Thesis (Ed.D.) -- Central Connecticut State University, 2007. / Thesis advisor: Karen Beyard. "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-126). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Dallas, 2007. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-69)

This thesis is a scientific contribution towards evaluating the effectiveness of Community-based Conservation (CBC) in saving biodiversity, protecting ecosystem services and enhancing human well-being. The impact of CBC interventions carried out by Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust over 109 villages in five conservation areas in Madagascar (Lake Alaotra, Baly Bay National Park, Menabe dry forest, Manombo rain forest, and Nosivolo River) since 1997, were retrospectively evaluated. The evaluation used a quasi-experimental design to contrast changes in a set of biodiversity and human wellbeing indicators in the intervention villages with 109 control villages, which were matched for a range of social and environmental attributes. In Chapter 2, findings suggest that over the period 2000-2014 the CBC approach has impacted the incidence of fire, resulting in a lower rate of increase in fire frequency. Although CBC interventions were not able to reduce forest loss, the rate of deforestation in CBC villages has generally been maintained at lower levels than in control villages. Political disruption, population size and travel cost (access and distance) to the villages were identified as important contributing factors towards an increase in the severity of fires and deforestation while access to mobile phones may help mitigate the pressures. In Chapter 3, results indicate that support to education through CBC interventions is significantly associated with improvements in educational attainment. However, analysis of the historical Index of Health Status at village level did not show evidence that provision of clean drinking water or other health interventions improved public health. In terms of human well-being (Chapter 4), there is no evidence that CBC interventions have any positive impact on the Multidimensional Poverty Index. Since poverty has been identified as a key factor reducing happiness, mutual trust, and power to change local decision-making, the claim that CBC will be effective in enhancing subjective well-being cannot be supported by the evidence from this study. According to the Index of Perception of Valued Ecosystem Services the declines in forest cover between 2000 and 2013 were observed by local people, with people in CBC villages demonstrating a greater propensity to note resulting changes in the provision of ecosystem services. This result could be of value when designing future CBC interventions. Maximum Entropy modelling using a set of environmental GIS layers was performed in Chapter 5 for predicting geographic distribution zones of four globally threatened species living exclusively in the five study areas. Results suggested that over the period 2000-2014 there has been a decline in habitat suitability expressed by a decrease in probability of presence of the species. Vegetation cover is predicted to be the most important factor affecting the variability of species distribution range. Potential factors responsible for the success of some actions and failure, others within the CBC approach are discussed and pragmatic recommendations are given at the end of the thesis. For example, transforming local associations into social enterprise could possibly motivate poorer households to join CBC efforts and thereby improve social and biodiversity impacts in the future.

This thesis contributes to the understanding of the effectiveness of marketing strategy making processes. It examines how such effectiveness is contingent upon the internal and external environments in which the process operates and, therefore, how the requisite process is contingent upon its organisational and market context. It builds on the fields of strategy content and strategy process and of organisational effectiveness, organisational culture and organisation theory. It tests and develops Burrell and Morgan’s congruency hypotheses as an explanation of the effectiveness of marketing strategy making processes. That work postulates that effectiveness results when the process is congruent with both its internal environment (i.e. microcongruent) and external environment (i.e. macrocongruent) This work takes a pragmatist epistemological perspective. The methodology is qualitative, using multiple-informant case studies. The congruency hypotheses are operationalised using a model and constructs based on the extant literature. The work is restricted to the medical products market in order to optimise insight and understanding. The findings support the congruency hypotheses. Strong strategy is associated with simultaneous macrocongruence and microcongruence. Further, a mechanism for the hypotheses is identified. Interactions between the strategy process and organisational structure, systems and habits provide an underlying mechanism of microcongruence. Failure or success of the process to manage market complexity and turbulence provide an underlying mechanism of macrocongruence. This work contributes to theory, confirming the congruency hypotheses, extending them into marketing strategy making and making a new contribution concerning the mechanism of congruency. To methodology, this work confirms the use of case studies, extends it to consider simultaneously internal and external environments and makes a new contribution concerning the construct of strategy quality. To practice, the work confirms the value of planning in complex markets, extends the concept of a “requisite” process and contributes new ideas for the deliberate management of marketing strategy making processes.

The thesis is concerned to investigate differential patterns of achievement in the sciences in middle and upper sections of eight Portuguese secondary schools selected according to location (city, country) and social class composition of pupils. The total sample of pupils is 1300. Achievement is measured by the scores obtained over a period of one year in science tests created and given by the eleven teachers of the classes of the pupils. These tests are obliged by the Government to measure achievement in two ways. Firstly by questions testing the pupil's understanding of basic definitions and factual knowledge (A competencies) and secondly by questions testing pupil's powers to apply and generalise scientific knowledge to a range of problems (U competencies). The thesis presents an analysis of the teacher's competence in distinguishing between these two types of competencies and an analysis of the pedagogic classroom competence of the teachers in transmitting the required skills. The results show that the effectiveness of the pedagogic practice of the teachers is related to the social class background of the pupils. Analysis of the pupils' scores (A and U) reveals a strong relation with social class and within social class to the gender of the pupil. These relations are especially strong in the case of U competencies. A more delicate analysis was undertaken to examine the inter-relations between teacher's pedagogic practice, location of school, social composition of school's pupils and gender in order to isolate the conditions under which the school exerts a stronger influence upon achievement in science than the influence of the pupil's family background. A model derived from Bernstein's theory of cultural reproduction is used to interpret the results and to explore the possibilities for increasing the effectiveness of pedagogic practice.

M.B.A. / The aim is to do an assessment of the organisational norms of individuals within a marketing company in order to understand what the perceptions of the individuals are towards the organisation thereby creating a model on which strategic decision making can be based

This study was an exploratory investigation of the perceived existence and importance of values and their influence on organizational performance. The study also included an examination of the methods used to operationalize health values; rationale used to justify the implementation of employee health programs and activities (EHPAs); importance of incentives and organizational factors for enhancing employee involvement and commitment to EHPAs; and the attributes of EHPAs and management approaches used with respect to employee health in Canada. The study was conducted among a diverse group of 187 public (including federal, provincial and municipal government entities) and private sector organizations in 1997. Conclusions of the study included that Health values were perceived to exist and be important values in respondent organizations; values heavily influence organizational performance systematically through their affect on decision-making as it relates to the identification of "desired" outcomes; the values deemed most important by participant organizations were those values perceived to influence the achievement of the identified desired organizational outcomes and the typology of those values was consistent with Hodgkinson's Value Paradigm. Conclusions drawn also included that the values held by decision-makers in positions of power and authority were more likely to influence organizational direction than those values held by members at lower levels of the organizational power structure. These values were also more likely to be included in value, mission and vision statements and other plans, policies and documentation of a strategic or directional nature. Conclusions drawn with respect to EHPAs included that programs and activities such as EHPAs are often initiated as a result of values integration or clustering which involves two or more values coming together to influence the creation of a program or initiative; organizations who agreed or strongly agreed that Health values were important values in their organizations had more extensive EHPAs and/or budgets for EIHPAs than organizations who did not agree with this statement; Health values are in transition due to the cut backs in provincial health budgets that have taken place since 1990; and, EHPAs are increasingly being recognized as a means of maintaining or controlling health costs and enhancing performance in Canadian organizations. / Graduate

M.Ed. (Education) / The private school has become a common feature in black education in recent years. The development of this new education phenomenon can no longer be underest imated and should become a field of concern in the community. The rejection of Bantu Education by the black community and the school boycotts that followed during the 1980s witnessed the emergence of a new type of private school in the Johannesburg Region. commonly known as the "inner-city"/flyby- night/street private school/college. The researcher has observed that a few private schools achieve good standard ten external examination results while the majority do not. The researcher investigates this state of affairs by answering the question: How can the organisational structures be improved and made effective to enhance the positive contribution of the private school? With the support of the State and the community , strong management and administrative procedures should be introduced in the private school.

D.Phil. (Engineering Management) / This research has its roots in Engineering Management, where the premise of improving and managing efficiency, effectiveness, productivity and quality is the most common and accepted source of organizational excellence and performance. This dissertation addresses a new paradigm for competitive advantage – business processes capability. The notion of capability is first and foremost the primary differentiator of organisational competitiveness ensuring sustained long-term prosperity. The title of this dissertation is essentially imperative of every organisation functioning within the competitive domain to obtain business process capability. Where organisational capability and performance were traditionally considered antonymous, the assimilation of these two notions is fundamental to the assurance of long-term organisational prosperity. Organisations are required, now more than ever, to grow and ensure that optimisation is achievable through well-defined systems and supporting business processes. Organisations need to understand operational and individual business processes as well as their strategic impact they have on the entire supply network. The key to successful process decisions requires taking the following into consideration (a) the best fit for the situation (b) optimisation of one process at the expense of another, (c) processes are building blocks that create a total business value chain which include the cumulative phases of business processes affecting output, customer satisfaction and competitive advantage, (d) there is no distinction between any processes in the value chain either performed by internal or by outside suppliers, and (e) that managers must pay attention to interfacing all processes ensuring cross-functional coordination.

Human resources can provide a competitive advantage due to the fact that it is valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable and has no substitutes. Competitors can duplicate competitive advantage obtained via better technology and products but it is difficult to duplicate competitive advantage that is created through improved management of people. The motivation for the research was to establish whether there was a casual relationship between HR practices and organisational effectiveness and between organisational effectiveness and manufacturing performance. The research also developed a model that could be implemented to enhance business performance. Secondary data formed the primary source of information to obtain business performance indicators and information on the HR practices. While the results indicated that there was no directional relationship between HR practices and business performance indicators, findings of the research provide statistical evidence that investment in HR practices of the organisation will have a positive relationship with business performance. Among the HR practices, performance appraisals and career development has a direct casual relationship with the customer satisfaction perspective. The research can be used within the organisation and as a basis for further academic research. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted