D.Phil. / One of the principal reasons people form organisations is to focus attention and energy on a selected goal - this goal being the provisioning of products and/or services to clients. Due to forces demanding change, organisations are required to change to be able to continue their existence, making change unavoidable and part of the organisation's life cycle. The premise is that if change is unavoidable, it needs to be managed to serve the best interests of the organisation, thus the need for change management. Research indicates that 50 to 75% of all major corporate change efforts fail and that resistance is the "little-recognised but critically important contributor'' to the failure of change efforts, and central to the change problem. Also, central to the change problem and successful change management lie the following factors: • The reality that people tend to resist change. • The issue of measurement for change management intervention purposes. Research Objectives The objectives of this study are divided into literature and empirical research objectives, each posing primary and secondary objectives. The primary literature review objective is to create a theoretical frame of reference for the interrelated concepts of change, change management and barriers-to-change. The primary empirical research objective is to apply Barriers-to-Change Questionnaire (BCQ), developed in meeting the literature review objectives, to a Governmental service delivery type organisation with the purpose of determining which barriers-to-change is evident in such an environment. Literature Research A review of the literature revealed that there is no integrated view on change and barriers-to-change, but it also revealed that the concept of barriers-to-change has been prominent in organisational and management literature for quite some time. However, no evidence could be found of a measuring instrument focused on measuring barriers-to-change as a whole. During the literature research the concepts of organisational development, organisational change, change management, resistance to change and barriers-tochange were investigated, clarified and reported upon. The above-mentioned concepts were integrated into a theoretical frame of reference called the SCM, which served the purposes of providing a framework from where barriers-to-change can be understood, explained and managed as well as providing a firm base from where the BCQ was developed to measure barriers-to-change in a specific environment. It was concluded, for the purposes of this study, that barriers-to-change can be grouped into two types of barriers, being hard and soft. It was also concluded that there are four causes (or groupings) of barriers-to-change, being barriers inherent to the change project, people barriers, organisational barriers and barriers from the environment, each with specific sub-dimensions. Each sub dimension is supported by an appropriate number of questionnaire items, contained in the BCQ, which were administered to the target organisation.

D.Comm. / The successful implementation of organisational change is the theme of this study. It has been found that the majority of change initiatives fail, mainly due to poor conceptualisation and planning, and the lack of proper integration of the people and business dimensions of change (which will be referred to respectively as the systematic and interactive aspects). This leads to change resistance and increases the chance of failure. Little practical guidance is available on how to overcome this and to integrate the two aspects of change across the organisation(s), throughout the entire change process, from conceptualisation through to change completion. The purpose of the study is to develop a practical model for implementing a successful change program. The model will be designed using a combination of readily available skills and techniques, and is intended to be sufficiently generic to enable its use across all change projects and types of organisations. Accordingly the objectives of the study are: • To capture the challenges faced by organisations in integrating the systematic aspect of change management (such as system design) and the interactive aspect (such as people empowerment, buy-in). • To develop and test the Facilitative Project Management Model for Integrated Change, over three case studies. The model draws upon the disciplines of project management, which provides a structured "no surprises" approach to the management of change. This mostly addresses the systematic aspect of change. To properly incorporate the critical interactive aspect of change the project management discipline is combined with the powerful techniques of neutral facilitation, which provides a psychologically safe environment for team participation and ownership. This combination forms a model which through the case studies is shown to support an integrated change effort and aid successful change outcomes.

M.Comm. (Industrial Psychology) / A substantial number of factors play a role in an individual’s acceptance of organisational change. Individuals experience a personal transition process when organisational change occurs, and as part of that process they react to organisational change in different ways. Individuals also form perceptions based on the factors that influence the acceptance of organisational change. This study focused on the manner in which organisational change is communicated to employees. Specific attention was paid to the level of detail versus the vagueness of the communication, and the reactions and perceptions as a result were explored. The sample population consisted of 36 Call Centre Consultants, selected from a Financial Institution, who were divided into three groups. Participant views on organisational change, the communication thereof and their emotional stance were assessed, after which two treatment groups received a written change announcement varying in specificity of information. Following, the views concerning the organisational change described in the written memorandum and emotional responses, as a result of the announcement were assessed. The study found that the specificity vs. ambiguity of a change communication does impact employees and influence their perceptions and emotional experience of the change. However, the nature of the change communication is not necessarily the only contributor to the employees’ acceptance of change. Further research is necessary to facilitate understanding of the contribution by other factors and the extent of each contribution.

Factors such as globalisation, intense competition and ever-changing rules make change a must. What used to be traditional markets have been eroded and competitors have flooded most of the markets. This brings new challenges. Organisations that seek growth and survival keep up with the changing environment. Organisations that ignore the changing environment choose to do so at the risk of failure because what works today is not guaranteed to work in future. For an organisation to achieve its objectives, everyone in that organisation needs to contribute and pull in the same direction. As such, leaders and employees are important to the change process. Management’s understanding of where the organisation must go and how it could get there is crucial to take the whole organisation through the change process. Managers have to learn new skills as operational skills are often not enough when it comes to leading people. Leaders have a critical role to play to ensure effective change management. The study is aimed at establishing how the change process is managed at Eskom. This is explored through finding out the leadership style applied at Eskom in effecting change. Quantitative research was done within Eskom by means of e-mail survey to a random sample of employees at middle management. 980 questionnaires were sent out with a response rate of 21.5%. Having identified issues affecting effective leadership and change management in the organisation certain deficiencies or areas of possible improvement will be identified. Recommendations will be made on addressing leadership and change management process to create an environment for facilitation of change efficiently given the stress, discomfort and dislocation associated with change. “Change is a very fickle mistress. No sooner has one fresh new idea swept through the business world, than other better way of doing things is hot on its heels”. Anonymous / Mr. T.F.J. Oosthuizen

D.Com. / Traditional strategic management thinking is no longer appropriate within a prevailing context of discontinuous and rapid environmental change. A swiftly changing environment necessitates the need for a new approach to strategic management. Executives frequently experiences great difficulty. in managing strategic and organizational change. Managing strategic change requires a new way of dealing with the future, one often requiring executives to go against practice anchored in experience and traditional theory, frequently acquired within a less volatile context. A dynamic unpredictable and swiftly changing context provides impetus for challenging and researching the underlying assumptions on which the tradi tional strategic management paradigm is based. This study is thus directed at acquiring an understanding of the complexities and dynamics involved in managing strategic change, within a turbulent context. In this study an endeavour is made to gain an understanding of strategic and organizational change, from a theoretical and a practical perspective. A central premises of this study is that in order to understand the management of strategic change a clear understanding must be attained, as regards the dynamics of environmental change. Privatisation and deregulation, as environmental determinants, will in all probability have a profound impact on organizations in the public sector and they thus serve as an ideal frame of reference for researching the management of strategic and corporate change. An analytic-descriptive research approach is followed. The study is based on two fundamental foundations, namely acquiring a sound theoretical understanding of the concepts and processes involved in managing strategic change within a turbulent context and substantiating these insights acquired, by means of interviews conducted with management practitioners from selected organizations in both the public and the private sector. The former organizations in particular have been subjected to a traumatic period of micro- and macro-environmental change, stimulated by the privatisation process. It is concluded from this study that the future can no longer be extrapolated in terms of historical trends or events, as the future rarely resembles the past. Visionary leadership, incorporating the unknown in a dynamic context, is identified as being a vital dimension in managing strategic change. Management must in particular note that an established organizational culture can generate resistance to change, resulting in stagnation, thus preventing the organization from realizing its vision and strategic objectives. In conclusion it is affirmed that a holistic management approach is vital for contending with corporate and strategic change in a dynamic future milieu.

No / FP7

Nutzer bei der Entwicklung und Gestaltung neuer Produkte oder Dienstleistungen zu integrieren, wird seit einigen Jahren unter dem Begriff „Open Innovation“ diskutiert und ist für viele Unternehmen heutzutage selbstverständlich. Ob und wie diese offenen Innovationsprozesse in wissenschaftlichen Organisationen einsetzbar sind, ist bisher wenig erforscht. Dieser Beitrag erläutert am Fallbeispiel eines Lehrstuhls, wie Open Innovation im Rahmen einer strategischen Neuaufstellung eingesetzt werden kann. In vier Phasen erarbeiten die Mitarbeiter auf einer offenen Innovationsplattform die zukünftige Ausrichtung des Lehrstuhls.

The study examines the importance of competitive advantage and change in a dynamic environment. The purpose of the study is to explore how AAI could remain relevant and competitive in the market and examines how regularly changing its approaches to programme delivery could be used to meet needs of the community. The study also focused on the impact of AAI’s pace of change and how the pace impacted on the organization’s effectiveness and quality of programmed delivery. AAI relied on its past successful programmes to address the need of communities in many new countries. However, previously successful programmes did not prove popular when rolled in new markets. AAI programmes are suffering substantial withdrawals from beneficiaries. Beneficiaries are withdrawing from AAI programmes, complaining that the programme delivery approaches were not competitive and innovative. Many new organizations being formed are competing not just for beneficiary markets, but for financial resources (funding), skills and new ideas of delivering programmes. Traditional government type donors are being overtaken by a new crop of donors that is in favour of funding competitive and innovative organizations. Traditional aid organizations are losing market share to smaller agencies. The organizational structure of AAI appears not to support effective and efficient delivery of programmes. With no senior manager at the helm of the department, coordinating activities, sustaining competitive advantage and managing change within the programme department remained a challenge for the organization. A frastruated staff compliments exacerbated the situation. Employee turnover at the key and tactical levels resulted in the department operating without adequate staff and key personnel. This made coordination and cooperation amongst units very difficult. Various programme units operated in silos and mixed messages were sent to community resulting in the community being unhappy with AAI. Community felt that AAI did not consult with them when deciding on how to meet their needs. Community members felt that AAI was taking unilateral decisions and did not care about their feedback and the quality of the programmes delivered. This study further examines how AAI has suffered due to its inability to respond to the needs of community and its failure to adapt to the changing business environment. It reveals how innovation and adaptability is critical for retaining competitive advantage. It reveals how capabilities once built can be eroded by competition through copying. It concludes by revealing the importance of dynamic capabilities in sustaining competitive advantage as well as the need to change in response to the market. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / (M.B.A.)

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Business Administration, Business Studies Unit, Durban University of Technology, 2008. / Telkom SA, over the last decade and a half, has undergone major change in terms of the manner in which it does business. From being a state-owned company to becoming a para-statal, to being run by foreigners and, finally, being run by local leaders within the company, Telkom SA has transformed as a company. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of change implementation on staff turnover in Telkom SA by reviewing the following key issues: The implementation of change within Telkom SA, benchmarked against international best practices; the communication of change/re-structuring initiatives by management in Telkom SA; the effect of change implementation on staff turnover; and the effect of change implementation on employee morale and retention. The rationale of this study is to allow Telkom SA management to review their current implementation strategy of change management initiatives in Telkom SA. Thereafter, it will provide guidelines for improvements in change implementation for the management of Telkom SA. Staff turnover and employee morale can negatively impact service delivery and financial performance of a company, so these recommendations are aimed at improving service delivery and financial performance. The study was descriptive, cross sectional and quantitative, involving the application of a questionnaire, via e-mail and personal interviews, with a sample of staff from the core planning section in the Network Infrastructure Provisioning division, where a high staff turnover rate existed. The questionnaire focused on assessing the impact of the implementation of change management processes on staff turnover at Telkom SA and was developed from the literature review. Data was analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), Version 15 for both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings show that a significant percentage of respondents were v vi dissatisfied with the way management had handled issues related to change implementation, communication, turnover, morale and retention. With this in mind, recommendations on ways to reduce the impact of the key issues on the organisation were made. These included the recommendation of lean methodology in order to deal with the first three key issues, namely, implementation, communication, and turnover. Thereafter the ‘four cores of credibility’ model was recommended to improve employee morale. Finally recommendations were made on ways to improve employee retention. The overarching issue that has come to light is that although management is, to a degree, communicating change implementation, there is a noticeable lack of engagement with employees. The onus, therefore, lies with leadership to lift the levels of engagement with employees, thereby reducing the impact of change implementation on the organisation by increasing the level of transparency in the organisation. Improving communication would lead to improved trust, which would then result in improved employee morale, ultimately leading to a reduction in the staff turnover rate.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration