Organisations in all spheres of industries are facing constant change and need to be innovative to carve out a competitive market share. Knowledge is universally recognised as the organisation’s most valuable asset and strategic resource. The competitive business environment is impelling organisations to utilise and strengthen their knowledge capital in order to manage these changes. The relationship between knowledge management and innovation is not well understood and there is a need to explicitly examine this relationship explicitly. The objective of this study is to focus on the internal environment of listed companies in South Africa and determine to what extent knowledge management practices can contribute to an organisational culture of innovation and whether or not these practices are antecedents to innovative behaviour by knowledge workers Senior members in these companies were contacted by email and requested to access a questionnaire that was available via a Web address and complete the questionnaire. All completed questionnaires were analysed, using Item analysis, multiple regression and discriminant analysis. Results show that knowledge management practices: the organisation's science and technology human capital profile and the organisation is flexible and opportunistic are important predictors of innovativeness in organisations that are perceived to have an organisational culture of innovation.

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The aim of the study is to investigate how owner-managers of Chinese SMEs explore and exploit knowledge while growing SMEs in the spirit of Wu Wei. SME growth has been an increasingly important topic, where there is an important link between SME leadership, knowledge and growth. However, a large body of existing research treats knowledge as a static or reified asset or resource such that these studies are mainly concerned with how to create, acquire, transfer or manage knowledge. Following that, the research methods tend to be dominated by quantitative analysis, and weighs towards large organizations in developed economies. Drawing on the data collected in China, this study employs a mixed-methods approach by administering 103 surveys, wherefrom nine owner-managers are isolated for in-depth interviews at three business stages of SMEs (micro, small and medium). By attending to three dimensions (genuine Wu Wei, You Wei and Wu Bu Wei) of a Chinese Daoist Wu Wei perspective, it re-examines the link between SME leadership, knowledge and firm growth. This empirically-derived work shows evidence of subtle changes embedded in the growing process: While owner-managers stress keeping inherent openness to explore knowledge (genuine Wu Wei) and strategically exploit knowledge deployed in their everyday leadership practice (You Wei), growth evolves as a spontaneous and continuous accomplishment (Wu Bu Wei). By adopting a Wu Wei perspective, this study makes distinctive contributions to the understanding of leadership, knowledge and growth, where leadership and knowledge co-evolve and disseminate in the dynamic processes of growing as ‘leadership becoming’ rather than ‘knowledge leadership’. Whilst fostering the co-flow and co-evolution of leading, knowing and growing, the owner-managers undertake the role of knowledge generalist, knowledge supervisor and knowledge mentor within micro, small and medium firms.

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This thesis is a study of rural development resulting from ethnographic research carried out in the villages of Mediriya, Therrapahuwa and Walamatiara in Moneragala, Sri Lanka. As rural villages are being drawn into increasingly complex relations governed by forces of globalisation, this study develops an understanding of the significance of these interactions within the context of development. In Sri Lanka, current (worldwide) concerns for 'sustainable’ development based on 'participation' in order to alleviate 'poverty' and 'empower' local people, must be examined against a historical backdrop in order to appreciate the significance of rural intervention today. I examine issues of knowledge and power emphasising how a variety of stakeholders negotiate, manipulate and form relationships in order to gain access to resources. This thesis tackles development issues on multiple levels. As part of a DFID (Department for International Development) funded natural resources project, focussing on the high density intercropping of banana with rubber, my role was to provide an in-depth study of livelihood strategies and factors influencing farmer decision-making within home gardens and smallholdings. I reflect on the advantages of Indigenous Knowledge Research, which provides a greater insight into how local people identify and tackle problems than previous 'top- down' efforts. However, the fine line between involving local people in development and 'extraction' are also highlighted. My experiences of working within a multidisciplinary team prompted me to reflect on the whole context surrounding the research process and consider the role of anthropology in development. It is argued here that while the involvement of anthropologists in development is not without its dilemmas, anthropology can usefully contribute using a holistic approach to examine the processes of development, placing natural resources research within a wider social and political context and highlighting the difficulties involved in trying to understand something about Others.

Aim: The aim of this research is to investigate the role of culture in the process of knowledge transfer through expatriates, while also aiming to identify factors that are influential in this process other than culture. Method: The aim has been reached by adopting a qualitative case study, with a focus on a single case. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with expatriates to gain data. Findings: The study proves the importance of culture in a cross-border expatriates knowledge transfer. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions have been found to be determinants in this process. Language has also been outlined as an important component in this regards.  In addition, type of knowledge, recipient’s ability to absorb, and the source’s capabilities to transform are also influential factors stated by expatriates. Limitations: The study is limited to a single company. Further, the data have been collected only from expatriates, not the local employees’ point of view. Suggestions for future research: Further research can be done in the same field, but with focus on different sectors, and different countries. The academic world can also benefit from studies that focus on countries that are different from each other, in order to understand how the knowledge transfer is effected by those differences.

M.A. / The impact of the New Economy on the enterprise is major and the change drivers required for success are pervasive and significant. At the same time traditional geographic boundaries to the flow of information and commercial transactions disappear. To position for success, the requirement to develop the capability to manage risk and operate under high levels of uncertainty becomes as important as the capacity for change. This demands a paradigm shift in management’s approach away from “the answer” to an approach which allows for portfolio management and the ability to investigate, fund and manage approaches to multiple strategic and operational options. The strategic challenges lies in when to lead and when to follow, the organisational challenge then becomes building flexibility, environment-sensing capabilities and an internal capacity to develop, nurture and harness knowledge and innovation. Whilst the benefits of leveraging innovation as a strategic business growth driver is accepted, the management of the process of doing so is manifestly difficult in most enterprises. This is due to outdated management processes and organisational structures, cultural prejudices caused by the enterprise being more comfortable with core activities and a lack of adequate skills within the enterprise to research, develop and manage innovative ideas to fruition. Enterprises can manage this process of leveraging innovation in a number of ways by inter alia, staff management via continuing education and training, a corporate culture with such characteristics as: “Off-line” innovation time, internal competition, knowledge management tools, cross- functional meetings, a knowledge capture Intranet, etc. and an organisational accountability which relates to a well-defined process that affords the enterprise and its employees the opportunity to move ideas across organisational boundaries without being inhibited by the usual organisational politics and turf-protection. An approach to this is via strategic internal consulting groups or a “New Ventures” division – essentially entities set up to incubate and manage new business opportunities Such a new venture division or business incubator requires as a critical component an established process and evaluation methodology to effectively manage innovation initiatives. This research will focus on the development, application and management of such a new ventures division along the structure of a business incubator. It is an accepted adage that all “healthy” enterprises generate and use knowledge, but this is, as with the management of innovation, easier said than done. Whilst many enterprises will simply hire smart people and leave them to their own devices, research have indicated that successful knowledge generation initiatives not only address the processes but also focus on the team structure and the internally on the working circumstances. Businesses faced with disruptive technologies such as the Internet find it very difficult to redesign or rearrange their organisational structures to face the challenges of the New Economy. Also there has always been a measure of distinct tension, between the boardrooms of enterprise and the technical, scientific or other resources on which the former depends for the creation of new wealth – the net result is that the role of the traditional “Corporate R&D” is being diminished. There is a strong perception that views the arrival of the incubator as an approach for corporates / enterprises to set this mindset apart and to get some speed, vitality, action and urgency back into enterprises inhibited by, inter alia, excessive bureaucracy. Although the concept of incubators has now surfaced in Europe and in South Africa, it is not new. What today underscores the interest is the success that enterprises like Idealab!, eToys, GoTo.com and NetZero achieved. The more comprehensive intra-enterprise or corporate incubators offer a range of services that exceed that of the traditional venture capitalist. Corporate incubation grew out of the realisation that innovation and entrepreneurship were severely limited by the typical corporate environment. In addition enterprises realised that they were losing their brightest talent and best innovative ideas as people left to start their own businesses. To this threat they responded by offering employees’ incentives to either build their ideas as enhancements to the current business, extensions or entirely as new spin-offs. These incentives were modelled on share participation, a "safe" best practice rich environment and access to corporate resources that in many instances culminated in corporate business incubators. Corporate incubators constitute a logical extension to knowledge management, innovation and R&D, as a means of profiting from intellectual capital and extending competitive advantage. Indeed it has been said that the only sustainable competitive advantage is continuous innovation. Incubators of various types are sine qua non with the dot.com start-up ventures towards the latter part of the nineteen nineties. It was viewed as one of many approaches to capitalise on knowledge available and to allow for the fast tracking of innovative advances. Many of these start-up incubators failed and incubators became looked upon as not being the ideal vehicle for innovative quick-to-market and thus first mover advantage. Yet, the very nature of the approaches used in an incubator lends it to the harnessing of knowledge and innovation in an enterprise which can be applied as part of a process to gain a competitive advantage from engaging in such a process.

Faculty of Health Sciences School of Public Health 0003100h Vicon@tiscali.co.za / The causative association between alcohol, cannabis use and accidents in the workplace have been shown in some studies. The adverse effects of these on employee’s health, work performance, public and industrial safety have also been researched internationally. But there still remains a paucity of information on the knowledge, attitudes, practices and prevalence of alcohol and cannabis use on diamond mines in South Africa even though anecdotal evidence suggests widespread use that is on the rise. As a result of this, effective intervention strategies to stem the rise have not been developed. This study assessed the knowledge, attitudes, practices and prevalence of alcohol and cannabis use amongst South African diamond miners. It was a cross-sectional analytical study which ascertained the knowledge, attitudes and practices of the miners in relation to alcohol and cannabis use through face to face structured interviews. The prevalence of alcohol was ascertained through breathalyser testing and that of cannabis through urine tests. The study site was a large diamond mine located in the northern part of South Africa. Individual written informed consent was obtained from each of the participants before questionnaire interviews, breathalyser and urine tests were carried out. All the interviews and tests were anonymous and unlinked. None of the test methods were invasive. The questionnaire was tested in a pilot survey. This research was commissioned by the Safety in Mines Research and Advisory Committee (SIMRAC). vii The reported prevalence for alcohol was 44% whilst the tested prevalence was 1.4%.For cannabis, the reported prevalence was 2.0% whilst the tested prevalence was 2.8%.The significant factors associated with alcohol use were higher educational qualification and type of work. Full time employees were more likely to have ever used alcohol. Reported users of alcohol and cannabis started before starting work on the mines. An overwhelming majority of the participants reported that alcohol and cannabis use could lead to accidents on the mines. A large majority reported that intervention strategies such as education, regular testing of employees and entertainment will decrease the use of alcohol and cannabis. Possible explanations for the patterns observed in the use of these substances have been given and suggestions on how to influence the use of these substances have been made.

Student Number : 9707570P - M Com dissertation - School of Economic and Business Sciences - Faculty of Commerce / Business managers have used principles of Knowledge Management to improve organisational performance by: o Identifying the knowledge that is needed to solve various problems o Acquiring the needed knowledge from sources that already have it o Creating the needed knowledge if it is not yet available o Validating the acquired or created knowledge o Retaining the validated knowledge o Destroying invalid or obsolete knowledge o Representing the knowledge in a consistent, easily readable format o Enabling people to easily access relevant knowledge o Enabling people to share the retained knowledge o Enabling people to apply the retained knowledge to improve performance Statistical analysis of data obtained from 84 respondents confirmed that information systems practitioners can also benefit from applying the principles to their system development methods.

Aim: to develop and understand which are the elements that influence the conventional and reversed knowledge transfer, how they influence it and the benefits of transferring knowledge within a multinational corporation. Methods: qualitative research strategy, inductive approach, and single case study design. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted face-to-face and though video-calls. Four interviewees belong to Italian headquarters, three to the Canadian subsidiary and three to the US subsidiary. Results and conclusions: the research identifies culture, relationship HQ-subsidiary, geographical distance, expatriates, relationship between employees, language difference, trust, transparency, motivation, and technology as the elements influencing conventional and reversed knowledge transfer; the influences these elements exercise on them, and the benefits of knowledge transfer flows. Suggestions for further research: to replicate the qualitative study with a multi-case study design; to develop a deeper understanding on the relationship between the elements; and to deeper understand how knowledge transfer benefits can influence the MNC’s overall performance and subsidiaries’ performance. Contribution of the thesis: it contributes with in-depth understanding of the elements influencing conventional and reversed knowledge transfer, their benefits and a theoretical framework; highlights the importance of knowledge transfer for social development; and it provides an understanding of the benefits of knowledge transfer to achieve competitive advantage.