Strategic decision makers typically use a wide range of communication and information media in complex, uncertain and often ambiguous or politically charged organizational contexts. However, little help is available in ensuring that their information behaviour is efficient and effective. This study evaluates the use of information systems (IS) as communication media in strategic decision-making processes (SDMPs), focusing on strategic information processing, and how context affects its performance. The analysed strategic decisions (n = 113) were taken in the time period between 2000 and 2008 in large Western organisations. The aim of this investigation was to look at the link between the use of IS during the decision-making process and the performance of the SDMP, taking into account internal and external contextual factors. Using existing information processing theory and research on the SDMP as a theoretical basis, hypotheses were developed and environmental contingencies and political information behaviour were selected as moderating effects on the relationship of IS use and the performance of strategic decisions. A survey and complementary semi-structured interviews were conducted, which studied particular strategic decisions through quantitative and qualitative methods. Results provide support for a number of the study's hypotheses; however, several interesting findings regarding contextual factors, such as information anarchy and environmental munificence/hostility, do not support the hypotheses. Implications for theory and practice concerning information behaviour and its context are discussed.

To motivate effort, organizations commonly use budget-based tangible rewards (e.g., gift cards, merchandise) in lieu of or in addition to cash rewards and they can distribute tangible rewards to employees either directly (employees are given merchandise directly) or indirectly (via a redeemable points program). In conjunction with various budget-based financial rewards, employees can receive feedback about how they performed relative to other employees. However, employees can intentionally misstate their expected performance (i.e., create budget slack) when participating in the budgeting process, impairing the usefulness of budgets for planning and motivation. This dissertation investigates the effects of different types of budget-based rewards (cash, tangible, or redeemable points) on budget slack creation and performance, and whether relative performance information [RPI] moderates these effects. As predicted, results from an experiment completed by 166 undergraduate students show that participants eligible to earn redeemable points create less slack (i.e., set more difficult performance budgets) than those eligible for cash or direct tangible rewards. Further, RPI provides participants with a descriptive norm that slack creation is socially acceptable, resulting in more slack. Although I do not find support for the predicted indirect relationship between reward type or RPI on performance via their effects on budget slack, I do find that the provision of RPI has a direct positive effect on performance. Finally, supplemental analysis shows that those provided with RPI and cash rewards outperform all others. These results suggest that firms choosing to provide budget-based tangible rewards and allowing employees to participate in the budgeting process should consider using a redeemable points system rather than providing rewards directly to eligible employees. Further, before deciding whether to provide RPI to employees, firms should weigh the positive direct effects of RPI on performance against its negative effects on budget slack creation. Last, if a firm does choose to provide employees with RPI because of its positive effects on employee effort, firms may be well-advised to offer employees budget-based cash rewards instead of budget- based tangible rewards or budget-based points rewards.

abstract: As a term and method that is rapidly gaining popularity, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is under the scrutiny of many building professionals questioning its potential benefits on their projects. A relevant and accepted calculation methodology and baseline to properly evaluate BIM's benefits have not been established, thus there are mixed perspectives and opinions of the benefits of BIM, creating a general misunderstanding of the expected outcomes. The purpose of this thesis was to develop a more complete methodology to analyze the benefits of BIM, apply recent projects to this methodology to quantify outcomes, resulting in a more a holistic framework of BIM and its impacts on project efficiency. From the literature, a framework calculation model to determine the value of BIM is developed and presented. The developed model is applied via case studies within a large industrial setting where similar projects are evaluated, some implementing BIM and some with traditional non-BIM approaches. Cost or investment metrics were considered along with benefit or return metrics. The return metrics were: requests for information, change orders, and duration improvements. The investment metrics were: design and construction costs. The methodology was tested against three separate cases and results on the returns and investments are presented. The findings indicate that in the tool installation department of semiconductor manufacturing, there is a high potential for BIM benefits to be realized. The evidence also suggests that actual returns and investments will vary with each project. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Construction 2011

abstract: Commodity contracts are often awarded on the basis of price. A price-based methodology for making such awards fails to consider the suppliers' ability to minimize the risk of non-performance in terms of cost, schedule, or customer satisfaction. Literature suggests that nearly all risk in the delivery of commodities is in the interfacing of nodes within a supply chain. Therefore, commodity suppliers should be selected on the basis of their past performance, ability to identify and minimize risk, and capacity to preplan the delivery of services. Organizations that select commodity suppliers primarily on the basis of price may experience customer dissatisfaction, delayed services, low product quality, or some combination thereof. One area that is often considered a "commodity" is the delivery of furniture services. Arizona State University, on behalf of the Arizona Tri-University Furniture Consortium, approached the researcher and identified concerns with their current furnishing services contract. These concerns included misaligned customer expectations, minimal furniture supplier upfront involvement on large capital construction projects, and manufacturer design expertise was not being utilized during project preplanning. The Universities implemented a best value selection process and risk management structure. The system has resulted in a 9.3 / 10 customer satisfaction rating (24 percent increase over the previous system), for over 1,100 furniture projects totaling $19.3M. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Construction 2012

abstract: The construction industry in India suffers from major time and cost overruns. Data from government and industry reports suggest that projects suffer from 20 to 25 percent time and cost overruns. Waste of resources has been identified as a major source of inefficiency. Despite a substantial increase in the past few years, demand for professionals and contractors still exceeds supply by a large margin. The traditional methods adopted in the Indian construction industry may not suffice the needs of this dynamic environment, as they have produced large inefficiencies. Innovative ways of procurement and project management can satisfy the needs aspired to as well as bring added value. The problems faced by the Indian construction industry are very similar to those faced by other developing countries. The objective of this paper is to discuss and analyze the economic concerns, inefficiencies and investigate a model that both explains the Indian construction industry structure and provides a framework to improve efficiencies. The Best Value (BV) model is examined as an approach to be adopted in lieu of the traditional approach. This could result in efficient construction projects by minimizing cost overruns and delays, which until now have been a rarity. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Construction 2013

This study set out to study performance management implementation in the education sector in a province of Zimbabwe. The study argues that the implementation of performance management in schools has been done in a haphazard manner without serious consideration for the factors that impede successful implementation of change programmes. The study identified the human, financial, technological, information and structural issues that influenced the commitment to successful implementation. Other factors are the lack of material resources and other intangible resources such as organizational culture and deemed necessary for the successful implementation of practices such as performance management together with the intangible A literature search and empirical study were developed through focussed study on an international level, the international perspective on how performance management is implemented in selected geographical locations to establish what international practice is regarding performance management implementation was done. Qualitative approaches to data collection were involved in the study as focus groups and in-depth interviews with twenty-six respondents were done. Findings suggest that the implementation process is flawed and does not consider deeply the factors that are necessary for implementation of performance management. Implementer perception issues bar see performance management being implemented in ritualistic manner as a way of satisfying policy requirements without any improved out come from the process, There is widespread evidence that the performance information is used selectively in a manner that satisfies the needs of the employer and not for purposes of developing, training and remunerating employees. The study recommends high participation and commitment of implementing agents for the implementation process to succeed and the heavy investment in training of human capital, the availability of requisite resources and the building of high level hard skills and soft skills as necessary for the successful implementation performance management in schools. Remuneration plays a very important part in ensuring the promotion of the individual‟s goals in order to realise the organizations goals. The flow of information as communication and feedback from the lower reaches of the province‟s lower rungs ensure that the programme is well understood by implementers and at the same time the information is used to clarify theposition of the programme so that impediments may be minimised. Lastly, the study identified areas for further research which if carried out will improve the knowledge of how such programmes may be perfected in order to ensure a high degree of success with the implementation process. / PhD (Educational Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

This study set out to study performance management implementation in the education sector in a province of Zimbabwe. The study argues that the implementation of performance management in schools has been done in a haphazard manner without serious consideration for the factors that impede successful implementation of change programmes. The study identified the human, financial, technological, information and structural issues that influenced the commitment to successful implementation. Other factors are the lack of material resources and other intangible resources such as organizational culture and deemed necessary for the successful implementation of practices such as performance management together with the intangible A literature search and empirical study were developed through focussed study on an international level, the international perspective on how performance management is implemented in selected geographical locations to establish what international practice is regarding performance management implementation was done. Qualitative approaches to data collection were involved in the study as focus groups and in-depth interviews with twenty-six respondents were done. Findings suggest that the implementation process is flawed and does not consider deeply the factors that are necessary for implementation of performance management. Implementer perception issues bar see performance management being implemented in ritualistic manner as a way of satisfying policy requirements without any improved out come from the process, There is widespread evidence that the performance information is used selectively in a manner that satisfies the needs of the employer and not for purposes of developing, training and remunerating employees. The study recommends high participation and commitment of implementing agents for the implementation process to succeed and the heavy investment in training of human capital, the availability of requisite resources and the building of high level hard skills and soft skills as necessary for the successful implementation performance management in schools. Remuneration plays a very important part in ensuring the promotion of the individual‟s goals in order to realise the organizations goals. The flow of information as communication and feedback from the lower reaches of the province‟s lower rungs ensure that the programme is well understood by implementers and at the same time the information is used to clarify theposition of the programme so that impediments may be minimised. Lastly, the study identified areas for further research which if carried out will improve the knowledge of how such programmes may be perfected in order to ensure a high degree of success with the implementation process. / PhD (Educational Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The recent financial crisis has raised serious questions about the effectiveness of corporate governance (CG) in monitoring management and protecting investors’ interests. There is concern that ‘poor’ CG was, to a certain extent, a major cause of the current financial crisis. This thesis, therefore, investigates the crucial policy question of whether the quality of CG has any effect on financial performance, information asymmetry and on block shareholders’ investment decisions. This is achieved and presented in the form of three essays on CG practices in UK with a particular focus on the periods before and during the 2007/2008 financial crisis. The first essay aims to investigate the impact of firm-level CG on block shareholders’ investment decisions for a large sample of UK non-financial firms over the period 2005 to 2009. Using a panel data analysis, the results revealed the importance of CG for block shareholders’ investment decisions. Furthermore, the study results indicated that only institutional block shareholders consider CG to be important criteria for their investment decisions. Moreover, when the effect of CG on block shareholdings in both periods before and during crisis was examined, a significant difference in results appeared: an insignificant positive relationship in the pre-crisis period turned out to be significant during crisis. The result thus indicates that block shareholders viewed CG as particularly important during the crisis period. The second essay aims to examine the effect of CG on firm performance before and during the financial crisis. It also investigates the mediating effect of agency costs on the association between CG and firm performance. The results revealed that CG affects firm performance only in the period before the crisis, but no significant effect was found during the crisis period. Moreover, agency cost was proved to fully mediate the relationship between CG and performance in the pre-crisis period. The results point to an important issue, which is the need to re-evaluate CG not only in stable periods but also during turbulent times, and to evaluate its ability to perform effectively in such different conditions. The third essay investigates the effect of both CG and block ownership on information asymmetry. Further, the effects of CG in lessening the positive association between block ownership and information asymmetry is considered. The results revealed that CG affects information asymmetry only in the pre-crisis. In addition, block ownership was shown to have a significant and positive effect on information asymmetry during crisis periods suggesting that block shareholders benefit from their information advantage during crisis period which in turn worsens the information asymmetry problem. This suggests that block shareholders engage more in their private benefits rather than in efficient monitoring. The results also proved that CG is insignificant during turbulent period in lessening the negative effect of block ownership.

In this study, employees are given autonomy in effort allocation across two tasks - complex and simple tasks, where the return to the organization is significantly higher for the complex task requiring high skill than for the simple task requiring low skill. An unavoidable feature of multi-task settings is that effort expended on one task detracts from effort that can be expended on another task. This effort trade-off among tasks becomes problematic when the returns from different tasks are unequal, with important consequences for a firm's overall performance. The design of management accounting control systems in such multi-task setting is difficult because organizations have to achieve multiple objectives: to improve productivity on both simple and complex tasks (i.e., performance) and to direct employee effort to more complex tasks given that the complex tasks are more valuable to firms (i.e., effort allocation). In a laboratory experiment, I examine the effects of two motivational mechanisms, financial compensation and relative performance information (RPI), on employee performance and effort allocation between simple and complex tasks. I find that the effects of RPI and financial compensation are independent such that each motivational mechanism affects performance and effort allocation separately. In addition, I find that the effects of RPI or financial compensation depend on whether a worker is a top performer or a bottom performer. Also, findings demonstrate that the effects of these motivational mechanisms on employee effort allocation and performance depend on the complexity of the task. Future research studies and managers who design incentive systems should consider the implementation of different types of incentives for different performer levels. Organizations should consider the degree of complexity of the tasks that workers must perform in multi-task settings.

Die Arbeit zielt darauf ab, ein tieferes Verständnis darüber zu schaffen, wodurch die Verwendung von Performance-Informationen in der öffentlichen Verwaltung bestimmt wird. Ausgehend von einer Literaturrecherche zu den wichtigsten theoretischen Erklärungen für die Verwendung von Performance-Informationen wird ein Analyseraster entwickelt, anhand dessen der Grad der Informationsverwendung in der Verwaltung operationalisiert wird. Anschließend wird eine Fallstudie über die Berliner Sozialhilfeverwaltung durchgeführt. Es kann gezeigt werden, dass verschiedene Verwaltungsakteure desselben Politikbereichs heterogene Präferenzen besitzen und sich folglich auch ihre Erwartungen an Performance-Informationen unterscheiden: Da beispielsweise die Sozialämter in den Berliner Bezirken hauptsächlich im „operativen Tagesgeschäft“ involviert sind, richtet sich ihr Hauptaugenmerk auf Kennzahlen, die diese Perspektive abdecken. Demgegenüber liegt etwa auf der Landesseite das Augenmerkt der Senatsverwaltung für Finanzen mehr auf den Kosteninformationen, da hier die Steuerung über die Globalsummenzuweisung an die Bezirke erfolgt. Es lassen sich verschiedene Indizien finden, um die Verwendung dieser Daten erklären zu können. Es wird festgestellt, dass der Schwerpunkt bislang eindimensional auf den Finanzdaten liegt. Die Verwendung lässt sich vor allem durch die subjektive politische Brisanz bestimmter Daten sowie durch die Einstellung der Führungskräfte gegenüber einer performance-basierten Steuerungsphilosophie erklären. / While there is a vast number of (often prescriptive) literature on the organization of performance management systems and the potential perils and pitfalls, little is known about how performance management is actually “lived” in the context of the German public administration. This contribution sheds light on the question how performance information is used in the social welfare administration of the German capital city of Berlin. After narrowing down the most important terms and concepts, a literature review on theoretical aspects on performance information use is carried out in order to develop an analytical framework. Afterwards, performance information use is illustrated with a case study whereby a triangulation of methods (analysis of official documents and expert interviews) is applied. The findings are that first and foremost financial information is used. It depends on the administrative level (central financial administration, central social administration and administration in the city districts) which kind of performance information actually is used most often. A further result is that the variance in the use of performance information can be explained best with the factor of available knowledge – both on professional and on technical side. Due to the severe financial situation Berlin is facing and because of an overrepresentation of cost accountants with a background in business studies, a chance for policy change is seen only to a very limited extent.