This study traces the evolution of the applied ecological discipline of range management in terms of the goals, methods, concepts, and criteria developed by range management for their science between 1897 and 1920. It argues, in contrast to the traditional view uÌ uat describes the knowledge-development process in applied science as just science applied to social problems, that wider social goals, values, concepts, and criteria play a definite role in shaping the applied science knowledge-development process. The first generation of range management allowed the primary users of the knowledge in the wider society, the stockmen in the West and Southwest, to have a direct influence on the knowledge-development process. The next generation of scientists eliminated the stockmen's direct influence on the knowledge-development process, yet the stockmen still influenced that process indirectly in various ways. This study concludes that an orientation towards the wider society that actually applies the knowledge is characteristic of range management and may be illustrative of illustrative of many applied sciences. Due to that orientation towards the wider society and to the wider society's influence on the scientist's choice of methods,concepts, and criteria, another characteristic of range management and possibly of other applied sciences is a tension in the knowledge development process between that orientation and the individual goals of scientists in their research. / Master of Science

M.S.

The advantages of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) Technology with data base management system (DBMS) technology are widely recognized as indicated by the results from the survey of AI and data base (DB) researchers. ...In our work, we have focused on the use of data base systems to store large number of facts and rules for a rule-based AI system. / Master of Science

Industrial Psychology (IP) has a major impact on millions of workers and thousands of organisations and is given increasing reign in deciding and influencing human affairs within the organisation, thereby playing an important role in society. The field of IP however has been used to uphold the status quo, showing a preference for management over workers. There is also a lack of self-reflexivity, and a failure to address ideology and power relations and the methodological assumptions underlying research and practice. This research project aims to address these problems through the analysis of research articles on a contemporary topic, namely, quality of work life. The aim is to find out whether published research on quality of work life reflects a managerialist ideology in both its’ latent and manifest content. A review of previous research and a theoretical and conceptual background is presented. Critical discourse analysis was used to analyse research articles. It was found that research articles draw on an HRM discourse and uphold power relations and dominant ideologies. There exists within published research and in all likelihood, social practice, the dominance of a managerial perspective and the presence of a managerial ideology. Critical perspectives tend to be marginalised. It is necessary that the critical perspective be brought more into the mainstream, and for industrial/organisational psychologists to challenge the status quo. Points for discussion and recommendations are presented. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010

Research on joint decision-making processes in households is particularly relevant for marketing, especially for understanding who decides what to buy in purchasing decisions and how decision processes evolve. However, the investigation of such complex processes requires adequate research methods to account for the dynamics in close relationships. We provide a critical overview of past research in the arena of economic decision-making among couples, concentrating on methodological issues. After describing different types of decisions we proceed by describing findings on interaction dynamics, including the nature and occurrence of conflicts. In reviewing relationship structures we focus on the dimensions of harmony and power. The descriptive process model utilized includes the partners’ use of influence tactics, as well as the emergence of utility debts at the end of a decision-making process. Reviewing the adequacy of various research methods, observational and survey techniques are discussed as conventional psychological research methods. The Vienna Partner Diary is introduced as novel method and suggested as being useful for collecting data on the complex interaction processes in the everyday life of couples.

No description available.

This research develops and applies a set of measurements to assess organizational system balance. The Management System ;Vlodcl (;\ISM), consisting of "who manages," "what is managed," and "what is used to manage," supplies the basis for defIning balance. Balance requires the system to regain stability at an equal or higher level when brought out-of-balance by change. This is exploratory research, examining management systems for correlations among related characteristics. Discovery of correlations helps in the understanding of management system behavior, and can lead to hypotheses on cause-and-effect relationships. Four C .S. Department of Energy subagencies were used as case studies for the management system analysis. The set of instruments used in this analysis provided a good first-cut at defining and describing balance for management systems. Two of the cases were found marginally balanced. The other two were marginally out-of-balance. Failure to achieve balance is analyzed by looking at results for conditions of balance between components of the management system. These conditions represent matches of important criteria, such as information portrayal formats, organization-compatible decision styles, and data capture. Balance should be measured, over time, to see if the management system analysis led to improvement. Various instruments were used to assess these balance conditions, including the MyersBriggs Type Indicator and the Driver Decision Style Exercise. / Master of Science

Total Quality Management (TQM) has become a popular term in quality improvement management. Many organizations, however, frequently implement quality tools that are not well coordinated with the established quality principles or the managerial decisions and actions. This research focuses on studying three major quality management components: quality philosophies, interventions, and tools. The primary desired outcome of this research is to improve the understanding of TQM implementation. The means to accomplish this desired outcome included reviewing quality improvement philosophies of Deming, Juran, Feigenbaum, Crosby, and Ishikawa, and conducting multiple case studies. The eight organizations vary in their organizational type (service or manufacturing), years of experience in their TQM efforts, and their sizes (number of employees). The case studies involved interviewing the quality managers and described how they define and implement TQM. A quality improvement taxonomy, a two-dimensional matrix, is a product developed as a result of this study. The first dimension of the taxonomy describes the quality interventions--the organizational planned changes for improving quality, which are categorized by six quality checkpoints: management of upstream systems, incoming quality assurance, in-process quality management, outgoing quality assurance, proactive assurance of customer satisfaction, and the overall quality management process. The second dimension lists seventeen supporting quality management tools. They include tools such as the Input/Output Analysis, Quality Function Deployment, Competitive Benchmarking, and Statistical Process Control. Organizations can use this quality improvement taxonomy to communicate the TQM concept and to improve coordination of quality management tools with the overall TQM implementation decisions and actions. / Master of Science

Percy Barnevik is one example of a renowned leader publishing a book, “Leadership- 200 advice”, on his experiences as a manager. The overall quantity of this so called Guru Literature on the market demonstrate that it exist a great interest in advice from business leaders but further raise a question of soundness of the advice. The aim with the thesis is to generate a picture of how well Guru Theory in general and Percy Barnevik specifically is connected to management research and practice. What constitute evidence is often debated within the management research field and scholars mean that one cannot assume a fact without any evidence created from research. This leads to a discussion about rigor and relevance and how management research should be designed to create a rigorous study, without overshadowing its practical relevance to the operating business. To answer the research question, interviews were executed with complementary questionnaires. In order to create a picture of what kind of anchoring Barnevik’s advice have in management theory a literature review was conducted. It is possible to see that the majority of the practitioners compared to research have a different level of cohesiveness with Barnevik regarding the studied advice. Practitioners, tend to a high level agree with Barnevik although management research stand for a more hesitant approach. Our conclusions are that management researchers should consider Guru Theory to a greater extent rather than discard it. This we believe could generate relevant research contributions to practitioners and add rigor to an unscientific field of theories

Kobayashi RM. Caracterização da disciplina noções de administração de enfermagem dos cursos de técnico de enfermagem. [dissertação] São Paulo (SP): Escola de Enfermagem da USP; 2002 Este estudo, do tipo exploratório e documental, teve como propósitos identificar as competências e os enfoques temáticos descritos nos Planos de Ensino da disciplina Noções de Administração em Enfermagem dos cursos Técnico de Enfermagem. A população foi composta por 26 Planos de Ensino das escolas/cursos, em sua maioria, entidades particulares, que formam Técnicos de Enfermagem já há entre 1 a 5 anos, com turmas de 21 a 30 alunos, nos três turnos. A disciplina em questão era trabalhada em diferentes momentos do curso, com carga horária entre 25 e 50h, ministrada por 1(um) a 2 (dois) docentes nas aulas teóricas e no estágio supervisionado, sendo este último realizado em unidades de internação. Com relação às competências gerais e específicas descritas nos Planos de Ensino, obtivemos que a competência do saber fazer (59%, 54%) e do aprender a conhecer (34%, 45%) prevaleceram sobre a competência do saber ser (7%, 1%) mostrando que o saber fazer ainda é prevalente, mas também aponta que o aprender a conhecer é necessário à instrumentalização para o desenvolvimento do saber fazer. Dentre os resultados, relativos aos enfoques temáticos, foram encontrados os processos de trabalho voltados para a assistência de enfermagem e a estrutura organizacional. Assim, acreditamos que este estudo possa contribuir àqueles que trabalham com a educação profissional em enfermagem, permitindo o repensar as competências profissionais desejadas ao TE, conforme o perfil estabelecido bem como, estimulando a reflexão de como este pode atuar nos processos administrativos, sob supervisão do enfermeiro. Descritores: Educação em enfermagem. Técnicos de enfermagem. Pesquisa em administração de enfermagem / Kobayashi RM. Caracteristics of the Course “Basics of Nursing Administration" for Practical Nursing Programs [master´s degree thesis] São Paulo (SP) School of Nursing at University of São Paulo; 2002 This exploratory study was based on course descriptions and aimed at identifying the competences and the topics addressed, as reported in the course description of “Basics of Nursing Administration" for Practical Nursing programs. Twenty-six practical nursing programs were studied. Most programs have been offered by private schools/institutions for 1 to 5 years. Twenty-one to thirty students attended these courses, offered in the mornings, afternoons, and evenings. Basics of nursing administration was offered in the beginning, middle or end of the program, depending on the institution, and lasted 25-50 hours. One or two teachers were in charge of both theory and clinical practice, which took place in hospitals, mainly in inpatient units. When both general and specific competences described in the programs were analyzed, the “know to do" competence (59%, 54%) and the “learn to know" competence (34%, 45%) prevailed against the “know to be" competence (7%, 1%). This shows that the “know to do" competence prevails in practical nursing programs. It also shows that the “learn to know" competence is necessary as a tool for developing the “know to do" competence. Findings for topics addressed in the programs, as reported in the course description, show that working processes are aimed at nursing assistance and at organizational structure. Thus, we believe that this study can contribute to those working in the field of professional nursing education as a tool to rethink professional competences required for practical nurses, according to the profile established, The study also encourages us to consider how practical nurses can effectly participate in the administrative processes, under the supervision of a registered nurse. Keywords: Nursing education, practical nursing, nursing management research