The study aimed to test how progress on achievement and power goals, and perceptions of power, fluctuate with mania symptoms in Bipolar Disorder (BD), testing the Dominance Behavioural System (DBS) model. The DBS includes biological, psychological, and behavioural components that serve the goal of control over social and material resources needed for survival and reproduction (Johnson, Leedom, & Muhtadie, 2012c). Daily diary methodology was employed, with 29 individuals meeting the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) criteria for BD I or II as verified by the Structured Clinical Interview [SCID-I-RV] (First, Spitzer, Gibbon & Williams, 2002). Baseline measures of dominance motivation and ambitious goal setting were taken. Over fourteen days, participants reported daily on their goal progress, symptoms of mania, power, and anger. It was hypothesised there would be a positive relationship between symptoms of mania and dominance motivation. It was also hypothesised that for power but not achievement goals, ii) goal progress would be associated with perceptions of power, iii) symptoms of mania, and iv) that goal frustration would be associated with anger. Pearson’s correlations and multilevel modelling analyses found largely null results with the exception of a positive relationship between progress towards power goals and perceptions of power. Thus, the results did not provide support for the DBS model predictions for relationships between power goals and manic symptoms. Future studies could utilise further measures of dominance motivation and power, and study goal pursuit over a more protracted duration, including comparisons between BD, depressed groups, and healthy controls.

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / In South Africa, since 1994 when democratic government come into power, the issue of development was raised as one of the priorities of government. Government promised to transform the citizen’s livelihoods through quality, effective and efficient services. Rural development was identified as one of the priorities of government to ensure better life for all the citizens. Local government have been mandated to ensure quality service delivery to the citizens especially to the rural areas. The issue of rural development was still a challenge in South Africa especially in Eastern Cape Province. There was a need to improve service delivery to the rural communities at Intsika Yethu Municipal area as the pace of rural development has been slowly. An infrastructure service is still a challenge to the rural areas at this municipal area as the sanitation is yet to improve. Service delivery has been far less compared to the urban areas. There were signs of improvement but the process has been very slow. The study has determine and analysed the issues that contribute to the slow pace in rural development and reveal some recommendations that might assist to improve the pace of rolling out services at Intsika Yethu municipal rural communities. The findings of the study show that unemployment and poverty to the people residing in rural communities has been one of the major challenges that need serious consideration. The infrastructural situation of the rural communities pushed people of Intsika Yethu to the level of poor socio-economic development which might be contributed by the pace rural development has been approached. The research found that the slow pace in development of rural communities has an impact on the situation they found themselves and therefore intervention strategies to improve the pace of service delivery in rural communities with the intentions of enforcing the local municipality to be accountable and responsible.

Since the Internet's introduction into the business world, research on its role in corporate communication strategy has been limited - the focus has been on its role in marketing and electronic commerce. This study aims to provide a theoretical and empirical description of the role of the Internet in the strategic management of an organisation's corporate communication and marketing functions. An electronic questionnaire was distributed to 632 managers of companies (with websites) listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange as well as to managers of companies listed on ananzi.co.za who utilise the Internet to achieve organisational goals. Descriptive statistics as well as the Cronbach Alpha, factor analysis and hypothesis testing were used to analyse the data. The empirical research showed, that managers use the Internet to achieve both corporate communication and marketing goals. However, the various designations did not distinguish between the two factors. All four corporate communication models are used by South African organisations in their communication on the Internet. There is no significant correlation between the designation of the respondents (corporate communication, marketing, information technology and 'other') and their choice (of elements) of the corporate communication models (the latter indicating their preference). This research study aimed to achieve the following goals, namely determining if the Internet is a (corporate communication or marketing) medium or a strategy; realising organisational goals through the use of the Internet; investigating whether 'Internet strategy' refers to functional or operational strategy; determining the organisational purpose for corporate communication by investigating (elements of) the corporate communication (public relations) models that are used by organisations in their communication on the Internet; and integrating the Internet into corporate communication strategy. It is recommended that: the Internet can only contribute to the realisation of organisation goals, if it is integrated into the functional (corporate communication or marketing) strategy of an organisation; the Internet's contribution will be most advantageous if it is integrated into corporate communication strategy, because corporate communication addresses all organisational stakeholders and not only customers. If the corporate communication department/division does not have control over, or is not involved in the management of Internet content (as the empirical research indicates), then it will not be possible to integrate electronic communication mediums into the overall corporate communication strategy. The Internet's impact on achievement of the corporate communication goals will also impact the achievement of the organisation's goals. / Dissertation (MCom(Communication Management))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Communication Management / unrestricted

The contemporary global system is characterised by the presence of a multitude of International Organisations (IOs) whose relevance is sustained by the roles they play. Among these IOs, the United Nations (UN) is of paramount importance as a result of its universal membership and extensive mandate. Its international role is influenced by its evolving structures, practices and goals. Among its most recent objectives are the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which address the challenge of holistic human development at the global level. This study aims to assess the UN’s role in pursuing the MDGs as they relate to the development of children in West Africa. The first two of the eight goals have been selected for the purpose of focusing the research, namely the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, and the elimination of illiteracy by achieving universal primary education. Children, who bear the brunt of global underdevelopment and whose development is a key element in breaking cycles of poverty, are the focus of the study. The general and historical role played by the UN in advancing child development is therefore assessed with regards to the issue-fields indicated by the two selected MDGs. Specific application is then done in the case of West Africa, chosen as case study because the region is the poorest in the world and arguably indicative of most urgent MDG focus. Clive Archer’s analytical outline, which depicts IOs variously as instruments, arenas and actors, is used as a conceptual framework. Archer contends that IOs can be utilised as instruments by other global actors, serve as arenas for dialogue and cooperation among such actors and also assume proactive, independent identities as actors in pursuit of specific objectives. The study concludes that Archer’s framework is relevant, but that the existence of all three roles in the same functional space has notable and often contradictory implications. While the UN generally plays its roles as actor and arena in achieving its first two MDGs among West African children with relative ease, its role as instrument is dependent on the agendas and political will of other actors in the global system. Notwithstanding the weakness of its role as instrument, however, the UN’s triad of roles towards the development of children, and specifically children in West Africa, is a key element of the organisation’s global relevance. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Political Sciences / unrestricted

Abstract Past research has shown that motivation is an important predictor of goal-related behaviors. Sheldon and Elliot (1999) proposed the Self-Concordance Model (SCM), to distinguish between personal goals that reflect intrinsic interests and values (self-concordant goals) and personal goals that are pursued because of self-imposed and social pressures (self-discordant goals). Another important motivational construct is self-efficacy, people’s beliefs in their capabilities to exercise control over their level of functioning and their environment (Bandura, 1996). Self-efficacy has been shown to predict goal attainment and well-being as people who are self-efficacious put more effort and commitment towards their goals (Koestner, Horberg, Gaudreau, Powers, Di Dio, Bryan, Jochum & Salter, 2006). Despite the unique contribution of self-concordance and self-efficacy, little is known about their combined effects. I performed a study with 135 university students to investigate whether two self-regulatory processes could in fact be better than one. Results using hierarchical regression analyses indicated that self-efficacy did moderate the relationship between self-concordance and the outcome variables. Self-concordance was associated with greater well-being and goal progress for those high on self-efficacy (β = .21, p < .05; β = .33, p < .01) while negatively relating to well-being and goal progress for those low on self-efficacy (β = -.22, p = .07; β = -.19, p > .05 ). It appears that two motivational processes combined, self-concordance and self-efficacy, are in fact better than one.

Three essays form this thesis which addresses the effectiveness of interventions aimed at attaining two health Millennium Development Goals (MDG) set by the United Nations: a 2/3rds reduction by 2015 of 1990 child mortality rates (MDG4) and 3/4th reduction of 1990 maternal mortality rates by the same date (MDG5). The first chapter assesses the relative efficiency of 85 countries at using these interventions for the reduction of child and maternal mortality. It teases out the extent to which mortality reduction is a result of the interventions themselves as opposed to the context in which they are implemented. A three step procedure which includes Data Envelopment Analysis indicates that efficiency is mainly driven by context. Chapter 2 addresses the association between the 2000-2008 rates of change of interventions and the rate of change of mortality. It uses finite mixture modeling to take account of the possibility that there may be underlying heterogeneity in the mortality reduction functions of the 32 sub-Saharan African countries studied. Results support this hypothesis and show that an intervention may exhibit increasing returns to scale in some countries and decreasing returns to scale in others. Chapter 3 assesses the link between interventions and mortality rates and examines cost minimizing scenarios for attaining MDG4 and MDG5 in 27 sub-Saharan African countries. Lagged data on interventions predicts mortality rates (by OLS) to take into account the potential reverse causality between the two. Results indicate that achieving MDG mortality targets at the least possible cost invariably requires very substantive increases in medical human resources, yet training physicians has not been the main objective of public health organizations. Furthermore, improving the context in which interventions are implemented - increasing female literacy or effectiveness of political stability- allows countries to reach mortality targets with substantially lower levels of interventions (including, much lower levels of physician density).

In the diploma thesis Strategy map of a catering company the strategic map of a model catering company operating on Czech market has been constructed. Strategy map was chosen as a transparent and effective measure concerning the important parts of the strategy of the concrete company in a way of visual shortcut in line with the well-known methodology: KAPLAN, Robert S., NORTON, David P.: Strategy Maps, Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation, Boston 2004. ISBN 1-59139-134-2. In the theoretical part of this diploma thesis the basic elements important for the construction of the strategy map were described and also the professional services of the catering company were presented. In the practical part the catering market of Czech Republic is analysed and then, on the basis of determined opportunities, the newly founded company VIP Catering is being modelled. This company addresses VIP clients with the offer of first class quality VIP services. Subsequently its mission, vision, SWOT analysis were determined, strategic goals were analysed and divided into four basic perspectives and reliable key performance indicators were suggested. Consequently strategic iniciatives and appropriate organization structure were developped. At the end of the practical part the strategy map for the VIP catering company was designed and the causal relationships among the strategy elements were outlined. The main result of the diploma thesis lies in the originally constructed strategy map on of a newly established catering company operating on Czech market.

Současné globalizované a vysoce konkurenční prostředí vyžaduje zvyšování angažovanosti podniku v oblasti strategického plánování a hodnocení výkonu. Řízení organizace na základě finančních ukazatelů již není dostatečným nástrojem pro dosažení stanovených strategických a výkonnostních cílů. Je třeba porozumět a využívat také ukazatele nefinančního charakteru, jež zásadním způsobem ovlivňují dosahování finančních cílů organizace. Metoda Balanced scorecard zdůrazňuje vzájemnou provázanost finančních i nefinančních ukazatelů a na základě sledování a řízení výkonnosti podniku v rámci čtyř perspektiv (finanční, zákaznické, procesní, učení se a růstu, resp. zaměstnanců) umožňuje průběžné řízení realizace celkové strategie a zajišťuje i nezbytnou zpětnou vazbu. Tato práce ve své teoretické části vymezuje podstatné prvky metody Balanced Scorecard. Praktická část obsahuje zhodnocení funkčnosti současně implementovaného systému BSC v závodě Adršpach společnosti Continental Automotive Czech Republic s.r.o., která byla podkladem pro stanovení návrhů na zlepšení.

Today the world faces some of the most unprecedented environmental challenges ever seen. Many of these challenges are driven by human behaviour. Subsequently, solutions involving human behavioural change are essential to mitigate the environmental threats faced. Although many people express concern about environmental issues and report intentions to engage in pro-environmental activities, often these two factors do not align with behaviour. One possibility for this discrepancy is that environmental goals are not always salient during decision-making contexts. Based on theories which propose that goals can be automatically activated, this thesis aims to investigate whether environmental goals can be automatically activated to produce pro-environmental goal consistent behaviour. It also aims to explore some of the psychological mechanisms involved in the pursuit of environmental goals. These aims are explored across five quantitative experiments which form the three empirical chapters of this thesis. The first empirical chapter comprises three experiments which examine whether environmental goal priming influences environmental behaviour and whether goal pursuit is driven by changes in the automatic evaluation of goal relevant objects. The second empirical chapter investigates whether environmental goal priming enhances attention to environmental product labelling. Lastly, the third empirical chapter explores the efficacy of behavioural feedback as a tool to enhance environmental behaviour. The findings from this thesis reveal that environmental goals can be automatically activated and that this can lead to behaviour consisted with the primed goal. Environmental goals also exhibit features typical of goal pursuit, such as persistence over time. This thesis also provides evidence that environmental labelling is partly goal-dependent, as participants who report stronger motivation to protect the environment devote greater eye gaze towards environmental labelling. Finally, this thesis provides evidence that negative feedback is an effective tool in promoting compensatory environmental behaviour. A key conclusion of this research is that while environmental goals are important, to be effective in promoting pro-environmental behaviour they must be salient during decision-making. Techniques which focus on activating environmental goals may therefore be an important tool to facilitate more sustainable consumer behaviour.

<p>Current online learning approaches are sometimes criticized for a “one- size- fits -all” approach, low levels of interactivity, and insufficient feedback, which may result in low levels of learning satisfaction and high dropout rates. To mitigate these shortcomings, this study proposed a set of rules to design personalized motivational feedback based on students’ personal achievement goals. The researcher expected this specially designed personalized feedback to be able to improve student motivation and learning outcomes. </p> <p>To examine the effectiveness of such feedback, an explanatory mixed-methods study was implemented, which included two consecutive phases. The first phase was a quasi-experimental study. A 2018 online master’s degree program course offered by a large R-1 University in the U.S. served as the study context. Twenty-eight students were selected as the test group where personalized motivational feedback based on the proposed rules was delivered along with regular instructor feedback. Another forty students were selected as the control group who only received regular instructor feedback. Students’ motivation and perceived satisfaction were measured by using pre and post surveys. Students’ learning performance was measured by using the collected assignment scores after the semester ended. The second phase was a set of post interviews, in which 13 students from the two groups were asked about their perceptions of the impact of the feedback they received and how they used feedback in their learning process during the study.</p> <p>In the first study phase, ANCOVA F test results indicated the post-test scores of learner motivation and perceived satisfaction in the test group were significantly higher than those of the control group. The mean value of the cumulative assignment scores in the test group was somewhat higher than that of the control group, but this difference was not statistically significant based on the results of Wilcoxon Two-Sample test and ANCOVA F test. In the second study phase, the post-interviews showed that students in the test group expressed more consistently and strongly that they had an overall positive perception of the feedback received in the course. The participants from the test group further explained the underlying mechanism of this personalized motivational feedback was that it affected students’ learning positively by helping them set and regulate learning goals, activate self-regulation mechanisms, and adjust their learning behaviors.</p> <p>Based on the results and the features of the study design, the researcher concluded that the personalized feedback designed by following the set of rules proposed in this study has the potential to improve learner motivation in the online learning context. While its effect on learning outcomes was not significant, the researcher speculated that learning outcomes might have been affected by more complex factors, such as ceiling effects and predominant class structures. </p> <p>The researcher suggested online instructors and instructional designers consider students’ achievement goals when conducting learner analysis and creating learner profiles. She also suggested developers of next-generation LMSs include achievement goals in the learner model and include such rules in a personalization mechanism. One primary limitation of this study was that a ceiling effect on learning performance emerged leading to insufficient variation for the researcher to detect a statistically significant difference in learning performance. Therefore, the researcher suggests future researchers in this area replicate this approach by using automated feedback delivery tools and consider employing personalized feedback in different types of classes and using specific instructional approaches, such as problem-based learning and competency-based learning. Future research should also consider achievement goal’s mediating factors, such as students’ self-regulation skills, in learner analysis. </p>