Thesis (PhD (Economics))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / The primary financial objective of a firm is the maximisation of its shareholders’ value. A problem faced by the shareholders of a firm is that it is difficult to determine the effect of management decisions on the future share returns of the firm. Furthermore, it may be necessary to implement certain monitoring costs to ensure that management is focused on achieving this objective. A firm would, therefore, benefit from being able to identify those financial performance measures that are able to link the financial performance of the firm to its share returns. Implementing such a financial performance measure in the valuation and reward systems of a firm should ensure that management is aligned with the objective of shareholder value maximisation, and rewarded for achieving it. A large number of traditional financial performance measures have been developed. These measures are often criticised for excluding a firm’s cost of capital, and are considered inappropriate to be used when evaluating value creation. Furthermore, it is argued that these measures are based on accounting information, which could be distorted by Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (GAAP). Studies investigating the relationship between these measures and share returns also provide conflicting results. As a result of the perceived limitations of traditional measures, value based financial performance measures were developed. The major difference between the traditional and value based measures is that the value based measures include a firm’s cost of capital in their calculation. They also attempt to remove some of the accounting distortions resulting from GAAP. Proponents of the value based measures present these measures as a major improvement over the traditional financial performance measures and report high levels of correlation between the measures and share returns. A number of studies containing contradictory results have been published. On the basis of these conflicting results it is not clear whether the value based measures are able to outperform the traditional financial performance measures in explaining share returns. The primary objectives of this study are thus to: • Determine the relationship between the traditional measures earnings before extraordinary items (EBEI) and cash from operations (CFO), and shareholder value creation; • Investigate the value based measures residual income (RI), economic value added (EVA), cash value added (CVA) and cash flow return on investments (CFROI), and to determine their relationship with the creation of shareholder value; • Evaluate the incremental information content of the value based measures above the traditional measures. The information content of the traditional measures and the value based measures are evaluated by employing an approach developed by Biddle, Bowen and Wallace (1997). The first phase of this approach entails the evaluation of the relative information content of the various measures in order to determine which measure explains the largest portion of a firm’s market-adjusted share returns. The second phase consists of an evaluation of the incremental information content of the components of a measure in order to determine whether the inclusion of an additional component contributes statistically significant additional information beyond that contained in the other components. The study is conducted for South African industrial firms listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange for the period 1991 to 2005. The data required to calculate the measures investigated in the study are obtained from the McGregor BFA database. This database contains annual standardised financial statements for listed and delisted South African firms. It also contains EVA, cost of capital and invested capital amounts for those firms listed at the end of the research period. Including only these listed firms in the research sample would expose the study to a survivorship bias. Hence these values are estimated for those firms that delisted during the period under review by employing a similar approach to the one used in the database. The resulting sample consists of 364 firms providing 3181 complete observations. Since different information is required to calculate the various measures included in the study, different samples are compiled from this initial sample and included in the tests conducted to evaluate the information content of the measures. The results of this study indicate that the value based measures are not able to outperform EBEI in the majority of the relative information content tests. Furthermore, the measures EVA, CVA and CFROI are also not able to outperform the relatively simple value based measure RI. The results from the incremental information content tests indicate that although some of the components of the value based measures provide statistically significant incremental information content, the level of significance for these relatively complex adjustments is generally low. Based on these results, the claims made by the proponents of the value based measures cannot be supported. Furthermore, if a firm intends to incorporate its cost of capital in its financial performance measures, the measure RI provides most of the benefits contained in the other more complex value based measures.

This thesis seeks to contribute to the improved understanding of social systems analysis in management effectiveness research on protected areas. It develops and applies propositions for incorporating the analysis of social systems into management effectiveness research. The propositions are designed as theoretical constructs which represent some aspects of social reality in protected area management. They signify an organized way of thinking about the social domain of protected area management. It is argued that an analysis of management effectiveness must recognize the need to take into account the inherent interactive nature of the connections among three variables, relationships, learning and demands. It is suggested that the three variables do not exist in isolation, but are interconnected and exert influence on each other. The interactions among the variables provide this study with a conceptual structure for analyzing the social domain of protected area management. The thesis conceives the management of relationships as a behavioral process in which protected area management agencies influence the decisions and actions of other parties, and vice versa, over a period of time in order to advance shared interests. The effectiveness of relationship management depends on integrated learning, a collective process of managing information in a timely manner so as to enhance the responsiveness of social actors involved with protected areas. Demand management is viewed as a social process in which protected area management agencies develop timely and defensible responses to current and emerging demands from stakeholders. The management of demands is expressed through relationship management and integrated learning. Important in this context is the capability of social actors to cope with complexity, change and surprises. The thesis should be seen as a theoretical premise that focuses on the learning competence of social actors by aligning and fostering their ability to respond timely to the ever-changing demands on protected areas through the effective management of relationships. It should be viewed as making a contribution to the move in protected area management towards developing learning organizations and institutions through a systems approach. This should be interpreted as enhancing learning about the human dimensions of protected area management. And more specifically, effective learning generates timely responses in the management of demands and relationships. The implications of failure to respond quickly enough are epitomized in a number of South African examples such as rivers that stop flowing and conflicts over resource use. The thesis makes a contribution to management effectiveness research by examining in some important ways why research should not be determined solely by biophysical components, but should be extended to the broader social issues that define the nature and quality of management. It is argued that a deep appreciation of management effectiveness requires an understanding of relationships, learning and demands to provide a foundation for systemic social analyses. The thesis illustrates why a behavioral approach to relationships theory provides a foundation for resilient social relationships in collaborative processes. It shows why the establishment and maintenance of an integrated learning system take place in a complex context which links elements of governance learning and management learning. It also evinces why protected area management agencies have to incorporate mental models into adaptive management of demands. These insights imply that the opportunities for effective protected area management are largely contingent on systemic insights into the underlying social structures and processes responsible for emergent problems. By exposing the insights, research on management effectiveness is poised to take new direction. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

The aim of this quantitative study was to develop and validate a model to measure the organisational effectiveness of a metropolitan municipality in South Africa. The literature review phase explored the concept of organisational effectiveness and the assessment thereof in both the Public and Private Sectors. The literature review indicated that there is a clear distinction between business performance (operational and financial performance) and the larger concept of organisational effectiveness, and also that the measurement of organisational effectiveness in the Public Sector differed from the measurement thereof in the Private Sector. The literature review also indicated that measures of Public Sector effectiveness could not be directly applied to measure the effectiveness of Private Sector organisations. From the literature review a proposed theoretical model for measuring the organisational effectiveness of a metropolitan municipality in South Africa was proposed. This proposed model included organisational and behavioural variables contained in traditional approaches to organisational effectiveness, variables that were identified in previous organisational effectiveness studies, as well as variables contained in existing assessment models of organisational effectiveness. This model was then validated during the empirical phase by conducting a survey of an existing metropolitan municipality in South Africa (n = 6514) and exposing the results of the survey to Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The confirmatory factor analysis conducted as part of SEM subsequently identified three main and 10 secondary statistically significant organisational and behavioural variables that could be used to measure the effectiveness of a metropolitan municipality in South Africa. The three main variables identified were (1) Healthy Systems, (2) Goal Achievement and (3) Service Delivery, while the 10 secondary variables identified were (1) Diversity, (2) Training & Development, (3) Rewards & Recognition, (4) Management Practices, (5) Internal Functioning, (6) Work Environment, (7) Interpersonal Relations, (8) Workforce Equity, (9) Customer Satisfaction and (10) Vision & Mission. It was thus recommended that metropolitan municipalities in South Africa could use this validated model as an assessment framework to measure their current organisational effectiveness, to identify aspects which need to be rectified to improve effectiveness, and to compare and benchmark their municipality in order to learn from other metropolitan municipalities to improve their effectiveness. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D. Admin. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Safety researchers have devoted extensive attention to safety performance behaviors. However, current safety performance models have yet to differentiate between safety citizenship behaviors directed towards the organization and those directed towards individuals. This might be a potential oversight, considering that citizenship behaviors targeted at different beneficiaries might be associated with different antecedents. As such, the purpose of the present study was to develop and validate a new safety performance scale. Items from existing measures formed the item pool and those tapping into the proposed dimensions were selected. Next, items were pilot tested using an online panel of 333 employees from various safety-related industries. A 4-factor structure emerged after exploratory factor analysis and the scale was further refined using reliability analysis and item response theory analysis. Finally, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to replicate the factor structure using data from 137 employees. Theoretically related variables were correlated with the safety performance dimensions to establish the nomological network. Results supported the 4-factor structure of the new safety performance scale and construct validation hypotheses were largely supported. Implications, study limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

Organizations specifically the airlines industry are increasingly facing the challenges of operational efficiency measurement. During the last years enormous attention has been given to the assessment and improvement of the performance of productive systems. However, literatures show that there are limitations of the existing models to measure efficiency uniformly and exhaustively across the airlines. The problems are due to lack of the technical efficiency measuring model which unifies and integrates different measuring models into a single model.Therefore, this thesis investigates assessment of the operational performance of world major airlines by employing integrated comparative models to address the above problems. In this study, technical efficiency is addressed among many performance issues by using three types of modes of performance measurement: a non parametric one, represented by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and; a parametric one, represented by Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) and the Balance Scorecard (BSC) which is a strategic management tools. Unlike most of the previous studies, this study integrates the BSC concepts into DEA and SFA model. To evaluate technical efficiency of major international airlines, the study use panel of unbalanced data for the year 2007-2014 to make integrated comparative analysis. The research project incorporates seven leading variables and four lagging variables taken from BSC concept to implement into the DEA and SFA. All the three models of performance measurements have their own strength and limitation if they are used alone. But if the three models are integrated and combined together, they would yield better comparative and quality of efficiency assessment. Therefore, the study primarily developed a model beginning from the theoretical framework assumption into building of a unified comparative model of integrated comparative operational efficiency assessment of airlines. The research design and methodology uses secondary data collection i.e. annual reports and business reports of airlines which are collected from the airlines own website. The huge amount of financial and operational data cannot be collected by using primary data collection method as it would make it practically impossible and expensive. So by employing secondary data collection method saves time, money and a panel data can be accessed and generated easily. Hence, from 100 world major airlines population which are ranked by revenue, simple random sampling is used to select 80 samples airlines for this study. First, the BSC identifies the input and output variables. Next, the DEA model ranks the efficiency measurement, identifies the slack variables and benchmarks the airlines. Third, the SFA model identifies technical efficiency, the random error and technical inefficiency. Finally, the technical efficiency estimates obtained from the two techniques are analyzed comparatively. The research makes further analysis of particular case of the Ethiopian Airlines in relation to the most efficient and inefficient airlines and in comparison of the regional analysis. After extensive tests have been conducted, ‘Balanced Frontier Envelopment’ model is developed. According to this model, it is a paramount to measure efficiency with combining the strength of three models together and gives better results than the previous one or two combined models. The developed and integrated strategic model enhances measuring of the operating technical efficiency of airlines. This model benefit the airlines industry in many ways such as minimizing the cost and maximizing profit through managing technical efficiency which lead into the success of the airlines. From the model perspective, therefore, result of DEA model is much higher than the result of SFA model. DEA model is easier to manipulate than the SFA model because the former does not need the functional form while the later requires a functional form. Furthermore, according to the efficiency finding of the study, first, the European regional airlines are relatively more efficient than the rest of regions in the world. Second, the North America regional airlines are the second more efficient regional airlines in the world. Third, the Ethiopian airlines are the most efficient in Africa when we compare among Egyptair, Kenyan Airways and South African Airways. Fourth, high revenue does not necessarily leads to the technical efficiency of the firm. / Business Management / D.B.L. (Business Leadership)