Thesis (Ph. D.)--Boston University, 1992. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 225-229).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2002. / Zhi dao jiao shou: Lü dale 880-04 Includes bibliographical references.

Reviewing literature of product diversification in the large emerging economy China, this paper finds that prior studies related to the effect of product diversification on firm performance (PD-P, hereafter) in China have not yet paid sufficient attention to two important aspects. First, just as national institutions among countries are heterogeneous, sub-national institutions in China also vary greatly. Assuming homogeneous sub-national institutions in the large emerging economy China is at odds with reality. Studying whether PD-P in China will be contingent on sub-national institutional development will help to shed lights on PD-P in China and other emerging economies. Second, in China, state ownership is an important institutional context for individual firms. Prior research has not yet investigated state ownership of individual firms in studying PD-P in China. It would be of theoretical significance to examine whether state-owned enterprises can better take advantage of sub-national institutional development to improve firm performance than non-state-owned enterprises. Considering variation in sub-national institutions within a large emerging economy, this paper also extends the approach of using an institution-based view of business strategy to shed further lights on PD-P. Reviewing extensive literature of product diversification, this paper finds that there has been lack of consensus on PD-P. An institution-based view of business strategy is useful to reconcile divergent findings on PD-P by considering institutional environments in which firms adopt product diversification. Relatively consistent findings are that product diversification has a positive effect on firm performance in emerging economies and has a negative effect on firm performance in developed economies. This paper goes further to explore the influence of sub-national institutions on PD-P in emerging economies. This paper uses a sample of 37,856 observations of 124 insurance firms in 31 provinces of China over the period from 2005 to 2014. It finds that in China, product diversification of a firm in a region has a positive effect on firm performance in that region, but this positive effect holds true only in regions with a high instead of low level of sub-national institutional development. Furthermore, the positive moderating effect of sub-national institutional development on PD-P is context-specific and stronger for firms with a high level of state ownership.

M.Comm. / The primary purpose of the present study was to identify whether the organisational culture of the Transmission Division of Eskom is aligned to its stated values. In seeking to reach this objective, it was necessary to assess the gap between espoused and practised organisational values. The study also sought to identify the Transmission Division’s organisational culture. A correlation between the stated values and identified organisational culture was calculated and this was used to infer whether the values that the organisation espouses are aligned to the current organisational culture. The study made use a self-administered questionnaire sent via email to all the Transmission Division employees (N=1793) of whom 182 responded. The questionnaire comprised sections covering biographical aspects, organisational values as well as questions on organisational culture. In the questionnaire, biographical aspects were provided by the Transmission Division’s human resources department and those for organisational values were derived from both literature and Eskom’s value statement. Questions on organisational culture were taken from Cameron and Quinn’s (2006) Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI). Data on organisational values was subjected to quantitative analysis whilst data relating to organisational culture was interpreted by following Cameron and Quinn’s (2006) Competing Values Framework (CVF). The present study found that there is a gap between observed and espoused or stated organisational values. By using the Cameron and Quinn (2006) framework of organisational culture, which identifies hierarchy, ‘adhocracy’, market and clan’ as the ‘four distinct organisational culture types, the study found that respondents experience the current Transmission Division’s organisational culture to be predominantly hierarchical. A general inference drawn in this study is that the current hierarchical organisational culture is misaligned to the espoused organisational values of ‘integrity’, ‘customer satisfaction’, ‘innovation’ and ‘excellence’. The study makes recommendations to the Transmission Division about how to address this misalignment and areas that require further investigation are suggested.

The importance of State-owned entities (SOEs) in a developing State has been argued for centuries. SOEs are perceived as the tool that the State can successfully use to implement its developmental agenda. In the Republic of South Africa, SOEs have been used to ensure universal access to electricity, water and logistical infrastructure to support industrial development, as well as basic service delivery. These entities have been expected to fund these initiatives from their own funds, which alleviated the need for commercial SOEs (also known as State-owned companies) to be profitable without continuous financial injections from the RSA government. Generally, commercial SOEs have been performing poorly financially. This research study aims to determine whether political influence might affect the profitability of these commercial SOEs. The poor financial performance plaguing the commercial SOEs hinders their ability to effectively contribute as a collective to the developmental agenda of the State, as espoused in the current strategic plan of the RSA in the form of the National Development Plan (NDP). Due to the poor financial performance and subsequent diversion of financial resources from other national priorities for their bail-out, commercial SOEs have been considered a liability rather than an asset to the RSA. To satisfy the primary and associated research objectives, qualitative primary and secondary research data have been collected. The primary data have been collected by using the semi-structured interview from the CFOs of commercial SOEs from various government departments – given their proximity to the financial performance and the drivers of this performance in commercial SOEs. CFOs are also part of the commercial SOEs senior-executive management of these entities. The general opinion of the participants and the literature review of the research study is that, indeed, political influence has had an adverse effect on the profitability of commercial SOEs, among others, as a consequence of the positioning of SOEs within the governance system of the RSA, the impact of the recruitment process for senior executives and the implications of an unfunded mandate. It is clear that in the RSA, commercial SOEs, and SOEs in general, will continue to play a pivotal role in the implementation of the developmental agendas of the State, as expressed in the NDP. With the RSA government expecting commercial SOEs to fund these activities from their own funds, it is critical that the State should be an enabler rather than a hindrance for commercial SOEs‟ profitability.

D.Phil. / The purpose of the study is to construct and evaluate a measuring instrument that could determine the business impact of enterprise risk management (ERM) processes on State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in South Africa. In respect of ERM, various authors point out that there is little empirical research on the topic and almost no research regarding the evaluation of its effectiveness and value contribution to organisations. In addition, the current measurement tools for assessing the management of risk maturity are based on subjective assessments or comprised of checklists of activities that assess ERM components based on individual opinions. It was against this setting that the literature review focuses on the components and the broader organisational improvement strategies within which ERM is practised. This entails outlining corporate governance and discussing its processes and practices. In particular, the discussion focuses on historical and current practices, corporate scandals and the lessons learned from them, internationally accepted codes, local corporate governance codes, and corporate governance codes applicable to SOEs. The discussion concerning the management of risk concentrates on its fundamental principles, the link with corporate governance, and the broader discipline and practice of ERM. The significance of ERM is further elaborated on by focusing on its approach, the key local and international ERM standards and associated principles, ERM evaluation practices, and current shortcomings identified in the management of risks. In order to meet the empirical objectives of the study, a pragmatic research paradigm, using a mixed methods approach, was chosen. This selection was considered appropriate as the pragmatic paradigm applies all research approaches in understanding a problem. To this extent, a mixed methods research approach was adopted, comprised of the qualitative approaches to sampling, interviews, observations, the review of organisational documents, the Delphi method, construction of the questionnaire items, and development of the instrument. The point of interface between the research approaches occurred at the level of sampling and the analysis of the results collated from the validation of the instrument by applying descriptive and inferential statistical methods.

This research investigates the relationship between employee performance, leadership and emotional intelligence in a South African parastatal. The literature provided discusses the three variables of performance, leadership and emotional intelligence. Information was gathered, using three instruments, from a sample of 160 leaders and 800 raters. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire was used to determine leadership style within the parastatal, while the Emotional Competency Profiler was used to determine the emotional intelligence of the leaders within the parastatal. Employee performance was captured and recorded using the parastatal’s performance appraisal process. Leadership and emotional intelligence were identified as the independent variables and employee performance as the dependent variable. Data obtained from each of the research instruments was then statistically analysed. Through linear regression analysis it was concluded that there is a significant relationship between employee performance and an emotionally intelligent, transactional leader. However, no significant linear relationship was found between employee performance and an emotionally intelligent, transformational leader. Simple correlation analysis showed that there is a relatively weak significant linear relationship between emotional intelligence and transactional leadership. Moreover, it was found that there is a very strong significant linear relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership. This research therefore adds a new dimension to employee performance, leadership and emotional intelligence, since no similar study has been conducted. As this research takes place in the South African context, it contributes to the bank of findings relating to the concepts.

To achieve effectiveness and efficiency in public enterprises, change is needed. Due to the rapid changing global environment and increasing demand for service delivery, continuous change is needed. Changes have been taking place in the Kenyan public sector since 2003. The public enterprises in Kenya, like in most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, have been characterised by slow and bureaucratic processes that retard organisational performance. Employees and managers in these enterprises have been perceived as not performing as they should. Kenyan public enterprises are important to the economy of the country. They provide social services to the Kenyan population and employ about 654 200 people. The latter translated in a wage bill of 84 378 million Kenyan Shillings (Ksh 80 = 1 US dollar). There is therefore a need to investigate ways to improve individual and organisational performance, collectively viewed as organisational effectiveness in this study, in these enterprises. It is generally accepted that leadership and organisational culture play a critical role in managing the effectiveness of enterprises. In this study, leadership style (transactional and transformational), leadership personality (Machiavellianism, narcissism, masculinity, femininity, individualism and collectivism) and organisational culture (entrepreneurial and market-orientation), strategic management, corporate ethics are investigated determinants of organisational effectiveness. A survey approach was used to collect data from 670 senior executives from 134 Kenyan public (state) enterprises. Two hundred and fifty-six (256) useful survey responses from 53 public enterprises were received. Structural equation modelling (SEM) statistical technique was used to test the hypothesised relationships between the above-mentioned determinants and the dependent variables (individual performance intention and organisational performance). The descriptive statistics of the raw data were also analysed to ascertain the managers’ perceptions about these determinants in the public enterprises. The empirical results revealed that transformational leadership exerts a positive influence on both organisational performance and individual performance intention; that self-deceptive narcissism motivates individual performance intent but decreases organisational performance; that an entrepreneurial, market and strategic management orientation positively influences organisational performance; and that strategy implementation positively influences individual performance intent. In view of these findings, the study concludes that it is critical that leadership styles and leadership personalities be taken into account in leadership recruitment and development process in Kenya public enterprises. Kenyan public enterprises will also improve their organisational performance if they implement entrepreneurial, market and strategic management principles.

Thesis (LLM.) -- University of Limpopo, 2017. / Good corporate governance is essentially about effective, responsible leadership. This is characterized by the ethical values of responsibility, accountability, fairness and transparency, which values underpin good corporate governance. After the promulgation of the Kings Code, amendment of the Companies Act and the promulgation of the Public Financial Management Act, it has been shown that most of the leadership and board of directors in state owned entities have not been following the guidelines and principles provided in these legislations and that’s why most of them are in disarray. It is, therefore, the objective of this research to help restore the integrity and confidence in state owned entities and the need to a draw the line between personal interest and that of the company. An appropriate approach will be to conduct training or a workshop, whereby appointed persons can be reminded of how to discharge their rights and duties before they are instated into a particular post.

The interweaving of China's "reform and opening-up" policy of 1978 with globalisation has shifted the landscape of Chinese economic geographies (CEGs). With influential economic, social, and ideological functions, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) vividly illustrate the multiple political economic, geographic, and socio-cultural dimensions of these changes. Regions with concentrations of SOEs have been particularly impacted. This includes North East (NE) China, which historically held the highest proportion of employment in SOEs and has witnessed the closure of many SOEs and regional decline. Explanations of these changes emphasise the structural and institutional mechanisms of reform under globalisation. I argue this extensive literature regards workers as passive factors of production and limits discussions of space and time. Drawing on scholarship on Global Production Networks (GPNs) and Assemblages, I propose a new conceptual framework that positions the everyday life of each worker at the heart of SOE transformation. My central research question is: "how are workers" everyday lives implicated in SOE transformation?" I explore this by re-reading transformation as the coming together of reform under globalisation with the lived experiences, practices, and affective encounters of workers' everyday lives. The novelty of this framework leads me to sketch three general research propositions rather than setting formal hypotheses. I address the research question and demonstrate my framework by using qualitative research methods and building grounded theory. To explore the differentiated ways in which SOEs are transforming, I studied 13 SOEs from three major cities of NE (Harbin, Changchun, and Shenyang). A three-phase research design was deployed. I completed 62 individual and 8 group interviews. To increase the reliability and replicability of the results, I triangulated data by considering in-depth interviews, public policy documents, internet forums, movies and magazines, and on-site field observation. The empirical findings are presented in three chapters which depict, respectively, the lived experiences, practices, and affective encounters of everyday life. First, I explore workers' lived experiences of social relations in the context of reform and their link to specific spatial arrangements. I characterise interdependent social relations and spatial arrangements constitute the socio-spatial formations. The next chapter further explores workers' mobile and immobile practices and the changing meanings of time and space of SOE socio-spatial formation. Third, I describe how encounters and affects give rise to intensity of feelings which reproduces practice and impacts the SOE socio-spatial formation. In a nutshell, understanding SOEs as socio-spatial formations implies that transformation is not "meted out" by a state or abstract market force but an "always already present"process of mutual constitution of lived experiences, practices, and affective encounters in everyday life. Overall, my thesis expands economic geographic knowledge by highlighting the ongoing and processual nature of space and time and, more specifically, by valorising worker agency. I reflect on implications for CEG to combine with cultural and social geographies. I conclude by calling for an ontological shift of focusing on the emergence and contingency of CEGs.