This study examines the nature and outcomes of the professional commitment of actuaries. The affective and continuance levels of professional commitment among actuaries are high. Overall, actuaries are more committed to their profession than to their employing organisations. Actuaries who have a high affective commitment to their profession and/or professional association are likely to have become involved in their profession recently and intend to remain in the profession for the foreseeable future. The overall professional-organisational conflict level for actuaries is very low. The outcomes of an increased professional organisational conflict are seen in an increased intention to leave the profession and/or professional association. Findings of this study have implications for the actuarial profession, employers of actuaries and the actuarial professional associations.

Cloud computing provides shared information and communication technology (ICT) resources to individuals and organisations, including hardware and software resources that were previously too costly for an individual organisation to manage and own. Cloud computing makes vast amounts of ICT resources available to business organisations, resources that can improve business processes and allow business organisations to leverage ICT in ways that were previously impossible. The correct implementation, adoption and usage of ICT within a business organisation can lead to enhancements in productivity, innovation, and new products and services, as well as the reduction of production costs. Recent literature has attested to the fact that the adoption of cloud computing has been much lower than expected. Business organisations that have adopted cloud computing have done so mainly in products and services that can be categorised as support or non-core activities, such as HR, accounting, and marketing. In order to understand why the adoption pattern of cloud computing in business organisations has focused mainly on non-core activities, this study aims to identify the core challenge facing cloud service providers (CSPs) that provision cloud solutions to business organisations in the investment management industry. These would include cloud solutions that investment managers can use in their core business activities. Furthermore, the aim of this dissertation is to identify how CSPs overcome the core challenge faced. A case study was performed on a single CSP that provisions a SaaS solution to the investment management sector in South Africa. The case study identified migration as the core challenge experienced by CSPs. Classical grounded theory was used to generate the theory of “Balancing Migration” being the resolution to the core challenge identified. The results of the study point to the fact that investment management organisations have processes and systems that have become entrenched in their business over many years. Migrating an established system to the cloud is more than just substituting software. Migration to the cloud requires investment managers to migrate both business processes and operating strategy, and to migrate the actual software products and infrastructure. A CSP provisioning a SaaS solution for a core business activity needs to migrate the products that they offer as well as their business strategy. The theory of “Balancing Migration” proposes that these four categories of migration challenges need to be addressed simultaneously and holistically. In summary, “Migration” is the core concern to a CSP provisioning a SaaS solution for a core business activity, and “balancing migration” is how this core concern is resolved.

The need for creating sustainable and relatable development projects has placed a sharp focus of the different approaches and methods of achieving development. Traditional development approaches such as top-down theory and the bottom-up theory of development have evolved over the years whilst recent approaches such as Randomised Controlled Experiments (RCE) have also emerged with the aim of creating sustainable and more relatable development projects. All these approaches of development have had their fair share of criticism and applauses in literature. The use of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IK) as a factor of the bottom-up theory of development has been argued as an important element of advancing the developmental agenda and creating sustainable & relatable projects. Many scholars have conducted research around how IK can be incorporated in development projects around the world. Although research has been conducted, much is yet to be discovered around the actual impact or lack thereof of IK as a key factor of the bottom-up theory of development in development projects. This dissertation researched the impact of Rwanda's IK as a factor of the bottom-up theory of development with a focus on Rwanda's Land, Husbandry water harvesting and Hillside irrigation (LWH) project as a unit of analysis. Furthermore, the research assessed whether the Rwandan water harvesting, and irrigation IK played a role in the overall project conceptualization, design and implementation and if so, how this was incorporated in the overall project and finally what role (if any) this IK played in the overall outcomes of the LWH project. A qualitative case study research of the Rwanda's Land Husbandry, Water Harvesting and Irrigation Project was conducted within-depth questionnaires used as data collection instruments from farmers and project coordinators who were immensely involved in the design, development, implementation and monitoring of the project. Data analysis showed that most study participants agreed that the Rwandan water harvesting, and irrigation IK was incorporated in the LWH project and was a key success factor in the bottom-up theory used to implemented in the LWH project. The research found that the incorporation of IK as a factor of the bottom-up theory enabled quicker adoption of the project, increased levels of accountability and responsibility over the project by project beneficiaries and an accelerated attainment of project goals and objectives.

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Univ., Diss.--Köln, 2004. / Literaturverz. S. 233 - 256. - Text überw. ital., teilw. dt.

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