Performance management has become vital in any organisation in order to ensure a competitive advantage for organisations in the ever changing environment. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) system, used as a performance management and a performance measurement tool, will ensure that organisational goals and strategic targets are achieved if it is implemented and applied effectively. The BSC system is a management tool that can be used to transform strategy into action. The use of the BSC system was seen as a problem as used within ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA). This paper includes a literature study on the BSC system as well as an empirical study regarding the application of the BSC system in a steel organisation. Literature on the BSC advises that the objectives, measurements and targets should be aligned with the organisation's strategy and vision to ensure improved long-term performance. In order to ensure alignment to all levels in the organisation the top level scorecard needs to be cascaded to lower levels to ensure that the right strategic goals are followed. The BSC system has a high number of benefits when implemented and applied effectively. An empirical study done at ArcelorMittal's Rolling department on people in different divisions, people on different job levels, people in different age groups and people with different years of service, indicated more or less the same average responses on specific BSC related issues. In general, it was concluded that the BSC is not effectively applied with in Rolling, mainly because of communication issues, a forced distribution approach by senior management, and compensation linked to performance discrepancies. Although the average ratings on BSC related questions came out on fairly average ratings, the majority of people indicated, that the BSC system is not transparent enough, nor is it applied effectively. Various specific conclusions and recommendations were made in order to identify and improve the progression of the BSC system at Rolling going forward. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010.

This study is a mixed methods investigation, based on a case study of The Ottawa Hospital’s recent and ongoing implementation of an integrated performance management system (IPMS). It is the first empirical investigation to identify the reasons why Canadian healthcare leaders choose to implement an IPMS in a hospital setting, the core components of hospital-based IPMSs, the challenges that senior leaders face when implementing such systems, and how these challenges might be mitigated to increase the likelihood of a successful implementation. Key findings include the need for senior leaders to carefully consider organizational culture prior to fully implementing an IPMS, engaging physicians early in the journey, and coordinating the implementation so that knowledge, skill, and expertise, as it relates to the IPMS, are distributed across the organization in tightly knit waves. Recommendations for future research include the development of frameworks for the design, implementation, and use of IPMSs

Performance of Emergency Department (ED) physicians (MDs) is multi-faceted since it impacts multiple dimensions such as health outcomes of patients, utilization of resources, throughput of patients and timeliness of care. Therefore, the assessment of their performance demands the use of a tool that allows considering multiple evaluation criteria. However, commonly used multi-criteria evaluation methods often require assigning weights to dimensions in order to define their relative importance on a final performance score. This feature introduces subjectivity in the development of weights and has the potential to produce biased results. The purpose of this thesis research is to develop a multi-dimensional evaluation tool for evaluating performance of ED MDs. The proposed evaluation tool relies on a mathematical programming model known as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The use of DEA does not ask for subjective weighting assignments for each dimension that describe the ED MDs’ performance. It is capable of considering multiple heterogeneous performance measures to identify benchmark practice and the individual improvements leading to best practice of each evaluated unit. The DEA model described here was developed from real data to assess the performance of 20 PED MDs from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO). Multiple evaluations were run on stratified data in order to identify benchmark practice in each of seven categories of patients’ complaints and to determine the impact of accompanying MD trainees on PED MDs’ performance. For each PED MD, performance scores and improvements in each category of patients’ complaints (i.e. respiratory, trauma, abdominal, fever, gastroenterology, allergy and Ear-Nose-Throat complaints) were determined. This helped identifying the required improvements that would lead PED MDs to achieve benchmark performance. Regarding the influence of MD trainees on PED MDs’ performance, results show that most PED MDs (15 out of 20) perform better when they are not accompanied by a trainee which motivates further research to assess trade-offs between teaching and clinical performance. In summary, DEA proved to be an appropriate tool for performance evaluation of PED MDs because it helped to identify benchmark performers and provided information for performance improvements under a multi dimensional performance evaluation framework.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

This thesis examines the reinvention and resurgence of the monologue as a contemporary performance mode. It focuses on four pioneering practitioners: Laurie Anderson, Spalding Gray, Karen Finley and Anna Deavere Smith. The study reviews historical developments in monologue and analyses contemporary innovations made to the form. It also responds to debate on the use of postmodern aesthetic techniques in performance, as a means of critically engaging with and commentating on Western, specifically American, culture and politics. The hypothesis of this study is that monologue, as it is examined in this work, is a biopolitical form. It is biopolitical, as this analysis will show, in the sense that it is a linguistic, communicational and creative response to the conditions of global capitalism in the West. The study argues that the term monologue is increasingly inadequate to the discussion of these new forms of solo speech and performance and proffers the term “post-monologue” as a means of furthering consideration of the monologue beyond the terms of current understandings. It opens the way towards future manifestations of the form that offer critically effective, and affective, commentary on world events.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Univ., 2007. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Accounting and Information Systems, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on July 2, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-77). Also issued in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Dr. Gershon Tenenbaum, Florida State University, College of Education, Dept. of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 14, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains x, 98 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Cette thèse est consacrée à la sensibilité de l’entreprise au Tissu Economique Local. Le chapitre préliminaire présente un cheminement aboutissant à trois questions de recherche ciblant trois aspects de cette relation, au niveau, local, européen et mondial. Le premier article pose la question suivante : quelle est la perception, par les dirigeants d’entreprise, de la sensibilité de leur entreprise au Tissu Economique Local (TEL), et de son impact sur sa performance ? Cette étude porte sur 25 entretiens semi-directifs effectués auprès de dirigeants dans les départements des deux Savoie (France). Les résultats montrent une difficulté pour les dirigeants à lier sensibilité au TEL et performance, et font émerger les déterminants de la sensibilité. Le second article traite la question suivante : quel est l’impact de la sensibilité de l’entreprise au Tissu Economique Local sur sa performance ? L’échantillon d’étude est composé de 252 entreprises européennes cotées et notées par l’agence de notation extra financière VIGEO entre 2004 et 2011. Les résultats mettent en lumière un effet convexe, d’abord négatif puis positif, de la sensibilité au TEL sur la performance comptable. Il est donc nécessaire pour les entreprises d’investir fortement sur le marché local pour déceler une amélioration de leur performance. Concernant la performance boursière à l’horizon de trois ans, les entreprises peu sensibles surperforment les entreprises très sensibles et le marché. Enfin, le troisième article répond à la question suivante : comment a évolué la concentration géographique des investissements en capital-risque et quels en sont les déterminants ? L’échantillon étudié retrace les investissements au sein des pays de l’OCDE et les BRICS sur la période 1970 - 2013. Les résultats mettent en exergue quatre tendances pour quatre groupes de pays, ainsi qu’un effet positif de la quantité d’investissement sur la concentration, en particulier durant la période précédant la crise internet. A l’inverse, le niveau de développement financier des pays réduit la concentration géographique. / This thesis investigates the firm’s sensitivity to the Local Economic Fabric. A first analysis allows one to build three questions of research focusing on three aspects of this relation, at local, European and worldwide levels. The first paper answers the following question: What is corporate chiefs’ perception of their sensitivity to Local Economic Fabric (LEF) and its impact on firm performance? The sample being analyzed contains 25 interviews with corporate chiefs in the two departments of Savoie (France). The results highlight a difficulty for corporate chiefs to link sensitivity and firm performance. These qualitative interviews also show the determinants of sensitivity. The second paper answers to the next question: What is the actual effect of sensitivity to LEF on firm performance? This study uses the rating agency VIGEO dataset, which contains 252 European firms noted between 2004 and 2011. Results show a convex effect, first negative then positive, of the sensitivity to LEF on accounting performance. In other words, it is important for firms to invest at a minimum level on local markets to get better performance. About stock performance, for the three-years horizon, the lowest sensitive firms have better performance than the highest sensitive firms and market. The third paper provides an answer to the following questions: How has the geographical concentration of venture capital investments evolved from 1970 to 2013? What are the macro determinants of this evolution? Data involve all the investments of countries belonging to the OECD and the BRICS groups. Results show four evolutionary paths representing four groups of countries. The quantity of investment deals and the dot-com crisis increase the geographical concentration of venture capital while the level of financial development decreases it.

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