Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2019 / The outsourcing of facility management services has become increasingly competitive and success now depends on companies’ ability to assess and manage risks of low employee morale, intellectual property right, legal, increased costs, unrealistic savings projections and reputational damage successfully. This paper examined outsourcing risks at selected facility management companies in Cape Town. Previous study identifies loss of control, cost and life cycle impact and time inefficiency as anecdotal evidence of outsourcing risks. In the facility management sector, the identification and management of risks have begun to shift progressively from external to internal – like resource and capability management and the strengthening of internal control mechanism. This quantitative study utilised self-administered questionnaire to collect data from 142 randomly selected respondents; employees of participating facility management companies in Cape Town. The paper found that top 6 risks ranked from the highest are information security, legal, ethics/compliance, contractual, financial and economic. The higher end of the mean scoring indicates a greater emphasis on controllable (internal) risks, with 4 out of the top 6 ranked items identified within the internal risks’ category. This research provides insight to understand outsourcing, risks of outsourcing and risk assessment techniques with emphasis on internal risk management. The examination of outsourcing risks enables companies to understand risk assessment, evaluation and mitigation requirements and categorisation for successful management of risks associated with the outsourcing of facility management services.

This research demonstrates that experience with uncontrollable reinforcement, here defined as continuous non-contingent positive feedback to solution attempts of insoluble problems, fails to produce the proactive interference phenomenon, learned helplessness, while uncontrollable aversive events, here defined as negative feedback to solution attempts of insoluble problems, produces that phenomenon. These results partially support the "learned helplessness" hypothesis of Seligman (1975) which predicts that experience with uncontrollable reinforcement, the offset of negative events or the onset of positive ones, results in learning that responding is independent of reinforcement and that learning transfers to subsequent situations. This research further demonstrates that experience with controllability, here defined as solubility, results in enhanced competence.

<p><strong><p>Problem:</p></strong></p><p>Palaseja is considering Sweden as a prospect market to enter and operate so, a study of Swedish</p><p>business environment and its uncontrollable elements is required for Palaseja to serve this purpose</p><p>effectively.</p><p><strong><p>Method:</p></strong></p><p>Thesis has followed a combination of exploratory & descriptive research and a qualitative approach</p><p>has been applied. Both primary and secondary data have been gathered, primary data was gathered</p><p>through interviews from retail stores' officials and Palaseja's sales manager.</p><p><strong><p>Conclusion:</p></strong></p><p>In this study, different environmental uncontrollable elements of Swedish market have been explored</p><p>to find out how they can influence a new entrant Palaseja in Sweden. There are a few legal</p><p>requirements for Palaseja to enter in food market of Sweden. Economic forces are facing a little slow</p><p>down effect due to recent global economic slump but are quite encouraging for any new company</p><p>entering Sweden in the long run. Breakfast cereal products that Palaseja produces have found to be a</p><p>common part of cultural breakfast habits and huge consumption of breakfast cereal per capita also</p><p>seems to be encouraging for new comers in this industry. Competitive forces have been found to be</p><p>extremely challenging and quite discouraging in some way. The country of origin effect seems to be</p><p>not so strong in Sweden although brand recognition of Palaseja is likely to cause some trouble to</p><p>Palaseja's success.</p>

Problem: Palaseja is considering Sweden as a prospect market to enter and operate so, a study of Swedish business environment and its uncontrollable elements is required for Palaseja to serve this purpose effectively. Method: Thesis has followed a combination of exploratory &amp; descriptive research and a qualitative approach has been applied. Both primary and secondary data have been gathered, primary data was gathered through interviews from retail stores' officials and Palaseja's sales manager. Conclusion: In this study, different environmental uncontrollable elements of Swedish market have been explored to find out how they can influence a new entrant Palaseja in Sweden. There are a few legal requirements for Palaseja to enter in food market of Sweden. Economic forces are facing a little slow down effect due to recent global economic slump but are quite encouraging for any new company entering Sweden in the long run. Breakfast cereal products that Palaseja produces have found to be a common part of cultural breakfast habits and huge consumption of breakfast cereal per capita also seems to be encouraging for new comers in this industry. Competitive forces have been found to be extremely challenging and quite discouraging in some way. The country of origin effect seems to be not so strong in Sweden although brand recognition of Palaseja is likely to cause some trouble to Palaseja's success.

Highly deteriorated U.S. road infrastructure, major budgetary restrictions and the significant growth in traffic have led to an emerging need for improving efficiency and effectiveness of highway maintenance practices that preserve the road infrastructure so as to better support society's needs. Effectiveness and efficiency are relative terms in which the performance of a production unit or decision making unit (DMU) is compared with a benchmark (best practice). Constructing the benchmark requires making a choice between an "estimation approach" based on observed best practices (i.e., using data from input and output variables corresponding to observed production units (DMUs) to estimate the benchmark with no elaboration on the details of the production process inside the black box) or an "engineering approach" to find the superior blueprint (i.e., focusing on the transformation process inside the black box for a better understanding of the sources of inefficiencies). This research discusses: (i) the application of the estimation approach (non-parametric approach) for evaluating and comparing the performance of different highway maintenance contracting strategies (performance-based contracting versus traditional contracting) and proposes a five-stage meta-frontier and bootstrapping analytical approach to account for the heterogeneity in the DMUs, the resulting bias in the estimated efficiency scores, and the effect of uncontrollable variables; (ii) the application of the engineering approach by developing a dynamic micro-level simulation model for the highway deterioration and renewal processes and its coupling with calibration and optimization to find optimum maintenance policies that can be used as a benchmark for evaluating performance of road authorities. This research also recognizes and discusses the fact that utilization of the maintenance budget and treatments that are performed in a road section in a specific year directly affect the road condition and required maintenance operations in consecutive years. Given this dynamic nature of highway maintenance operations, any "static" efficiency measurement framework that ignores the inter-temporal effects of inputs and managerial decisions in future streams of outputs (i.e., future road conditions) is likely to be inaccurate. This research discusses the importance of developing a dynamic performance measurement framework that takes into account the time interdependence between the input utilization and output realization of a road authority in consecutive periods. Finally, this research provides an overview of the most relevant studies in the literature with respect to evaluating dynamic performance and proposes a classification taxonomy for dynamic performance measurement frameworks according to five issues. These issues account for major sources of the inter-temporal dependence between input and output levels over different time periods and include the following: (i) material and information delays; (ii) inventories; (iii) capital or generally quasi-fixed factors and the related topic of embodied technological change; (iv) adjustment costs; and (v) incremental improvement and learning models (disembodied technological change). In the long-term, this line of research could contribute to a more efficient use of societal resources, greater level of maintenance services, and a highway and roadway system that is not only safe and reliable, but also efficient. / Ph. D.

The overall aim of the present thesis was to explore and describe the health experiences of men and women with musculoskeletal problems. The specific aims of the four papers were: (I) to explore the experience of illness and wellness among ambulance personnel with musculoskeletal symptoms; (II) to explore the experience of illness and wellness among female health care personnel with musculoskeletal symptoms; (III) to explore the experience of bodily illness among people with musculoskeletal problems in the neck-shoulder region, and; (IV) to investigate the symptoms described by people with non-specific neck-shoulder problems, to investigate the method of development of neck-shoulder questionnaires that assesses pain and other symptoms, to analyse the content and items of these questionnaires, and to compare the findings. The overall findings show that the occupationally active men and women with MSDs were “striving for balance” (I-II), that the disease course of chronic neck-shoulder disorders was characterised by “uncontrollable fluctuations” (III), and that most neck-shoulder questionnaires had a low correspondence to the variety of symptoms experienced during this course (IV). In the process of striving for balance (I-II), the informants’ health experiences were not a state of either wellness or illness, but of both, in varying degrees at different times. The balancing started when illness became too intrusive, and was a process of minimising the impact of illness by accepting and handling it, while attaining and maintaining wellness to feel well enough. When striving for balance, the interviewees kept on working to continue being nurtured at the same time as they made different efforts directed at minimising the impact of their illness. For both men and women, illness was characterised by disembodiment, vulnerability, and exhaustion. The illness experiences were counterbalanced by wellness, where some differences could be recognised between the men and the women. Study III further explored the experiences of bodily illness, focusing on people with chronic musculoskeletal disorders in the neck-shoulder region. The course of the disorder was described as characterised by uncontrollable fluctuations, and it usually developed from insidious symptoms to a state of constant discomfort. The participants experienced calmer periods during the course, but intermittent events of increasing illness were always lying in wait, with periodic moments of consuming intensity. In the interviews included in study IV a variety of symptoms were expressed, which indicated a bodily, mental, and emotional engagement, which included more general and more severe symptoms than are usually related to neck-shoulder disorders. Few of the questionnaires were developed using the experiences of the affected. Taken as a whole, did the questionnaires cover many of the symptoms of the interviewees, but each individual questionnaire only included a few. The fluctuations and nuances of symptoms were rarely considered. The correspondence between individual questionnaires and the experiences of those affected was most often low. This thesis reveals other aspects of health than just bodily experiences as important among occupationally active people with MSDs. It also provides a description of the disease course, and an indication of possibilities for improvement of neck-shoulder questionnaires.

Purpose The thesis purpose is to contribute with understanding about managers’ opinions about how to handle deviations caused by unit interdependence. Methodology Qualitative data has been gathered to this exploratory study by semi-structured interviews with 14 managers within the R&amp;D, purchasing and production units at Scania, Södertälje. The result has been interpreted and analyzed by dividing the managers in five smaller groups.  Result from analyzing empirical findings It is found in the analysis that the largest part of the managers in this study seem not to believe it is worth striving for excellence through procedural justice. Reoccurring similarities in opinion between managers is that visualization, dialogue, clear responsibility and less tolerance towards deviations are needed for handling and preventing deviations. Differences in opinion are primarily related to how costs occurred from deviations should be allocated and the purpose with such reallocation. Most managers express a strong concern about undesired behavior developed by a control system where a causing unit always should take the effect from a deviation. However, all managers state that costs occurred from deviations due to interdependence with a external supplier should be invoiced to the supplier.  Conclusion The concern about undesired behavior that may be developed by the way of handling and preventing deviation is strongly mediated by the managers. Instead of handling deviations by justly reallocating effects according to the controllability principle it is perceived as more important to extend the areas of responsibility and increase consciousness between interdependent units through improved dialogue and cross-functional transparency. One should therefore not seek equitable allocation of impacts and cost of devices in dealing with anomalies of this type.

The preconditions for social work changes rapidly in South Africa and the country  is characterized by pervasive inequality with extremes of wealth and poverty.  Access to employment is difficult in rural areas and this leads to large-scale unemployment and poverty in the country. One area with these problems  is the community Heidedal in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Uncontrollable behaviour with children is also a big and increasing issue in the community. The aim of this thesis is to investigate what the term uncontrollable behaviour implicates and how social workers within Heidedal work towards children’s uncontrollable behaviour in the community. This through our chosen theoretical framework, the theory of individual- and community empowerment. The study was carried out through an microethnographic approach, based on semi-structured interviews with social workers coming from four different organisations in Heidedal, together with observations in the area. The focus of the analysis was on separating the material into themes that answer the research aim by using influences from a qualitative content analysis. Uncontrollable behaviour was therefore investigated through specific themes connected to the theory. The findings presented five overlooking themes: Uncontrollable behaviour, Influencing factors on uncontrollable behaviour, Main methods, Main approaches and Work environment. The main findings within this study reveals that uncontrollable behaviour can devolve upon several different things and therefore the social workers in Heidedal are dealing with the issue with many different methods and approaches which will be revealed and discussed in this thesis. From the findings the term “uncontrollable” will furthermore be discussed and questioned. In conclusion the result showed upon the importance of a combination of the two types of empowerment addressed in this thesis; personal empowerment and community empowerment as an alternative way to deal with the issue with uncontrollable behaviour regarding children. This to reach a long term solution, in relation to environmental and socio-economical vulnerable areas that these children operate in. / Förutsättningarna för socialt arbete är ständigt föränderliga i Sydafrika och landet kännetecknas av genomgripande ojämlikhet med ytterligheter av rikedom och fattigdom. Tillgången till sysselsättning är begränsad i områden på landsbygden och detta leder till storskalig arbetslöshet och fattigdom i landet. Ett område med dessa problem är samhället Heidedal i Bloemfontein, Sydafrika. Okontrollerbart beteende hos barn är också ett stort och ökande problem i samhället. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vad termen okontrollerbart beteende innebär och hur socialarbetare i Heidedal arbetar med barns okontrollerbara beteende i samhället. Detta genom vår valda teoretiska referensram, teorin om individuell- och community empowerment. Studien genomfördes med ett mikro-etnografiskt förhållningssätt och baserades på semistrukturerade intervjuer med socialarbetare från fyra olika organisationer i Heidedal, samt observationer i området. Fokus i analysen var att dela in materialet i olika teman som besvarar syftet med studien genom att använda influenser från en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Okontrollerbart beteende hos barn undersöks vidare genom specifika teman kopplade till denna teori. Upptäckterna i denna studie visade på fem övergripande teman: Okontrollerbart beteende, Påverkansfaktorer på okontrollerbart beteende, Huvudsakliga metoder, Huvudsakliga förhållningssätt och Arbetsmiljö. De huvudsakliga upptäckterna i denna studie visar att okontrollerbart beteende hos barn kan vara en följd av flera olika faktorer och därför arbetar socialarbetare i Heidedal med frågan genom många olika metoder och tillvägagångssätt, vilka kommer att belysas och diskuteras i denna studie. Utifrån resultatet kommer också termen  “okontrollerbar” vidare att diskuteras och ifrågasättas. Sammanfattningsvis visade resultatet på vikten av en kombination mellan de två typer av empowerment som nämns i denna studie; personlig empowerment och community empowerment, som ett alternativt sätt att hantera problemet med okontrollerbart beteende hos barn. Detta för att nå en långsiktig lösning, i relation till de miljömässigt och socioekonomiskt sårbara områden som dessa barn befinner sig i.

In 2011, South Sudan became independent through the agreement and implementation of the comprehensive peace agreement (CPA). However, interethnic conflict also escalated. This cycle of violence impacts the psychological and physical health of local society. When violence between ethnic groups escalates, civilians may be forced to flee their homes. This study employed a phenomenological research approach that examined the views and experiences of the recruited 13 members from the state of Jonglei; 5 members of the Dinka, 3 members of the Murle, and 5 members of the Nuer ethnic groups residing in the United States. In an attempt to understand the root causes of the conflict between ethnic groups, this research used a qualitative study plan that examined interethnic politics, perceptions, and beliefs among South Sudanese ethnic groups: Dinka, Murle, and Nuer. In addition, this study examined the presence of armed ethnic groups, the use of guns, and the relationship between trauma caused by past exposure or experience of violence and subsequent interethnic groups conflict. Data were analyzed with descriptive and patterned coding. The 5 identified themes from analysis of the collected data were: roles of ethnic identity, lack of trust in the system of the distribution of resources, roles of ethnic politicians, uncontrollable use of guns and defense of ethnic territory. In addition, the past war incidents between ethnic groups have a negative impact on the present relationship. The findings of this research may create positive social change for ethnic groups and for communities who may use it as an opportunity to understand their own problems and to establish an ethnic advocacy type of conflict resolution in South Sudan.