Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston University

Studies of small and medium-sized enterprises have provided evidence that CEOs of such firms can have a dominating influence on firm activities. Drawing on upper echelons theory, we analyze the influence of CEO personality (CEO internal locus of control), CEO ownership and CEO education on the evaluation of middle manager performance. In line with our expectations, we find evidence for a direct effect of CEO ownership (negative) and CEO education (positive) on the use of objective performance evaluations and for a direct effect of the CEO's internal locus of control on the use of subjective performance evaluations. Moreover, we provide evidence for a moderating role of both CEO ownership and education with respect to the influence of the CEO's locus of control on the use of subjective evaluations. We use a sample of 247 small and medium-sized manufacturing firms to test our hypotheses.

The present study investigated the influence of receiver sex on supervisor’s feedback message choice, and the influence of the interaction between receiver sex and feedback message type on employees’ subsequent behaviors and attitudes. Participants (N = 45) included a representative sample from a reputable organization in the southeastern United States. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected using a survey methodology. This mixed-methods approach revealed that while participants in this study rated the overall atmosphere of the performance evaluation as positive and informal, the interaction between receiver sex and feedback message type did have a statistically significant influence on their perceived utility of the feedback message, retention of the feedback message, and motivation to implement the feedback. In addition, women in this sample reported receiving significantly different types of feedback than did men. Therefore, supervisors should ensure that both men and women receive more task performance related feedback messages in order to increase employees’ perceived utility of the feedback message, retention of the feedback message, and motivation to implement the feedback.

Thesis (M.Cur.) --University of Limpopo, 2012 / The implementation of a Performance Management System (PMS) and its impact on the professional nurses have never been evaluated and, therefore, the experiences of professional nurses are not known. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the experiences of professional nurses with regard to performance assessment at the Polokwane Mankweng Hospital Complex. Upon obtaining the clearance to conduct the study from the Medunsa Reseach and Ethics Committee, permission to conduct the study was granted by the Department of Health. A qualitative research approach was used by applying the principles of a phenomenological, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design. Data were collected from fourteen (14) professional nurses by using unstructured face-to-face interviews. Data were audio recorded and field notes were also written. Trustworthiness was ensured by applying the Lincoln and Guba’s criteria. Transferability was ensured by utilizing purposive sampling to include participats. Confirmability was ensured by by collecting data from thr participants who have experience on the problem studied. Data were analysed qualitatively by using Tech’s open coding method. The results indicated that there was conflict between the nurse managers and professional nurses that was arising from dissatisfaction with the assessment rating and scores allocated. Professional nurses complained about unfair ratings, stating that scores were based on personality and not performance. Those professional nurses who were obtaining high scores were perceived as the nurse managers’ favourites. Professional nurses called for a change in or review of the method of performance assessment. The results indicated that nurse managers were lacking knowledge about performance assessment and, therefore, feedback about performance were not given. It is recommended that on-going training of the nurse managers and a change in the method of assessment will remedy the situation.

<p>The amount of data handled by real-time and embedded applications is increasing. This calls for data-centric approaches when designing embedded systems, where data and its metainformation (e.g., temporal correctness requirements) are stored centrally. The focus of this thesis is on efficient data management, especially maintaining data freshness and guaranteeing correct age on data.</p><p>The contributions of our research are updating algorithms and concurrency control algorithms using data similarity. The updating algorithms keep data items up-to-date and can adapt the number of updates of data items to state changes in the external environment. Further, the updating algorithms can be extended with a relevance check allowing for skipping of unnecessary calculations. The adaptability and skipping of updates have positive effects on the CPU utilization, and freed CPU resources can be reallocated to, e.g., more extensive diagnosis of the system. The proposed multiversion concurrency control algorithms guarantee calculations reading data that is correlated in time.</p><p>Performance evaluations show that updating algorithms with a relevance check give significantly better performance compared to well-established updating approaches, i.e., the applications use more fresh data and are able to complete more tasks in time. The proposed multiversion concurrency control algorithms perform better than HP2PL and OCC and can at the same time guarantee correct age on data items, which HP2PL and OCC cannot guarantee. Thus, from the perspective of the application, more precise data is used to achieve a higher data quality overall, while the number of updates is reduced.</p> / Report code: LiU-Tek-Lic-2004:67.

assessed and strengthened. Performance evaluation of deficient buildings has become a major concern due to devastating earthquakes in the past. In order to justify new provisions in design and assessment codes, experiments and analyses are inherently necessary. In this thesis study, investigations into the behaviour of two deficient reinforced concrete frames built at Middle East Technical University&rsquo / s Structural and Earthquake Laboratory and tested via pseudo-dynamic tests were made. These frames were modelled on the OpenSees platform by following methods of analyses outlined in the Turkish Earthquake Code of 2007 (TEC 2007) and ASCE/SEI-41-06. Both deficient frames were essentially the same, with the only difference being the presence of insufficient lap splices, which was the focus of the study. Time history performance assessments were conducted in accordance to TEC 2007&rsquo / s damage state limits and ASCE/SEI 41-06&rsquo / s performance limits. The damages observed matched the performance levels estimated through the procedure outlined in TEC 2007 rather well. Specific to the specimen with lap splice deficiencies, ASCE/SEI 41-06 was overly conservative in its assessments. TEC 2007&rsquo / s requirements for lap splice lengths were found to be conservative in the laboratory and are able to tolerate deficiencies up to 25% of the required length. With respect to mathematical models, accounting for materials in deficient systems by using nominal but reduced strength properties is not very efficient and unless joint deformations are explicitly accounted for, local deformations cannot be captured.

Titel: Investeringsuppföljningar – En fallstudie på Volvo Construction Equipment i Braås Seminariedatum: 2011-06-01 Ämne/kurs: 2FE13E:3 Författare: Aleksandar Stamenkovic och Donald Bergström Handledare: Anders Jerreling Examinator: Fredrik Karlsson Nyckelord: Post-audits, Capital Budgeting, Investments, Performance Evaluations, ROI, RI, AARR Syfte: Syftet med detta ämnesfördjupande arbete är att förklara de problem som uppstår när avsaknad av investeringsuppföljning föreligger, samt att förklara för hur rutiner av uppföljningar kan organiseras. Metod: Valet föll på att göra en kvalitativ fallstudie gällande Volvo Construction Equipment i Braås. Kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer har utförts med fyra stycken respondenter på anläggningen. Detta ämnesfördjupande arbete har utförts enligt en deduktiv metod och en diskussion förs angående arbetets validitet och reliabilitet. Teori: Den teoretiska referensramen behandlar relevant teori gällande investeringar och uppföljning, vidare behandlas även kortfattat de metoder som används för att bedöma investeringars lönsamhet på Volvo Construction Equipment i Braås. Empiri: Det empiriska avsnittet redovisar data från de semistrukturerade intervjuerna som fördes med personal på anläggningen i Braås. Dessa bestod av ekonomichefen, controllern samt två projektledare. Slutsats: Resultaten som presenteras behandlar komplexiteten med att följa upp investeringar enligt dess faktiska kassaflöden och förkastar därmed en sådan uppföljning för Volvo Construction Equipment i Bråas. Vidare presenteras två konkreta förslag över hur rutiner och metoder för investeringar givet anläggningens förutsättningar kan organiseras. Avslutningsvis för att öka validiteten presenteras respondenternas kommentarer till förslagen.

The current paper describes the concepts of emotional intelligence (EI) and physical attractiveness in relation to their impact on applicant evaluations. As EI has been shown to be linked to work outcomes including job performance, job satisfaction and interpersonal relationships, and as physical attractiveness has been found to influence rater decisions and perceptions of intellectual competence, an examination of these constructs in concert was the focus of the current study. Results found that, on average, attractive employees, older employees, and male employees were rated higher on several dimensions than their counterparts. There was no support for rater EI being linked to attractiveness- or age-related evaluation bias or for rater gender being related to attractiveness- or gender-related rating bias. However, results found that individuals with low EI were less consistent in their ratings, when job irrelevant information was disclosed versus undisclosed, than those with high EI. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Containerization is widely recognized as a form of lightweight virtualization in the cloud. Due to its reliability, maturity, and rich capabilities, kubernetes has established itself as the de-facto standard for deployments and maintenance of containers. The availability of a kubernetes cluster for a cloud-native application would depend on the availability of the zone or region where the nodes are running. In general, the kubernetes cluster is deployed in a single shared network, but for higher availability, the nodes of the kubernetes cluster can be deployed in multiple regions. Deploying a multi-region kubernetes cluster aids in providing high availability for the service, allowing the data to be located closer to users, even when they are dispersed globally. However, with greater benefits come greater challenges, and networking in multi-region kubernetes clusters has proven to be a complex issue. Usually, kubernetes in a multi-region environment can be achieved by using tunneling across the worker nodes that are located in multiple regions and by using the VPN protocols as an overlay network. In this thesis, I investigated the performance of different VPN solutions in a multi-region kubernetes cluster and examine how these VPN solutions support kubernetes deployment. A literature review is conducted to identify the most common factors influencing VPN performance and to gather information on the differences between VPN solutions. I compared the response times of the multi-region Kubernetes cluster deployed with VPN solutions to the response times of the single shared region Kubernetes cluster also deployed with VPN solutions. This comparison allowed me to evaluate the performance of the VPN solution in a multi-region Kubernetes cluster. The aim of this thesis is to present the most influential factors, an overview of proposed VPN solutions, and performance comparisons of different VPN solutions in a multi-region kubernetes cluster.

The Master’s thesis deals with the proposal to improve employee benefits in company. The theoretical part is dedicated to a summary of knowledge related to the human resources management and its evaluation and reward. A large part is focused on individual forms of employee benefits. The practical part contains an analysis of the current situation in the chosen company, on the basis of which are worked out the proposals of changes to the current system.