Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 189-202).

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.

The management of physical healthcare assets is vital for efficient delivery of healthcare services along with improving quality and productivity, amidst significant structural and funding re-organisation within the NHS. Capital allocations are under pressure and advanced strategic planning of healthcare infrastructure is required to maintain services. In doing so, the complexity of multiple interacting systems and mixed stakeholder expectations and competencies need to be addressed. The relationship between stakeholder public consultation and estates strategy development in theory and practice is poorly understood and further theoretical development is required to advance our knowledge in Strategic Asset Management (SAM). This thesis adopts an interpretivist paradigm, and an abductive approach with a case study design methodology. Data were collected from six case studies comprising 91 participants (focus groups and workshops); 6 unstructured interviews; 907 questionnaires; and observations resulting in over 30 hours of transcribed data, along with web-based document analyse (desk studies) within 149 NHS Trusts. The data were further analysed using thematic analyses. Findings reveal how localised conditions within individual healthcare Trusts influence the ways in which national initiatives are interpreted and incorporated; these impact existing ways of developing an estates strategy and in some cases, have implications on the usability of associated healthcare infrastructure spaces. This had clear implications on existing SAM practice, which were diverse, driven by individual project team competencies and associated project management practice. In practice, more focus was given to technical competencies (knowledge of SAM datasets and tools) and behavioural competencies were downplayed. Thus, the integrative Strategic Asset Management (iSAM) framework developed in this research, established a unique baseline to develop SAM plans from a complex interaction of care, estates and transport, providing a valuable resource for healthcare planning teams. Stakeholder consultation should be selective (representative sample) and the content of consultation should be appropriate at various SAM stages. Trusts should clearly indicate how their plans have been influenced, given the feedback from stakeholder consultation. Thus, moving it from a tick box exercise, to one that adds value in the decision making process. Empirical findings revealed that although literature promoted tools and methods to facilitate SAM, in practice, these were hardly used and most teams within English healthcare Trusts were not aware of best practice tools and solutions. Structuration theory was further used as a heuristic device to theoretically triangulate the empirical findings and contribute to a nuanced understanding of SAM within healthcare Trusts. In doing so, a middle range theory for integrative SAM (iSAM) was developed. It revealed that a dynamic system of individual action and organisational structure both constrained and enabled SAM. It was evident that the process of SAM is an open, emergent process of sense making rather than a pre-determined and closed process following prescriptive rules. This thesis has advanced knowledge in SAM and has raised the importance of front end project management within English healthcare Trusts. The new integrative and interdisciplinary iSAM framework facilitates the development of estates strategy and stakeholder consultation decision-making within healthcare Trusts.

This thesis is a case study of six organisations and two pilot organisations to investigate the implementation of strategic planning in small charitable organisations in the voluntary sector in Edinburgh. The case studies utilised semi-structured interviews, observations and questionnaires on multiple occasions over a two-year time period. The data collected provided insight into the financial management systems utilised by these organisations and the training level attained by the financial person of each of the organisations. The findings supported the concept that the more developed the training of the financial person, the more developed the level of planning attained and the more complex the funding arrangements accessed by that organisation become. The research also supported the position that the barriers to planning were the same barriers that have been previously noted in the literature as indigenous to the voluntary sector: time, money, resources, and communication. In addition, the research developed evidence to support a listing of characteristics which are indicative of when an organisation is ready to plan more strategically. These include such items as a teamwork approach, knowing the staff and their backgrounds, knowing and planning for the training needs of staff, supporting the staff, and developing in the staff the feeling that they can talk to their supervisor. The research also developed that there are certain general characteristics, such as being aware of changes in the law, having, and being perceived to have, fair and up to date policies and procedures as being indicative of an organisation which is ready for the changes intrinsic in the implementation of strategic planning models involving continuous improvement such as the EFQM Excellence Model®. Although the organisations are not opposed to planning in general and strategic planning in particular, the need for survival by conforming to the requirements of funders takes precedence over longer term planning. Part of the impetus for this behaviour is the evocative behaviour of supporting 'the cause' for which they were founded. Frequently in the voluntary sector, 'the cause' also involves working with vulnerable groups of people. The limited progress observed in their strategic planning indicated that the period of time available for observation was too short and the measurements needed to be taken too soon.

In recent decades, there has been increasing consensus that sustainable urban development is critical to the future of human societies and planetary systems. The effects of population growth and the environmental impacts of human activities are evident around the world, observable not only in the rapid urbanisation of many large cities, but also in small-medium conurbations, rural communities, and even uninhabited areas. For this reason, sustainable urban development is the theme of this licentiate thesis. The thesis focuses on the role of municipal organisations, the ways in which processes to develop strategies and policies addressing urban sustainability are organised, and how other stakeholders participate in such processes. The thesis concludes by presenting a new conceptual framework that aims to inform such strategic processes - the “five factors” influencing strategic planning processes for urban sustainability in municipalities. The five factors concern the capacity of municipalities and others to act for urban sustainability; their mandate to do so; the resources available to them; the scope of their processes and intended outcomes; and their will, individually and collectively, to pursue urban sustainability. The “five factors” concept may aid future analysis of urban sustainability processes, both in planning and implementation. The “five factors” are based upon the findings of the three appended papers and the synthesis of their results in this thesis. The first and second papers present studies of energy and climate strategy planning processes in Swedish municipalities active in a national programme, the Sustainable Municipality (Uthållig kommun). Paper 1 focuses upon the organisation of processes to develop energy and climate strategies, whereas Paper 2 reflects upon the experiences of participating stakeholders in such processes. The two papers build upon existing theoretical frameworks and present empirical data from case studies of five municipalities, based on document studies, interviews and comparative analysis, in order to make conclusions about the advantages and disadvantages of variations in the form and composition of energy and climate planning (e.g. that early involvement of stakeholders results in more comprehensive strategies). In contrast, Paper 3 presents analysis of a multidisciplinary sample of academic journal articles addressing “urban sustainability” and published during the period 2011-2012. As such, this paper focuses on how urban sustainability is practiced, observed and represented in academic literature, and considers different issues that arise as a consequence (e.g. a lack of analysis of urban sustainability governance processes in municipalities). Whereas Papers 1 and 2 observe practice, making insights with reference to specific theoretical perspectives, Paper 3 provides overview and identifies wider challenges and opportunities for research on the theme of urban sustainability. Together, the three papers highlight a number of issues that influence the development of municipalities’ strategic work for urban sustainability – the five factors. / På senare år har konsensus att hållbar stadsutveckling är kritisk-för jordens och mänsklighetens framtid vuxit fram. Effekterna av befolkningstillväxten och människors påverkan på miljön syns runt om i världen, och är inte bara märkbar i många stora städer utan även i mindre städer, på landsbygden och till och med i obebodda områden. Därför står i hållbar stadsutveckling i fokus i denna licentiatavhandling.Avhandlingen fokuserar på kommunorganisationens roll i hållbar stadsutveckling och organisering av processerna att utveckla strategier och politik som syftar till hållbar stadsutveckling. Utöver det har även deltagandet av andra aktörer i sådana processer studerats. Avhandlingen avslutas genom att presentera ett nytt begrepp som kan underlätta strategisk planering, nämligen ”de fem faktorerna”.De fem faktorerna är kommuners/aktörers kapacitet att arbeta för hållbar stadsutveckling; deras mandat att driva hållbar stadsutveckling; tillgängliga resurser som får disponeras; processernas omfattning och önskat utfall; och den individuella- och kollektiva viljan att uppnå hållbar stadsutveckling. Femfaktorsbegreppet skulle kunna bidra till framtidsanalys av hållbara stadsutvecklingsprocesser, i såväl planering som genomförande. De fem faktorerna bygger på slutsatser från licenciatsavhandlingens tre artiklar samt en syntes av dessa.Den första och andra artikeln presenterar resultaten från ett forskningsprojekt som granskade processerna kring framtagande av energi- och klimatstrategier i kommuner som deltog i det svenska nationella programmet Uthållig kommun. I första artikeln ligger fokus på organiseringen av processerna, medan erfarenheterna av deltagande intressenter reflekteras över i den andra artikeln. De två artiklarna bygger på befintliga teoretiska ramverk och presenterar en mängd empiri från fem kommuner, som erhållits genom t.ex. dokumentstudier, intervjuer. Utifrån detta harslutsatser dragits kring för- och nackdelar i utformningen av planeringsprocesser för energi- och klimatstrategier, t.ex. att processer som involverar intressenter tidigt även resulterar i strategier som är mer omfattandeI den tredje artikeln presenteras resultaten av en multidisciplinär litteraturundersökning. Vetenskapliga artiklar som handlar om ”hållbar stadsutveckling” och publicerade under perioden 2011-2012 står i fokus. Artikeln syftar till att bättre förstå hur hållbar stadsutveckling tillämpas i praktiken, hur det beaktas, hur det representeras i den akademiska litteraturen, samt vilka effekter som uppstår på grund av denna representation, såsom t.ex. ett brist på analys av governance processer för hållbar stadsutveckling i kommuner. Medan de första artiklarna behandlar praktiken med hänsyn till specifika teoretiska perspektiv, syftar den tredje artikeln till att ge en överblick och identifiera utmaningar och möjligheter inom forskningen för hållbar stadsutveckling. Tillsammans illustrerar de tre artiklarna ett flertal aspekter som påverkar utvecklingen av kommunernas strategiska arbete för hållbar stadsutveckling – de fem faktorerna.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Business / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy