Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The mining bubble is over, and mining companies in South Africa are under pressure to remain viable concerns. This forces companies to cut their cost through organisational restructuring, closing down of mines and cost-saving technologies. All of these result in job losses in the mining sector. However, the companies do have a social responsibility to help uplift and create jobs in the mining areas and labour-sending regions. The study reviews examples of corporate-social-development projects of mines that relate to agriculture. Furthermore, the study looks at projects stemming from the government’s desire for land reform and rural social-economic upliftment of previously disadvantaged communities. In this context contract farming is an ideal way to tackle comprehensively the re-employment challenges. Against that background, which combines literature review and brief summaries of case studies, the dissertation reviews contract farming as an approach towards agricultural development and job creation. The lessons from the socio-economic development projects, rural-reforms and contract-farming projects are used as inputs to evolve a framework for the local approach to contract farming, related to mining areas. This includes considerations of implementation challenges likely to be experienced.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study is to make industry employers, teachers and career guides aware of the barriers that continue to hold back women from pursuing careers in the construction industry. This research study focused on females working in the construction industry and investigated the experiences of women who chose to study construction-related degrees. The goal was to communicate what influenced their choice to study degrees in the construction industry, and what factors are currently influencing their career development. This was done with the purpose of finding solutions to re-engineer and transform the industry and make a form of transformation. A quantitative research methodology was used as a means of collecting and analysing data. This comprised of questionnaires which were designed and distributed, using targeted sampling, to 82 women studying construction-related degrees and 54 women actively employed in professional positions in the South African construction industry. Respondents’ experiences were captured with quantitative data on education, course preference, family involvement, mentors, self-efficacy, women involvement, cultural influence, image of industry, reason for entering industry, motivator/influencer, traditional beliefs, social and cultural beliefs, government involvement, time, slow career progression, inclusive environment, queen bee syndrome, site conditions, discrimination and harassment. The data was analysed by using quantitative methods. Questionnaires were developed and ranked on a scale of one to five, namely strongly agree to strongly disagree and interpreted by means of counting the frequency of occurrence of answers to each ranked question. Percentages were then calculated and responses weighted according to average means. The findings and conclusions indicate the choices women make, what motivates women in South Africa to choose careers in the construction industry and the barriers encountered by them. The results from this study highlight the need for a shift in the industry; and the findings give employers, teachers and career guiders insight into what draws women into the industry and what underlying issues women face once in the industry. This provides as a guide for strategic change within educational environments and within the industry to encourage more women not only to draw themselves to find careers in the construction industry, but also retain them.

This research focused on affirmative action, equity in the workplace, skills development and training. It examined the manner in which policies and practices aimed at realising representativeness were implemented by the City of Cape Town. Reasons for the slow progress made at realising representativeness in the City of Cape Town were identified as well as the shortcomings of current policies, procedures and practices.

D.Com. (Economics) / At the beginning of 1990, a sequence of events took place which were to provide the initiative for this study. The unbanning of South Africa's major black political organisations shifted the focus ofthe public debate to negotiations on a democratic constitution. Regional issues, such as had been debated with substantial fervour in KwaZulu/Natal, became negligible when contrasted with the realisation that South Africa's two dominant political forces had agreed upon the necessity for a ceasefire. Until 1990, these two groups, namely the National Party (NP) and the African National Congress (ANC) had been engaged in a bitter and long-standing war. In using dictatorial political powers to suppress access by blacks, coloureds and Indians to universally accepted basic human rights, the NP committed acts of institutionalised violence, which led to increasing resistance amongst disenfranchised South Africans and unparalleled international ostracism. The ANC was not a passive victim ofthe policies of statutory racial segregation and had, since especially the rnid-1970s, embarked upon a strategy of armed resistance as part of its endeavours to focus the attention ofdecision-makers within South Africa and abroad on the plight of the disenfranchised majority. An agreement was reached to end armed hostilities shortly after the unbanning of the ANC, but it was clear that an ideological war would continue to be fought between the ANC and the NP well into the future. Central to the debate on determining fundamental conditions for inclusive participation in constitutional negotiations would be the issues of guarantees for minority rights; the relative roles of the state and the market in economic processes; and the degree to which policies aimed at redressing racially-based income inequalities need to be pursued by government. The intractable nature of differences of opinion on these issues, combined with the new focus on constitutional negotiations at national level, led to the discontinuance of the activities of the KwaZulu/Natal Indaba, which had sought a political compromise for the region amongst all representative groups. At the time, the author had been managing a socio-economic research unit within the Indaba's secretariat. Contact had been established earlier with an organization launched in Durban in February 1990 with the specific objective to encourage affirmative action policies, mainly amongst organisations in the private sector. This organisation, the National Economic Initiative (NEI), had its roots in the group of American-owned companies that had been signatories to the Sullivan code of employment practices.

M.Com. (Industrial Psychology) / In line with recent media reports, it is apparent that homosexual individuals are treated unfairly in a variety of contexts. Yet, little is known regarding the discrimination of homosexual employees in the South African workplace. The objective of this study was to examine the nature of discriminatory experiences of South African homosexual employees. In this study a qualitative approach was used with hermeneutic phenomenology as the method of data analysis. Data were collected through the means of semi-structured interviews with ten homosexual employees from various industries within the Gauteng province. The findings suggest that homosexual individuals do experience discrimination at work and that the experiences of discrimination at work are slightly different for gay employees than for lesbian employees. Three themes generated for gay employees (workplace bullying, the use of prejudice and stereotypes, and problems with people management practices, policies and procedures), while four themes were generated for lesbian employees (workplace bullying, the use of prejudice and stereotypes, problems with people management practices, policies and procedures, and sexual harassment). The contributions of the study will be to provide much needed awareness and understanding of workplace discrimination against homosexual employees. It is hoped that the findings of this research will lead to a re-examination of human resource practices and policies regarding diversity training and anti-discrimination.

D.Phil. / The purpose of this study is to investigate the situation of the white labourer in the secondary industries during the years 1924 to 1933 on the Witwatersrand. This research is, however, not limited to working conditions such as wages, working hours and physical circumstances, but it also takes a look at the daily living conditions of the labourer. In the first place the study focuses on the secondary industries as milieu within which the labourer functioned. The development and growth of the secondary industries were to a large extent inspired and encouraged by the First World War, the mining industry and also urbanisation. These factors led to certain demands on the secondary industries that had to be met. The above factors not only contributed to increased production and: markets, but, also created much needed job opportunities for the inhabitants of the Witwatersrand. During and after the war the industrial growth was to a large extent without direction. The labourer also had only the labour union which he could appeal to. To provide the necessary order and direction, important legislation had been introduced since 1918 to serve as framework within which employer and employee could act. When the Pact Government assumed power in 1924 industrial growth was therefore not only further stimulated, but the government made a conscious effort to eliminate problems between employer and employee. Then a look is taken at the men, women and youth labourers.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management specialising in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation. Johannesburg, 2017 / South Africa has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, with youth unemployment sitting at 37.5 percent in 2016. In an attempt to remedy South Africa’s unemployment, the government sought entrepreneurship as a solution. The South African government has implemented various policies and established numerous institutional bodies to accelerate entrepreneurship. Some of these policies and bodies are aimed specifically at enhancing entrepreneurship among the youth. In order to understand the best approach to assist these young entrepreneurs, it is important to understand what drives performance in current young entrepreneurs’ enterprises. This paper evaluated the impact that entrepreneurial capital (human, social, and financial capital) had on the performance of youth-owned enterprises. It surveyed 199 young entrepreneurs (between 18 and 35 years old) to understand what drives performance within their enterprises. The research found that there were high levels of performance within youth-owned enterprises, when there were high levels of human capital and social capital. However, there was a negative relationship between financial capital and the performance of youth-owned enterprises. Overall, the research concluded that high levels of entrepreneurial capital had a positive relationship with the performance of youth-owned enterprises. The objective of this study was to understand what drives the performance of youth-owned enterprises, in order to best facilitate government assistance and support for young entrepreneurs. The outcome suggests that human capital and social capital drive performance of youth-owned enterprises, it would thus be advisable for the South African government to focus on those two variables when drafting policies and forming institutional bodies to enhance youth entrepreneurship. / MT2017

Foreigners working locally increasingly find themselves the victims of xenophobic violence, justified by the assertion that they have a lesser right to employment in South Africa than its own citizens. Given that South Africa subscribes to a broadly cosmopolitan set of international agreements supporting a basic human right to work regardless of national or ethnic origin, the implication is that even within a cosmopolitan-like framework it must permissible for citizens to exercise special considerations toward one another, and especially in regard to employment. As demonstrated by Robert Goodin and others, this case is difficult to make if foreign residents are also expected to contribute to the social good which makes citizenship so instrumentally valuable. Given that associativist models for special obligations are problematic when applied to citizens, it is argued that foreigners enjoy the same right to work as any other residents.

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the academic requirements for the degree of Masters in Development Theory and Policy, School of Economics and Business Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, March 2017 / This study explores labour market inequality amongst those with post-secondary education in South Africa. The need to invest in higher education has been emphasised as the gateway to facilitating equal opportunities in the labour market, with the view of bridging inequality in employment and incomes. Nevertheless, South Africa’s labour market remains highly unequal, despite higher rates of enrolment and completion in higher education. The existing body of literature suggests that labour market outcomes amongst those with post-secondary education are not equal, consequently widening the level of inequality within the economy. Using the Quarterly Labour Force Survey 2014 annual dataset a combination of descriptive statistics and econometric tools are employed to investigate employment and earnings outcomes between graduates and diplomates. The findings indicate that graduates are more successful in obtaining employment relative to diplomates even once demographic and geographic characteristics and field of study are controlled for. Moreover, graduates obtain a substantial earnings premium relative to diplomates even when controlling for job characteristics / XL2018

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School, 2016 / The market research industry prides itself on providing accurate and reliable information and solutions to varying business problems. However, the industry has been faced with the challenge of racial transformation at senior decision-making positions of the organisations. The pace of upward mobility of black researchers is slow and this is a threat for the industry because the senior level positions are often tasked with the analysis of research data and formulation of the strategic insights and business solutions to communicate to clients and stakeholders to meet their business needs. Therefore, it is difficult to be confident that the data about the black market does not get lost in translation and interpretation due to cultural nuances that may not be accessed. What is unique about the market research industry is that promotions to senior level positions are based on training on the job and the mastering of relevant skills on the job rather than specific prior training at college or university level. This opened theoretical and practical questions about the individual and organisational qualities that made it difficult for black researchers to progress to senior level positions. A phenomenological research approach was implemented to explore the lived experiences of the black researchers and the organisations, which could explain the slow upward mobility pace. In-depth semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with four CEOs of prominent organisations in the industry and 14 black researchers at various levels in these organisations. These interviews identified the organisational identity espoused by the leadership and the organisational identity lived by the black researchers. Narrative identity research approach and Erikson’s (1956) stage developmental model guided the process of understanding the individual identity of the black researchers at the point of the interview. The results suggest that there are three categories of black researchers in the industry. It is those who are not promoted within a specified timeframe promised by the leadership who leave the organisations, those who are not promoted but stay in the organisations for longer periods than would have been expected and those researchers who are promoted to senior level positions. Each of these categories shows unique individual qualities that potentially shape their experience in the organisations. A framework for understanding the interplay between the various lived experiences and outcomes has been developed. The slow pace of racial transformation at senior levels of the organisations can be traced to the responses of organisational management to change and the types of social exchange relationships between the black researchers and management. Future research may quantify the findings and validate the framework developed in this study to establish generalisability in the industry and in contexts outside the market research industry. A case study research methodology focusing on all the demographics of the organisations could also enrich the framework. / MT 2018