AFRIKAANS : Hierdie studie is onderneem om te bepaal wat die persepsies van boere in die Letaba Distrik is oor die invloed van die instelling van die minimum loon vir landbou op hulle boerderybesighede. Die navorser wou bepaal of die boere hulle werknemers se werkskontrakte aangepas het of die loonpakket geherstruktureer het om vir die invloed op hulle boerderybesigheid te kompenseer. Die navorser wou ook bepaal of die indiensneming van plaaswerkers beïnvloed is. Laastens wou die navorser bepaal wat die invloed van die instelling van die minimum loon op die organisasiegedrag van plaaswerkers was. Om antwoorde op bogenoemde vraagstukke te verkry, het die navorser ‘n vraelys spesifiek vir die doeleindes van hierdie studie ontwerp. Die vraelys is deur al die sitrus boere in die Letaba distrik voltooi. Na bestudering van die inligting wat uit die data van die vraelyste verkry is, het die navorser tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat boere permanente werknemers met tydelike werknemers vervang het en die loonpakket aangepas het deur die kontantloon te verhoog, maar ook die aftrekkings vir dienste en goedere wat voorheen kosteloos verskaf is. Indiensneming van plaaswerkers is baie negatief beïnvloed, met ongeveer 1270 permanente poste wat afgeskaf is na die instelling van die minimum loon. Wat die invloed op organisasiegedrag betref, het die minimum loon geen invloed na ‘n klein negatiewe invloed op afwesigheid en personeelomset getoon. Ten opsigte van produktiwiteit was werkgewers van mening dat, waar produktiwiteit verhoog het, dit as gevolg van beter bestuurspraktyke was. Werkgewers glo eerder dat die instelling van die minimum loon hulle werknemers se produktiwiteit laat daal het. Die implikasies van die resultate van hierdie studie is verreikend wanneer in ag geneem word dat bykans 1270 permanente poste op slegs 38 plase afgeskaf is. Dit impliseer dat die aantal poste wat in die landbou as geheel afgeskaf is, baie groot kan wees. Die persepsies van die boere oor die instelling van die minimum loon was dat dit ‘n bedreiging vir die volhoubaarheid van hulle boerderybesighede inhou en dat dit hulle verplig om stappe te neem om daarvoor te kompenseer, stappe wat nie noodwendig tot voordeel van werknemers strek nie. ENGLISH : This study was undertaken to ascertain what the perceptions of farmers in the Letaba district aren about the impact of the introduction of the minimum wage for agriculture on their farming businesses. The researcher wanted to ascertain whether the farmers adapted their workers’ contracts or restructured their wage package to compensate for the impact on the farming businesses. The researcher also wanted to ascertain whether the employment of farm workers were influenced. Lastly, the researcher wanted to ascertain what the influence of the introduction of the minimum wage was on the organisational behaviour of farm workers. To get answers on the above mentioned issues, the researcher designed a questionnaire specifically for this study. The questionnaire was completed by all the citrus farmers in the Letaba district. After studying the information derived from the data of the questionnaires, the researcher came to the conclusion that farmers substituted permanent workers with temporary workers and adapted the wage package by raising the cash wage but also the deductions of goods and services that were previously provided free of charge. Employment of farm workers were influenced very negatively with about 1270 permanent jobs that were scrapped after the introduction of the minimum wage. Regarding the impact on organisational behaviour, the minimum wage showed a small negative to no influence on absenteeism and worker turnover. Regarding productivity, employers were of the opinion the, where productivity was raised, it was due to improved management practises. Employers believe that the introduction of the minimum wage caused their workers’ productivity to decrease. The implications of the results of this study are far reaching when it is taken into account that roundabout 1270 permanent jobs were lost on only 38 farms. This implies that the amount of jobs lost in agriculture as a whole, could be great. The perceptions of farmers about the introduction of the minimum wage are that it is a threat to the sustainability of their farming businesses and that it obliges them to take steps to compensate for the impact, steps that aren’t always advantageous for the workers. Copyright 2008, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Minnaar, ME 2008, Persepsies oor die uitwerking van minimum lone op die sitrusbedryf (Afrikaans), MCom dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-02132012-100400 / > C12/4/72/gm / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

The aim of the thesis is to evaluate the performance of the company AGRALL Ltd., which sells agricultural equipment. This thesis is split into two parts. The first part describes the theoretical assumptions and used methods. The second part applies theoretical knowledge to the data of the selected company. At first, the performance is evaluated by traditional indicators of profitability and then by using the economic value added which is calculated according to the methodology of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Czech Republic. The company data are compared with values of indicators for the sector and with the data of the selected competition to ensure better explanatory capability. At the end of thesis the findings are evaluated and improvements are recommended.

This thesis explores the nature of cyber-security at the beginning of the 21st century. In the current security paradigm, security strategies based on anticipatory governance have become essential in the management of the constantly changing cyber-security environment. Thus, this thesis aims to understand security strategies and governance introduced in the European region. The increased dependency on cyber-space is visible in all public-private sectors and governmental operations, as well as communications between groups and individuals. As a result, cyber-attacks on public and private entities are increasing. This requires a security framework that is flexible and establishes different types of security cooperation to manage the widespread cyber-risks. This is essential to the development of security strategies, governance forms, practices, and guidelines for enhancing resilience and preparedness towards cyber-risks. Therefore, I am examining cyber-security through the lenses of nodal governance and governmentality, which enables me to understand European cyber-security strategies and governance forms developed by the Council of Europe, the European Union, and the North-Atlantic Treaty Organization. To analyse existing strategies and governance forms, I have used two critical security schools, the Copenhagen School and the Paris School, which cover different aspects of the security agenda. The thesis develops a substantive analytical framework through two case studies, namely cyber-security and cyber-terrorism. The findings in this thesis identifies problem areas, such as the complexity of the nodal system, the legislative lacuna, reliance on different governance forms, transparency and accountability, and types of anticipatory governance and regulatory practices.

The goal of master thesis Afghanistan as an insulator of regional complexes? Sectoral analysis of Afghan security was to analyze security of Afghanistan based on sectors and from the viewpoint of Regional security complex theory developed by Barry Buzan and Ole Wæver. The purpose of the thesis was to review categorization of Afghanistan as an insulator and identify factors which undermine his status as such. Afghanistan's location is very much unique because it lies among three different regional security complexes - Central Asia, The Middle East, and South Asia. The analysis was conducted through combination of a) discourse analysis of statements and speeches of president Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah (2014 - ) and added with information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and b) material relations in regions, such as trade routes, military aid etc. and c) history. Analysis is based on military, political, and economic sectors. The discursive analysis pays attention to the perception of Afghanistan on itself with focus on institutional discourse and broader debate in the English-speaking afghan media.

The increased complexity in the public administration has shed light on cross sectoral governance and its challenges. The aim of this study is to investigate how governments organize cross sectoral policy areas. Through a comparison between the Integration Agency and the Gender Equality Agency in Sweden, I investigate how the government has organized the integration policy and the gender equality policy, as well as how the government has argued for the agencies existence. The results show how the policy areas were organized, and the conclusions of the study are that cross sectoral agencies have a difficult mission to work for a policy’s breakthrough in the society, through collaborations with non-defined agencies, municipalities, and organizations. Other agencies tend to not prioritize the cross sectoral policies. Another conclusion is that cross sectoral agencies risk termination when there is a change of government, especially if the creation of the agency lacks a wide support from the parliament. A last conclusion is that the government might react to “problems” in the policy field by both creating a new agency and terminating an existing one. This sheds light on government’s tendency to reform policy as a way of rationalizing and legitimize the policy area.

In this study an attempt has been made to explore the role of technology transfer in the economic growth of Iraq, through the change in the technology itself for the period 1960-1978. For this purpose the economy was disaggregated into seven sectors. The experience of developed countries has shown that technical change is one of the most important factors of economic growth alongside, or even overshadowing, such factors as labour and capital. In the light of technology transfer, developing countries have the advantage of introducing high levels of advancement of knowledge which can be used to induce domestic technical change at later stages. Technical change is normally defined as a shift in the production function, and for this reason two forms of production function were estimated and tested, i. e. the constant elasticity of substitution and the Cobb-Douglas function. Also two specifications (constant and variable) were assigned to technical change. To validate the use of these, statistical tests were conducted to establish the optimum fit. Then the selected form was used to simulate output levels for comparison with actual figures. The techniques used for estimation are both linear and non-linear. Data used are time series in real terms of capital stock and output, as well as number of persons employed. Furthermore in order to judge the importance of technical change to the growth of output on aggregate and sectoral levels, as regards economic growth, comparisons were drawn with existing data from other developed and developing countries, including centrally planned economies.

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While the Internet has provided numerous positive opportunities for networking and connection, its borderless nature has also posed significant challenges, including Online Grooming. This study aims to elucidate initiatives for safeguarding minors online and enhance protective measures, by exploring the phenomenon of Online Grooming. It will focus on the characteristics of Online Grooming, victim dynamics, combating measures, and cross-sectoral collaboration within a Danish context. To achieve this, semi-structured interviews were conducted across sectors with 13 professionals selected based on their expertise in either the age group (12-15 years) or the concept of Online Grooming. Thematic analysis was applied in order to obtain a thorough understanding of the phenomenon, and guided by the theoretical frameworks of Routine Activity theory and Shattered Assumptions theory. The empirical findings of this study provided insights to the characteristics of modus operandi and the consequences hereof. Furthermore, the empirical findings of this study revealed correlation between personal vulnerability factors and the characteristics of the age group as risk factors for victimization. This study also underscored a need for an improved systematized and formalized collaboration across sectors to effectively combat Online Grooming, while also cautiously considering the focus of the preventative and reactive initiatives. Finally, the results indicated an emphasis on parental collaboration and involvement as a part of the protective measures. This study and its findings contribute to a better understanding of the complexities of Online Grooming, which can be of relevance for policy implications in continuing the protection of minors online.

This thesis reports on research focuses on how to deal with the fact that the organization and processesof today’s health and social care are becoming ever more complex as a consequence of societal trends, including an aging population and an increased reliance on care at home. The overall research goal is to suggest ways in which IT-based solutions can enable and leverage collaboration and coordination insituations where a co-morbid patient is subject to care delivered simultaneously by several different professionals and organizations. Patient-centered care is defined as quality health and social care achieved through a partnership between informed and respected patients, their families, and coordinated health and social care teams who conduct care activities according to jointly determined care plans. Against a background of several years of research on patient-centered collaborative care using adesign science approach, using techniques such as focus groups, interviews, and document studies, the author of the thesis has further pursued the work in a project named CoCare. Results show that the care required in aging societies is both a social and a technical challenge. Meeting this challenge will require a redesign of today's health and social care processes in order to focus more clearly on patient needs and values, and poses demands on information services allowing to share knowledge of the patient’s health and social situation among involved care providers. An important aspect of the increased complexity is that a single patient may need care from several autonomous care providers in parallel, particularly patients with co-morbidities. This clearly requires effective coordination of care activities, which poses further demands on information services to support this task. A set of issues involving patient-centered collaborative care is identified and analyzed. The thesis introduces the notions of the Patient-Centered Care Process (PCCP) and a conglomeration of suchprocesses. A conglomeration comprises a set of PCCPs that concern the same patient, that are overlapping in time, and that share the overall goal of improving and maintaining the health and socialwell-being of the patient. The PCCP is inspired by the well-known PDCA cycle and comprises the four phases of assessing the patient situation (ASSESS), planning care activities (PLAN), performingcare activities (DO) and following up care (CHECK) for the patient. Based on a number of key standards, such as HL7, HISA and CONTsys, the thesis introduces a Patient-Centered Information Model (PCIM). A set of information services, together constituting a Coordination Hub, is proposed. The information services aim to help formal as well as informal carers (including the patient) inconducting care according to the PCCP The thesis contributes to a deeper understanding of care processes and suggests ways to achieve patient-centered collaborative care that better contributes to creating value for the patient as an individual.