South Africa is no longer trapped in an apartheid era and is now perceived as a multinational state, implying that not only the composition of labour forces have changed, but all other institutions have developed into being more representative of all races. Thus whilst the workplace demographics are rapidly changing, more individuals are preparing themselves to enter the workplace. As a result more diverse cultures also prevail within hostels of higher educational institutions. The objectives of this study were to investigate individual preferences in terms of acculturation strategies as utilised by students in hostels of a higher education institution. Another important objective was to understand the effect of acculturation strategies has on the general well-being and health of individuals. In order to achieve these objectives, Berry's bi-directional Acculturation Model, as well as the Interactive Acculturation Model was used. A cross-sectional survey design with an availability sample (N = 245) was used, taken from hostel students of 3 higher education institution in South Africa. The questionnaire consisted of various items on the acculturation scale, as well as a biographical questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, factor analyses, Cronbach alpha coefficients, MANOVAs, Multiple Regression Analysis, and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were used to analyse the data. The results pointed out that females preferred Separation or Assimilation, while males preferred Integration as acculturation strategy. Female hostels preferred Separation as acculturation strategy and male hostels preferred Integration as acculturation strategy. Acculturation strategies in terms of race showed that White groups preferred integration and African groups preferred Separation. Regarding the effect that acculturation strategies have on health, males experienced high levels of physical health problems. Recommendations were made for further research. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007

<p>This dissertation compares four programs to create equal employment opportunity on the trans Alaska oil pipeline construction project in order to demonstrate the ruptures and continuities between manpower programs to end poverty and affirmative action to eradicate race and sex discrimination. These four programs posited different subjects and strategies for equal employment opportunity, including a statewide affirmative action plan supporting minority men in the construction industry, federal hiring goals for Alaska Natives, a state "Local Hire" law establishing hiring preference for residents of Alaska, and corporate affirmative action plans for women and minorities. I use archival records and original oral histories with pipeline employees to examine the methods government officials and agencies, corporations, trade unions, social movements, and nongovernmental organizations used to fulfill their visions of equality in employment on the 800-mile long, $8 billion pipeline project. I bridge the gender history of welfare with the history of civil rights in order to show how liberal ideals of economic citizenship in the late 1960s that prioritized creating male workers and breadwinners served as the foundational impetus for equal employment opportunity. I challenge the standard historical narrative of equal employment opportunity in the US, which has attributed affirmative action for women to a logical, if hard won, expansion of positive liberal rights first demanded by the black civil rights struggle, then legislated by the state and implemented by state bureaucrats and corporate personnel. What this narrative does not account for is how the gendered dimensions of liberalism underlying affirmative action for male minorities were able to so abruptly accommodate women as workers and economic citizens by the mid-1970s. I find that, over the course of construction of the pipeline, women in nontraditional jobs on the "Last Frontier" emerged as symbols of the success of equal employment opportunity and the legitimacy of American exceptionalism.</p> / Dissertation

M.Comm. / Due to frustration experienced in the development and implementation of affirmative action programmes, a definite need was identified for a working tool or document that would allow managers in the engineering industry to quantify and set reasonable achievable targets or goals with respect to the same. The general perception existed in industry that insufficient schooled manpower - like professional engineers - was available in the market to reach the almost arbitrarily chosen affirmative action goals (seemingly based on general group proportionality within the South African society).Quota based systems introduced in especially the public sector and para-statal organisations where it is required that up to 70 per cent previously disadvantaged personnel (all blacks, Asians, coloureds and white women) have to be appointed to management positions by the year 2000, motivated this perception. Due to the engineering industry's unique management structure which largely consists of technical staff climbing the corporate ladder, this proved to be an impossible objective in most instances giving rise to spiralling employment costs due to normal market forces and caused by demand far outstripping supply. This study therefore focuses on the numerical quantification of the available resources to allow affirmative action goals to be re-evaluated and adjusted according to the actual availability of resources. In conclusion it may be said that the process of affirmative action is a reality, but that the engineering industry should guard against accepting general yardsticks and requirements. Managers should make a proper study of the fields of application and their environment before setting any affirmative action goals. The existing shortages in the manpower resources that meets both schooling- and affirmative action requirements within the engineering industry, should be addressed through well designed training programmes and not through the setting of ill defined goals merely based on a general quota system.

D.Com. (Economics) / At the beginning of 1990, a sequence of events took place which were to provide the initiative for this study. The unbanning of South Africa's major black political organisations shifted the focus ofthe public debate to negotiations on a democratic constitution. Regional issues, such as had been debated with substantial fervour in KwaZulu/Natal, became negligible when contrasted with the realisation that South Africa's two dominant political forces had agreed upon the necessity for a ceasefire. Until 1990, these two groups, namely the National Party (NP) and the African National Congress (ANC) had been engaged in a bitter and long-standing war. In using dictatorial political powers to suppress access by blacks, coloureds and Indians to universally accepted basic human rights, the NP committed acts of institutionalised violence, which led to increasing resistance amongst disenfranchised South Africans and unparalleled international ostracism. The ANC was not a passive victim ofthe policies of statutory racial segregation and had, since especially the rnid-1970s, embarked upon a strategy of armed resistance as part of its endeavours to focus the attention ofdecision-makers within South Africa and abroad on the plight of the disenfranchised majority. An agreement was reached to end armed hostilities shortly after the unbanning of the ANC, but it was clear that an ideological war would continue to be fought between the ANC and the NP well into the future. Central to the debate on determining fundamental conditions for inclusive participation in constitutional negotiations would be the issues of guarantees for minority rights; the relative roles of the state and the market in economic processes; and the degree to which policies aimed at redressing racially-based income inequalities need to be pursued by government. The intractable nature of differences of opinion on these issues, combined with the new focus on constitutional negotiations at national level, led to the discontinuance of the activities of the KwaZulu/Natal Indaba, which had sought a political compromise for the region amongst all representative groups. At the time, the author had been managing a socio-economic research unit within the Indaba's secretariat. Contact had been established earlier with an organization launched in Durban in February 1990 with the specific objective to encourage affirmative action policies, mainly amongst organisations in the private sector. This organisation, the National Economic Initiative (NEI), had its roots in the group of American-owned companies that had been signatories to the Sullivan code of employment practices.

This Master's Thesis deals with the sociological phenomenon called affirmative action, which has appeared in different forms in many countries during the second half of 20th century. This topic, as rather complex and overlapping fields of more social sciences, is being widely discussed in the society. In some countries, application of affirmative action brings controversy and even division in the communities. This thesis aims to find the substance of affirmative action and compare it with the principles of equality before law. These topics are discussed in their sociological, psychological and legislative dimensions. The analysis stems from examples of particular causes and recent key judicial decisions in the United States of America, the European Union and India, illustrating legal aspects of affirmative action in different regions. Their discussion tries to point out the different dimensions of affirmative action, including the motivations for implementing it in the society and the following public reflections. Author's main concern is targeted to the relation between different aspects of affirmative action and the main elements of the idea of equality before law. Difference between social engineering approaches and good intention of legislator may be very subtle and politically dependent. In the...

[pt] O presente estudo busca abordar o tema da inserção dos discentes ingressantes pela reserva de vagas na Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), no ano de 2012, enfatizando a vivência destes estudantes no interior da universidade e valorizando a fala dos mesmos na construção do nosso estudo. Embora a Educação se constitua em um importante direito social regido pelo princípio da igualdade, o que verificamos ao longo da história da Educação em nosso país é uma trajetória de desigualdades, vivenciada pelos diferentes grupos sociais no que diz respeito ao acesso e permanência, tanto em termos quantitativos como em termos qualitativos, constituindo-se em um importante condicionante da demarcação dos lugares sociais. Deste modo, a implementação das ações afirmativas, no que tange ao ensino superior, traz uma nova dinâmica às universidades, pois busca alterar o perfil do corpo discente e avança no processo de democratização do acesso a este nível de ensino. Entretanto, além do acesso deve-se avançar em relação à permanência, pois um complementa o outro no alcance à conclusão do ensino superior e, deste modo, possibilita a real democratização do ensino. Assim, sendo a adoção das ações afirmativas algo recente na UFRJ, iniciada em 2011, nosso estudo objetivou trazer as questões vivenciadas pelos estudantes ingressantes por reserva de vagas e que se constituem como aspectos facilitadores e dificultadores encontrados na vivência universitária, buscando compreender como tem ocorrido este processo pelo olhar dos sujeitos de nosso estudo. Nosso trabalho contou com dez entrevistas realizadas com discentes pertencentes a diferentes cursos de graduação no final do ano de 2013. Através desta reflexão, busca-se contribuir no entendimento sobre as alterações que vêm ocorrendo neste nível de ensino e no que ainda é necessário se avançar para obter uma maior democratização do ensino superior. / [en] This paper aims to go into the subject of the insertion of students, who were admitted through the system of quotas at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in 2012, emphasizing their experience on the university and valuing their speech throughout our study. Although education is an important social right guided by the principle of equality, a path of inequalities experienced by various social groups regarding access and permanence is noticeable, in both qualitative and quantitative terms throughout the history of education in our country, constituting an important compelling factor of the demarcation of social roles. Thus, the implementation of affirmative actions regarding the higher education admittance brings a new dynamic to the university, diversifying the student’s body profile and advancing toward a democratization process. However, in addition to admittance, it is necessary to make progress when it comes to permanence, since these are complementary factors when it comes to the conclusion of higher education, which therefore make the democratization of education possible. Hence, considering that the adoption of affirmative actions in UFRJs admittance process is recent - since 2011 - our study strived to come up with the issues experienced by the students who were admitted at the university through these affirmative actions and analyze positive and negative aspects of their academic life in order to comprehend how this process has been perceived by the subjects of our research. Our study was based in ten interviews with higher education students of different courses at the end of 2013. Through this reflection we intend to contribute to the understanding of changes that have been occurring at this level of teaching and also to ponder about what is still necessary to be changed to reach a larger democratization regarding higher education.

A Researoh report submitted to the Faculty of Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management. / A product of the dynamic changes undergone by industry over the past number of years has been the diversification of the workforce. This is placing a formidable challenge before management, not only to maintain, but under the new conditions of globalisation, to improve Levels of productivity. The purpose of this exploratory study was to establish what actions management of the motor industry could take to manage this diverse workforce in order to ensure maximum productivity and motivation. The findings highlighted personal attributes of managers manager integrity, communication, equality and as being of overriding importance. In particular, upgrading of employee skills were the main requirements. In order to address those behavioural aspects, it is recognised that a fundamental change in corporate culture is required. In conclusion, and in line with the literature reviewed, to become effective in diversity management, an organisation must be prepared to undergo a long-term transition. / Andrew Chakane 2018

Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School, 2016 / The study revisits the topic of post-acquisition performance of M&A in South Africa. Unlike preceding studies the emphasis was on target firms rather than acquiring firm and on operating performance rather than on share price reaction to M&A announcements. The study explores how operating performance is affected by BEE related M&A and non-BEE related M&A transactions. Operating performance is measured using EVA®. Economic Value Added (EVA®) reveals that target firms experienced a decline in post deal operating performance following an M&A transaction regardless of whether the M&A deal was motivated by BEE or not. The study also found that the decline in operating performance was larger for conventional (non-BEE) M&A transactions relative to BEE linked M&A transactions, though the decline was not statistically significant. Accounting based corporate performance measurement methods used to supplement the EVA® exhibit a marginal and insignificant increased in performance when the average five year post-acquisition returns are compared to the average five year pre-acquisition returns. Overall, the economic performance of target firms declined suggesting that target firms do not benefit significantly from the M&A. / GR2018

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Master of Management in Finance and Investments / The aim of this study is to determine if companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange that comply with Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (“BBBEE”) policy exhibit abnormal operating financial performance. Whereas previous studies focused on the impact of BBBEE on shareholder wealth by measuring abnormal returns on share prices, this study focuses on the impact of BBBEE on operating financial performance of BBBEE companies. Further, previous studies have focused on just the ownership element of the scorecard; this study BEE considers all the elements of the scorecard by using BEE scores to measure compliance. BBBEE scores, which are used to determine compliance, are obtained from Empowerdex website as well as publications of the Financial Mail Top Empowered Companies (“TEC”) for the years 2004 to 2013. This study uses operating cash flows return as a proxy for operating financial performance. Industry adjusted cash flow returns are used to detect abnormal operating performance. The study uses a sample of 203 companies. The findings show that BBBEE compliant companies achieve a positive abnormal cash flow return of 2.31% over a 10 year period. Further, the findings show that the industry in which a company operates also influences whether or not a company benefits from BBBEE compliance. The study also reveals that BBBEE compliance mostly benefits companies during favourable economic periods as BBBEE companies achieve positive excess returns of 4.15% in the period prior to the economic crisis. Finally, the study reveals that the highest compliant firms are not necessarily the highest performers

Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree: Masters in Psychology by Research, University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities / This study explored the personal goals and motivation behind employment equity implementers working within this field and one or more of three broad areas namely: 1) Transformation, 2) Empowerment, and 3) Diversity. The study aimed to explore what it is (ultimately) that these individuals are working for and towards in their day to day lives and professional roles. Were they working towards bigger goals than just compliance with the Employment Equity Act and if so- what were these? Further, the study looked to explore the results of operating in an environment where there are very often competing goals and visions of success, with a final view to understanding what personal tactics and methods implementers deploy to cope and succeed in this context- should an environment of conflicting, competing or contradictory goals exist. The research methodology was a content analysis of in depth semi structured individual interviews. The analysis highlighted the varied views, end goals and conceptual understandings on part of implementers. In every case however a sense of duty or calling emerged which seemed to serve as the key motivator and source of resilience in trying and complex situations. The role constructions that participants undertook also varied and seemed to be linked to the initiatives they busied themselves with as well as their personal motivations in terms of their work. All interviewees experienced some degree of dissonance and or tension between their ultimate goals and views of the subject area from the organisations in which they worked, with different personal responses manifesting / MT2017