Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study project has as its objectives the analysis and evaluation of people management practices within a broad spectrum of organisations in South Africa, using the Marglen diagnostic model. It also serves to assess the usage and utility of this model during this process. The Marglen model provides a conceptual framework consisting of twenty key issues which organisations can use to assess its people management practices. The model promotes a holistic, integrated and strategic approach to people management, with people management practitioners being considered as strategic partners within the core business activities of the organisation. In the current and foreseeable global economic order where rapid change and turbulence tend to be the only certainties, successful organisations are those who are creative, innovative, highly adaptable and who invent the future. In other words, organisations who leverage their only appreciating assets, namely their people, their human capital. In order to achieve this organisations need to move from traditional human resource management to progressive people management: from controlling and circumscribing staff to managing performance and leading and realising people's potential effectively and efficiently. Our studies show that the majority of organisations in South Africa, especially the bigger and older ones, tend to be reactive when it comes to people management. They largely still use the traditional human resources approach, changing only when forced to, for example, because of competition or legal pressures such as the Employment Equity Act. A small but growing number of organisations, which includes mainly the smaller and newer organisations operating especially in young or volatile industries (e.g. information technology sector) tend to be more proactive and tend to lean toward a more integrated people management system, with flatter structures and lots of positive energies. This is especially true when the leadership are still young/fresh and are hands- on. Because of their flexibility, responsiveness to markets and sensitivity to globalisation these "new generation" organisations most probably will adopt new (and hopefully more progressive) people management practices much quicker than the older, bigger ones. The Marglen model itself proved its worth with the wealth of empirical information generated and the encouragement of a systems approach to the solution of problems. With the necessary adjustments the model can become an even more potent tool for all managers, whether they are formal HR practitioners or not. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie werkstuk is onderneem om die praktyk van mensebestuur in 'n wyd verspreide spektrum van Suid Afrikaanse organisasies te ondersoek met behulp van the Marglen diagnostiese model. Dit dien ook as 'n evaluasie van die bruikbaarheid van die model self. Die Marglen model veskaf 'n konseptuele raamwerk bestaande uit twintig sleutels wat organisasies kan gebruik om hul mensebestuur praktyke te kan ondersoek. Die model bevorder 'n geintegreerde en strategiese nadering van mensebestuur, waar mensebestuur praktisyne beskou word as strategiese vennote deur alle ander bestuurders. In die huidige globale ekonomiese orde waar blitsige veranderinge en onstuimigheid die enigste sekerheid bied is suksesvolle organisasies die' wat kreatief, vernuwend en soepel is: diegene wat die toekoms skep. Met ander woorde, organisasies wat die beste gebruik maak van hul grootste en enigste groeiende bate, hul mense. Om suskesvol to wees en so te bly moet daar 'n wesenlike verandering van mensebestuur filosofie and praktyk wees, van die tradisionele metode van kontrole en verbiedinge na progressiewe metodes waar die persoon se potensiaal gerealiseer word ten bate van beide die persoon self en die organisasie. Ons ondersoek toon dat die meerderheid van organisasies, veral die groter en ouer garde, reagerend is wat mensebestuur betref. Hulle gebruik grootliks die tradisionele personeelbestuur filosofie en praktyke en verander net as hulle gedwing word deur eksterne faktore soos byvoorbeeld erg mededinging (veral van oorsee) en wetgewing. 'n Groeiende minderheid van organisasies wat insluit meesal die kleiner en jonger garde en wat veral in die nuwer en meer onstuimige sektors soos informasie tegnologie gevind word, neig om meer proaktief te wees. Hulle neig ook om 'n meer geintegreerde mensebestuur stelsel te hê met minder vlakke en met volop energie. Dit is veral opvallend wanneer die leierskap nog jonk is en heelhartiglik deelneem in die organisasie. As gevolg van hul soepelheid en hul reponsiewiteit en vatbaarheid vir die globale ekonomiese orde sal hulle heel moontlik die voortou neem met nuwe en hopelik progressiewe mensebestuur praktyke. Die Marglen model het sy self bewys met die inligting wat ontgun was en met die bevordering van 'n stelselmatige nadering van problem oplossing. Met die nodige aanpassings sal die model 'n selfs meer kragtige middel vir alle bestuurders wees, nie net vir personeel bestuurders nie.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Virtual team research is very relevant today as organisations have become more distributed and the use of so-called distributed teams has become more common. These virtual teams allow organisations to combine expertise from almost anywhere through the use of information and communication technology (ICT) across space and time to complete interdependent organisational tasks. To date research efforts have yielded insights into many factors that affect virtual teamwork, but the research has become somewhat fragmented. By means of a case study approach, this research paper aims to provide virtual team leaders with a more holistic understanding of the factors that influence virtual team performance. The researcher interviewed five virtual team leaders who have many years of working experience with virtual teams. All the participants work in the ICT industry sector and make extensive use of distributed teams to perform day-to-day tasks, provide business services and to implement large scale projects. The research assignment was constructed by completing a detailed literature review in order to develop a broad framework to evaluate five broad virtual team perspectives that influence virtual team performance. The five perspectives included organisation design, leadership, human resources, ICT technology and process considerations. The following findings were identified for each of these perspectives. Organisational design perspective: The importance of a clearly defined organisation structure helps to create a better understanding of responsibility and ownership. It was also identified that an additional layer of management within the virtual team structure reduces some of the complexities of virtual team management and simplifies the communication structure. The study also provides further insight into the type of person, and the experience and skills of people suitable to work in the virtual team environment. Leadership perspective: The importance of management controls was identified, like process orientation, practical awareness and management awareness in terms of cultural and importantly emotional awareness. Practical considerations for the performance management and rewards systems include the need for a broader team focus rather than rewarding individualist behaviour and performance. Human resources perspective (people): The clear goals and objectives of the organisation or project create the necessary focus, direction and understanding that guide the individual virtual team members and allow them to self-regulate. This is further supported by the a shared understanding of functional and role requirements that promote ownership and accountability which are considered to be the basis for a successful empowering approach and which allow individual team members to make decisions within the boundaries of their functions. Subsequently, the effect of social and interpersonal factors was identified as having a significant impact on virtual team performance and success. The use of various activities to build relations and to create an informal connectedness improves communication and promotes team commitment, cohesion, knowledge and information sharing. Technology perspective: The use of technologies that share the relevant context and supporting information reduces ambiguity and provides a mechanism to share information. All participants make use of collaborative technologies to facilitate the day-to-day team interaction, with a preference for technologies that promote easy participation and sharing of information in real-time (synchronously). Interestingly, none of the respondents provide ICT tool training to improve the effective use of these communication technologies and they expect their virtual team members to be able to use all the relevant technologies as a basic skill. Process perspective: The reliance on clear and agreed processes is important in virtual teamwork and requires upfront alignment. The study identified that a shared understanding by all team members of the underlying delivery process, including all in-and-output controls is a critical success factor for virtual teamwork and, because of the fragmented nature of the delivery process, there is a greater reliance on the efficient facilitation and coordination of specialised work. It also further supports the additional layer of management, in which a team leader and project manager facilitate and coordinate the facilitation of work that relies on a well-developed communication structure.

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Many organisations are perusing a process improvement programme in order to gain competitive advantage through improved product and service quality, operational efficiencies and customer experience. Whilst Six Sigma adopts a project-oriented, expert-led approach to improving processes, Total Quality Management (TQM), Lean and Operational Excellence (OE) programmes typically promote a culture of Continuous Improvement (CI) where lower-level employees are encouraged and empowered to evaluate and optimise their own working practices and processes. In order to make CI successful and sustainable in an organisation, employees need to have a positive attitude towards CI. Whilst previous research had already established the relationship between CI, Organisational Learning (OL) and company performance, this research set out to establish if any of the five disciplines of the Senge (1994) Learning Organisation (LO) influenced on an employee’s (positive) attitude towards CI. In keeping with the Dimensions of the Learning Organisation Questionnaire (DLOQ), the five disciplines of the LO were structured within individual, team and organisational factors. Through a structured survey and statistical correlation analysis, this research has shown that, whilst the team and organisational factors did not influence on an employee’s attitude to CI, personal mastery does have an influence on an employee’s attitude towards CI. It is therefore recommended that an organisation that wishes to create a culture of CI also actively works to improve the personal mastery of those employees who are expected to be involved in CI.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The discussions on leadership and strategy have attracted considerable interest from academics on one hand and business practitioners on the other. Much of the interest lies in claims that both leadership and strategy are linked to business performance. This research report examines the nature of the relationship between different leadership styles and organisation performance. The research study hypothesised that either authoritative leadership style leads to achievement of the business strategic plan (hypothesis 1) or that participative leadership style leads to achievement of the business strategic plan (hypothesis 2). The research was a quantitative study; data was collected by means of interviews and telephone questionnaires which were administered on 38 randomly selected business owners and senior managers. A linear regression method was used to test the hypothesis. The regression analyses revealed that participative leadership style and performance and authoritative leadership style are not related. These two variables each explain less than one per cent of the variance in performance. As a result, both null hypotheses were not rejected. This research concludes with a number of implications for further research studies. Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za

published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

<p>This study focused on understanding inter-organizational relationships (IOR) of a dynamic nature. A dynamic process that has repetitive sequences of negotiation, commitment, and execution stages is central to inter-organizational relationships. The dynamic process is a tool that is used by management through collaboration, co-operation, and coordination to engender formation, governance, and performance of inter-organizational relationships. This report looked into how the resource-dependency theory gives insight into the formation of an inter-organizational relationships and how the transaction-cost theory contributes to the understanding ofinter-organizational relationships governance.</p>

This study examined the extent to which organizational conditions that promote ministry team effectiveness are present in multi-staff churches. The case was made for the need for effective teamwork in the church organization. Five influential and contemporary models of effective teams were examined and through those models a shift in thinking from examining team characteristics toward creating and leading organizational conditions was presented. Finally an integrative effective team model was presented and five key organizational conditions were presented as a synthesis of the components from the five effective team models. Those five organizational conditions are: an environment of trust, a focus on performance, team stability over time, a supportive structure and context, and good team leadership. Based on the five organizational conditions the Team Effectiveness Survey was developed with the assistance of an expert panel. The survey, which examined perceptions of organizational conditions, was distributed electronically to 1165 multi-staff churches. The results collected allowed for the comparison of responses between senior pastors and associate staff. Data collected showed a positive perception among pastoral staff as to both the effectiveness of ministry teams and the presence of the five organizational conditions within their churches. Statistical analysis also displayed agreement in perception between senior pastors and associate staff in each of the five organizational conditions. Two conditions, however, did show a slight divergence in perception. Those conditions were the areas of trust and a focus on performance. Analysis of the data was accomplished primarily through descriptive statistics and was displayed through the use of tables and charts. Implications and applications of the research were also presented. Some of the research implications involved the primarily positive views of pastoral staff regarding how their organizations support ministry team effectiveness, the reality that there is room for improvement in helping teams be more successful, and the agreement that senior pastors and associate staff had regarding team effectiveness and the existence of the five conditions. Research applications were suggested in the areas of continued communication among pastoral staff, the need to continue to improve in setting goals and objectives for tasks, and the need for leaders to shift their thinking from influencing individual team effectiveness to influencing the culture of an organization in order to promote team health throughout the organization. Finally, suggestions for further research were proposed.

Dissertation submitted in compliance with the requirements for the Masters Degree in Business Administration, Durban University of Technology, 2008. / Increasing competitive pressure from global markets and technological developments has resulted in the continual demand for business improvement philosophies and methodologies to address this challenge. The LSS approach to business improvement has emerged in both the practitioner and academic literature as having a significant role in this area. In 2006, The Valspar Corporation embarked on a LSS initiative as a way to improve the business globally, to achieve sustained profitable growth and to enhance customer value. Valspar (SA) found the implementation of LSS a challenge because the organisation could not afford the appointment of a full-time Black Belt to manage the programme locally. Green Belts were appointed to lead LSS projects part-time. Management wanted to know if they have applied the LSS methodology correctly within the scope of the business, especially since not all organisations were successful in the implementation of LSS. The objective of this study was to determine the critical factors that affect the successful implementation of LSS at Valspar (SA) and to assess the degree to which these critical factors exist at Valspar (SA). In a census, the researcher used the questionnaire to gain information about the current views of employees on the LSS programme at Valspar (SA). The research highlighted the critical success factors for LSS implementation and the results of the evaluation revealed both the positive and negative aspects of the LSS programme at Valspar (SA). / Valspar Corporation / M