Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / The purpose of this research assignment was to identify the role of coaching to improve decision-making by senior business managers. The research reviewed the theory of decision-making, business coaching and a coaching approach. The research captured the perceptions amongst a group of senior managers regarding the contribution of business coaching and coaching tools to their decision-making. The research then tracked how these perceptions changed as the group experienced coaching. The research identified how to use coaching for decision-making by teams and individuals. Action research was the methodology used for conducting this research and was preferred because of the opportunity to pilot an approach in a real situation involving senior managers as participants in a process that allowed for adjustment and learning along the way. The sample comprised a team of group account managers in a South African beverage manufacturing company. An action research process of plan, act, observe and reflect was used with CLEAR (contract, listen, explore, action and review) as coaching approach, and coaching tools comprising Kolb’s experiential learning and reflective practice. The action research was a five-phase process, which included team sessions and individual coaching sessions. The findings showed that coaching makes a positive contribution to more effective decision-making by senior managers. Participant perceptions were that the CLEAR coaching approach made a positive contribution to more effective decision-making, with Kolb’s experiential learning and reflective practice making important contributions. Based on the research findings, business leadership and management should pay specific attention to their business decision-making practices and put programmes in place to ensure effective decision-making. It is also an imperative for senior managers to identify opportunities to improve their decision-making skills through coaching or other means. Coaches working in the business environment should develop their knowledge of decision-making and adopt focused approaches to increase the decision-making effectiveness of their clients. This research with a sample group of five senior managers occurred in a competitive fast moving consumer goods business environment over a twelve-week period. Further research could include samples that are more diverse, at different levels in an organisation, in different industries and over longer periods. Opportunity also exists to conduct further research into the role different coaching approaches and coaching tools could play with respect to improving decision-making effectiveness.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / During the past two to three decades the concept of leadership has become the subject of great debate, research and writing. The explosion of literature and perspectives are both to be welcomed but can also be bewildering. To date the subject of leadership has not yet evolved into a more mature ‘practice’ which enables the development of more consistent ‘agendas of leadership development and focus’. A review of internationally respected business schools and MBA programmes would, for instance, provide a good degree of consistency with regard to what should be included in the ‘Practice of Management’. The same would be true for other professional practices such as medicine, architecture, accounting, and various engineering disciplines etcetera. The main objective of this study was to explore and determine the extent to which the literature defines and reinforces the development of an integrative ‘Practice of Leadership’. Based on internationally accepted best practices, the potential constituent elements of a ‘Practice of Leadership’ were divided into the four dimensions of Personal, Interpersonal, Organisational and Societal leadership. Twelve elements were identified that are addressed repeatedly in the literature and which may form a starting point to provide greater rigour in defining what the ‘agenda’ for a ‘Practice of Leadership’ may consist of. One hundred and sixty four sources of reference have been structured to explore the initial set of 12 elements to produce a framework relating to a ‘Practice of Leadership’. The method used in this study was an extensive exploration of existing literature with a focus from 2000 onwards. Some core leadership principles were still mentioned, but the main focus of this study was done from 2000 to date. Various online databases have been used (with the main focus on the USB’s online databases) for the data collection, using key words relating to the 12 elements of a Practice of Leadership. The result of this study indicates that a shift has happened during the past years where leadership is moving from a competency paradigm towards a shared understanding of what potentially could constitute a ‘Practice of Leadership’. The knowledge gained from the 166 sources of reference revealed that certain patterns emerged with relative frequency in the existing literature in order to produce an initial set of 12 elements to support a framework for a Practice of Leadership. One of the conclusions of this study was that no existing literature refers to a framework arguing for a ‘Practice of Leadership’, although singular papers were sourced where there was a call to explore and establish a more concrete framework for a ‘Practice of Leadership’. This study has taken the bold, yet humble, step to identify and introduce an initial set of 12 elements which might lead to a shared and integrative framework for a ‘Practice of Leadership’. The conclusion was made that other potential elements may also form part of this integrative framework, but that further research is needed to substantiate their inclusion. There is no doubt that the framework for the ‘Practice of Leadership’ contained in this research will be challenged. It is hoped that it may contribute to taking the debate from the highly conceptual to the more concrete, and that it may at worst provide a working template to test, endorse, refine or reject content going forward.

Strategy tools are an important part of strategy work. However, there is considerable debate in the management literature about their actual role, deployment, and conceptualization. Scholars claim that there is a lack of fine-grained analyses to explain strategizers’ activities with regard to their interactions with strategy, their supporting knowledge base, and associated artefacts or tools, despite growing contributions towards the understanding of strategy work dynamics. This study aims to contribute to this gap by discussing research undertaken through ethnographic methods on the day to day work of in-house strategy consultants. By interacting with in-house consultants through active participation and observation, this study observes and analyses the enactment of strategy tools in action. The study focuses on the use of strategy tools, the process they are placed in, and the ultimate purposes they serve. A “strategy-as-practice” lens is adopted, theoretically accessing the use of strategy tools through “reflection in action” and sensemaking. By working with and for consultants, this dissertation obtains insights related to both frontstage and backstage aspects of strategy work, obtaining results that contribute to the skewed existing evaluations on the use of strategy tools. This study proposes a reflexive account on the roles of strategy tools in everyday work by laying out a variety of data items and rhetorical devices. Analysing data, obtained from observations, interviews, written material, and focus groups, takes the findings into first and second order analysis. Based on hundreds of pages of observations, 47 interviews, two focus groups, numerous data files, and other follow up talks, the continuous engagement with data is conveyed to the reader through data outputs, including narratives, vignettes, and visual representations, which give space to a vivid display of what was encountered in the field through this ethnographic study. The findings show that strategy tools are used more than we think, especially in the backstage work of strategy teams. In addition, the use of strategy tools tends to be sequential (some strategy tools are used more in specific phases of strategy projects). In addition, their presence in strategy projects is not always evident at first sight – tools tend to be disassembled and reassembled by their users to create new tools, which are thereafter addressed explicitly or implicitly by strategizers and their audiences. Hence, the thesis proposes an “invisible presence of strategy tools”, especially as observed in the work of experienced strategy workers. By embarking on a journey of Cheshire cats and continuous reconfigurations of sensemaking cues, the reader is invited into what makes the adventurous work of strategy practitioners, and the lege artis their work encompasses.

While there has been extensive research on the use of financial appraisal techniques (Pay back, Return on Capital Employed, Internal Rate of Return and Net Present Value) in the Investment Appraisal Process (lAP), little research has been conducted on the role of the Real Options Approach (ROA) and Managerial Judgement (MJ) in the IAP. In an ideal world, prior to making Strategic Investment Decisions (SIDs), a detailed analysis of the benefits generated by the investments would be conducted. This would cover financial and nonfinancial benefits. In practice, however, many investments are undertaken on the basis of financial returns with little or no analysis of the growth options embedded in the proposed investments. The exploitation of these options contributes to the enhancement of the business strategy as financial returns do. Essential to considering these options in the IAP is the deployment ofMJ inthe lAP. This thesis aims to make a sound contribution to the development of the emerging literature on capital budgeting. First, it provides a critical review of the existing investment appraisal literature. Second, it investigates whether or not British Automotive Components Manufacturers (BACMs) deploy the ROA and MJ in the lAP in order to accommodate the growth options. And fmally, it presents an alternative perspective of the IAP by the development of a conceptual framework that integrates the ROA & MJ into the lAP, while taking account ofproject risk and business strategy. This research draws on a 73-firm survey of finance directors in this industry enhanced by fieldwork (11 interviews) to set out the relative importance of the strategic approach (ROA informed by MJ) and financial analysis when making the SIDs. The findings from the survey show similar results to earlier studies in relation to the popularity of PB and the use of more than one financial technique in the lAP. However, in contrast to previous studies, DCF techniques seem to be less popular and higher usage of ROCE is evident, and no relationship is found between company size and the range and type of techniques used in the lAP. The main thrust of the findings of the statistical analysis is the absence of the formal adoption of the ROA in the IAP. However, the impact of the growth options regarding the deployment of MJ in the lAP appeared to be evident. The analysis shows that MJ is considered when assessing both investments with growth options and risky projects. The fieldwork provides insights into the context of the lAP and the factors that influence the deployment of the ROA and MJ in the lAP. Conclusions are drawn regarding the interrelationships between financial analysis and the ROA and MJ in the lAP. The integration of the ROA and MJ into the lAP appears to involve moving the focus of attention in the lAP away from financial analysis and a short-term perspective towards a more strategic perspective. More importantly, it contributes to bridging the gap between risk management and strategic analysis.

This research was undertaken in the United States within two different regional airlines and examines the attitudes and behaviours of managers to operations performance measurement and review (PMR) systems during separate periods of crisis and growth. The aim and objectives were to examine whether managers would consciously adopt the necessary attitudes and behaviours that are required to positively interact with a PMR system and to further examine what these behaviours should be. A secondary aim was to understand whether the prevailing business state of crisis or growth affected the attitudes and behaviours of managers as they used the PMR system. The research spanned seven years and was conducted over four iterative cycles within an Action Research paradigm and used semi-structured interviews and repertory grids to examine individual personal construct systems. The research is essentially qualitative but draws on quantitative techniques where appropriate. The research has shown that people do not automatically adopt the behaviours necessary to achieve performance goals. Unless there is structure, support and an inherent commitment to training managers on how to, correctly, interpret operations performance data then there is likely to be an uncommitted and uninformed response to the PMR system. The research has confirmed that both business states of crisis and growth can have a positive impact on some people and encourage them to adopt performance-driven behaviour.

One of the major economic themes which characterised the development of modern company law was the well-documented separation of ownership from control and the increase in management control brought about by the wide dispersion of share ownership in large public companies.The growth and complexity of the modern corporation with diversified ownership created the need for governance mechanisms to facilitate the monitoring of managers and to restrain them from acting inappropriately, while not unduly restricting their ability to make decisions. The issue of corporate governance has been fiercely debated in both the US and the UK for several decades. The impact of globalisation and the recent financial crises in East Asia and elsewhere have spurred on corporate governance reform, which is now being implemented in many jurisdictions around the world. In recent years, China appears to have adopted some of the basic corporate governance structures of the Anglo-American system. However, little comparative empirical work has so far been undertaken to document systemic differences in ownership structures, institutional arrangement and legal rules betweenthe current Chinese corporate governance system and the systems in the UK and the US, or to determine how a corporate governance regime can best be designed to overcome the agency problems created by the separation of ownership from control in the Chinese context. In this thesis, we investigate the characteristics of China's corporate ownership structure and assess how effective shareholders are in monitoring directors' activities; we examine how boards are structured and function to ensure the efficient running of the company; and we consider the legal duties imposed on directors and how these duties are enforced in China, drawing comparisons and contrasts with the UK. Also, given the distinctive features of the Chinese corporate governance system, we estimate a regression model to investigate the relationship between corporate governance and corporate performance in China. Our results indicate that the weakness of the Chinese corporate governance system is not only a consequence of the concentrated state-ownership structure. This weakness is also in part due to the ineffectiveness of internal monitoring rules, inadequate/incomplete law and poor law enforcement. Finally, we provide some suggestions for the Chinese government to improve the Chinese corporate governance system.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master in Technology: Marketing, Technikon Natal, 2000. / This research has aimed to explore the impact of clustering on the ability of small manufacturers in the clothing industry in Port Elizabeth to enhance their competitiveness. The research study was conducted in two stages, which included both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Firstly, an exploratory qualitative study using the Delphi method was employed to identify the key problems currently being experienced by small manufacturers in the clothing industry. Finally, the application of a structured questionnaire to small manufacturers in the clothing industry followed, exploring the awareness of and interest in clustering as a strategy for enhancing competitiveness. A key observation to emerge from the qualitative research is that significant differences were evident between the responses of academics, professionals in small business development and small business owners. An analysis of the problems experienced by small manufacturers in the clothing industry revealed that high labour costs and low I productivity were the frontrunners. The lack of knowledge was cited as the most important problem preventing the wide scale implementation of horizontal clustering. Another key observance to emerge from the quantitative study is the fact that very few significant differences are evident between the two groups viz. small business owners and experts. The research indicated that although in the minority, horizontal linkages exist between small clothing manufacturers in Port Elizabeth. The results indicated furthermore that the majority of small clothing manufacturers in Port Elizabeth are / M

This research analyses the expansion and transformation of higher education in Asia, focusing in particular on Chinese universities. It shows the rising of the so-­‐‑ called global university, that is, above all, an inclusive process which makes academic knowledge production something heterogeneous, complex and composite – characterised by different actors both private and public, institutional and non-­‐‑institutional. The global university is a point of multiplicity that places our view in the midst of the transformation of educational policies and knowledge taken as whole. It reveals a ‘global knowledge order’ parallel to a ‘new international division of labour’, where the higher education is becoming an important device in the filtering, restriction, and return of population and skilled workers around a whole set of internal national/transnational borders based on knowledge. Developing the concepts of stratification and differentiation, I investigate how the transformation of the educational system brings out and multiplies, rather than mitigates, the differences between universities, while this same segmentation refers to an original and powerful method of management of the increasingly qualified workforce. Higher education and its internationalization nowadays is an important dispositive to segment population within globalization, reconfigures hierarchies and manages the complex displacement of the present having the same force (or even more) as those of gender and race. Moreover, the Global University represents the most interesting terrain to observe the development of an original measurement of labour in its metamorphosis and the value form in cognitive capitalism. The growing intra-­‐‑regional mobility in Asia and the internationalisation of higher education characterise the innovative cartography of the present, wherein knowledge production becomes spatially dispersed and globally integrated. Knowledge, geographically embedded, defines the order of the current post-­‐‑ colonial space, while the Global University describes not only this kind of order, but also how this imbalance is used by the skilled workforce to survive in the local labour market.

Post independence land tenurial reform

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