No abstract available / Dissertation (MAdmin)--University of Pretoria, 2001. / gm2014 / School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) / unrestricted

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / This study has been conducted before when the company in question underwent a restructuring (name change) but did not threaten the loss of jobs. This study is being conducted again because another restructuring has taken place over the period of 2011/2012 and involved the retrenchment of employees nationally. The company represented in the study is one of the largest cleaning companies in South Africa and has a very broad and influential client base. They are in high demand in the cleaning industry and have positively impacted many companies and organisations over their many years of existence. Because of the magnitude of the workplace restructuring this time around, more people have been affected (both those who were retrenched as well as those who were left behind). According to Vermeulen, 2002, “Downsizing” is a term that emerged in managerial circles and was used in the business press, but no precise theoretical formulation underpins any clear definition of the term. When hearing the term downsizing, one often will use this together with the term “laying-off” interchangeably. However, some authors will focus on different elements of downsizing for example in reporting on a comprehensive study of downsizing in American industry, Cameron, Freeman and Mishra (1993) limited the term's use to a programme which is an intentional process. This process involves an overall reduction in personnel with a view to improving the efficiency of the organisation. The process wittingly or unwittingly affects work processes at the organisation concerned. According to Hellgren, et al (2005), the attitudinal constructs investigated in this study were job satisfaction, job involvement, organisational commitment, and turnover intention. Job satisfaction represents a general affective response to the overall job situation. Following Locke (1976, p. 1300), we define job satisfaction as “a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experience”. ...employees who survived downsizing were likely to experience high levels of stress and decreased levels of organizational commitment and motivation. These individuals are often known as the "victims" of downsizing due to research that documents the devastation of job loss, focusing on negative consequences in terms of psychological and physical well-being (Bennett, Martin, Bies, & Brockner, 1995; Cappeili, 1992; Fallick, 1996; Leana & Feldman, 1992). This study inevitably aimed to prove that workplace restructuring very well has an effect or impact on an employee’s job satisfaction, whether these effects were positive or negative. The findings of the study highlighted significant positive correlations between the two variables and highlights strong relationships between employees’ career advancement opportunities and job satisfaction; trust and job satisfaction, communication and job satisfaction, as well as employee commitment and loyalty and job satisfaction whereas trust (2) or employee morale seem to have no significant relationship with job satisfaction.

The development of phonological representations remains a hot topic within both the developmental and neural network literature. Historically, theoretical accounts have fallen within one of two camps: the accessibility account which proposes that phonological representations are adult-like from infancy (Rozin & Gleitman, 1977; Liberman, Shankweiler & Liberman, 1989) and the emergent account which proposes that phonological representations become gradually restructured over development (Metsala & Walley, 1998; Ventura, Kolinsky, Fernandes, Querido & Morais, 2007; Ziegler & Goswami, 2005). Within this thesis we tested predictions made by the accessibility account and key variants of the emergent account using data from both behavioural (Chapters 2, 3 and 4) and neural network studies (Chapter 5). The novel measures used within Chapters 2 to 4 were devised to allow us to contrast implicit measures of phonological representation (PR) which probe the segmentedness of the representations themselves, with explicit PR measures which tap into children’s conscious awareness of phonological segments. Within Chapter 2 we present evidence that while explicit awareness of phonological structure is dependent on letter-sound knowledge, implicit sensitivity to the segments within words emerges independent of literacy. Within Chapter 3 a longitudinal study investigated the segmentedness of children’s phonological representations at the rime and phoneme level. These results demonstrate that implicit sensitivity to both rime and phoneme segments is driven by vocabulary growth and is not dependent on letter-sound knowledge. The results within Chapter 3 also suggest that, while awareness of rime segments emerges naturally through oral language experience, explicit awareness of individual phonemes is related to letter-sound knowledge. In Chapter 4 we explored the idea of global versus phonemic representation using a mispronunciation reconstruction task. We found that sensitivity to both global and phonemic similarity increased over time, but with global sensitivity reaching adult levels early on in development. In Chapter 5 a neural network was trained on the mappings between real acoustic input and articulatory output data allowing us to simulate the development of phonological representations computationally. The simulation data provide further evidence of a developmental increase in sensitivity to both global and phonemic similarity within a preliterate model. Taken together, the results provide strong evidence that as children’s vocabularies grow they become increasingly sensitive to both the global properties and segmental structure of words, independent of literacy experience. Children’s explicit awareness of phonemes, on the other hand, seems to emerge as a consequence of learning the correspondence between letters and sounds. Within the context of the wider literature, the current results are most consistent with the PRIMIR framework which predicts early detailed phonetic representations alongside gradually emerging phonemic categories (Werker & Curtin, 2005). This thesis underlines the importance of using implicit measures when trying to probe the representations themselves rather than children’s conscious awareness of them. The thesis also represents an important step towards modelling the emergence of segmental representation computationally using real speech data.

Aerosol particle properties and their impact on air quality, clouds, and the hydrologic cycle remain a critically important factor for the understanding of our atmosphere. Particle hygroscopic growth leads to impacts on direct and indirect radiative forcing properties, the likelihood for particles to act as cloud condensation nuclei, and aerosol-cloud interactions. Current instruments measuring hygroscopic growth have a number of limitations, lacking either the ability to measure size-resolved particles or process samples at a fast enough resolution to be suitable for airborne deployment. Advanced in-situ airborne particle retrieval and measurements of aerosol hygroscopic growth and scattering properties are analyzed and discussed.To improve the analysis of cloud nuclei particles, an updated counterflow virtual impact inlet was characterized and deployed during the 2011 E-PEACE field campaign. Theoretical and laboratory based cut size diameters were determined and validated against data collected from an airborne platform. In pursuit of higher quality aerosol particle hygroscopicity measurements, a newer instrument, the differential aerosol sizing and hygroscopicity probe (DASH-SP) has been developed in the recent past and only flown on a handful of campaigns. It has been proven to provide quality, rapid, size-resolved hygroscopic growth factor data, but was further improved into a smaller form factor making it easier for deployment on airborne platforms. It was flown during the 2013 SEAC4RS field campaign and the data was analyzed to composite air mass based hygroscopicity and refractive index (real portion only) statistics. Additionally, a comparison of bulk and size-resolved hygroscopic growth measurements was conducted. Significant findings include a potential particle size bias on bulk scattering measurements as well as a narrow range of ambient real portion of refractive index values. An investigation into the first reported ambient hygroscopicity measurements of particle shrinkage, or "sub-1" growth is conducted. Possible explanations, including particle restructuring, measurement sensitivity to refractive index, evaporative loss, and influence of ambient external mixtures on data processing are examined.

A major financial sector reform program has been implemented in Ghana since the early 1980s, involving financial liberalization and institutional reforms. Financial reforms became necessary, because the pre-reform policies together with acute and prolonged economic crisis had severely damaged the financial system. In the early 1990s, the government launched financial market liberalization policies under the financial sector adjustment program to restructure the distressed banks and clean up nonperforming assets in order to restore banks to profitability and viability. The study investigated the market structure of Ghana's banking industry and determined whether the market structure has been changed after the financial restructuring. This study specifically measures the degree of competition of the banking system in Ghana by using the H-statistic. Various studies on the degree of competition were reviewed. This study employs a widely used nonstructural methodology put forward by Panzar and Rosse (1987)--the H-statistic-- and draws upon comprehensive average annual data from the various issues of the Bank of Ghana annual reports from 1988 to 2008. Maximum likelihood techniques were used to estimate the model. Based on the reported H-statistic for pre and postliberalization (2.35657 and 3.27530 respectively), it can be concluded that Ghana's banks are operating under perfect competition. However, the test for a change in competition status at the time of liberalization was not significant, indicating no evidence of a change in competition as a result of liberalization. The result of the market equilibrium reveals that the market equilibrium equals zero, revealing the existence of long-run equilibrium making the Panzar and Rosse model meaningful to interpret. The findings are consistent with the results obtained by Yuan (2006) who found Chinese banking market to be near perfect competition. This study has extended and strengthened some earlier results on bank competition in Ghana. However, the results of this study are different from the study undertaken by Buchs and Mathisen (2005), who found Ghanaian banking markets to operate under monopolistic conditions without considering the effect of liberalization. Three innovations of the current study are the use of comprehensive data source, the consideration of longer period of time covering two decades (1988-2008) and the incorporation of liberalization factors. Overall, the Panzar and Rosse model is regarded as a valuable tool for assessing the banking market conditions in Ghana. Since a bank's revenue is more likely to be observable than output prices and quantities or actual costs.

As a result of global competitiveness and a continuously changing business environment, organisations are constantly seeking for ways and means to enhance their profitability. The current organisational trend for businesses to gain competitive advantage is to restructure them to leaner and more flexible organisations. Businesses are striving to increase shareholder value by increasing performance through corporate restructuring to obtain an increase in efficiency and production. Unfortunately restructuring affects employees and could result in uncertainty with potential side effects in the work environment that could influence the employees‘ trust within the organisation. Damage to institutional trust, or trustworthiness as perceived by employees, could affect how employees engage within the organisation and impact on the profitability of such an organisation. A quantitative research study was conducted to determine if corporate restructuring affects institutional trust. It also investigated the relationship between institutional trust and employee engagement to determine if corporate restructuring affects employee engagement. The main findings of the research are that corporate restructuring has a profound impact on institutional trust and that damage to institutional trust affects how employees engage within the organisation. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Thesis (MPA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2017. / Refer to document

There is a growing and legitimate concern about sovereign debt increasing to unsustainable levels among the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Understanding the determinants of external debt to these countries influenced the direction of this study. The existing literature that was examined shed light mostly on the qualitative determinants of sovereign borrowing. In addition to existing empirical literature, there is a complimentary need to examine further the quantitative determinants of external debt. The researcher seeks to establish the extent to which the cost of borrowing (proxied by interest rate) explains the changes in the borrowing behaviour (proxied by external debt) among SSA countries. To achieve this objective, data from 36 SSA countries for the period 2009–2017 was used. The data were collected from International Debt Statistics compiled by the World Bank. External debt has been regressed against interest rate and other predictor variables. Hausman tests, robustness tests and collinearity tests were carried out to ascertain the validity of results. Interest rate is found to have a positive determining impact on external debt for all SSA countries aggregated: SSA countries excluding South Africa (SA); SSA excluding Nigeria; SSA excluding Nigeria and SA; SSA excluding debt-distressed countries, middle income and oilexporting countries. It does not have predictive power over changes in external debt for SSA excluding countries at high risk of distress; countries with low to moderate risk of distress; heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative post-implementation recipient countries; low income, other resource intensive and non-resource-intensive countries. External debt is also found to respond to changes in: gross national income (GNI); exports-to-imports ratio; primary income on foreign direct investment (FDI); reserves-to-imports ratio; FDI-to-GNI ratio; debt service-to-GNI ratio; interest arrears on long-term debt; short-term-to-total-debt ratio; and reserves-to-debt ratio for different country groupings. Different country groupings are found to have unique combinations of external debt determinants.

A central question in corporate finance has been about the optimal balance between both debt and equity financing when trying to determine the optimal capital structure of a new or existing firm. In this thesis, I investigate how the capital structure of the parent and carve-out company evolve following the carve-out itself. This investigation is a direct extension of Dittmar's (2004) work and contributes to the literature on the choice of a carve-out or spin-off. This leverage choice may be influenced by the parent corporation's need for cash, either to finance growth opportunities, to distribute cash to shareholders, or to repay debt (Michaely & Shaw, 1995). Using a sample of 102 subsidiaries that have completed a carve-out between the years of 1985 and 2001 , I find that carve-outs do not have higher debt levels than spinoffs as reported in Dittmar's (2004) study. I also find that the parent firms ' leverage does not decrease as predicted. Leverage actually increases during the three years following the carve-out. I have also found that cash constraints, collateral value, and the parent firms ' pre-debt level are positively related to leverage choice while the parent firms' precarve- out cash constraint is negatively correlated. However, there is no significance between leverage and firm size, growth opportunities, or profitability.

While the process of changing educational systems is yet unclear, the relationship between teacher and learner places teachers at the focal point of change. The social/psychological organization of their workplaces known as staff culture is among the many issues effecting lasting reform. This study investigated the manner in which principals worked with this key variable in bringing about meaningful change. Students are not learning at the levels required to be productive citizens in the 21st century. In order to reverse this situation, most teachers need to change their manner of teaching. Despite years of reform efforts, many continue to resist change, particularly at the secondary level. This resistance is rooted in their professional norms, i.e., their education philosophy and beliefs. Most teacher have not been convinced of the need for change of their curriculum and instruction. Even though educational researchers find positive site culture to be key to reform of instruction, few school administrators have the understanding of site culture or training in interpersonal relation that is necessary to shape a culture which will accept and maintain change. A qualitative investigation was made of case studies of restructured high schools and interviews with principals who had brought about restructuring at their sites. Teachers were also surveyed. Data was gathered through content analysis of the studies, interviews and survey questionnaires in the areas of teacher attitudes, status of curriculum before and after the projects, and action of principals throughout the process of change. It was found that successful principals take action in common which fall into eight mutually exclusive categories. They also bring about change in a step by step priority process: (1) establish a clean campus and strong student discipline/attendance policies and develop University and business partnerships, (2) facilitate professional development opportunities for teachers through research based programs and provide them with human and material resources; focus on improving staff morale, (3) provide opportunities for collaboration, innovation and shared decision-making, (4) work to improve instruction. The information developed through this study can be used to guide and encourage school administrators in creating effective change in their schools.