Zugl.: Hamburg, Universiẗat, Diss., 2007 u.d.T.: Fackelmann, Bettina: Spezifika der internen Kommunikation des öffentlichen Sektors und ihre Auswirkungen auf Veränderungsprozesse.

Master-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2008.

As the result of technological advances, changes in production techniques, consumer behavior, economics, globalization, societal pressure, regulations, increased complexity of markets, and a cultural moral revolution, many organizations are now experiencing vast change. Organizations are compelled to change what they do and how they do it. Overwhelmingly, research demonstrates that change initiatives often fail because of poor management. This study identifies effective practices of transformative change used by a sample of overtly Christian marketplace leaders. The field of change management uses a broad range of methods and approaches. W. Edwards Deming, “the father of the third wave of the Industrial Revolution,” developed a change management theory he called the System of Profound Knowledge, which includes four interrelated fields (theories of systems, variation, knowledge and psychology). This study, demonstrates that successful organizational transformation in the marketplace by Christian leaders is applied from a biblical foundation and includes the principles of Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge, either directly or indirectly. The purpose of this study was to understand how Christian leaders in the marketplace could create an environment fostering a continual, relentless, perpetual search of improvement for human flourishing. Finally, the presentation demonstrates that executive leaders whose faith and hope are in God are compelled by the love of Christ to intentionally strive to be stewards of God’s grace by creating an environment that promotes real continuous improvement for human flourishing.

The research investigated the problem of the apparent lack of leadership among leaders in the higher education (HE) sector in South Africa (SA). In particular, the research investigated the perception that there is a lack of transformational leadership among leaders in the public institutions of higher learning. This will compromise the leaders’ ability to manage change successfully. This problem was therefore viewed from the perspective of the changing HE landscape in SA in which institutions of higher learning are being merged or incorporated. One of the potential consequences of these mergers and incorporations is that the newly formed institutions may be challenged by a lack of appropriate leadership. The view that a lack of appropriate leadership is one of the root causes of institutions finding themselves in a precarious situation is widely supported by scholars and role players in the HE sector. The aim of this research was to establish the frequency of exhibition of transformational leadership and its behaviours, as well as to ascertain the level of transformational leadership among leaders in the HE sector. Transformational leaders are, by definition, change agents. Therefore, the research was premised on the assumption that if leaders exhibit transformational leadership and its behaviours frequently, if not always, and if their level of transformational leadership is high, then they will necessarily be able to manage change successfully. The Full Range of Leadership Styles (FRL) was adopted in that in addition to transformational leadership, the transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles were also measured. Fundamental to the FRL model is that every leader exhibits each style to some extent and that the model represents how frequently a leader exhibits a particular style of leadership. The findings of the empirical study generally indicated that the picture painted by scholars and role players in the HE sector about leadership in that sector is not as bleak as they claim, although some improvements in developing transformational leadership still have to be made. / Prof. Frans Cilliers

M.Comm. / Die Suid-Afrikaanse onderwysstelsel van vandag het met groot, nuwe uitdagings en ingrypende veranderings te kampe. Daar moet voldoende fasiliteite en personeel vir die toenemende aantal skoliere en die groeiende studentebevolking voorsien word en terselfdertyd moet standaarde gehandhaaf word. Transformasieprosesse is aan die orde van die dag en 'n algehele onderwysintergrasie is aan die gang en die Nasionale Kommissie vir Hoer Onderwys is die spil waarom verdere veranderings in die hoer onderwys sal draai. Hierdie transformasie noodsaak innoverende bestuur en onderrigprogramme, asook nuwe prioriteite. Daar word baie gese oor die bestuur van verandering, maar 'n duidelike proses word nie uitgelig waarvolgens dit gedoen moet word nie. Die probleem is dat die proses van verandering nie duidelik in ondernemings bespreek word the. Tweede golfbestuurders wil eerder die status quo handhaaf en stabiliteit verseker as om die risiko's van verandering te oorweeg. In die huidige omstandighede in Suid-Afrika is dit belangrik dat ondernemings verander om te kan oorleef. Bestuurspraktyke wat in die verlede toegepas is, is verouderd en onvoldoende om die veranderings waarvoor ondernemings tans te staan kom in positiewe geleenthede te omskep. Soos reeds genoem, is bestaande literatuur geneig om op die leierseienskappe te konsentreer wat nodig is vir die bestuur van verandering, op die kommunikasie van verandering en op modelle waarin die proses van verandering stapsgewys uiteengesit word. Daar is egter spesifieke voorskrifte wat direk verband hou met bovermelde fokusareas wat van kardinale belang is by die bestuur van verandering. Die volgende probleme is uit die voorafbespreking geidentifiseer wat in die verloop van hierdie studie bespreek sal word: Massafikasie - groeiende studentebevolking Tekort aan fasiliteite Verouderde en onvoldoende bestuurspraktyke `n Duidelike proses van verandering Afname in staatsfondse Verandering in arbeidswetgewing Politieke aspirasies van studente Verandering in waardes en norme van studente finplementering van deursigtigheid Aanstellingsprosedures Rol van studenteraad Verwagtinge van studente en personeel Verandering in didaktiese beginsels. In die lig van die agtergrond en probleemstelling van die studie, kan die doelwitte van die studie soos volg geformuleer word: Die primere doel is om die noodsaaklikheid daarvan vir technikons om te verander, te ondersoek. Daarbenewens het die studie ook die volgende doelwitte: Om te bepaal of technikons al verander het. Om te bepaal wie by verandering betrokke is. Om te bepaal of sekere aspekte en faktore tot verandering bygedra het.

M.Comm. / Change is an ongoing process right around the globe. South Africa is even more subject to change as a result of socio-economic and political transformation. This community tendency affects the South African organisation intensely, and a need exists for comprehensive guidelines for the handling of this transformation process. There are few publications which are relevant to the field of organisation development in South Africa. In this literature study attention was firstly given to the theoretical description of the term organisation development, the works of a number of theorists were examined. In the second place the historical development of the study field of organisation development was researched and the progress over time was reflected. Five approaches to organisation development were identified as they developed chronologically, viz. (a) laboratory training, (b) survey research and feedback, (c) action research (d) quality of working life, and (e) strategic change as the most recent contribution. The conclusion was reached that all five approaches still have merit, and that not one can be summarily eliminated for current usage. In the third place the organisation development process was examined in detail. Theories and models addressing the nature of planned change were examined with a view to establishing a generic model of change. This model comprises four phases which are each discussed in reasonable depth, viz. (a) initialising and contracting, (b) diagnosing, (c) planning and implementation, and (d) evaluation and institutionalisation. In the fourth place the organisational development practitioner was closely examined and an attempt was made to identify the skills, knowledge and qualifications which distinguish successful practitioners from those who achieve less success. The broad South African socio-economic and political environment, with its differing community trends, was investigated in order to draw up a scenario within which the South African organisation development practitioner must function at present. A skills profile as well as basic guidelines for the successful practitioners were finally established. The conclusion was reached that the organisation development practitioner within the South African environment must possess expertise, additional to the identified skills profile of the international practitioner, in order to be effective.

Change is a topic of crucial concern to all organisations in the present turbulent business environment. Leaders are constantly faced with the challenge of determining whether environmental factors will exert pressure which may cause harm or change to the organisation. Some of the major challenges that accompany change include a) the constantly changing environment has created an unpredictable future as the marketplace has lost its predictability b) leaders that are not able to predict what type of change the organisation is going to be faced with c) the uncertainty around the outcome of change d) no clear relationship exists between the scale of the change and the scale of its impact within an organisation and e) the risk of failure. Therefore, in dealing with change the mindsets of the organisation’s leaders, regarding the complexity of change, are the most critical factor. In this context, the main topic expanded on in this study is that change in organisations requires leadership and leadership in turn requires certain competencies. Central to the concept of leadership and change is the leadership-followership relationship as leaders have to lead people through the change and the ensuing uncertainty. In order to do so successfully leaders need to have a set of competencies that enable them to lead people through change and uncertainty. The purpose of this study was to develop a framework containing a set of competencies required for the major change types. It compared the views of managers and employees, in the financial services sector, on the importance of those competencies as well as the degree to which managers display the competencies. Ten leaders participated in the qualitative phase of the study and 60 managers and 74 employees responded to the survey. The major outcomes of the study included the competency framework as well as the competencies where statistically significant differences between the managers’ and employees’ views on, a) the degree to which the managers display the competencies as well as b) the importance assigned to the competencies, were found. / Dr. Anton Verwey

M.Cur. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

An audit report by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) indicated that a company needs to ensure that support is provided to those employees who remain after a staff reduction process and that their needs are managed effectively. One of the recommendations by ANAO for companies that are embarking on restructuring and future staff reduction programs, is the facilitation of change management workshops, or intervention to prepare the staff to manage change. A literature study revealed that no change management model existed that specifically focused on the “survivors” of a retrenchment or restructuring strategy in a company. The literature study was therefore used to assist in developing a change management in Telkom SA. Pre-assessment and post-assessment questionnaires were developed to test the employees’ abilities to manage change and their understanding of the changes that the telecommunications industry is facing. The findings of the survey showed a high level of employee tolerance to change and illuminated the value that was added by the developed change management model.

Organisation faced with competitive market pressures and those that are looking at sustaining their market position may adopt collaborative product design as a strategy to improve quality, increase market share, increase efficiencies and reduce the time to market for their products. Conversely, in a design environment engineering changes are unavoidable and need to be effectively coordinated because they may become costly for a company in product recalls and reputational damage. They can however be viewed as a cost benefit as contributors to optimisation of product quality. In this study, engineering changes were examined as enablers to collaborative product design where the study was undertaken in the land systems sector of defence in South Africa. The sector is faced with defence cuts resulting in direct and indirect job losses across the supply chain. An exploratory study was conducted where the constraints to design performance were evaluated. The applicability of the data and process orientated information exchange models were explored on the extent they influence the speed of engineering changes. The outcome was a model that can be used as an evaluation and decision making tool for companies conducting collaborative strategy with emphasis on engineering changes and information flow. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / ccgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted