the retirement system of civil servant is related to the overall planning and flexible utilization of human resource, the improvement of national competitiveness and the collocation of financial resource of a country; seen from the viewpoint of economy, the prosperity or depression of national economy closely affects the planning of retirement payment system; in the aspect of society, as the aged society comes earlier than expected and the social structure changes, the retirement system of civil servant is related to whether the living security and social welfare system for the aged people is sound enough. Through the proper and reasonable retirement payment, the retirement system of civil servant is intended, firstly, to motivate the civil servants to be satisfied with the job and work hard for the public; secondly, to provide a reasonable income for the civil servants and guarantee their life in the years after retirement; and thirdly, with the reasonable retirement payment mechanism and the social security mechanism of the country, to construct a complete social security system network and build a safe and peaceful society in which all people can make their own livings. The implementation of the new pension system has really improved the problems faced in the old public finance-based pension system, and has laid a solid foundation in stabilizing the source of pension fund and establishing the civil servants' concept of being prepared to burden their post-retirement life when they are on the job. However, the current retirement system was designed more than 20 years ago and some tradeoff or progressive measures were taken for the purpose of reducing the resistance in the beginning of implementation. As the age and the environment both have changed, some provisions of the pension system have been behind the time. Therefore, it is really necessary to research how to manage and operate the retirement system, think over the problems in the current retirement system of civil servant, and research how to build a better retirement fund system and balance the retirement benefits of the civil servants of different generations. In this thesis, the legal system of retirement of civil servant is the subject of research and the other related administrative legal provisions are used for explanation, and the basic theories of administrative law ¡V administrative principles, administrative organization, administrative authority, administrative remedy, and administrative supervision, are used as the research methods to review the retirement system of civil servant in Taiwan. Through the research it is found that, the average age of Taiwanese people has been higher and a lot of civil servants choose to retire earlier for they can receive monthly pension for a long time; this is likely to deteriorate the governmental finance. How to solve this problem efficiently and reasonably, relieve the accumulation of retirement cost and avoid it from being transferred to the later generations as a heavy burden, maintain the existing rights and benefits, provide a reasonable guarantee for the original expectation of civil servants and distribute the national resources reasonably? It is necessary for us to think about for planning a reasonable legal system of retirement.

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This thesis studies three asset allocation strategies under a defined-contribution pension plan: Buy-and-hold (BH), constant mix (CM), and time-invariant portfolio protection (TIPP). First in this paper, the actuarial assumptions follow Frees et al (1998), as well as Chang and Lin (1999): the age of the beneficiaries is between 25 to 65 and follows the uniform distribution. As to the investment environment, the portfolio includes a risk-free asset, certificate deposit (CD), and a risky asset--the stock. The interest rate of CD is fixed and the return of stock varies according to 14 scenarios. Then the concept of an open-ended fund is applied to compute the NAV (Net Asset Value) of three strategies for each month and a model of defined-contribution pension funds was developed. Moreover, this thesis also discussed the relationship between the trends of the stock and the changes of stock weights, as well as the terminal wealth of pension fund and the income-replacement ratio under each asset allocation strategy. The characteristics and timing of each strategy can be investigated clearly. Finally, the input parameters derived from the data of historical stock market in Taiwan is used to implement Monte Carlo simulation so that the study of the performance of asset allocation strategies can go more close to reality. The endeavor and results of this thesis will be a useful reference to facilitate both the government and private sector to manage the pension fund.

To establish the pension system is to ensure the life of old men. To compare the other pension systems of main countries, the old-aged economics security should adopt three-pillar system in Taiwan. This thesis puts emphasis on the empirical study of the importance of Taiwan pension fund asset allocation and attempts to develop a proper process of asset allocation decision as the reference of the pension fund sponsors when they are dealing with this task. The process of asset allocation decision could be divided into two parts: forming the efficient frontier and selecting the optimal asset allocation. This research suggests the readers to use quadratic programming techniques, which is introduced by Markowitz in 1956, to calculate the efficient frontier. With the changes in the financial situation and the coming of new information, pension fund sponsors should re-perform the process of asset allocation decision periodically to obtain the updated optimal asset allocation. The result of putting restrictions on the ratio of investment items is that the limited portfolio will reduce the utility and return relatively. As for raising the ratio of current assets, the standard doesn¡¦t increase obviously. To impress that pension fund should be in accordance with its need and object to keep appropriate current assets. Furthermore, pension fund sponsors should raise the weight of stocks and bonds to improve the performance. Pension fund sponsors who entrust risky assets to the professional institutions to manage will enhance the performance of investing, but we can¡¦t obtain the data of risk. In the future, the performance should be measured continually and join the risk to analyze.

Dramatic changes in medical science and a general improvement in living standards has led to significant reduction in the morality rate of certain age groups in South Africa. As a result the average age at which people are likely to die increased significantly in the 2oth century. The implications of this has not only to increase the number of people who survive to retirement age, but it has also seen larger numbers of people live for much longer periods in retirement. Opposite to the above, is the HIVIAids pandemic, which will increase the mortality rates of individuals at a younger age and undoubtedly affect pension plans and the costs thereof. The effect of all these changes have been the ultimate cost of providing a given pension benefit. At first the paper examines the trend in retirement saving away from Defined Benefit (DB) towards Define Contribution (DC) funds. It looks at the reasons why this shift has occurred in South Africa, and provided confirmation of the retirement savings plans away from DB structures and towards DC type of plans in South Africa. Secondly the paper briefly looks at the operation of DC plans in South Africa. The potential consequences of the shift are then reviewed in the context of roleplayers in the retirement savings decision and personal involvement in retirement planning process. Upon completion of the literature study, a model was developed in which data from DC funds were used to make projections regarding the sufficiency and adequacy of funding within DC funds. This study has proved that the shift from DB to DC funds had an enormous impact on provision for retirement. It was found that a significant part of the population will not be independent at retirement and therefore might potentially became a responsibility of the state. The paper suggests that the level of personal involvement in the retirement savings decision may be a critical factor in determining the propensity of an individual to save for retirement. As a result research is proposed to consider the importance of the three elements in the involvement of the individual in the retirement savings decision: the perceived ownership of retirement savings, the awareness of the need to save for retirement and the understanding of how to save for retirement. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Background: Empowerment is a leadership style where the leader gives away power and therefore provides freedom to the follower to successfully do what they want to do instead of what the leader want them to do (Whetten & Cameron, 2014). It is said that leader often fail when they have the incapability to motivate and manage their followers.   Purpose: This thesis tend to examine what motives followers in order to locate if empowerment is a potential leadership style that can increase follower’s dedication and contribution within their workplace. . Method: This research contains of a qualitative study with direct questions with an influence of open ended questions in order to capture the respondent’s personal opinions. The authors uses an abductive reasoning with an interpretivism philosophy as well with an exploratory approach.   Conclusion: The author’s conclusion is that the respondents of the research were not aware of the leadership style empowerment. However, all respondents had a positive attitude to the description of empowerment. This could show an indication that there is always a search for new leadership styles and empowerment is a style that could help followers to improve their contribution and dedication at their workplace.

Dramatic changes in medical science and a general improvement in living standards has led to significant reduction in the morality rate of certain age groups in South Africa. As a result the average age at which people are likely to die increased significantly in the 2oth century. The implications of this has not only to increase the number of people who survive to retirement age, but it has also seen larger numbers of people live for much longer periods in retirement. Opposite to the above, is the HIVIAids pandemic, which will increase the mortality rates of individuals at a younger age and undoubtedly affect pension plans and the costs thereof. The effect of all these changes have been the ultimate cost of providing a given pension benefit. At first the paper examines the trend in retirement saving away from Defined Benefit (DB) towards Define Contribution (DC) funds. It looks at the reasons why this shift has occurred in South Africa, and provided confirmation of the retirement savings plans away from DB structures and towards DC type of plans in South Africa. Secondly the paper briefly looks at the operation of DC plans in South Africa. The potential consequences of the shift are then reviewed in the context of roleplayers in the retirement savings decision and personal involvement in retirement planning process. Upon completion of the literature study, a model was developed in which data from DC funds were used to make projections regarding the sufficiency and adequacy of funding within DC funds. This study has proved that the shift from DB to DC funds had an enormous impact on provision for retirement. It was found that a significant part of the population will not be independent at retirement and therefore might potentially became a responsibility of the state. The paper suggests that the level of personal involvement in the retirement savings decision may be a critical factor in determining the propensity of an individual to save for retirement. As a result research is proposed to consider the importance of the three elements in the involvement of the individual in the retirement savings decision: the perceived ownership of retirement savings, the awareness of the need to save for retirement and the understanding of how to save for retirement. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Professionals in the medical field often question the value and contribution nurses make through research. To counteract these perceptions, to create awareness of nurses of their role in contributing to the body of knowledge of nursing and to improve the implementation of research findings, it is important to design and implement a strategy for the promotion of all aspects of research by nurses. This research intended to describe and explore the contribution of research by nurses in South Africa. This was done by exploring perceptions of stakeholders, as well as analysing the nature of research by nurses listed in the Nexus database and published articles. This information was used to explore and describe a strategy to promote nurses' research contribution, and to explore the feasibility of this strategy in the Southern District of the North West Province. An explorative and descriptive, qualitative and quantitative design was employed in this research. A literature study preceded the execution of the research. The research was conducted in three phases. The first phase consisted of a Delphi study, which resulted in the formulation of a proposed strategy. In a follow-up phase, eleven focus group interviews were conducted with groups in the Southern District of the North West Province to verify the proposed strategy and to explore the feasibility of the strategy. During the last phase a profile of research conducted by nurses in South Africa was composed . Information gathered through all the phases of the research revealed similar results about important aspects of research by nurses. This contributed mainly to the development of a strategy to promote nurses' research. This strategy was verified and refined and is recommended for implementation in the Southern District of the North West Province, with the intention to evaluate the impact of the strategy for refinement and wider application. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Nursing))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Professionals in the medical field often question the value and contribution nurses make through research. To counteract these perceptions, to create awareness of nurses of their role in contributing to the body of knowledge of nursing and to improve the implementation of research findings, it is important to design and implement a strategy for the promotion of all aspects of research by nurses. This research intended to describe and explore the contribution of research by nurses in South Africa. This was done by exploring perceptions of stakeholders, as well as analysing the nature of research by nurses listed in the Nexus database and published articles. This information was used to explore and describe a strategy to promote nurses' research contribution, and to explore the feasibility of this strategy in the Southern District of the North West Province. An explorative and descriptive, qualitative and quantitative design was employed in this research. A literature study preceded the execution of the research. The research was conducted in three phases. The first phase consisted of a Delphi study, which resulted in the formulation of a proposed strategy. In a follow-up phase, eleven focus group interviews were conducted with groups in the Southern District of the North West Province to verify the proposed strategy and to explore the feasibility of the strategy. During the last phase a profile of research conducted by nurses in South Africa was composed . Information gathered through all the phases of the research revealed similar results about important aspects of research by nurses. This contributed mainly to the development of a strategy to promote nurses' research. This strategy was verified and refined and is recommended for implementation in the Southern District of the North West Province, with the intention to evaluate the impact of the strategy for refinement and wider application. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Nursing))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.