Masters in Public Administration - MPA / South Africa IS apartheid legacy of racial and class inequalities demands drastic and purposeful intervention. This is necessary because, blacks and women have, for decades, been discriminated against on the basis of race, gender and disability . Despite the advent of a democratic government, a large proportion of senior management positions in the public service of South Africa are still occupied by white, male Afrikaners who, in 1996 constituted 63 per cent of the management echelon. There is a need, therefore, to introduce a nation - wide , and systematic strategy in the public service to "normalise" this situation through programmes of affirmative action.

The research aimed to identify the level of threat currently experienced by Afrikaners, and their attitudes towards policies of affirmative action and the beneficiaries of these policies. Integrated threat theory was used in conjunction with social identity theory to identify current attitudes, and to investigate whether different attitudes existed between groups within the Afrikaner group. Data was collected from a representative sample via questionnaires. Research findings show that Afrikaners feel extremely threatened. Afrikaner negativity is focused directly on the policies of affirmative action rather than the beneficiaries of these policies. It was evident that Afrikaner males feel more threatened than Afrikaner females. Young Afrikaners attitudes are consistently the most negative of all Afrikaner groups; this was unexpected as this group of individuals has spent the majority of their young lives in a democratic South Africa. It is evident that a lot of work is still required to insure that the injustices of the past be adequately addressed. It is of critical importance that affirmative action be implemented with consideration to all groups of people and to understand the effect it has on those groups being negatively affected by it. All South Africans need to be responsible and recognise that the manner in which policy is implemented, has far greater influence than just the expected outcome of such policies. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Thesis advisor: M. Utku Ünver / Thesis advisor: M. Bumin Yenmez / This thesis is a collection of three essays in market design concerning designs of matching markets, affirmative action schemes, and COVID-19 testing policies. In Chapter 1, we explore the possibility of designing matching mechanisms that can accommodate non-standard choice behavior. In the standard model of matching markets, preferences over potential assignments encode participants' choice behavior. Our contribution to this literature is introducing behavioral participants to matching theory's setup. We pin down the necessary and sufficient conditions on participants' choice behavior for the existence of stable and incentive compatible matching mechanisms. Our results imply that well-functioning matching markets can be designed to adequately accommodate a plethora of non-standard (and standard) choice behaviors. We illustrate the applicability of our results by demonstrating that a simple modification in a commonly used matching mechanism enables it to accommodate non-standard choice behavior. In Chapter 2, we show that commonly used methods in reserving positions for beneficiaries of affirmative action are often inadequate in settings where affirmative action policies apply at two levels simultaneously, for instance, at university and itsdepartments. We present a comprehensive evaluation of existing procedures and formally and empirically document their shortcomings. We propose a new solution with appealing theoretical properties and quantify the benefits of adopting it using recruitment advertisement data from India. Our theoretical analysis hints at new possibilities for future work in the literature on the theory of apportionment (of parliamentary seats). Chapter 3 delves into the designs of the commonly used and advocated COVID-19 testing policies to resolve a conflict between their allocative efficiency and the ability to identify the infection rates. We present a novel comparison of various COVID-19 testing policies that allows us to pin down ordinally efficient testing policies that generate reliable estimates of infection rates while prioritizing testing of persons suspected of having the disease. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

Bibliography: pages 121-126C. / The research problem addressed in this research is the shortage of qualified chartered accountants from the black community in South Africa. This research attempts to identify what factors have resulted in this shortage, what efforts are being made to address this imbalance by which organisations and what factors could be considered as critical to the success of organisations, programmes and/or individuals. The study consists of a literature review and a three stage survey. Qualified black accountants and representatives of educational and other relevant organisations responded to questionnaires or were interviewed. The study is descriptive and exploratory in nature. Results indicate common trends amongst individual accountants and the opinions and experiences of organisations, rather than quantifiable data. The initial survey highlighted issues which have historically contributed to the shortage of black accountants, including awareness and perception of the profession, institutions, structures, racism, financial, macro and micro societal and educational factors. Educational factors were focused on for the remainder of the research. The literature review examined research in the areas of academic support programmes, cognition, learning and education and accounting education. Needs assessment, organisational objectives, educational methodology and evaluation were highlighted as potentially important factors in academic support programme design. The final section of the research drew on the practical experiences of support organisations and qualified accountants. The factors identified in the literature review appeared to be evident in most programmes. The group of qualified accountants participating in the study had not, however, participated in educational interventions by organisations, so the effectiveness of the hypothesized success factors could not be adequately assessed. Other issues which were identified in the study, and which are suggested for further research, were participation in facilitated or informal study groups, issues related to bilingualism and language and the importance of the locus of control over, and location of responsibility for, learning. The results indicate certain trends and commonalities which could guide further study, but the small population and sample size, and low response rates limit the generalisability of the results. Although the results are inconclusive as to the effectiveness of support organisations, a number of implications of the study for the short and long term, as well as suggestions for future research, can be made.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management. / Current political changes in local government will necessitate the implementation of affirmative action programmes. Successful implementation is vital to ensure peace and stability at local government level. The main purpose of this study was to examine control options for affirmative action in local government. The research was conducted by means of two research methods, namely documentary study on eight policy documents and survey questionnaires from 152 people involved in local government. It is interesting to note that the results of these methods were highly complementary. The documentary study and survey questionnaire results revealed a high degree of consensus on union involvement in the development of affirmative action policies and programmes. Furthermore, the enforcement of affirmative action by means of agreement between management and the trade unions was well received by all occupation groups in the study. Councillors and officials in particular, had no difficulty with shop steward involvement in the implementation of affirmative action, The study revealed that council officials and councillors are not in favour of government involvement in enforcing affirmative action policies and programmes .. At best, negotiated guidelines on affirmative action are fairly acceptable. The use of quotas and/or fines was unacceptable to the various parties. The nature of the research was exploratory and took the form of theory building as opposed to theory testing. For the first time in South Africa, an attempt was made to assess how best control systems for affirmative action policies and programmes could be implemented in local government. The input from key stakeholders in local government made it possible to develop a model that could he used to control affirmative action policies and programmes. / AC2017

Thesis (LL.M. (Labour Law)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / The aim of this research is to determine the laws that regulate affirmative action in the workplace and the impact Covid-19 has on affirmative action. This research focuses on the history of affirmative action in South Africa and the United States of America. Both countries have a similar history of discrimination and racial segregation. The United States of America is one of the most progressive countries on the issue of affirmative action. The comparison of South Africa with the United States of America will enhance the applicability and effectiveness of affirmative action. Past discrimination is a huge contributing factor to the imbalances and inequalities experienced in the workplace. A measure in a form of affirmative action was established to redress past injustices, however, there are many controversies around the topic and its effectiveness. The Covid-19 pandemic has made matters worse in that many people have been laid off, resulting in the retrenchments and the regress of affirmative action and its purpose. The findings of this research conclude that Covid-19 has negatively affected the process of affirmative action. As such, employers during this trying time prefer only individuals who are fully qualified and experienced as the employees have been reduced. As long as affirmative action applies to individuals or a group of individuals with certain skin colour or sex regardless of their past privileges this racial tension might never be relieved. In order to effectively implement affirmative action, South Africa has to focus on the institutions that cause the problem rather than dealing with the final results

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I make two arguments in this dissertation. First, I argue that institutions and the people who managed them mattered in the fight for racial justice. At the University of Michigan, activists and state actors successfully pushed administrators to create new policies to increase minorities' access to the University, but it was University presidents, admissions officers, housing officials, deans and faculty members who had to put the ideal of racial justice into practice. These institutional managers, many of whom had never participated in a civil rights protest, had to rethink admissions and recruiting policies, craft new curriculum and counseling services and create new programs to address racial tension. In short, this is the story of what happened when institutional managers at the University of Michigan put the civil rights movement through the meat grinder of implementation. The second argument concerns the origins of the concepts and practices of diversity. Scholars have shown that activists, politicians and federal bureaucrats were responsible for the origins of affirmative action. In other words, institutions that implemented race-conscious admissions or hiring practices reacted to both the activists who insisted that institutions had a social responsibility to use affirmative action to address the racial inequities in American society, and to the state actors who enforced this ideal. If activists and state actors invented affirmative action, I argue that institutional managers created the concept of diversity. At the University of Michigan, the concept of diversity emerged out of a long struggle to implement race-conscious policies and carry out the ideal that the University had a social responsibility to address racial inequity in the state of Michigan. / History

There have been numerous legal challenges to affirmative action programs in education. Two legal decisions that have directly affected race-targeted financial aid programs in Virginia schools are the court ruling in <u>Podberesky v. Kirwan</u>, (1994) and the Virginia statute: Participation in or Eligibility for Certain State-Supported Financial Aid Programs (VA Code Ann. s. 23.7.1:02, 1993). In this study the impact of the court ruling and state statute was examined at three public institutions in Virginia to determine (a) how knowledgeable the participants from each institution were about the court and legislative decisions, and (b) how the participants from each institution were applying the state law and ruling to their scholarship, grant and fellowship programs. In-depth information was gathered through interviews with administrators and faculty from each institution. One interview instrument was developed and tested in a pilot study. Construct validity of data was reasonably ensured by tape-recording interviews and allowing each respondent to review their interview transcript for accuracy. Single-case and stacked matrices were used to organize and analyze data within and between institutions. The degree of knowledge about the court and legislative decisions varied within and across institutions. Overall, respondents in all three schools were more familiar with the court ruling than the statute. The main effects of the court ruling and state statute were: (a) a decrease in the number or race-based awards, (b) the exclusion of race-specific language in donor scholarship and fellowship agreements, and (c) an increased awareness about issues surrounding race-targeted financial aid awards. Both race-targeted and single-race awards, funded by private and public dollars, were still being distributed at all three institutions. Most respondents felt that neither the statute or court ruling would affect future recruiting efforts of minority students. All three institutions were still very committed to increasing diversity on campus. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the probability that race was a factor in the admissions process at Virginia Tech. The study was conducted in three parts. In the first part, logistic regression was used to develop a probability of admission model for eight demographically distinct groups for the years 1994-1998 using information that was presented to the university by all first-time freshman applicants considering grade point average (GPA), scholastic aptitude tests (SAT), high school rank (HSR), requested major (RM), gender and race. The eight demographic groups were: African American men (BM), African American women (BF), Asian American men (AM), Asian American women (AF), Hispanic American men (HM), Hispanic American women (HF), white American men (WM), and white American women (WF). The Bonferroni correction and the Wald tests were carried out to determine significance in the observed differences. Significant differences were found. The two African American groups and the white female group were found to have significantly higher probabilities of getting accepted than other groups while the two Asian groups were found to have the least probability of getting accepted. The null hypothesis that there was no difference between the groups with regard to probability of getting accepted was thus rejected. GPA was found to be the most important admission criteria followed by SAT scores. The admissions criteria were found to be important for all applicants regardless of group membership. Between group differences detected in the study was mainly the result of differences in cut-off points. The second part of the study involved evaluating the reasons that were given for rejection of admission in 1998. A stratified sample of 400 was randomly selected. The chi-square test was used to determine if there were differences between the eight groups with regard to reasons given for rejection. The frequency with which the reasons were given was also examined. It was found that there were no differences between the groups and, therefore, the null hypothesis was confirmed. GPA related reasons were the most cited for rejection followed by SAT scores. This was consistent with the finding in the first part of this study that GPA and SAT were the most important admission criteria In the third part of the study, the director of admissions and the deputy director of admissions for freshman admissions were interviewed. It was determined from them that affirmative action did not influence the university's admissions decisions but that race was "one of the many factors considered during the admissions process." Based upon the finding in the first part of this study that the two African American groups consistently had the highest probabilities of acceptance in the five years under study, it was concluded that the use of race was intended to benefit applicants from the two groups. This conclusion was further based on the information collected from the interview with the admissions officers which suggested that Affirmative action in the state of Virginia applied only to African Americans and also that there were targeted goals in the state intended to increase the number of African Americans in the state's public higher education institutions. The admissions officers could, however, not provide any references to support this information. Consultations with a professor at the university and the university's vice president for multicultural affairs suggested that there was no state mandate or requirement that public institutions in the state adopt targeted goals as a means of increasing the number of African Americans in the state's public higher education institutions. They also doubted that affirmative action could be applied to one ethnic group only. It was concluded, however, that since the admissions officers made these assertions during the interview, these perceived state requirements may have led them to deliberately seek to increase the number of African American students accepted by the university and that these deliberate efforts may have been behind the high probabilities of the acceptance of students from the two African American groups. The fact that the admissions officers may have deliberately sought to increase the number of African Americans on the campus to satisfy perceived state mandates or requirements and the finding in the first part of this study that the two African American groups consistently had the highest probabilities of getting accepted by the university in the five years under study suggested that admission to the university was not race blind. It was also concluded that since external pressure may have been the cause of the high probabilities for the African American groups, admission to the university was not entirely the prerogative of the university. / Master of Arts