The City of Cape Town (CoCT) experienced three years of drought, which led to the implementation of several water demand management (WDM) strategies by the management of the University of Cape Town (UCT) to facilitate efficient water-saving behaviours among water users. The goal of the WDM strategies was to reduce the rate of water consumption by up to 50% of the regular use. This study implemented a Persuasive Information Campaign (PIC) in four UCT student residences selected on the criteria that they had a smart meter. This study aimed to examine if a PIC disseminated through Short Messaging Service (SMS), email and both SMS and email could increase students' intention to save water. The use of the different channels was to test the effectiveness of each on students' intention to save water. The extended Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was used as a theoretical model to guide the study in achieving its aim. The main constructs of the theory are attitude (a positive or negative evaluation of the benefits of performing a behaviour), social norms (an individual's social perception of performing a behaviour), perceived behavioural control (how easy or difficult performing a behaviour is), and intention to save water (how hard students are willing to try and how much effort they are planning to exert to save water). The additional constructs added to the theory were PIC (a persuasive message advocating for less water consumption by students), knowledge about the need for water-saving (students' perception about water-saving), and exposure to information about water crisis (sources and channels of information about water crisis). A total of 145 questionnaire responses were collected and analysed using the Partial Least Square Path Modelling (plspm) package in R software. The factor loading results from the data analysis showed that students who received the PIC by both SMS and email channel were the most persuaded to increase their intention to save water. While the students who received the PIC through SMS only was the next persuaded. The students who were least persuaded by the PIC were the ones who received the PIC by email only. The overall analysis revealed three main predictors of student's intention to save water, and these include students' knowledge about the need for water-saving (strong positive effect), attitude towards water-saving (strong positive effect), and perceived behavioural control vii (marginal positive effect). These results suggest that the more positive students' attitudes are towards water-saving, and the more knowledgeable they are about water-saving, the higher their intention to save water will be. Although PIC was not among the predictors of students' intention to save water, it had a strong positive effect on students' attitude towards water-saving. This effect also suggests that PIC is important in achieving attitudinal change among students. This study is the first study conducted using PIC as a new construct added to TPB and in the context of a higher institution of education.

Software development processes have been associated with severe conflicts between the development and operations teams. The problems further worsened by the occasional performance of activities such as planning, testing, integration, and releases. Many developing software development concepts reveal attempts to address these challenges. For instance, continuous integration is a practice that has emerged to reduce disconnects between development and IT operational deployments. In a comparable thread, the current emphasis on DevOps acknowledges that the integration between software development and its operational deployment needs to be a continuous whole. Problems involving the integration of software development and operations require positive synergy within DevOps teams. Team synergy brings about team effectiveness and performance as well as creating opportunities for innovation. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that influence team synergy between the development and operations teams in a DevOps environment. The researcher conducted a case study at one of South Africa's leading information and communication technology services providers. Thirteen participants were interviewed to provide insight into the research questions. Interviews were conducted at the premises of the participating organization in Cape Town. The participants in the study preferred pseudonyms instead of their actual names to preserve anonymity. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. During the analysis of the transcribed data, themes and categories were identified. The themes and categories that emerged from the data sources were aligned to the theoretical framework. The findings from this study describe enabling and inhibiting factors that influence the synergy between development and operations teams in a DevOps environment. Recognizing that DevOps teams face several challenges, the factors identified in this study provide insights into how organizations can influence the build and motivate their DevOps teams to achieve team synergy. The contribution to DevOps research is the application of a theoretical framework that suggests the importance of team social capital dimensions in the formation of team synergy. Based on its findings, this study recommends that further investigation and improvement on strategies to mitigate the factors that inhibit the dimensions of team social capital and prevent team synergy in a DevOps environment. The study also recommends a more detailed and practical demonstration to validate the value of the theoretical framework and continue to improve or extend it. This study revealed that DevOps teams operate in a complex and dynamic environment with many stakeholders and complex technical infrastructure. Based on this outcome, the study also suggests that future studies can take a different approach to create a different perspective on the synergy between DevOps teams by focusing on the behavior of the actors and complex problematic situations involving social activities.

Includes bibliographical references. / This study is about the use of information by people work roles. Although the use of information is a key issue in information systems theory and practice, it has received little attention from information systems researchers. Information systems research has been biased towards technology and its use. Our understanding of the use of information by people in work roles to guide the development of information svstems and information management is limited. The present study addresses this imbalance investigating the use of information by planners when they grapple with environmental issues in the development process. The study takes a behavioural perspective to develop a Grounded Theory of the use of information for environmental planning. The research emphasises the use of a qualitative research to understand the use information in relation to tasks and activities the planners perform in projects. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in the workplace environment to collect data on the respondents have used information in projects that they had done before. Forty-four subjects were selected from five councils in Botswana. The evidence was corroborated by interviewing ten people outside council who were identified with help of the respondents in the councils. The data was analysed through a coding process in accordance the Grounded Theory techniques. The coding took place in multiple iterations, experts confirmed the results, and the respondents validated theory. The study demonstrates that the use of information by people in work roles can be explored empirically from a behavioural perspective using a qualitative approach – in particular, Grounded Theory. The study identified the processes, contexts, and behaviours relating to the use information. The main finding is the Grounded Theory of the use information for environmental planning. The theory has seven main categories - dynamic project information context, motivators, experiential knowledge, informational power, strategy for participation and pattern of information use. The pattern of information use is the core category. The dynamic project information context, motivators, experiential knowledge and role context influence the pattern of information use in a variety of ways. The pattern of information use generates the informational power base of the planners. The interpretation of the theory shows that the planners exercise their informational power through the strategy for participation in which they facilitate the environmental planning process for the production of environmental plans. The study shows that power relations endemic in environmental planning are essential determinants of the kind of information behaviour that planners exhibit. The findings provide a new way of thinking about developing information systems and information management for planners. It is suggested that when developing information systems for planners the developers should focus on systems functions that facilitate and enhance information behaviours that are induced by the power relations experienced by the planners.

Includes bibliographical references. / PMOs are complex organisational-specific entities. Companies are increasingly establishing PMOs in search of more favourable outcomes for their projects. However, these PMO organisational structures are rarely found to survive and are often disbanded or transformed every few years. The PMOs implemented in the public sector are faced with the task of justifying their value to business over time. These PMOs function in particularly stressful environments as they run complex projects that are driven by politics. The public sector provides a unique context in that organisational transformation is likely to occur every few years with the election of a new political cabinet. The notion of a PMO is a relatively new phenomenon with limited research available at present. There are few practical and theoretical guidelines identified in the research literature. The public sector environment has received even lesser research despite offering a unique organisational structure that commonly undertakes large, complex and political-focussed projects. The purpose of this study is to seek a better understanding of the contribution made to public sector PMO value in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. An understanding of the efficiency and effectiveness factors involved can aid managers in identifying where to focus their efforts to ensure value-add of new services and products are achieved in the public sector. A mixed method research approach was employed to investigate the public sector PMO organisational environment case study, using interviews and a complementary survey. A model of the factors that contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of a PMO was derived from the research literature. This was followed by an in-depth case study of a public sector PMO. The factors relevant to the case study were captured using interviews and then analysed using thematic analysis. The results were then compared to the model. The study revealed that most of the public sectors PMOs (77%) was found to be structured as virtual PMO offices with varying levels of capacity and authority. The results of the survey found that most of the PMOs focus in terms of efficiency was on productivity (60%), planning (20%), and profit (20%). In terms of effectiveness, the foci were mainly on responsiveness (40%) and flexibility, adaption and innovation (60%). It was concluded that project management maturity could be significantly improved by focussing on the areas that were lacking for these PMOs, i.e. benchmarking, hiring external consultants with PM knowledge and linking with external consultants.

The purpose of this dissertation was to describe the introduction of an online course to replace the current classroom-based staff training. The long term objective was to measure the efficacy, effectiveness and efficiency of the online training, and to establish whether a transfer of knowledge back to the workplace had occurred. This dissertation defines the relevant and persisting organisational concern that the previous training on offer was not efficient and not always effective either. The in depth literature review of e-learning implementations, success factors and barriers to adoption is followed by the discussion of the research philosophy and objectives. Action Design Research (ADR), a combination of Action Research and Design Research, was the research methodology chosen as it was deemed a good fit to address an actual problematic situation, in an organisational setting, by building an innovative IT artefact. This artefact addressed not only organisational and practitioner concerns, but also produced learning and academic theory. The implementation of the alpha and beta versions of the online course is then described. The results of the implementation and the link to both the ADR principles and the e-learning literature are discussed in detail. This research sought to address the core of the IS discipline by bringing an artefact into existence that would solve a need in the real world, and at the same time respond to calls from practitioners to provide practical solutions. The result was a tailor-made, in-house training course which facilitated the empowerment of the trainees whilst enhancing their knowledge and skills regarding the finance reporting system. This dissertation may be of interest to practitioners or organisations contemplating implementing online training courses, particular those seeking to further their knowledge regarding the efficacy and sustainability of computer-based learning in the workplace. Researchers may be interested in the use of ADR as an effective methodology. Future research could be undertaken concerning interaction in the organisational training environment, such as whether a “Q&A” type of interactive contact is more appropriate in the workplace than a discussion board, as well as the role job responsibility plays in both motivation and successful online training outcomes.

Today's organisations are characterised by high competition and a volatile business environment which continues to be a predicament for agile software development managers and practitioners. Software development frameworks that are designed to help organisations respond to these environments include a group of flexible methodologies known as Agile Software Development. However, reliance on mainly software techniques and tools might not be sufficient, hence the need to consider the capabilities of individual team members, particularly those of Business Analysts. Given that agile methodologies do not explicitly advocate the relevance of Business Analyst role, literature reveals ongoing debates regarding the role of Business Analysts in Agile Software Development teams. This can be attributed, in part, to a knowledge gap concerning the manner in which Business Analysts contribute to overall team capabilities, particularly those which are essential in enabling teams to respond to environmental changes. The purpose of this study was to address this gap by investigating how Business Analysts contribute to the Dynamic Capabilities of Agile Software Development teams. Adopting a deductive approach, this study adapted and applied a research model based on the Dynamic Capabilities theory to explore the value of business analysts in agile teams. This study is interpretive and was executed using a qualitative, single case-study research strategy directed at an Agile Software Development team in the financial services industry. Data was collected through face-to-face, semi-structured interviews; a group interview; nonparticipant observation; documentation; and physical artefacts. The thematic analysis technique was used to analyse the data. Findings reveal that there are several factors that allow Business Analysts to contribute to the Dynamic Capabilities of Agile Software Development teams which include: sharing business operations tacit knowledge; promptly sharing insights about requirement changes and assisting team members in completing tasks; as well as actively participating in sprint planning meetings. The findings also showed that Business Analysts experience difficulty in contributing to Dynamic Capabilities when they lack system, industry, and business rules knowledge. This study provides a useful contribution in two ways. Firstly, it proposes a model that can be applied by researchers to help explore ways in which individuals influence team dynamic capabilities. Secondly, this contribution is important for practitioners as it highlights how the knowledge, skills, and behaviours of Business Analysts may support or hinder their ability to contribute to the Dynamic Capabilities of Agile Software Development teams. This study can be used to inform the design of capacity development programmes for individual team members and Business Analysts, and thus help managers to curate teams which will best promote Dynamic Capabilities. Although substantial data was collected, this research was limited, to some extent, by restricted access to classified and confidential documents. It is proposed that future researchers consider applying a multiple case-study strategy to allow for comparative analysis between teams that operate in different contexts.

Mobile bully-victim behaviour is one cyber aggression that is escalating worldwide. Bully-victims are people who bully others but are also victimised by peers. The behaviour of bully-victims therefore swings between that of pure bullies and pure victims, making it difficult to identify and prevent. Prevention measures require the involvement of a number of stakeholders, including communities. However, there has been a lack of whole-community participation in the fight against cyberbullying and the roles of stakeholders are often unclear. We expect the law enforcement in particular, the police, to play a key role in curbing all forms of bullying. This is a challenging task in South Africa as these law enforcement agents often lack the skills and appropriate legislation to address particularly cyber-related bullying. Literature shows that law enforcement agents need to advance their technological skills and also be equipped with digital interventions if they are to diagnose and prevent mobile bully-victim behaviour effectively. This is particularly important in South Africa, where the rate of crime remains one of the highest in the world. The aim of this study was to develop a mobile application that can aid law enforcement in diagnosing and preventing mobile bully-victim behaviour in high schools. As part of requirements to the application development, it identified the impediments to the law enforcement effectiveness in combating mobile bully-victim behaviour. Extensive literature review on the factors influencing mobile bullying and mobile bully-victim behaviour was conducted and an integrative framework for understanding this behaviour and its prevention was developed. In so doing, the dominant behavioural theories were consulted, including the social-ecological theory, social learning theory, social information processing theories, and the theory of planned behaviour, as well as the general strain theory, and the role theory. The conceptual framework developed in this study extended and tailored the “Cyberbullying Continuum of Harm”, enabling inclusive and moderated diagnosis of bullying categories and severity assessment. That is, instead of focusing on mobile bully-victims only, bullies, victims, and those uninvolved were also identified. Also the physical moderation of the identification process by the police helped to minimise dishonest reporting. This framework informed the design, development and evaluation of a mobile application for the law enforcement agents. The Design Science Research (DSR) methodology within pragmatic paradigm and literature guided the development of the mobile application named mobile bullyvictims response system (M-BRS) and its evaluation for utility. The M-BRS features included functions to enable anonymous reporting and confidential assessments of mobile bully-victims effects in school classrooms. Findings from this study confirmed the utility of the M-BRS to identify learners' involvement in mobile bully-victims behaviour through peer nomination and self-nomination. This study also showed that use of the M-BRS has enabled empowerment of marginalised learners, and mitigation of learners' fear to report, providing them with control over mobile bully-victim reporting. In addition, learners using the M-BRS were inclined to report perpetrators through a safe (anonymous and confidential) reporting platform. With the M-BRS, it was much easier to identify categories of bullies, i.e. mobile bully-victims, bullies, victims, and uninvolved. The practical contributions of this study were skills enhancements in reducing the mobile bully-victims behaviour. These included improvement of the police's technical skills to safely identify mobile bully-victims and their characterisation as propagators and retaliators that enabled targeted interventions. This was particularly helpful in response to courts' reluctance to prosecute teenagers for cyberbullying and the South African lack of legislation thereon so that the police are enabled to restoratively address this behaviour in schools. Also, the identification information was helpful to strengthen evidence for reported cases, which was remarkable because sometimes perpetrators cannot be found due to their concealed online identities. Furthermore, this study made possible the surveillance of mobile bully-victims through the M-BRS, which provided the police some control to reducing the mobile bully-victim behaviour. This study provided a practical way for implementing targeted prevention and interventions programmes using relevant resources towards a most efficient solution for mobile bully-victims problem. Since there are not many mobile-based interventions for mobile bully-victim behaviour, this study provided a way in which artefacts' development could be informed by theory, as a new, innovative and practical contribution in research. In so doing, this study contributed to technology applications' ability to modify desired behaviour.

This study investigated the factors that influence compliance with existing legislation and standards among digital financial services (DFS) agents in Kenya. DFS in Kenya serve 60% of the adult population with at least 16 million subscribers. Much of these are attributable to the mobile money service Mpesa which accounts for the largest DFS market share. The number of DFS agents serving the market has grown to over five times the number of bank branches and ATMs in the country. With this growth in DFS, there have been many operational challenges among agents and the legislation has been at nascent. The aim of the study was to understand agent operational factors and how they influence compliance. Therefore, the main research question that guided the study was “How do operational factors affect compliance of DFS agents with agency banking legislation and standards in Kenya?” Additionally, the study investigated the compliance status among agents and identifiable groupings by compliance behaviour. Previous studies on DFS agents have identified persistent operational challenges but there has been no inquiry on how existing legislation addresses these challenges and whether their persistence is due to non-compliance. To investigate compliance, first, Configuration Theory (CT) was used to conceptualise DFS agents as organisations, classifying their operations under CT's principles of structure, strategy and environment. Subsequently, a conceptual model was developed with structure, strategy and environment as independent variables and compliance as the dependent variable. The first three propositions derived stated that structure, strategy and environment have an influence on compliance. The fourth proposition posed was that strategy has a greater influence on compliance than structure and environment. Quantitative paper-based questionnaires were used to collect cross-sectional data from 450 DFS agents in Kenya. A Partial Least Squares approach to Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was applied to analyse the data on Smart PLS3. All four propositions were confirmed. Structure, strategy and environment had highly significant effects on compliance and strategy had the strongest effect on compliance. The findings suggest that Strategy, which was measured using training and technology utilization questionnaire items plays the biggest role in an agent's operations and compliance. Training equips agents with skills to manage liquidity, offer quality customer service, perform Know-Your-Customer (KYC), CustomerDue-Diligence (CDD) and suspicious transaction reporting (STR) procedures to assist with fraud detection and anti-money-laundering (AML) by identifying counterfeit customer identification documents, cash, and suspicious behaviour. Technologies such as CCTV cameras, counterfeit cash detectors and cash counting machines not only enhance efficiency but support the enforcement of the fraud and AML procedures. A two-step cluster analysis was performed to classify agents by compliance behaviour. Two distinct clusters emerged. The cluster where majority of agents fell exhibited better training and awareness of existing legislation, higher education levels and financial resources and was compliant with most of the questionnaire items measured. The second cluster with fewer agents was uncompliant on most questionnaire items measured and was characterised by lower education levels, financial resources and training levels. There were commonalities in both clusters which were relatively low scores on legislation awareness, and low compliance scores on liquidity and possession of DFS agent operational manuals. These findings suggest that an agent with a good alignment of financial and human resources (structure), good training and technology (strategy) and well informed about existing legislation (environment) would be compliant and is likely to experience less operational challenges. The findings also provide insights on what areas agents can take initiative for their own development, the most important being liquidity management, technology optimization and educating themselves on what legislations apply to them, and their compliance roles and responsibilities. Lastly, the study provides regulators with exploratory findings on the state of compliance among DFS agents in Kenya, indicating which areas agents are having most difficulty with. Banks and MNOs must recognize the crucial role of training and tailor programs to be responsive to all agent's operational and legislative areas.

Information security threats are continually growing as new technologies emerge. Literature confirms that the human factor is an important issue, as cyber threats and exploitation of vulnerabilities continue to proliferate due to human error. There are significant risks associated with this, such as the organisation's reputational damage and associated costs, to name a few. Information Security Awareness (ISA) programs have proven to be one of the best methods to reduce human linked security vulnerabilities and misbehaviour, which also reduces risks. The purpose of this research is twofold. First, it is to identify and explain the value of aligning ISA programs with user-preferred learning styles and delivery methods. Second, to indicate how aligning ISA programs with preferred learning styles and delivery methods influences security posture. Using the Knowledge, Attitude, and Behaviour (KAB) model as a theoretical lens, the study depicts how information security posture can be improved through the betterment of security knowledge, attitude, and behaviour. Additionally, the aligned learning styles and delivery methods' construct was added to the KAB model to investigate the research questions. The Human Aspect of Information Systems Questionnaire (HAIS-Q) was used to measure ISA levels of organisational employees in South Africa. The chosen parts of these HAIS-Q focused on password management, email and internet use. The ISA scores are essential for this research as they indicate the current ISA levels. This result can be used to improve information security posture. The Visual, Aural, Read/Write, and Kinaesthetic (VARK) inventory model was used to better understand the provided and preferred learning styles. Additionally, ISA programs focused on text-based, video-based, and game-based delivery methods commonly used and applied in prior academic research. Using a survey methodology, the study recruited 322 South African organisational employees to complete an online questionnaire. The questionnaire contained a subset of HAIS-Q, the VARK inventory model, delivery methods, and demographic questions. Bivariate Pearson correlation tests in conjunction with the ISA scores indicated that userpreferred learning styles achieve greater ISA. The results also showed that video-based delivery methods are the most preferred but does not yield the highest ISA scores. The highest ISA scores are achieved from a mixture of delivery methods. The study proposes user aligned learning styles and preferred delivery methods to positively influence the knowledge, attitude, and behaviour leading to improved cybersecurity resilience. As a result, this leads to self-reported and risk-averse behaviour, as end-users' self-efficacy has improved.

Although this is not a new research phenomenon, the literature has often associated the digital divide (second order or otherwise) with sociodemographic, sociocultural and socioeconomical factors as reasons for the digital divide. However, there is little presence in the literature into the underlying structures (physical or abstract arrangement) leading to the divide. This means that the underlying structures leading to this problem have so far been ignored and require scholarly attention. This study, therefore, identifies and explains the structures leading to the second order digital divide, a problem relating to the unequal use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) which is more prevalent in the higher education institutions (HEIs) of developing countries. Before the structures that lead to the second order digital divide could be explained the interlocking dynamics of ICT adoption needed to be identified. Structuration Theory was employed as a sensitising tool for collecting, analysing, and interpreting qualitative data for this interpretivist research. Novel qualitative data were collected from a purposive sample drawn from a single HEI of Zimbabwe, a developing country of high literacy. Directed content analysis generated insightful explanations of the structures leading to the second order digital divide at the HEI case. Preliminary analysis based on a deductive logic approach identified signification, domination, and legitimation as some of the structures leading to the second order digital divide at the HEI case. Further analysis based on an inductive logic approach revealed additional belief, institutional and governance structures which manifested from the interlocking dynamics of ICT adoption, involving resources, leadership, adoption behaviours and empowerment. These findings contributed to practice by explaining the underlying structures of the second order digital divide, for the benefit of ICT4D researchers, and by suggesting interventions to HEI policy-makers for reducing the second order digital divide. The results also make an iv explanatory contribution to theory by presenting a model of the interlocking dynamics of ICT adoption for theorising about the complex second order digital divide.