As databases accumulate growing amounts of data at an increasing rate, adaptive indexing becomes more and more important. At the same time, applications and their use get more agile and flexible, resulting in less steady and less predictable workload characteristics. Being inert and coarse-grained, state-of-the-art index tuning techniques become less useful in such environments. Especially the full-column indexing paradigm results in many indexed but never queried records and prohibitively high storage and maintenance costs. In this paper, we present Self-Managing Indexes, a novel, adaptive, fine-grained, autonomous indexing infrastructure. In its core, our approach builds on a novel access path that automatically collects useful index information, discards useless index information, and competes with its kind for resources to host its index information. Compared to existing technologies for adaptive indexing, we are able to dynamically grow and shrink our indexes, instead of incrementally enhancing the index granularity.

Self-management is a relatively new concept in South Africa. The transformation of education after 1994 resulted in the promulgation of the South African Schools Act (SASA) 84 of 1996, which started the process of decentralisation of education. The SASA mandates the school governing bodies (SGBs) to play an active role in decision making in schools. The justification for the self-management of schools is that it promotes effectiveness and efficiency in schools. The aim of the study was to investigate the challenges that are faced and the benefits/opportunities that exist for self-managing schools. The secondary aim of the study was to investigate how self-managing schools could be supported so that they become more efficient and effective. This study focuses on 2 ex-DET self-managing schools in Gauteng. The findings reveal that teamwork amongst educators, parents and communities is essential for self-managing schools to be effective and efficient. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Education Management)

With education at the centre of the South African government’s National Development Plan for 2030, an effective schooling system is not negotiable. A review of the literature showed that public schools in South Africa are self-managing. The performance of most of these schools are unsatisfactory with specific reference to academic performance, infrastructure, finances and resources. The review further revealed severe shortcomings with the use of the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) for school-based performance management. This included that the IQMS is insufficient, that its application is ineffective and that it does not support school-based performance management. It is a compliance system and does not allow schools’ stakeholders the freedom to take part in designing their own strategy for the school. The researcher argues that self-managing schools link to the Participatory Democracy Theory that ensures the involvement of stakeholders. The IQMS however, links to Managerialism, rejecting stakeholders’ independence of self-management and decision-making. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a school-based performance management framework for public schools in South Africa. Specific attention was given to the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) as a theoretical framework for its flexibility to accommodate diverse organisations. The BSC was placed in the Evolutionist theories under the Resource-Based View (RBV) approach, focussing on the uniqueness of organisations’ tangible or intangible resources. The researcher argued that a combination of the IQMS and the BSC might close the theoretical gap and contribute to school-based performance management in self-managing public schools. A qualitative research paradigm, embedded in the interpretivism philosophy, guided this study. A Design-Based Research (DBR) method was followed to develop the framework. The first phase was to develop a preliminary framework, using the IQMS and BSC as existing theoretical frameworks. The second phase consisted of two iterative cycles of testing and refinement of the framework in practice. For both cycles, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with the school’s principal, one member of the school’s governing body and one member of the school’s management team of the four selected schools. The third phase was a reflection on the design process to enhance the application of the framework. / College of Accounting Sciences / D. Compt.

Self-management is a relatively new concept in South Africa. The transformation of education after 1994 resulted in the promulgation of the South African Schools Act (SASA) 84 of 1996, which started the process of decentralisation of education. The SASA mandates the school governing bodies (SGBs) to play an active role in decision making in schools. The justification for the self-management of schools is that it promotes effectiveness and efficiency in schools. The aim of the study was to investigate the challenges that are faced and the benefits/opportunities that exist for self-managing schools. The secondary aim of the study was to investigate how self-managing schools could be supported so that they become more efficient and effective. This study focuses on 2 ex-DET self-managing schools in Gauteng. The findings reveal that teamwork amongst educators, parents and communities is essential for self-managing schools to be effective and efficient. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Education Management)

Le contrat psychologique s’impose comme le cadre d’analyse le plus approprié à l’étude des relations d’emploi et à la compréhension des comportements et attitudes des employés (Guerrero, 2005; D. Rousseau, 1990). L’examen du contrat psychologique s’est principalement concentré sur les perceptions individuelles des employés aux obligations mutuelles qui les lient avec l’organisation. Avec le recours grandissant aux équipes de travail, la conception traditionnelle du contrat psychologique s’avère limitée à l’examen des nouvelles relations qui lient les équipes de travail, en tant qu’entités, à l’organisation (Gibbard et al., 2017; Laulié & Tekleab, 2016; Marks, 2001). L’étude du contrat psychologique d’équipes, davantage soulignée dans la littérature, n’a pourtant reçu qu’une faible attention (Gibbard et al., 2017). Axée sur les équipes de travail et le rôle critique que le contrat psychologique d’équipes peut jouer dans l’efficacité des équipes, cette thèse a pour principal objectif d’étendre la portée d’étude du contrat psychologique et ce, en proposant une reconceptualisation du contrat psychologique au niveau groupal. Plus spécifiquement, nous proposons que les membres d’équipes, sur la base de leur interaction et interdépendance continue et de leurs expériences collectives à l’environnement du travail, peuvent développer des perceptions communes aux termes et obligations d’échange impliquant leurs équipes, en tant qu’entités, et leur organisation. Afin de participer à l’avancement des connaissances dans ce domaine, nous avons adopté une recherche articulée en trois articles qui se sont basés sur des données transversales recueillies en milieu organisationnel dans le cadre d’une recherche dirigée par les professeurs Vincent Rousseau (professeur à l’Université de Montréal) et Caroline Aubé (professeure à HEC Montréal). Le premier article propose une reconceptualisation du contrat psychologique au niveau de l’équipe et donne lieu à l’élaboration d’une échelle de mesure du contrat psychologique d’équipes dotée de propriétés psychométriques fort acceptables. Les résultats de cette recherche, basée sur deux échantillons (comptant 526 participants et 506 participants), montrent que les membres d’équipes peuvent avoir des perceptions collectives et communes des obligations réciproques de leurs équipes et organisation. Par ailleurs, les résultats révèlent que le contrat psychologique d’équipes consiste en deux dimensions, à savoir le contrat relationnel d’équipes et le contrat transactionnel d’équipes. Les deux autres articles (articles 2 et 3) se penchent, quant à eux, sur la composante relationnelle du contrat psychologique d’équipes. Plus précisément, le deuxième article consiste à explorer les antécédents du contrat psychologique d’équipes. Nous nous intéressons, particulièrement, à l’effet que la supervision abusive, comme forme de leadership destructif, pourrait avoir sur le contrat psychologique relationnel d’équipes en considérant le rôle médiateur de l’habilitation d’équipes et l’effet modérateur du style d’attachement de l’équipe (anxiété/évitement). Les résultats de cette recherche, réalisée auprès de 135 équipes (représentant 514 participants), indiquent que la supervision abusive peut affecter négativement le contrat psychologique relationnel d’équipes en réduisant l’habilitation d’équipes. La force de la relation entre la supervision abusive et l’habilitation d’équipes diminue lorsque l’équipe est davantage orientée vers un attachement d’anxiété et augmente lorsque l’équipe affiche un niveau élevé d’attachement d’évitement. Le troisième article porte sur les conséquences du contrat psychologique relationnel d’équipes. Cette recherche propose un modèle théorique qui cherche à vérifier le rôle que le contrat psychologique relationnel d’équipes peut avoir sur l’adoption de comportements d’autogestion par les membres de l’équipe. Ce modèle tient en compte le rôle médiateur des affects d’équipes positifs ainsi que le rôle modérateur de l’interdépendance au travail au regard de la relation entre les affects d’équipes positifs et les comportements d’autogestion d’équipes. En recourant aux mêmes données du deuxième article, les résultats de cette étude ont permis d’appuyer le rôle médiateur des affects d’équipes positifs et montrent, également, que la force de la relation entre les affects d’équipes positifs et les comportements d’autogestion d’équipes augmente lorsque les tâches d’équipes requièrent un niveau élevé d’interdépendance entre les membres d’équipes. De façon générale, les résultats des trois recherches offrent un soutien empirique aux hypothèses proposées. Les résultats soulignent, par ailleurs, l’importance de considérer les contrats psychologiques d’équipes dans la gestion des équipes de travail. En outre, les résultats de cette thèse corroborent l’importance de prêter attention aux facteurs organisationnels et individuels susceptibles d’influencer les types de contrats psychologiques d’équipes et ainsi les affects et comportements qui en découlent. / Psychological contract stands out as the most appropriate analytical framework for the study of employment relationships and for the comprehension of employees’ attitudes and behaviors (Guerrero, 2005; D. Rousseau, 1990). The study of psychological contract has basically focused on employees’ individual perceptions regarding employees-organization mutual obligations. With the growing use of teams, the traditional conception of psychological contract seems to be inadequate to examining contemporary relationships that bind teams, as entities, to their organization (Gibbard et al., 2017; Laulié & Tekleab, 2016; Marks, 2001). Although the study of team psychological contract is increasingly highlighted in the literature, this concept has received little attention in the literature on the psychological contract (Gibbard et al., 2017). Considering the significant role that the team psychological contract can play in the effectiveness of teams, the main object of this thesis consists in extending the study of the psychological contract to the team level. Essentially, we suggest that team members, based on their regular interaction and interdependence and on their common experience to the work environment, may develop similar perceptions regarding terms and obligations between their team, as an entity, and their organization. In order to participate to the advancement of knowledge in this field, we adopted research articulated in three articles based on cross-sectional data collected in an organizational setting as part of research directed by professors Vincent Rousseau (professor at University of Montreal) and Caroline Aubé (professor at HEC Montreal). The first article proposes a reconceptualization of psychological contract at the team level and leads to the development of a scale for measuring team psychological contract with very acceptable psychometric properties. The finding of this study, based on two samples (counting 526 and 506 participants), show that teams may develop collective perceptions about their team-organization reciprocal obligations. Moreover, the results reveal that team psychological contract consists of two dimensions, namely relational team contract and transactional team contract. The other two articles (articles 2 and 3) focus on the relational component of team psychological contract. Specifically, the second article consists of exploring the antecedents of relational team psychological contract. We are, particularly, interested in the effect of abusive supervision, as a destructive form of leadership, might have on members’ relational team contract by considering the mediating role of team empowerment and the moderating effect of team attachment style (anxiety / avoidance). Based on a sample of 134 teams (representing 514 participants), the results of this study indicate that abusive supervision can negatively affect relational team psychological contract by lessening team empowerment. Abusive supervision effect on team empowerment decreases when team members have more attachment anxiety and increases when team members display more attachment avoidance. The third article addresses relational team psychological contract consequences. This study proposes a theoretical model that aims to examine the role that relational team psychological contract may play on the adoption of team members to self-managing behaviors. This model takes into consideration the mediating role of team positive affective tone and the moderating effect of task interdependence on the relationship between positive team affective tone and team self-managing behaviors. Using the same sample adopted in the second article, this study findings support the mediating effect of team positive affective tone and indicate that the effect of team positive affective tone increases when team task requires a high level of interdependence between team members. Overall, the results provide an empirical support to the three studies hypotheses. Moreover, the results highlight the need of considering team psychological contract in managing teams. The results, finally, stress the importance of exploring the factors that may influence team psychological contract types and thus the resulting behaviors.

The purpose of this study was to investigate those aspects of resilient schools which are particularly beneficial for schools within rural communities in Mpumalanga. The study was done in two phases: a literature review focussing on the culture of learning of resilient schools and an empirical investigation focussing on the culture of learning of resilient schools within rural communities in Mpumalanga. Two secondary schools were selected according to criteria of resiliency. The study involved qualitative approaches, in-depth observations and interviews with key informants: principals, teachers, learners and members of the school governing bodies. The data demonstrate that there is no distinctive aspect of the culture of learning of resilient schools because all aspects are interrelated and interdependent. This study discovered that the most effective aspect, which benefits the culture of teaching and learning in resilient schools, was the involvement of all stakeholders. / Educational Management / M.Ed.

The purpose of this study was to investigate those aspects of resilient schools which are particularly beneficial for schools within rural communities in Mpumalanga. The study was done in two phases: a literature review focussing on the culture of learning of resilient schools and an empirical investigation focussing on the culture of learning of resilient schools within rural communities in Mpumalanga. Two secondary schools were selected according to criteria of resiliency. The study involved qualitative approaches, in-depth observations and interviews with key informants: principals, teachers, learners and members of the school governing bodies. The data demonstrate that there is no distinctive aspect of the culture of learning of resilient schools because all aspects are interrelated and interdependent. This study discovered that the most effective aspect, which benefits the culture of teaching and learning in resilient schools, was the involvement of all stakeholders. / Educational Management / M.Ed.