This thesis discusses an action-research (AR) project which investigated the problem of information management for housing maintenance. The research commenced with the intention of developing an expert system for housing maintenance management. The first step in this process is to understand the environment and user requirements, and it was this quest for understanding which subsequently became the focus for the research. A systemic approach was adopted to re-examine the problem situation holistically, as opposed to the more traditional reductionist view. Checkland's softsystems methodology (SSM) provided the framework for systematic enquiry. SSM offers an approach which can be used for accurate problem recognition and definition in messy, ill-structured and often complex human activity systems. The necessity for accurate and appropriate problem identification techniques when attempting to manage information was crucial in the shaping of this project. Upon reflection, the project consisted of five clearly defined phases which emerged in response to events and opportunities faced by the researcher. These phases can be categorised as either 'diagnostic' or 'therapeutic' and each consisted of a cyclical process of enquiry. This thesis comprises four parts which mirror this cyclical learning process in each phase of the AR. Part 1, Problem Recognition, deals with the subject matter and introduces the conceptual framework used for Information System (IS) analysis. Part 2, Action Planning, details the research approach and methodology; and the development of the research strategy, design and choice of data collection techniques. Part 3, Action Taking, presents the fieldwork and describes the AR data collection and analysis process. Part 4, Evaluation, provides a critical review of the research approach, details the research contribution and a methodological reevaluation. The research contribution is considered in three areas, (a) specific substantive contribution to an understanding of housing management information systems, (b) theoretical contribution to an understanding of a soft-systems approach to participative IS analysis and evaluation, and, remembering the origins of the study (c) the utility and immediate benefits to housing maintenance practice. These combine in the creation of a participative methodology and integrated framework to identify information requirements for housing maintenance management. The re-evaluation and research review identifies how AR and SSM could be developed by utilizing aspects of action learning.

Magister Commercii (Information Management) - MCom(IM) / The Public Sector encounters great challenges in its attempts to strengthen its public services. Public servants are in need of accurate and up-to-date information that can be readily accessible. They need information to be made available for effective and efficient decision-making. In order to improve service delivery, the Public Sector must aim to reach its objectives by increasing and improving accountability, transparency, efficiency, productivity and quality of services. This study focuses on factors, which influence information management in a Public Sector Department in an effective way to manage information properly. An extensive literature review was conducted of information, the role of information management, the possible critical failure and success factors of information management. This led to the discovery of four main categories for critical failure factors: (i) people; (ii) process; (iii) policy and; (iv) technology; and three categories for critical success factors: (i) organizational culture; (ii) top management support; and (iii) strategies. A conceptual model was then developed for these categories with seventeen factors. This model was subsequently tested in the empirical setting of the studied Public Sector Department in South Africa by utilising a qualitative approach through the case-study method. The findings suggest that the following factors would impact the successful implementation of an information management initiative for this Public Sector Department: information management; change management and communication strategies; culture; roles of responsibility for information; information lifecycle process; and information management policy. The intended audience for this study includes both academics and practitioners, as it introduces a conceptual model, as well as guidelines to implement these factors for information management in a Public Sector Department.

0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu

This thesis investigates the Teachers' League of South Africa's (TLSA, League or Teachers' League) ideas and practice of non-collaboration. It seeks to ascertain whether these ideas and practices continued after the organisation merged with several public sector unions in the National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (NUPSAW) at the end of the last century. The thesis tracks the emergence and changing dynamics of the TLSA from the early decades of the twentieth century, as it developed and grew in the Western Cape, a region that was its nerve centre and where it was most active. There is a focus on the endeavours of the League to adapt and grow during the political and educational tumult of the 1990s, a period characterised by negotiations, reconciliatory and consensual politics that centred on nation building, and which was unreceptive if not clearly hostile to the organisation's non-collaborationist stance. The thesis employs an historical approach to contextualise the development of the League's non-collaborationism, and to elucidate the impact of South Africa's changing political, economic and educational landscape on the organisation. Extensive interviews were conducted, therewith giving a voice to the writing of history from below, embracing the experiences and perceptions of League members and the teacher activists who interacted with them before, but more so during and even beyond the 1990s. Documentary material of the TLSA and its umbrella body, the Unity Movement, dating back to the 1940s, provides the key primary sources for the study, while secondary information on the development of South Africa's political economy and the liberation movement offers valuable insights and alternative perspectives on the TLSA and Unity Movement. The thesis endorses the notion that appearances are at times intermingled with the opposite of what is being perceived, and thus challenges assumptions that the League's policy of non-collaboration was fixed and timeless. Instead, the thesis seeks to uncover the incongruities, nuances and complexity of this distinctive quality of the organisation, in an attempt finally, to elucidate its transformative potential in the present period.

The diploma thesis introduces the domain of proactive disclosure of public sector information via linked open data. At the start, the legal framework encompassing public sector information is expounded along with the basic approaches for its disclosure. The practices of publishing data as open data are defined as an ap- proach for proactive disclosure that is based on the application of the principle of openness to data with the goal to enable equal access and equal use of the data. The reviewed practices range from necessary legal actions, choices of appropriate technologies, and ways in which the technologies should be used to achieve the best data quality. Linked data is presented as a knowledge technology that, for the most part, fulfils the requirements on open technology suitable for open data. The thesis extrapolates further from the adoption of linked open data in the public sector to recognize the impact and challenges proceeding from this change. The distinctive focus on the side supplying data and the trust in the transformative effects of technological changes are identified among the key sources of these challenges. The emphasis on technologies for data disclosure at the expense of a more careful attention to the use of data is presented as a possible source of risks that may undermine the...

Proposes to determine the relative importance of factors on which people rely in choosing a place to live and their assessments of a local area in the Southeastern USA. Presents recommendations to aid local authorities in improving quality of life in the region. Concludes that this should be done in partnership with non-governmental entities such as Parent/Teacher Associations or trustees of local art councils for effective changes to be made.

This research project addresses the issues affecting information technology development and deployment. The issues represented in this study are addressed in the context of IT implementation processes, especially with regard to the question of the needs and perceptions of administrators from the local government arena. In addition, this study will provide an exploratory look at the problematic issues surrounding IT implementation and how local government administrators--in particular--perceive them. More specifically, this study provides the following: a discussion of management and organizational issues that have a direct relationship to IT and local government implementation needs; a discussion of the problems which are specific to local government executives with regard to IT implementation; a comprehensive view of the overriding problems associated with the IT development and deployment process in local government; descriptive data revealing local government executive's perceptions about the issues surrounding IT development processes; and a basis for development of an IT implementation framework for local government. Each of these provisions is integral to developing a comprehensive understanding of the problems associated with the planning, acquisition, and implementation of ITs in local government. These provisions lay the foundations for future development of an IT implementation framework for local government. The research in this study suggests that there are three primary results, which are shown here. The first is that strategic planning for IT is fundamental to the ultimate effectiveness of IT implementation. Planning with regard to IT acquisition and deployment has proven to be a difficult accomplishment regardless of organization type or sector. This study specifically addresses many of the issues surrounding this problem, as it is integral to the implementation process as a whole. Secondly, it is shown that interdepartmental coordination has proven to be a major factor in effective IT implementation. Previous studies in this area have shown a propensity over the course of the development of IT towards decentralization of the acquisition and management of technologies. This trend speaks directly to the issue of interdepartmental coordination and the difficulties local government managers face when attempting to implement ITs in their organizations. Finally, it is shown that the expertise levels of executives with regard to IT has proven to be a contributing factor to effectiveness of the IT development and deployment process. / Ph. D.

This is a conceptual paper whose aim is to relate the development of ‘individualization’ (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim 2002) to organizational leadership. It does this by examining individualization alongside the implicit assumption on which orthodox approaches to leadership are founded, namely that leadership is an individualized phenomenon. Despite the expanding literature on these topics, particularly that on leadership, these concepts have not been examined in relation to one another. This paper seeks to do this in two ways. Firstly, it highlights the increased attention given to leadership in the UK public sector, locating leadership as a continuation of public sector managerialism. Secondly, it discusses the development of the trend of individualization more broadly. The paper’s main discussion focuses on leadership as an individual activity and of the consequences of that approach. In particular, it argues that individualized leadership presents a restrictive perspective which does not allow for exploration of a broader range of leadership approaches, particularly that of distributed leadership, which have especial relevance for public sector organizations.

Many public administration scholars and administrators look to the concept of organizational learning as a means of coping with shrinking resources and increasing responsibilities and accountability. At the theoretical level, the notion of organizational learning is appealing, since it emphasizes achieving organizational goals through optimization of internal resources, i.e., assimilation of staff members' fullest potential and organizational visions through the synergistic effects of knowledge creation and continuous learning. There has been a fascination without foundation about organizational learning among scholars of public sector organizations because the validity and utility of organizational learning theory has not been tested in public sector organizations. From the perspective of organizational learning, this dissertation evaluates an intervention program–the penetration rate enhancement project (PREP)–to determine whether and to what extent organization learning has taken place in selected localities. The penetration rate is a foster care funding ratio of federal to state and local dollars. The Commonwealth of Virginia's Department of Social Services through collaborative relationships sought to impart policy knowledge (cooptation) in the local departments of social services (LDSS). This study measured the presence (or absence) of a learning environment that was hypothesized to influence the degree of organizational learning and tested whether it correlates with learning variations as approximated by the penetration rate in LDSSs over a period of more than four years. The main research focus is whether an effective learning environment was related to the extent of learning and thereby may help explain learning variation in public sector organizations. This study uses mixed methods to examine the research questions. The study found evidence of some differential, dispersed, and intermittent learning in various localities. The localities are classified as exhibiting conscious learning, facade learning, unaware learning, and absent learning. Those localities that learned and exhibited evidence of a learning environment are referred to as conscious learners; those localities that saw the presence of learning environment but had not been able to learn are referred to as having experienced facade learning; those localities that have learned but did not see a presence of a leaning environment are referred as to being marked by unaware learning; and those localities that did not learn and did not have a presence of a learning environment are referred to as exhibiting absent learning. The anecdotes of special difficulties experienced by public sector organizations to learn have been reaffirmed by the differential perceptions about learning environments held by the senior and junior level staffers in LDSSs. It is also apparent that problematic organizational structures, an economic (dis)incentive system, and the omission of financial component all contributed to the constraints on organizational learning in LDSSs. Despite the constraints, however, the PREP was largely successful in cultivating organizational learning at the LDSSs, and the organizational learning lens for evaluating intervention programs in public sector organizations at the local level was valid. / Ph. D.

No / This paper aims to describe the development of a wholly new model of transformational leadership and its applications in practice. The paper provides a description of a wholly new, inclusive model of transformational leadership and the way in which it can be applied in practice, in the context of embedding good leadership within the culture of an organisation and ensuring "best practice" in 360-degree feedback. The paper finds that the Transformational Leadership Questionnaire (TLQ)¿, which is both gender- and ethnicity-inclusive measure of "nearby" leadership, differs fundamentally from the kind of "heroic" models that have emanated from the USA and which have dominated the literature. Comparative data are presented of the mean scores on the TLQ, based on direct reports' ratings of their line manager, across a wide range of public sector organisations, including local government, the NHS, schools, and two central government agencies. Patterns emerge in areas of strength and developmental need, and the implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the impact of leadership behaviour and its effect on the psychological safety and well-being at work of staff. The following needs are identified: - to adopt a model of leadership that is relevant to the needs of organisations in the twenty-first century; to embed good leadership practices at all levels; to ensure that, when 360-degree feedback is given, it is done so in a way that conforms to the principles of 'best practice'. The following model of "nearby" leadership that is described is relevant to leaders at all levels in public and private sector organisations. It points to the consequences of poor leadership behaviour, and the need for the adoption of a model of leadership that is relevant to the needs of the twenty-first century.