The main purpose of this study is to define important criteria to consider when selecting and implementing performance measures on a strategic, tactical and operational level. The thesis is built around the questions "What to measure" and "How to measure". Generally within the thesis the question of "what" concerns different frameworks and working procedures that can be used to determine what to measure, while the question of "how" concerns criteria to consider when implementing performance measures, such as how to design measure formulas and targets, how to communicate measures, etc. The study has been conducted as a qualitative study, where the empirical data has been collected through interviews and by using information material from the case company. The purpose of the case study was to test the theoretical framework. The studied case company was Sandvik Process Systems, a product area within the Sandvik group. The case study was complemented by two minor comparative studies of companies also belonging to the Sandvik group. In total the study comprised interviews with 15 persons within different organizational levels. Several different frameworks aiming to help organizations to answer the question of what to measure have been developed during the last decades. The frameworks differ more or less, but theorists appear to agree on several matters. My conclusions of the most important criteria to be taken into consideration when answering the question of what to measure is: * Complement the outcome measures, i.e. the financial measures that show the results from past efforts, by pro-active performance drivers - the measures that drive the future performance * Ensure linkage between performance measures and company vision and strategic objectives * Involve the co-workers in the process of developing measures * Use an overall comprehensive view and methodic approach * Limit the amount of measures * Retain the methodic approach – manage the performance measurement system After answering the question of what to measure there are also a number of important criteria to consider when it comes to how to measure and implement measures into the organization: * Define measure purposes * Assign reasonable targets to the measures * Consider the field of application when designing a performance measure * Communicate the performance measures * Specify the measures Despite attempting to simplify a complicated reality the frameworks aiming to help organizations to select measures are all rather complex. Hence, to develop and implement a PMS (Performance Measurement System) by the book will imply an extensive project for any company. How time- and resource demanding the project will become will differ from one company to another. Thus, a general conclusion of this study is that a company must start out from its own conditions in order for the development and implementation not to become too complex a project, where the organization loses focus and fails to manage the project all the way through. Companies must consider factors such as the size and complexity of the organization, how the business is controlled and managed as well as the structure and control of an already existing PMS. For large organizations, already possessing a rather unstructured PMS, the best approach could be to look upon the development as a constantly on-going activity in the spirit of continuous improvements, rather than a complex project running over a limited time. A vital success factor is also to communicate the intentions to the whole organization at an early stage. If the whole organization is aware of the intention and the purpose this will facilitate the process of developing and implementing a successful PMS.

Affärssystem är en växande marknad och en självklarhet för många företag idag. Ett affärssystem kan medföra många fördelar, bland annat kortare ledtider, ökad datakvalitet och effektivare processer. För att genomföra ett så lyckat affärssystemsprojekt som möjligt behöver företag ta vissa faktorer i beaktning. Dessa faktorer kallas kritiska framgångsfaktorer. Denna studie behandlar sju kritiska framgångsfaktorer i syfte att se hur dessa beaktats i praktiken. Framgångsfaktorerna är projektplanering, projektstyrning, användarinvolvering och utbildning, förändringsledning, stöd från ledningen, korrekt data och övervakning och mätning. Vi har kommit fram till dessa genom att studera vetenskapliga artiklar och böcker. Undersökningen har utförts med en kvalitativ ansats där intervjuer genomförts på två företag, med en representant från vardera projektgrupp, som nyligen implementerat ett affärssystem. Även användare av affärssystemet på respektive företag har intervjuats för att få deras synvinkel på affärssystemsprojektet. Resultatet av undersökningen visar på att inget av företagen medvetet har tagit kritiska framgångsfaktorer i beaktning vid deras affärssystemsprojekt. De har inte tänkt på kritiska framgångsfaktorer i den bemärkningen, men ändå tagit hänsyn till vissa av de punkter som vi identifierat i teorin. Den slutsats vi kan dra är att företag kan lyckas med affärssystemsprojekt även om de inte tagit alla kritiska framgångsfaktorer i beaktning. / ERP systems is a growing market and very important for many businesses today. An ERP system can bring many advantages, including shorter lead times, improved data quality and more efficient processes. In order to execute successful ERP projects businesses need to take certain factors into consideration. These factors are called critical success factors. This study addresses seven critical success factors in order to see if these are taken into consideration in a real project. The seven critical success factors are project planning, project management, user involvement and training, change management, top management support, accurate data and monitoring and measuring. We identified these by studying scientific papers and books. The study was conducted with a qualitative approach in which interviews were conducted in two companies, with one representative from each project team, which recently implemented an ERP system. Users of the ERP system at each company were also interviewed to obtain their view on the ERP project. The result of the study shows that none of the companies deliberately took the critical success factors into consideration in their ERP projects. The companies had not thought of critical success factors in those terms but they still took some of the points that we had identified in the theory into consideration. The conclusion is that companies can succeed in ERP projects, even if they don’t take all of the critical success factors into consideration.

In the current fast-moving, global and complex business world, implementing organisational change has become one of the major leadership issues. Indeed, competitive organisations are turning out to be the ones that are flexible, able to adapt rapidly and continuously; strong leaders are turning out to be the ones who are transformational and who are able to implement change successfully. However, as the business world is becoming more complex, organisations are following the same path and are developing increasingly complicated structures. Risk of failure in implementing change in such complex organisations is consequently high and leaders must lead strategic moves with dexterity. They must understand their role, the required skills as well as the importance of the people while starting to implement change. They must understand where to exert their influence and they should therefore be able to determine what are the key success factors to be taken into consideration in the implementation process.

Garlaitė, K. (2008). Novatoriško veterinarinės farmacijos produkto sėkmės veiksniai Baltijos šalyse. Magistrantūros baigiamasis darbas. Vilnius: ISM Vadybos ir ekonomikos universitetas. Farmacinėsė rinkose produktai yra skirstomi į etinius ir generinius. Novatorišku produktu priimta laikyti etinių kompanijų sukurtas naujas vaisto formules, tuo tarpu generinių kompanijų vaistai nelaikomi novatoriškais. Sėkmingas novatoriškų veterinarinės farmacijos produktų įdiegimas į rinką priklauso nuo veiksnių, įtakojančių sėkmę identifikavimo kiekvienoje šalyje ir jų adaptavimo. Tai vienas iš svarbių žingsnių siekiant ilgalaikio konkurencinio pranašumo. Baigiamojo darbo tikslas – nustatyti novatoriškų veterinarinės farmacijos produktų sėkmės veiksnius skirtingose Baltijos šalių rinkose. Baigiamojo darbo metu buvo apklausta 58 smulkių gyvūnų veterinarijos klinikų specialistų iš trijų Baltijos šalių. Apžvelgus literatūrą nustatyta, kad veterinarinių vaistų naudojimą įtakoja įvairūs ekonominiai, tarprūšiniai, naudojimo būdų bei atsparumo antibiotikams veiksniai. Kokybinio tyrimo metu atlikta 6 ekspertų apklausa tam, kad nustatytume sėkmės veiksnių charakteristikas įvedant novatorišką produktą. Sėkmės veiksniai buvo suskirstyti į keturias kategorijas: nuo produkto priklausantys, nuo rinkos, nuo rinkodarinių veiksmų bei gydytojų išsilavinimo ir noro tobulėti. Kiekvienai iš šių kategorijų veterinarijos gydytojai pateikė pilnas charakteristikas ir tai leido sudaryti klausimyną kiekybiniam... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Garlaitė , K. (2008). Key Succes Factors of Inovative Veterinary Product in Baltic States. Final Paper. Vilnius: International School of Management. In pharmaceutical market existing products are devided in to the ethic and generic. It is used to consider that inovative product only can be developt by ethic company, whereas generic product can not be inovative. Successful introduction of innovative veterinary medicines in to the market depends on identifying the factors influencing this success in each country individually and accordingly adaptation process. This is one of key indicator in order to obtain long term competitive advantages. The purpose of this research work – to identify introduction success factors of innovative veterinary medicine in to the different Baltic countries. During research work period has been questioned 58 specialists of companion animal veterinary clinics from three Baltic countries. After review of literature I can state, that usage of veterinary medicine influencing following factors such as: economical, interspecies, ways of usages and susceptibility to antibiotics. During qualitative research part survey of 6 experts was done in order to determine characteristic of success factors introducing new medicines. Key success factors were grouped in to 4 categories: depending from the product, market, marketing activities and education of vets and willingness to improve. It was provided by vets full characteristic of each category and this... [to full text]

Adopting green energy initiatives is deemed significant in reducing the carbon footprint of the hotel industry. In general, energy-efficient and renewable energy technologies offer wide applications in the hotel industry. The adoption of these technologies improves energy performance and reduces dependence on fossil fuels. Hotel organizational commitment towards sustainability is highly inconsistent across the industry. Essentially, this industry represents a continuum of adopters; some hotels are leaders who proactively adopt innovative and state-of- the-art technologies, while others adopt only basic practices, such as reusing towels. There exist several challenges to shifting hotel organizations toward implementing green energy measures. Sharing best practices and learned lessons is essential to convince less committed hotel organizations to take action. Along with sharing information, it is important to identify similarities and differences in decision-making on green energy measures in both committed and less committed hotels. This study explores factors affecting decision-making on green energy measures in the hotel industry. In particular, it examines the business case for these measures and identifies challenges that prevent hotel managers from taking action. The study findings suggest that similarities and differences among best practice and other hotels are related to the approaches taken in decision-making by hotel managers in the adoption of green energy measures in terms of short/long term energy planning, resource intensity and views about sustainability. The study further highlights success factors contributing to increased use of green energy measures and areas that need to be addressed in order to encourage hotel managers to adopt green energy measures.

The rapid development of information technology has enabled the use of virtual teams, which are teams whose members use IT to coordinate their activities from a dispersed setting. The phenomenon of virtual teams raises questions regarding issues related to this type of work, i.e. organisational identification and other problems related to virtual work. We have investigated how to best manage these teams in order for managers to be successful in the virtual environment by studying the advantages and disadvantages as well as success factors. The study has used a mixed methodology, where we have interviewed 8 managers that are active in virtual work and we have also conducted a survey to investigate how members of virtual teams perceives issues of organisational identification and issues related to virtual work. One of the most important findings of this study is that there was a positive relationship between level of organisational identification and level of virtuality, member involvement, and previous experience. The strongest predictor for organisational identification was although the level of member involvement. We can conclude that the main advantages of virtual work were cost reduction and the access to competence. The main disadvantage of virtual work was identified as lack of interpersonal relations in the workplace. Other disadvantages were found as unorganised meetings, unprioritised work as well as technological issues. The most important success factors were found to be Clear roles and Responsibilities, Pre-agreement/time plan, Defined Strategies. These three factors could be summarised as "What needs to be done, when and by who‟. Moreover, clear and distinct communication within the team in order to avoid misunderstandings, followed by User-friendly technology and to have previous experience of technology used was also identified as important factors in virtual work. Other success factors identified was the use of Face-to-Face meetings.

En hållbar utveckling består av en balans mellan social, ekologisk och ekonomisk hållbarhet. Inom transportsektorn omfattar det ett samspel mellan jämställdhet, jämlikhet och trafiksäkerhet, minskad klimatpåverkan och ett systemet som utvecklas på ett kostnadseffektivt sätt. Att införa avgiftsfri kollektivtrafik är en metod som flera kommuner och städer har provat för att nå målet om en hållbar utveckling. Syftet med den här studien är att utvärdera resultaten av olika sådana projekt och hitta vilka framgångsfaktorerna har varit. Resultatet har blivit övervägande positivt med följderna att det kollektiva resandet ökade stort. Många orter och städer runt om i världen har idag avgiftsfri kollektivtrafik, men många har också återgått till vanlig taxa. Främsta orsaken har varit svårigheten att finansiera systemet. Kommuner och städer har olika geografiska, strukturella, ekonomiska och politiska förutsättningar, vilket är anledningen till varför resultaten blivit så varierande. Bland framgångsfaktorerna som har identifierats utmärker sig möjligheterna att samordna olika trafikslag, ett bra samarbete mellan ansvariga myndigheter och ett politiskt engagemang. Orter där en betydande andel av befolkningen reste rabatterat tidigare har haft lättare att finansiera ett helt avgiftsfritt system. De ökade kostnaderna i kombination med förlorade biljettintäkter har för många varit en svår ekvation att lösa.

Šiais laikais, vykstant visuomenės progresui ir keičiantis šeimos situacijai, vis daugiau žmogaus ugdymo funkcijų perima socialinės pagalbos institucijos. Yra palyginti daug tyrimų, atliktų socialinių mokslų srityse, kurie atskleidžia efektyvaus vadovavimo sąvoką bei funkcijas. Tačiau beveik nėra tyrimų, atskleidžiančių vadovavimo socialinės pagalbos institucijoms specifinius veiksnius, kurių identifikavimas galėtų papildyti vadovavimo principų sąrašą ir pasitarnautų profesionalių socialinės pagalbos institucijų vadovų rengimui ir atrankai. Nustačius šiuos veiksnius, būtų galima teikti rekomendacijas toms socialinės pagalbos institucijoms, kurios dar tik pradeda savo veiklą ir siekia aukštos socialinių paslaugų kokybės. Šiuo laikotarpiu, kai socialinio darbo institucijos įgyja vis didesnį lyginamąjį svorį, visuomenės progreso aspektu, tokie tyrimai yra būtini. Šio tyrimo objektas yra vadovavimo socialinio darbo institucijai sėkmingumo veiksniai. Tyrimo tikslas – atskleisti, kokius vadovavimo socialinio darbo institucijai sėkmingumo veiksnius išskiria socialinio darbo institucijų vadovai. Tikslui pasiekti numatyti šie uždaviniai: 1. Išsiaiškinti, kokie veiksniai lemia sėkmingą socialinio darbo institucijų veiklą. 2. Ištirti, kas socialinio darbo institucijų vadovams ypač svarbu, siekiant kad jų darbas būtų efektyvus. 3. Nustatyti, kokius gebėjimus socialinio darbo institucijų vadovų supratimu, turi turėti „geras“ socialinio darbo institucijos vadovas. 4. Ištirti, su kokiais... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Nowadays, when the progress in society is so fast and family situation is changing a lot, more and more functions of human education are transferred to social work institutions. There are quite many studies made that reveal the concept and functions of effective management. But there are almost no studies that would reveal the specific factors of the management in social work institutions. The identification of such factors could complement the list of management factors and would be useful for preparation and selection of social work institutions managers. Besides, if such factors would be identified it would be possible to give recommendations for those social work institutions, that are just starting their work and that are willing to reach high level of the social quality service. At the moment when social work institutions gain stronger and stronger comparative authority in the aspect of society progress such studies are essential. The object of this research is the success factors in the management of a social work institution. The aim of this research is to reveal the success factors of management of a social work institution pointed out by the managers of social work institutions. To reach the aim such goals were stated: 1. To find out what are the main factors determining the successful activity of social work institution. 2. To explore what is most important for the managers of social work institutions while seeking for effective activity. 3. To identify what is... [to full text]

This study investigates the critical success factors involved in agile systems development projects. Various systems development methodologies and project management methodologies are presented with their underlying principles, strengths and weaknesses. Thereafter the critical success factors adopted from the work of Chow and Cao (2007) are presented. A positivistic research paradigm was chosen for data collection and analysis. The survey method was chosen for data collection. A questionnaire was sent to multiple respondents in a predominantly agile work environment, which resulted in a total of 129 respondents in various business sectors. The results were analysed by implementing multiple correlation and regression statistics as well as descriptive statistics. The results show that there are in fact 16 critical success factors that have a direct impact on the success of agile systems development projects. Agile systems development methodologies have been increasing in use during the last 3 years, and most organisations are implementing some form of project management methodology. The first recommendation is based on the findings that strong customer involvement and the appropriate management of the agile process with a satisfactory amount of documentation resulted in greater process success. Therefore, organisations should encourage these critical success factors when implementing an ASDM as this has a positive effect on the project outcome. The appropriate management of the agile process with a satisfactory amount of documentation, the application of good design practices and technical knowledge to a project, and a cooperative organizational culture instead of hierarchical are three of the key critical success factors that were positively related to the success of the product. By focussing on these critical success factors, the success of the entire project can be predicted. / Thesis (MCom (Computer Science & Information Systems))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

This study investigates the critical success factors involved in agile systems development projects. Various systems development methodologies and project management methodologies are presented with their underlying principles, strengths and weaknesses. Thereafter the critical success factors adopted from the work of Chow and Cao (2007) are presented. A positivistic research paradigm was chosen for data collection and analysis. The survey method was chosen for data collection. A questionnaire was sent to multiple respondents in a predominantly agile work environment, which resulted in a total of 129 respondents in various business sectors. The results were analysed by implementing multiple correlation and regression statistics as well as descriptive statistics. The results show that there are in fact 16 critical success factors that have a direct impact on the success of agile systems development projects. Agile systems development methodologies have been increasing in use during the last 3 years, and most organisations are implementing some form of project management methodology. The first recommendation is based on the findings that strong customer involvement and the appropriate management of the agile process with a satisfactory amount of documentation resulted in greater process success. Therefore, organisations should encourage these critical success factors when implementing an ASDM as this has a positive effect on the project outcome. The appropriate management of the agile process with a satisfactory amount of documentation, the application of good design practices and technical knowledge to a project, and a cooperative organizational culture instead of hierarchical are three of the key critical success factors that were positively related to the success of the product. By focussing on these critical success factors, the success of the entire project can be predicted. / Thesis (MCom (Computer Science & Information Systems))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.