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Leveraging leadership factors to drive culture change in the Department of Health, Eastern Cape : a case for improved service deliveryFatsha, Litha M. 12 1900 (has links)
Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / Leadership has always been, and always will be, central to human affairs, whether from a
political, societal, religious, business or any other view. Both the need for leadership in
managerial jobs and the difficulty of providing effective leadership in these jobs has grown
considerably more, to include even lower level managerial, technical and professional
employees. An important objective of this research report was to investigate the Eastern
Cape Department of Health’s (ECDoH’s) current business practices and culture, as
perceived by its leadership and management. The aim was to understand and document
reasons for perpetual underperformance and to suggest ways of transforming the
organisation’s culture and practices into a high performing organisation on a sustainable
basis.
To achieve the above objectives, this research report uses the Beehive Model of
Organisational Renewal, developed by Christo Nel of the Village Leadership Consulting,
which looks at seven elements of workplace practices that are benchmarked against
international best practices. These seven elements are strategy execution, change
leadership, structure, business discipline, talent creation, rewards and recognition and
stakeholder value. The Beehive Model of Operational Renewal assumes that it is possible
for any organisation to achieve greatness, to be a high performing organisation based on the
conditions that success is by choice and not by accident; it is a long and winding journey and
requires full executive acceptance, commitment and resolve to achieving a high performance
organisation (HPO) status.
The reviewed literature shows that cultures within successful organisations have
characteristics of adaptability, alignment with external factors and the organisation’s vision
and mission, and are biased towards action. It also suggests that when people are listened
to, respected, supported and appreciated, in exchange they tend to go the extra mile in
executing their jobs, even lifting the performance of individuals previously written off as
mediocre. Depending on the desired type of culture, people behaviours, organisational
symbols and systems will have to be modified to suppport and entrench the values of that
organisation. Establishing a culture in an organisation is primarily a leadership role and
culture and leadership are viewed as two sides of the same coin which cannot be separated.
Literature suggests that long-term organisational change in the public sector is complex and
problematic, because of the many stakeholders and short-term orientation of many political
stakeholders. Change is particularly difficult because it has to overcome a longstanding
tradition, uncertaintly and doubt amongst many people, fear of job loss and inertia and much
Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za
iv
resistance, both visible and subdued. Healthcare staff all over the world face the challenge
of a rapid introduction of technology in the form of electronic patient records, computerbased
decision support tools and hospital information networks which are changing the
traditional ways of doing things. Managing organisational culture is viewed as an essential
part of the health system reform in most countries, where evidence shows that it will be a
complex, multi-level, and uncertain process, requiring strategies unfolding over a period of
years.
For any change to be successful, it requires leadership – in fact, it is argued that leaders
drive change from the top, through people and with people. Successful change is about
leadership getting involved in driving the change at grass roots level, being authentic, honest
and transparent. Leaders must balance the natural resistance people have to change with
the time and space people need to reflect and accept the change and the directives that the
leaders use to put pressure on the employees. In healthcare, many techniques have been
employed to bring about changes to quality healthcare delivery. These include total quality
management (TQM), lean management, learning organisation, business process reengineering
and some leaders have used external consultants to influence change. None of
these techniques was found to be successful without good leadership and a culture that
embraces these changes.
Arguably, people are the only competitive advantage any organisation has. Given that
people are the executors of strategy, it is imperative that they get involved in its
development. The use of systemic ways of developing strategy and making sure of its
implementation using the balanced score card and strategy maps, is recommended. Linking
company values and culture to the strategy leads to far greater organisational success. In
most organisations human resources (HR) practices are still in the traditional back office. In
the new economy, HR practices need to be transformed to deliver a new proposition, which
adds value to the bottom line of the business by satisfying all stakeholder requirements,
aligning people to performance and increasing organisational capabilities for sustainable
performance.
In the last decade, New Public Sector Management (NPSM) has emerged as a major reform
strategy applied in varying degrees in a growing number of public sector organisations. Its
main focus is to improve service delivery and to give rise to new management practices in
the public sector. It emanates from a continued dissatisfaction with the performance of
traditional public sector leadership and bureaucracy, reinforced by claims that the private
sector is more efficient. Three building blocks for NPSM are described to reform public
sector and these are responsibility, accountability and performance. In transforming public
Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za
v
sector organisations, managers have to explicitly introduce policies within each building
block – these policies contain leverage to influence clarity of purpose, agreements, power
over decision-making, individual and team performance, and customer accountability.
There are strong arguments to encourage clinicians to change their mindset and be retrained
to lead the healthcare reform around the world. Some of the arguments are that
clinicians are in the frontline, making decisions that determine quality and efficiency of care,
having the technical knowledge to make sound strategic choices about longer-term patterns
of service delivery. Clinicians are typically intelligent, well-trained and caring people who
expressly choose this career to cure and comfort. A growing body of research supports the
assertion that effective clinical leadership lifts the performance of health care organisations,
as evidenced in a study which found that hospitals with the greatest clinician participation in
management scored about 50% higher on important drivers of performance than hospitals
with low levels of clinical leadership did. In another study, it was found that in 11 cases of
attempted improvement in services, organisations with stronger clinical leadership were
more successful, while another found that Chief Executive Officers (CEO) in the highestperforming
organisations engaged clinicians in dialogue and in joint problem-solving efforts.
The research findings show that the ECDoH is entrenched in the old economy values,
meaning that business practices that were examined using the Beehive Model are rated in
the risk/poor class. All seven elements scored in this poor class, with changed leadership,
structures and talent creation constituting the poorest performers. This implies that the
organisation is led from the top, leaders use power over others, there is widespread
compression and incompetency at all leadership levels. It is unlikely that a single political
head in the form of the Member of Executive (MEC) or a change in the head of department
(HoD) will bring about the required astronomical transformation of the ECDoH. Only when
the collective begins to accept the current predicament, can a total buy-in and commitment
to high performance status begin.
Finally, it is recommended that the ECDoH leadership transform their mindsets and adopt
the new economy values of leading the organisation. They need to leverage on their
positions of power to co-create a new culture, learn and adopt new change leadership skills,
and transform the organisation’s HR proposition inside out. The executives are urged to
consider funding a three to five year project of organisational renewal, using the Beehive
Model and its related tools, to bring about sustainable change in the ECDoH.
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A review of lessons learned to inform capacity-building for sustainable nature-based tourism development in the European Union funded "Support to the Wild Coast Spatial Development Initiative Pilot Programme /Wright, Brian Bradley. January 2005 (has links)
Thesis (M. Ed. (Education))--Rhodes University, 2006. / Half-thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Education (Environmental Education).
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The impact of job redesign on employee job outcomes: the case of the implementation of a private-public partnership model at a hospitalOnaga, Chukwuka Moses January 2015 (has links)
It has been widely reported that despite high health expenditure and a myriad of policies in place, South Africa’s health outcomes are worse than those in many lower income countries. The adverse health outcomes are even more pronounced in a rural province such as the Eastern Cape Province. Consequently, the Eastern Cape Department of Health (ECDOH) had turned to Private Public Partnerships (PPP) with the hope of mitigating some of the challenges beleaguering the health system in the province. This study evaluated the impact of the implementation of one of the PPP models at an Eastern Cape Hospital on key employee job outcomes. This is crucial as there had not yet, been this type of scientific assessment of the impact of the PPP model since the inception of the PPP about half a decade ago. Theoretical guidance of the study was provided by the Job Characteristics Theory (JCT) of Oldham and Hackman (1975), which predicted that changes in five core characteristics of a job will affect three critical psychological states which will in turn impact on key employee job outcomes. Uniquely, this study veered away from the traditional quantitative approach to the application of the JCT but rather adopted a qualitative case study approach. There is historical evidence that cross cultural validation of a theory in a new setting (a South African PPP hospital in this instance) benefits from an initial qualitative study. Data collection and analysis were guided by the JCT. Primary data collection was by semi-structured, face to face, one on one interviews. The analyses of the data specifically employed pattern matching and explanation building techniques, all underpinned by the JCT. Validity of interview data was strongly contributed to by available relevant case study documents. This study found that indeed, the implementation of this PPP model brought about changes in all five (JCT) core job characteristics of clinical staff, but to varying degrees in the three unique shared service areas. Interestingly, the three psychological states were found to have been impacted upon by changes in the JCT core job characteristics but also by factors related to the context of the job, such as quality of supervision and co-worker relationship. In contrast to the predictions of the JCT, this study also found that the key job outcomes were impacted directly by such contextual factors as the recent availability of specialists and staff shortages, among others. It also emerged that the PPP implementation has directly evoked a perception of inequity and breach of psychological contract among clinical staff working at the shared service areas. Among the three shared areas, the accident and emergency unit was discovered to have had the worst overall impact. Due to the importance of contextual factors at this PPP setting, key recommendations were directed towards improved management of the jobs. It is also recommended that a follow-up quantitative study be commissioned to further explore the main themes that emerged from this study. This research report is presented in three sections. Section 1 is the evaluative report itself, structured as an academic paper. Section 2 expands on the literature that was briefly reviewed in Section 1 while Section 3 outlines, in greater details, the research methods followed during the conduct of the research and the justifications thereof.
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Effectiveness of the Eastern Cape provincial department of local government and traditional affairs to monitor and evaluate the performance of municipalities: a case study of Cacadu District MunicipalityGopane, Ogomoditse Mabel January 2012 (has links)
Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree
Master of Technology in Public Management
in the Faculty of business
at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2012 / South Africa has been experiencing poor service delivery protests. The Eastern Cape in particular, is characterised by rural areas owing to segregation that was created by the past apartheid government. Ineffective operations of municipalities are usually found to be the root cause of ineffective service delivery.
However, the Republic of South Africa‟s Constitution,1996 and other forms of legislation provide for monitoring and support of municipalities by national and provincial government, although most monitoring and support responsibilities are borne with the provincial government. Provincial governments provide an oversight role towards municipalities and assist them when they cannot and do not fulfil their obligations. This study focuses on the Eastern Cape with the Cacadu District Municipality as the identified case-study. The district is one of the largest in the Eastern Cape and is marked by high levels of poverty and unemployment. The study investigates the effectiveness of the Eastern Cape Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs (ECDLGTA) to monitor and evaluate municipalities, with reference to the Cacadu District Municipality.
Monitoring and evaluation are effective tools, which are utilised by developed countries to achieve good governance and effective service delivery. South Africa has also followed a culture of M&E and established the Government Wide Monitoring and Evaluation System. It is important that monitoring and evaluation systems are effective. Because with effective systems, government can detect early warning signs of corruption or any other forms of ineffectiveness.
The purpose of this research study is to explore current systems that the ECDLGTA has established to monitor municipalities and to assess whether those systems are effective or not. Furthermore, the research intends to explore the reasons for ineffectiveness, as well as the relationship between the municipalities and the provincial government. In order to reach conclusions to these questions, an empirical study was conducted by using qualitative research methodology. Interviews were conducted and are described in chapter five. Chapter Six and Seven present the results that were achieved from the interviews and analysis of those results, whilst Chapter eight presents concluding remarks and recommendations based on the findings.
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Contemporary left politics in South Africa: the case of the tri-partite alliance in the Eastern CapeHesjedal, Siv Helen January 2010 (has links)
This thesis aims to make sense of Left politics in South Africa within the Tri-partite Alliance between the ANC, SACP and COSATU. The thesis focuses on developments in the Eastern Cape, between 2000 and 2008. The thesis describes the prevalent forms of Left politics in the Eastern Cape and the tendencies in the Alliance that organise this Left. The thesis also examines the historical, social and political conditions and that shape the form and content of Left politics in the province. Based on a survey of literature on what is considered the core manifestations of Left politics globally in the 20th Century Left politics is defined as the elements of the political spectrum that are concerned with the progressive resolution of involuntary disadvantage and with a goal of abolishing class society and capitalism. Although the Alliance as a whole should be seen to be on the Left on an international political spectrum, this thesis argues that the Left/Right dichotomy is useful for understanding the politics of the Alliance, as long as the second part of this definition is taken into consideration. The Alliance Left is understood as those leaders and activists within the Alliance that have the SACP and Cosatu as their operating base. It will be argued that this Left is, in its practice, largely concerned with what insiders refer to as politics of „influence‟, rather than with politics of „structural transformation‟. It is the ANC that is the leader of the Alliance and the party in government and thus it is on the terrain of ANC strategy, policy and positions that contestation in the Alliance plays itself out. Thus, for the Left, there is strength in the idea of the Alliance. However, there are significant theoretical and political weaknesses in the Left that undermine the possibility of making good use of various corporatist platforms to pursue the agenda of the Left in the Eastern Cape. There is also increased contestation within the Alliance Left itself about the continued usefulness of this strategy.
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The zooplankton of Mngazana estuaryLouw, Liezel January 2007 (has links)
The zooplankton community of the main channel of the Mngazana estuary was investigated on six occasions over one year. Spatial and temporal variability in zooplankton abundance and distribution were sampled using two slightly modified WP2 plankton nets of 200 μm mesh and 57 cm mouth diameter. Nets were fitted with calibrated Kahlsico 005 WA 130 flow meters. A set of environmental variables were also measured at each site. The water column of the main channel of Mngazana estuary was stratified in summer but well mixed in winter. Temperature progressively increased from the lower stations to the upper reaches of the estuary. Maximum vertical temperature differences occurred in the middle estuarine reaches. Salinity progressively decreased from the lower reaches to the upper reaches, but was generally above 26 from Station 3 to Station 8. Only during November 2005, were salinity readings low due to heavy rains. Summer salinity values were always lower than the winter salinity values as a result of summer rainfall. A total of 76 zooplankton taxa were identified. The estuarine copepods Acartia natalensis and Pseudodiaptomus hessei dominated the assemblage, with maximum abundances in the middle to upper reaches. Acartia natalensis reached high densities in winter (> 50 000 m-3) although lowest abundances were recorded when maximum rainfall was received (November 2005). Wooldridge (1977) and Deyzel (2004) recorded maximum densities during summer. Pseudodiaptomus hessei reached high densities (> 17 000 m-3) during the highest rainfall month. Previous studies indicated that this pioneer species is able to recover quickly after a flood and subsequently increase rapidly in numbers. The mysid, Mesopodopsis africana reached high densities (> 5 000 m-3) in the middle estuarine reaches during summer. Ichtyofauna, brachyura and anomura were important contributors to the merozooplankton component of the community. The maximum number of species was recorded during winter in the lower estuarine reaches, when vertical differences in salinities were minimal.
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The economics of trade on the Eastern Cape Frontier, 1820-1860: a study of the glass and metal artefact assemblages from Huntley Street, Farmerfield and Fort Double DriftPalk, Debbie 01 1900 (has links)
Text in English with abstracts in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa / The collections-based research reported upon in this dissertation focuses on three sites in the Eastern Cape: Huntley Street in Grahamstown, Farmerfield, a nearby Wesleyan mission station, and Fort Double Drift, a British fortification on the Great Fish River. The collection, which is housed in the Albany Museum, derives from Patrice Jeppson’s excavations, completed in the 1980s. Analyses of the excavated glass and metal, augmented by a close reading of tender and shopkeepers’ advertisements in The Graham’s Town Journal, chronicle how merchants, settlers, soldiers, missionaries and local African communities were involved in, and affected by, trade between 1820 and 1860. The study explores aspects of the mercantile economy, consumerism and military provisioning relating to a wide range of imported glass and metal merchandise. The burgeoning trade linked various enterprises, groups and individuals through monetary and social transactions, reflecting the steady incorporation of the Eastern Cape into the British colonial trading network. / Die versamelingsgebaseerde navorsing waaroor in hierdie verhandeling verslag gedoen word, fokus op drie terreine in die Oos-Kaap: Huntley-straat in Grahamstad, Farmerfield, ’n nabygeleë Wesleyaanse sendingstasie, en Fort Dubbeldrif ’n Britse vesting aan die Groot-Visrivier. Die versameling, wat in die Albany-museum gehuisves word, is afkomstig van Patrice Jeppson se opgrawings, wat in die 1980's voltooi is. Ontledings van die opgegraafde glas en metaal, aangevul deur ’n grondige studie van tender- en winkelieradvertensies in The Graham’s Town Journal, boekstaaf hoe handelaars, setlaars, soldate, sendelinge en plaaslike Afrika-gemeenskappe by handel tussen 1820 en 1860 betrokke was, en daardeur beïnvloed is. Die studie verken aspekte van die handelsekonomie, verbruikerisme en militêre bevoorrading met betrekking tot ’n wye verskeidenheid ingevoerde glas- en metaalhandelsware. Die bloeiende handel het verskeie ondernemings, groepe en individue deur monetêre en sosiale transaksies met mekaar verbind, wat die geleidelike opname van die Oos-Kaap in die Britse koloniale handelsnetwerk weerspieël. / Uphando lwezinto eziqokelelweyo ekunikwe ingxelo ngalo kule disetheyishini, lugxile kwiindawo ezintathu eziseMpuma Koloni ezizezi: eHuntley Street eRhini, eFarmerfield, esisitishi seMishini yamaWesile, naseFort Double Drift, eyinqaba yamaBhilitane ekwiGreat Fish River. Le ngqokelela, egcinwe eAlbany Museum, isuka kwizinto ezazigrunjwe nguPatrice Jeppson, grunjo olo olwagqitywa phaya koo1980. Uphononongo lweeglasi neentsimbi ezagronjwayo, oluxhaswa nakukufundwa kweentengiso ezakhutshwayo zeethenda nezoonovenkile kwi-The Graham’s Town Journal, lunika iinkcukacha zeendlela abarhwebi, abemi ababesuka kwamanye amazwe aphesheya kweelwandle, abefundisi ababesuka kwamanye amazwe, amajoni noluntu olumnyama lwaloo mimandla ababebandakanyeka ngayo nebabechatshazelwa ngayo lurhwebo olwaqhubeka phakathi ko-1820 no-1860. Olu phando luvelela imiba yoqoqosho lorhwebo, ukhuselo lwabathengi, nobonelelo lwezinto zomkhosi lwezinto eziliqela zeeglasi nezentsimbi. Olu rhwebo olwaluhlumile lwahlanganisa amashishini ahlukileyo, amaqela kunye nabantu nje abazimeleyo ngokuthi barhwebelane ngeemali nangezinto zentlalo, yaye oku kubonisa ukungeniswa kweMpuma Koloni kuthungelwano lorhwebo lobukoloniya lwamaBhilitane. / Anthropology and Archaeology / M.A. (Archaeology)
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Procurement of learner teacher support materials in East London District public secondary schoolsMbuqe, Bongeka 02 October 2020
This study explores the flawed procurement and delivery of Learner Teacher Support Materials (LTSM) in East London district at public secondary schools in the Eastern Cape province. Poor management of the procurement of LTSM has the result that some schools in the country have limited access to LTSM because of late delivery, non-delivery, incorrect and, or delivery shortages. These problems have contributed to under-achievement in the affected schools and in turn undermine the learners’ constitutional rights and educational aims and goals. Like many other provinces, the Eastern Cape also encountered difficulties with the procurement and delivery of textbooks to various public schools.
To investigate the problem, a qualitative and exploratory study was carried out. The data were collected from a sample of 19 participants involved in the three levels of the procurement process; that is, district officials, school principals and the provincial head office officials. The researcher conducted face-to-face interviews using open-ended questions. The research results showed that although the procurement process of LTSM is centralised at the head office level, the other two levels, namely the district office and the school levels, play a significant part. While these levels play an important role in determining and collating the textbook needs, they require additional communication processes and systems to be in place to avoid prolonged timeframes and follow ups that bring about delays of the overall procurement process. Between communication of the relevant guidelines, and collating and submitting book needs information, delays happen along the way at one or more levels and these ultimately lead to either late procurement, late or non-delivery of books to the relevant schools.
The study showed that although there are rules, regulations and various policies that serve as guidelines in the procurement process, the actual implementation and monitoring is flawed. The lack of coherence promotes mistrust and conflict between the relevant stakeholders, which in turn brings about minimal consultation on changes relating to effective management processes during procurement and distribution of LTSM. The study recommends changes that are needed to achieve effective management to alleviate problems encountered during the procurement and distribution of LTSM in the East London district public secondary schools / Entrepreneurship, Supply Chain, Transport, Tourism and Logistics Management / M. Com. (Logistics)
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Two decades in the life of a city : Grahamstown 1862-1882Gibbens, Melanie January 1982 (has links)
[Preface]:In 1862 Grahamstown acquired the dignity, pride and responsibility of full municipal status by its own Act of Incorporation. Ibis Act marked the consolidation of Grahamstown's era of local government by its vigorous and far-sighted Municipal Board of Commissioners, which was established in 1837 and has been examined in depth in K.S. Hunt's thesis on Grahamstown municipal government up to 1862. Clearly, the year 1862 is the logical beginning for a further study of Grahamstown's changing position in the Eastern Cape and its development in the practice of local government during the crucial decades of the 1860's and 1870's. But the choice of 1882 to mark the end of this thesis is in some ways arbitrary. 1882 does not appear to be a turning point, a year of major significance in either the history of Grahamstown or of the Colony as a whole. Besides the convenient time-span of twenty years, there are various factors which, taken together, explain why 1882 is a useful date of demarcation from which to take stock and review Grahamstown's economic, political, social and municipal position after two vital decades in its history. In the civic sphere,the opening of Grahamstown's Town Hall made tangible,in solid Victorian design,a long held ambition of the City Councillors. Buildings, in Victorian attitudes, throughout the British Empire, were regarded as very important civic symbols. One can learn much of Grahamstown Victorian attitudes from the lengthy process of attaining a Town Hall. A much more elaborate ceremony surrounded the opening of the Jubilee Tower, an occasion for assessing the influence of Grahamstown's Settler heritage on the development of the town. Municipal problems concerning finance, water and "native" locations remained thorny questions as they had throughout the period 1862-32. Generally 1882 was a year of transition for Grahamstown and the Colony as a whole. Economically it appeared to start prosperously but 1882 actually marked the beginning of a severe depression which lasted until 1386. It is important to consider how Grahamstown’s economic development relates to the overall economic picture of the Cape Colony at this juncture. Though ostrich feather prices remained high in 1882, the ensuing depression was caused partly by the rapid overexpansion of the industry but most important of all, by a reaction to an inflated era of confidence during the diamond boom years of the 1870's and their consequent easy Bank credit plus intense speculation. Politically 1882 also appeared a year of transition. How to maintain the uneasy peace after the Basuto war remained a constant challenge to Scanlen's ministry. The beginnings of active party conflict in the workings of responsible government were evident only in embryo. The rapid growth of the Afrikaner Bond was to change this. Specifically in relation to the practice of local government in the Cape Colony, the General Municipal Act No. 45 was passed during the Parliamentary session of 1882, enabling any town to seek incorporation. The query is raised as to how far the modus vivendi of the Grahamstown municipality helped frame the clauses of this general Municipal enabling Act. For these various reasons, as well as the additional one that twenty years was found to offer a manageable research unit, 1882 has been decided on as the limit of this thesis. This thesis aims, through a careful examination of Grahamstown's economic, political but particularly civic development, to determine and trace the nature of the Grahamstown community's response to the challenge of the gradual isolation of the 1860's and 1870's. Grahamstown's civic history provides fascinating insights into the structure of the entire community and its attitudes and values. Study has been made of the following major primary sources for the history of Grahamstown 1862-1882: the Grahamstown Municipality records, complete except for incoming letters and housed in the Cape Archives, und the Grahamstown newspapers for the period. The most prolific as well us the most valuable newspaper source of the period is The Grahamstown Journal, a newspaper with a tradition firmly bound up with the formulation of frontier as well as Grahamstown thought, kingpin of the network built up by the successors of Robert Godlonton, the "architect of frontier opinion". It has to be treated with caution as a source because of this very bias. The Council Minutes themselves, meticulously recorded in the Town Clerk's copperplate Victorian script, are scrupulously objective, recording blandly proposers, seconders and fates of motions. What might appear the bare bones of a detailed study of the municipal records yet reflects the economic climate of the town, political opinions, class and race attitudes, civic pride, concepts of public health and charity. The newspapers are a vital addition to the Municipal records themselves. The weekly meetings received faithful, accurate and very copious coverage from press-representatives present at every ordinary meeting. Indeed these reports give a vivid immediacy to the meetings and reveal opinions, pressure groups and lines of conflict within the Council, on issues important and trivial. These, at times lively and enlivening, sometimes stormy meetings, are reported with an authenticity which makes one suspect that often words of speeches were given verbatim - personalities of the Councillors certainly emerge distinctly. Full newspaper coverage is also given to the meetings of the Albany Divisional Council. The annual reports of the Civil Commissioners and Resident Magistrates, which appear in the Parliamentary Blue Books of the period, provide some valuable economic comment on the vicissitudes of life in the eastern frontier districts from 1862-1882. Such information builds useful background for a study of Grahamstown's economic and social development. Efforts have been made to locate probable sources of family papers of one of the most influential Grahamstown families of the period, the Wood family, but to no avail. If any exist they would without doubt have given interesting insight into the business connections of leading Grahamstown men and possibly given an indication of how far civic and political connections linked with religious and family influences in Victorian Grahamstown. Jim's Journal, manuscript in Cory Library, is a record of letters sent home to England by James Butler, while on a visit to the Cape,1876-79 for his health. He provides illuminating glimpses into the day to day life of Grahamstown from a Quaker viewpoint. Taken together, these sources provide considerable insights into the life and times of Grahamstown in the second half of the nineteenth Century. A municipal study examines an area in its totality: it encompasses a study of minutiae within the context of general trends. This fact alone suggests that there are many sources on the history of Grahamstown which have not yet been discovered, but this assessment is submitted on the basis of a thorough study of those which are currently available.
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Factors influencing the success of activity-based costing in the Nelson Mandela Bay metropole manufacturing industryReynolds, Arthur 08 May 2014 (has links)
Past research on activity-based costing (ABC) success factors has predominantly
focused on establishing relationships between known success factors and ABC
implementation success. According to the researcher, there is a lack of exploratory
studies to establish ABC implementation factors especially in a South
African context. This study has explored these factors from literature and
attempted to identify any other factors of importance with the use of semistructured
interviews. A total number of 13 interviews were conducted with
participants from manufacturing organisations in the Nelson Mandela Bay
Metropole using some form of ABC. The findings suggested that ABC may be
more beneficial at larger, more diverse organisations but that smaller organisations
may also benefit from ABC if product costing accuracy could be
significantly improved with ABC and if no major pressure on company resources
is incurred. In addition it seems that ABC should be utilised to the fullest extent
that is practical for the manufacturing organisation and that the use of
supplementary cost-saving mechanisms with ABC may be beneficial. Finally it
is recommended that users be fully trained at ABC and that careful consideration
of an appropriate ABC software package may increase the likelihood of ABC
implementation success. / Management Accounting / M. Phil. (Management Accounting)
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