South African Telecommunication market is becoming more challenging and highly competitive which results in market share continuously shifting between the role-players in this sector. The market is characterized by diverse service offering radical price plans that are offered by the operators. An organization that operates in this space needs to have some sort of competitive advantage which will ensure that it remains relevant and be able to survive the tough competition. Competitive advantage in an organization is seen as having leverage of rival organizations and is derived from either the external sources or internal sources. The external sources include factors like lower prices, differentiated services etc. This research unpacks the internal sources for achieving competitive advantage. These internal sources are seen as the internal corecompetencies, which are the combination of skills, knowledge and intellect that will ensure that the organization thrives amongst the competitors. The dimensions of core competencies that have been analysed are innovation, strategic entrepreneurship, intellectual capital and effective leadership. The primary objective of this research is to determine the impact of these internal core competencies in improving the organizational competitive advantage. This will in turn provide a view of the critical skills and knowledge base in the organization and how these skills will assist the organization in surviving in this challenging and competitive environment. This research makes use of the resource based view (RBV) as the baseline model for core competencies and to address the short comings of RBV, organizational learning theory dimensions have been added to the operational model of this research. The research then provides the analysis of all the dimensions of core competencies using statistical modelling to provide empirical evidence. Based on the empirical evidence, descriptive statistics and using the theoretical frameworks, the recommendations for this research are provided.

The researcher undertook exploratory research to see whether characteristics of visionary organizations, as discovered in research undertaken by Collins and Porras (2000), are present and applicable to non-profit organizations in Gauteng, South Africa. The characteristics are: - a core ideology (core purpose and core values) - big hairy audacious goals - a cult-like culture - purposeful evolution and continuous self improvement - management continuity - alignment. A schedule was used to interview directors of ten non-profit organizations. Some staff in each organization were given a questionnaire to see whether their answers correlated with the director responses. The research indicated that most characteristics are present, to some degree, in the non-profit organizations. These characteristics could however be explored more thoroughly in further research. The research includes recommendations for management of non-profit organizations to implement, to become visionary organizations. / Social work / M.A. (Social Work)

In a rapid changing environment mining companies have to change the way in which they do business, while employees have to manage their careers and ensure they are multi-skilled. Organisations are looking to employ individuals who are career driven, highly adaptable and flexible and display the necessary employability skills. The main purpose of this study was to determine if any relationship exists between the different factors of graduate employability and work performance in the mining industry in South Africa. A cross-sectional quantitative research approach was followed. A simple random sample was drawn from graduate male and female employees between the ages of 18 – 30 years with any post-matric qualification employed in the mining industry in South Africa. Through the process of exploratory factor analysis, six graduate employability factors and four work performance factors were identified. The graduate employability factors included career self-management drive, cultural competence, career resilience, emotional literacy, career literacy and self-efficacy. The work performance factors included the supervisor role, employee role, recognition and organisation support. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted. The results indicated a relationship between graduate employability and work performance. Strong, positive correlations were found between graduate employability and work performance with career self-management drive being the strongest predictor of work performance. Recommendations for the mining industry focused on how employability could be enhanced to improve work performance. / Human Resource Management / M. Com. (Human Resource Management)

The researcher undertook exploratory research to see whether characteristics of visionary organizations, as discovered in research undertaken by Collins and Porras (2000), are present and applicable to non-profit organizations in Gauteng, South Africa. The characteristics are: - a core ideology (core purpose and core values) - big hairy audacious goals - a cult-like culture - purposeful evolution and continuous self improvement - management continuity - alignment. A schedule was used to interview directors of ten non-profit organizations. Some staff in each organization were given a questionnaire to see whether their answers correlated with the director responses. The research indicated that most characteristics are present, to some degree, in the non-profit organizations. These characteristics could however be explored more thoroughly in further research. The research includes recommendations for management of non-profit organizations to implement, to become visionary organizations. / Social work / M.A. (Social Work)