M.Com. (Information Technology Management) / Information and communication technology (ICT) project success is considered the Holy Grail within many organisations. Over the past decade organisations have begun to realise the increasing importance and the potential of exploiting ICT to gain competitive advantage in their particular realm. Organisations have consequently pushed for the implementation of robust ICT solutions not only to facilitate and augment crucial decision-making processes, but to improve overall organisational efficiency and effectiveness as well. These ICT solutions are deployed via ICT projects. However, extensive research has revealed that ICT projects are continuing to fail at a disturbing rate nationally as well as internationally. ICT projects therefore have an infamous reputation within organisations and the project management domain. This research focused on determining what drives ICT project success by systematically investigating how ICT project success is perceived and measured as well as the factors which influence it. The quantitative research paradigm was implemented through the use of a survey in the form of a structured questionnaire. Although this research was cross-sectional in nature, it employed an element of longitudinal analysis as the results were scrutinised and compared with previous research conducted within the same research area. ICT project team members were randomly sampled to acquire an objective view of ICT project success. Moreover, this research revolved around the philosophy that if the significance of each influencing factor is understood, it should be possible to predict whether an ICT project will succeed or fail. A predictive modelling approach was adopted. This predictive model presented within this dissertation was constructed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The predictive model indicated that ICT project success is predicted by means of stakeholder management, communication and methodology. The model also indicated that these three factors are interrelated and are dependent on one another. It was established that overall project success is dependent on project management success and project product success. This research employed a technique which is rarely used within the project management or ICT project management domain, viz. SEM. Two key recommendations emerged from this research. Firstly, this research suggests that it may be time to re-evaluate how ICT projects are measured as well as the influencing factors, as traditional approaches are yet to accommodate ICT projects in particular. Secondly, this research suggests that researchers should start to explore the underlying constructs of communication as this could assist in addressing a fundamental flaw not only in ICT project management, but project management in general.

M.Com. (Business Management) / South Africa is being confronted with escalating unemployment rates. Entrepreneurship is regarded as a probable solution to this problem due to the entrepreneur's ability to create jobs, adapt successfully to changing circumstances and mostly being labour intensive. The main question is though how to assure substantial growth in the amount of entrepreneurs in South Africa. The aim of this study is to contribute to the solution of the above problem by emphasising the training and development of entrepreneurs in creative skills and abilities. The training and development of potential, as well as established entrepreneurs, will contribute to the enhancement of increasing numbers of entrepreneurs and established entrepreneur's success. Why the training and development of creativity? Certain common personality traits of creative people and successful entrepreneurs were compared. It was then concluded that creative ability plays an important role in the establishment as well as functioning of the established entrepreneur. To assure that entrepreneurs are trained and developed successfully in creativity, it must start at a very young age. The training and development in creativity are very subtle at pre-primary and primary school levels. At secondary school training and development of entrepreneurs should become more important and must be integrated into business related subjects. Most tertiary institutions have entrepreneurship courses or entrepreneurship integrated into a subject-related course.

M.Comm. (Business Management) / Corporate Entrepreneurship is often described as a process that goes on inside an existing organisation and which may lead to new business ventures, the development of new products, services, or processes, and the renewal of strategies and competitive postures. As such, it can be seen as the sum of an organisation’s innovation, venturing, and renewal efforts. Corporate Entrepreneurship can be regarded as the innovation of products, services and processes and the formation of new business enterprises are crucially important to every industry and economy. Innovation and new business development can be initiated by independent individuals or by existing enterprises. The latter is referred to as Corporate Entrepreneurship, which is ever more considered as a valuable instrument for rejuvenating and revitalising existing companies. It is brought into practice as a tool for business development, revenue growth, and profitability enhancement and for pioneering the development of new products, services and processes. With change today being consistently continuous, unpredictable and in some cases abrupt, failure to anticipate change can and in most cases will result in organisational stagnation. Corporate Entrepreneurship is a tool that allows organisations to revitalise and rejuvenate a competitive advantage and simultaneously create new value for customers through innovation, business development, and renewal. New value creation is only possible through high levels of entrepreneurial activity. Imperial Automotive Dealerships division is a leading motor retail division within the Imperial Automotive group, providing customers with a range of integrated motor vehicle usage solutions. The South African operations represent passenger, light, medium and heavy commercial brands and include, motor vehicle finance, insurance and related products and services. The purpose of this dissertation is to assess the climate of Corporate Entrepreneurship within the Imperial Automotive Dealerships division. This was achieved by means of a literature study and a measurement of thirteen constructs related to an entrepreneurial climate. The empirical evidence indicates that there are significant statistical differences that exist between employees in management roles who are appointed to the different departments within the Dealerships division of Imperial Automotive. The results of the study revealed that the perceptions of Corporate Entrepreneurship are differed among employees who are customer facing, that is, the Dealer Principals and Sales Managers to those employees in a management position who are more operational or financially orientated, such as the Departmental Managers. The empirical study affords Imperial Automotive Dealerships division the opportunity to recognise the results and recommendations and encourage a better entrepreneurial climate. A clear and committed focus on Corporate Entrepreneurship within the Imperial Automotive Dealerships division will result in a sustainable creation of value for all stakeholders which remain central to the automotive business units’ activities.

No description available.

The South African banking industry is well regulated and oligopolistic by nature. The financial sector in South Africa is of a world class standard, comparing favourably to that of developed countries i.e. United States of America and Great Britian, and developing economies such as the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries. The South African financial sector possesses the critical elements to exhibit good growth and sustainable profitabiblity. Capitec Bank Limited revolutionised the banking industry by providing a simplified and cost effective banking solution targeting the masses i.e. the "unbanked" population of South Africa. The company pursued a disruptive innovation strategy by targeting the lower income earning segment of the market i.e. individuals who are employed but do not have bank account. Capite's strategic approach and business model were designed around innovation and technology, exploiting a previously untapped market that no other competitor targeted. This approach has resulted in the bank's phenomenal growth over the past decade and most notably has seen Capitec's return on equity (ROE) increase from 12 percent to 26 percent and advances to costomers increase from R116 million to 16 billion. This has set precedent which the big four banks, namely ABSA, First National Bank, Standard Bank and Nedbank, could not match. Contributing to Capitec's success and the basis on which its business model is built are four pillars: accessibilty, simplicity, affordability and personalised service. These pillars have created a compatitive advantage resulting in the bid four banks playing catch up. A strategic analysis of Capitec bank was conducted in order to assess the feasibility of expansion by the bank into Africa. The conclusion of the study indicated that it was indeed a viable option for Capitec to expand its footprint across borders into Africa through mergers with banks exhibiting a similar business model, for example Equity Bank based in Kenya.

In the last twenty years a great deal of research into training for creativity has been conducted (Blank, 1982). Guilford (1950, 1959, 1962) and Warren and Davis (1969) reported that productivity increased with training for creativity using the morphological synthesis technique. Research in creativity training has been concerned generally with white middle class school children. There has been no research on training for creativity in Canadian Native Indians (Blank, 1982). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of training for creativity on fluency, flexibility, and originality of Canadian Native Indian children. Children from the Chahalis Indian Reserve of British Columbia (grades three through six) were assigned to control (n=7) and experimental (n=7) groups. The control group received no training for creativity while, the experimental group experienced two weeks of training (20 minutes per day) for creativity with blocks, sticks, and tanagrams. Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking were used to assess creativity. Pre-training scores of the control and experimental groups were compared using one-way ANOVAs. Group differences were deemed non-significant. These results indicated that the assignment of children to the groups was not biased in favour of the more creative versus the less creative and that the post-training results of the groups could be compared for gains in potential creativity since both groups had exhibited similar levels of creativity before training. The results of post-training one-way ANOVAs indicated significant gains in originality scores of the experimental group for the Incomplete Figures Test and the Circles Test. ANCOVAs, which included pre-training scores as covariates, had the same outcomes as post-training one-way ANOVAs. Paired t-tests comparing pre- and post-training scores within groups indicated that there were no significant improvements in control group test scores. The experimental group showed significant, improvements in flexibility and originality scores of the Circles Test and in originality scores of the Incomplete Figures Test. Factors which influenced the results of this study were discussed and suggestions for further research were given. In spite of these factors, the results of the data analyses indicated that creativity of Native Indian children will improve with training. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

An individual-differences model of managerial creativity was developed. Based on a review of the creativity literature, four traits and abilities were identified as having relevance for creativity in managers: divergent thinking, evaluative thinking, work motivation, and openness to change, risk and ambiguity. The model was constructed by specifying behavioural descriptions of the creative management types that were predicted to arise from various combinations of high and low standing on these four traits and abilities. The initial model was presented to groups of managers in order to get their input and feedback. Moving forward with a model that met the approval of practicing managers, a concurrent validity study was designed. Tests and questionnaires designed to measure Divergent Thinking, Evaluative Thinking, Work Motivation, and Openness to Change, Risk and Ambiguity were administered to 223 incumbent managers, and criterion ratings of on-the-job creative behaviour were provided by the supervisors of these participating managers. Results of the research indicated that the traits and abilities included in the Creative Management Model were, indeed, important to managerial creativity. Managers who were consulted about the model fully endorsed the importance of these traits and abilities. Furthermore, two of the traits and abilities, Divergent Thinking and Openness to Change, Risk and Ambiguity, demonstrated solid validity in predicting prototypical aspects of creative management behaviour. In combination, these two variables provided a level of validity of sufficient magnitude (in the high .40's) to provide substantial utility to organizations seeking to increase the creativity of their management ranks by using this predictor combination for personnel-selection purposes. Despite the importance of the traits and abilities specified in the Creative Management Model, the empirical linkages between these individual-difference factors and the behavioural descriptions of the creative management types provided in the Creative Management Model were not strong. These weak linkages are largely attributed to inaccuracy in the behavioural descriptions. Psychometric weaknesses in some of the variables also contributed. Recommendations are made for revising the Creative Management Model and some of its concomitant measures. The implications of the research findings for management selection and creativity training are also discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The first objective of this thesis was to determine the relationship between scores on the AC Test of Creative Ability and scores on the Cree Questionnaire. This task was undertaken as a response to the scarcity of comparative data among the few objective measures of creative ability which are currently available. The second objective was to construct a self-rating scale of personality traits shown by past research to be associated with creativity. The third objective was to investigate the relationship between scores on each of the two standardized measures of creative ability and scores on the self-rating scale of traits related to creativity.

The Book of Arithmetic Problems of Johannes Whisler (1814-1815), a mathematics exercise book in the collection of the American Folk Art Museum in New York City, is the central object of this study. This handwritten and illuminated book, created by a young Pennsylvania German man in the early 19th century, prompts a reevaluation of handwriting and doodling, with implications for the present era. The author documents the biographical and sociocultural circumstances surrounding the creation of Whisler’s cyphering book through primary and secondary historical research and applies Glăveanu’s theory of distributed creativity to describe the book as a creative process that emerged among people and objects, and across time. As direct indices of immediate actions, handwriting and doodling emerge in moment-to-moment action, even as these actions are embedded in longer periods of developmental and historical change; the author documents Whisler’s handwriting flourishes and doodles and describes the particular qualities of these mark making activities with reference to the sociocultural context in which they appear, Werner’s theories regarding the physiognomic perception of symbols, and Stern’s theory of vitality forms. The dissertation concludes with educational implications of the research, which include considerations of the use of handwriting as a component of art education and the future of handwriting as an affective and cross-modal medium.

Orientador: Mario Sérgio Vasconcelos / Banca: Leonardo Lemos de Souza / Banca: Alvaro Marcel Palomo Alves / Banca: Silvana Calvo Tuleski / Banca: Flávia Cristina Oliveira Murbach de Barros / Resumo: A presente pesquisa explora o tema da criatividade ao longo da trajetória intelectual de Piaget e Vigotski. Trata-se de um estudo teórico no qual foi utilizada a análise comparativa como procedimento metodológico. A evolução do problema da criatividade ao longo de suas obras e a síntese conceitual extraída das formulações permite a defesa de três argumentos fundamentais: a) a ocorrência de autocrítica que os levou a uma reformulação em suas teorias, com repercussão para o tema da criatividade; b) a concordância sobre a criação como um problema das idades psicológicas; e c) a discordância quanto ao papel da linguagem para a originalidade criativa. A reformulação teórica feita por Piaget se deu logo no início de sua carreira e consistiu no rebaixamento da importância da linguagem para a origem da atividade intelectual e criativa. Desde então, o acontecimento psicológico que explica a originalidade deixa de contar com a participação diretiva e decisiva de algo externo ao próprio mecanismo de adaptação da vida. Embora em seus últimos trabalhos reconheça as iniciativas engenhosas conquistadas pelo pensamento lógico-formal na idade da adolescência, Piaget entende que o processo funcional e biopsíquico de equilibração, alimentado pelas ações do sujeito, possui maior força explicativa para a compreensão da originalidade, que é a principal característica da criação. Já a autocrítica realizada por Vigotski o levou a explicar a criação, em seus últimos trabalhos, no interior da dinâmica... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This research explores the theme of creativity along the intellectual trajectory of Piaget and Vygotsky. It is a theoretical study in which the comparative analysis was used as a methodological procedure. The evolution of the problem of creativity throughout his works and the conceptual synthesis extracted from the formulations allows the defense of three fundamental arguments: a) the occurrence of self-criticism that led to a reformulation in his theories, with repercussion for the theme of creativity; b) concordance on creation as a problem of psychological ages and c) discordance on the role of language for creative originality. The theoretical reformulation made by Piaget occurred early in his career and consisted in lowering the importance of language to the origin of intellectual and creative activity. Since then, the psychological event that explains the originality no longer counts on the directive and decisive participation of something external to the own mechanism of adaptation of life. Although in his later works he acknowledges the ingenious initiatives achieved by formal-logical thinking in his teenage years, Piaget understands that the functional and biopsychic process of equilibration, fueled by the actions of the subject, has greater explanatory power for the understanding of originality, which is the main characteristic of creation. Vygotsky's self-criticism led him to explain the creation in his last works within the psychological dynamics of the ages, defe... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor