Thesis (MBA)--University of Limpopo, 2010. / Skills development plays an important role in the growth of every country‟s economy, service delivery and technology improvement. It builds confidence and dignity in people, so it is crucial for every government to ensure that its people are well-skilled and developed. Hence the formation of Sector Education and Training Authority which ensures that employees are also trained in their workplace; this initiative is also meant to address imbalances of the past. Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority were established to ensure skills development within the local government sector. Local government (municipalities) is the third sphere of government which interacts very closely with the community and delivers basic services like water and sanitation, roads, electricity, refuse removal, housing and other essential services. For all these services to be provided efficiently and effectively the municipality needs competent and skilled employees, if they do not have the skilled employees they will have challenges in delivering these services. Proper training and development is continuously needed as technology changes and new developments are uncovered in the industry. It will be imperative for the municipalities to work in hand with Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority to ensure that training and development is delivered to the employees, and funding is allocated every year. Continuous research need to be conducted to ensure best practices of training and development are adhered to. The qualitative research method was followed for this research. A questionnaire was used to collect the data from participants and a follow-up interview was conducted with participants. During the follow-up interviews a number of supporting documents were received. Two people from each of the six municipalities took part in the research totaling twelve participants. It was discovered that Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority helps the municipalities with skills development issues, though there are gaps which still need to be closed. Municipalities are also making efforts to ensure that their employees are skilled. However, municipalities can still improve their skills analysis processes, implement performance management system for their employees and increase their training and development budget.

Ensuring that harm does not take place in the work conducted in other countries by the humanitarian and development sector, is vital. However, there still seems to be a lack of research looking into specific conflict-sensitive approaches. The Do No Harm (DNH) framework was developed by Mary B. Anderson in 1999 and in regards to conflict sensitivity tools, the DNH framework is one of the most well-known. Still, there is only a small amount of research that has looked into how the DNH framework has been implemented and the impact that the framework has had in the humanitarian and development sector.  This thesis aims to examine how the DNH framework has been implemented and used by the Swedish development sector. The research is conducted through a qualitative case study of the Swedish development sector and the findings are analyzed through the lens of different policy change theories.  The thesis finds that the Swedish development sector early on was aware of DNH and that the framework quite rapidly was adopted into the sector as a policy instrument. However, it also concludes that the DNH framework has not been fully implemented in the policy objectives or on the ground, which led to the addition of a research question that investigated why the DNH framework had not been thoroughly implemented. Upon looking into the reasons for this lack of implementation, the study finds that the theories of Punctuated Equilibrium and Path Dependency can provide some explanations for this. Further, it can also be concluded that there are improvements to be made in terms of applying the framework on the ground and considering the conflict-sensitive perspective in relation to development work, not only in the humanitarian field.

“What role did branding play in the social marketing processes of the three Schwab Foundation award winning social enterprises (SEs)?” The research problem, as well as the research questions, revolve around the issue of establishing how branding may be employed as part of the social marketing process in such a way as to increase the competitiveness of those organisations known as social enterprises (SEs). This study investigates three SEs whose Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) have won The Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur (SFSE) of the Year Awards, to determine how branding was used as a communication tool to position their organisations as leaders and differentiators in the development sector. The three SEs that were chosen as case study organisations are: Soul City, Heartbeat and the Johannesburg Housing Company (JHC). The theoretical context focuses firstly on the non-profit sector in South Africa as the context and environment of this study, more specifically, the evolution of non-profit organisations (NPOs) into Social Enterprises (SEs). This is followed by defining communication principles and applications as they appear in both profit-driven and non-profit organisations/social enterprises (NPOs/SEs). This is applied in two different communication contexts: communication within corporate organisations and communication within development organisations. The last theoretical focus is placed on understanding what branding means, a description of the different branding categories, and a view of the evolution of branding to brand building and brand leadership. This is followed by a discussion on the importance of brand identity and equity in the process of brand development, brand management and measurement, including a presentation of the main role players in this brand-building process. Branding is then discussed as it is applied in SEs, outlining what a strong brand could do for the development sector. A combination of qualitative and quantitative research approaches are utilised; more specifically a qualitative research approach, supported by a quantitative one, referred to as the “dominant less-dominant model”. This study is based on the grounded theory model supported by a collective case study approach, also referred to as “building theories from case study research”. The study further indicates the theory that was generated by this study, namely “The Social Enterprise (SE) branding layered grounded theory model”. Whereas the 1st layer displays the important role that the NPO/SE sector if fulfilling in modern society; the 2nd layer the specific space and linkages of SEs with the different other society sectors are explained; the 3rd layer positions/similar to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs with the growth path of NPOs towards SEs and their own sustainability on the NPO/SE pyramid model; the 4th layer indicates the fact that the same corporate communication principles applies to the development sector; and the 5th layer stresses the important role that branding plays as the core element of a corporate communication strategy. In summary, the study found that a lack of implementation of corporate communication in NPOs and SEs, more specifically the absence of a corporate identity, image and a strategic brand management process, has a direct impact on the effectiveness of SEs’ communication and limits the achievement of their developmental objectives. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2013 / Information Science / unrestricted

This thesis study explores the existing knowledge management and sharing practices in donor organizations, particularly working in the developing countries. The potentional of knowledge management and sharing to facilitate development organizations in carrying out development work has been recognised in the literature. Literature presented mix of critique and appreciation to the existing efforts of donor agencies. Knowledge sharing platforms revolves around the country initiatives and donor agencies like UNDP and World Bank which are proactive in establishing these platforms for partner organizations. This research contributes practical insight to the question of delivery of these platforms, through an empirical investigation based on the development professionals' experiences. As earlier research shows enormous amount of literature on individual, team and organizational level knowledge sharing, this study sets prime focus on community level or external knowledge sharing, an area where there exist a dearth of emperical research or contributing literature on examing the role of sharing initiatives and possible contribution in improving risk management in development projects. Literature shows the potential of knowledge management and sharing practices, as their possible contribution in the global development practices and in bridging gap between North-South stakeholders. However, cultural, technological, organizational and individual level issues escalate with external level of knowledge sharing and thesis rightly, identifies success factors from the literature alongwith their viability from the professionals. It is even more inadequate when it comes to projects of donor organizations in under developed and developing countries. With 80% of documented failure rates of knowledge sharing systems, external knowledge sharing with partner organizations or network organizations is really not adequate and do not have supporting culture. As this whole process of sharing knowledge, heavily relies on the perceived motivation and willingness to share, study has tried to identify the challenges facing wider use of these sharing systems. Study also contributes with suggestions for knowledge management and sharing system developers, policy and decision makers and system users, to improve the overall contribution of knowledge sharing in better risk management. Apart from the cultural barriers, there are technical and policy level issues which need more concerted efforts to improve the use of these sharing systems by various organizations and individuals. / House No. 174-A, St. 61, I-8/3, Islamabad, Pakistan Contact: +92-336-5666065, Email: noman-1985@hotmail.com