M.A. / The development of ethics management models for university students is a way of encouraging and promoting ethical conduct for students at higher education institutions. The development and promotion of such models at universities will enhance the sound and proper management of higher education institutions. It will also assist in their effective and efficient administration and management. These student ethics management models provide guidelines that enhance ethical conduct at such institutions. It is a crucial stage or part of primary, secondary and higher education, as well as for the social, family and work environment in terms of character development. This chapter outlines the research design that will provide the background and rationale for the problem statement, in relation to the terms of reference for this study. It will include the research problem, background and rationale of the study and the research question, as well as the research objectives, the research methodology and the data collection methods. It will also outline the definitions of terms.

M.Ed. (Education) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ed. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Comm. / The study assessed the conformance of the companies listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange Social Responsibility Index to the best practices regarding the composition of the board and its committees. The board of directors is regarded as an effective mechanism in solving the agency problem that is caused by the separation of control and ownership. The composition of the board and its committees, particularly the strong presence of independent non-executive directors, enable the board to effectively monitor the actions of executive management which minimise the occurrence of fraud and corporate failures. Companies that subscribe to good corporate governance practices which includes the composition of the board and its committees are regarded highly by investors. The study assessed the extent to which the companies listed on the JSE SRI index conformed to the corporate governance best practices. The sample consists of the constituents of the JSE SRI Index. The study found that not all companies are conformed to the corporate governance best practices regarding the composition of the board and its committees.

M.Cur. (Professional Nursing Science) / Career planning of learner nurses, has been identified as an important tool to improve the retention of nurses in the health care system (Department of Health, 2008:12). First year learner nurses leave the nursing profession because they experience dissatisfaction in nursing as the career of choice. Miller and Marvin [ca 2008] state that career planning leads to greater ownership of work roles, taking initiative, and ongoing professional development. People involved in career planning are better collaborators, more likely to get along with their co-workers and supervisors, and more likely stay in and add value to the organization. Little has been done to improve career orientation of nurses, which has been identified as an important tool to improve nursing in the health care system (Department of Health, 2008:12). After six months of training, first year learner nurses starts to leave the nursing profession because they experience dissatisfaction in nursing as the career of choice. This problem is assigned to a lack of career orientation at nursing training colleges. It was unclear how first year learner nurses experience nursing as a career of choice, after having been exposed to the academic environment and nursing practice setting for six months in nursing. The central statement of the study was that learner nurses after entering nursing as a career of choice could be orientated on career planning that requires a career plan with guidelines or actions to be followed during their first year of nursing. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the lived experiences of first year learner nurses on nursing as a career of choice with the intention of describing guidelines on career planning for learner nurses at a nursing college in the Johannesburg Region. Purposive sampling was used and all (52) first year learner nurses who have been in training for more than six months at a nursing college were selected as a target population. .Interviewing by means of narrative story writing, in-depth individual unstructured questioning of the participants, focus group interviews was conducted until saturation of data was achieved.

D.Phil. / The restructuring of the South African Higher Education landscape in postapartheid era has been the scene of vast organisational change as numerous mergers between Higher Education Institutions have typified this transformation. One such a merger is the merger between the Technikon Witwatersrand, the Rand Afrikaans University and two campuses of Vista University (namely the East Rand and Soweto Campuses) into the University of Johannesburg. Announced on 31 May 2002 and intended to be effective as of 1 January 2005, this merger represents the birth of the largest residential university in South Africa and presents the opportunity of studying the effects of all-encompassing change on employees first hand. In terms of organisational change – with mergers representing a specific type of organisational change – it is apparent that the effect of change on staff members is not only a widely overlooked matter in practice, but also in organisational change literature (and in mergers and acquisitions literature in particular). This study explores the merger experiences of academic staff at the University of Johannesburg and also examines the role leadership has played in these experiences. Using an Interpretive, case study design, 40 academic staff members were interviewed. These research subjects were selected on a purposive basis from all faculties across all campuses. Using the Strauss and Corbin application of Grounded Theory, the collected data was analysed to construct the reality of academic staffs’ merger experiences and perceptions of the merger at the University of Johannesburg. In terms of the University of Johannesburg, findings indicate that institutional predisposition is a major contributor to shaping research subjects’ initial attitude toward the pending merger. Furthermore, the interim phase that the University found itself in directly after merger the date, was a cause of great discontent amongst academic staff and was seen as the greatest debilitating factor to the successful roll-out of the merger. The study indicates that academic staff relay their experiences and perceptions of the merger in three discernable time frames, or perspectives, each with its own unique dynamic. Collectively, these three perspectives constitute the Reflective Experience of Mergers (REM) theory, which examines how the merger experiences of academic staff shape their perceptions of and attitudes toward the merger over time. The REM-theory reiterates the temporal nature of change; it is a phenomenon that evolves over time in discernable stages. Furthermore the REM-theory also underscores the effect change has on the emotional and psychological well being of individuals over time. The REM-theory also highlights the important role leadership plays in a merger as, in the case of the University of Johannesburg, research subjects tended to be far more critical of deficiencies in leadership as opposed to deficiencies in management.

Magister Commercii - MCom / Since the discovery of herding behaviour in financial markets in the 1990s, it has become an area of interest for many investors, practitioners and scholars. Herding behaviour occurs when investors and market participants trade in the same direction during the same time period, as a result of the influence of other investors. Studies on herding behaviour have been undertaken in both the developed and developing economies and majority of these studies have confirmed the existence of herding behaviour in the stock markets. Despite its tremendous growth, the South African financial markets are not immune to such market anomaly. Herding behaviour on the JSE was first investigated in 2002 focusing in the unit trust industry on the South African stock market. Motivated by this, this study assessed the presence of herding behaviour using the Johannesburg Securities Exchange tradable sector indices. Four indices were employed, namely Financials, Industrials and Resources and were benchmarked against the JSE All Share Index for the period from January 2007 to December 2017. The industrials index ((FINI15) constitutes of 25 largest industrial stocks by market capitalization, the financials index (FINI15) comprises of 15 largest financial stocks by market capitalization, the resources index (RESI10) which represents 10 largest resources stocks by market capitalization and lastly the FTSE/JSE All Share Index defined as a market capitalization-weighted index which is made up of 150 JSE listed companies and is the largest index in terms of size and overall value JSE. The FTSE/JSE All Share Index was used as a benchmark for investors to check how volatile an investment is. The South African economy experienced the effects of the 2008 global financial crisis from 01 July 2007 to 31 August 2009. This study split the examination period into three categories namely before the global financial crises which was the period starting from 1 January 2007 to 30 June 2007, then the period during the global financial crisis which was from 1 July 2007 to 31 August 2009 and lastly the period after the global financial crises which was from 1 September 2009 to 31 December 2017. Apart from the diversity of the indices, the length of the examination period also had a significant influence towards the magnitude of herding behaviour on the JSE.

The purpose of this study was to establish whether co-branding could be adopted as a strategy for leveraging the favourable perceptions and attitudes of the strong constituent brand onto the co-brand, and, onto the weaker constituent brand. The study used a quantitative research methodology where the data is founded on the results from 369 surveys conducted in Johannesburg. The data was analysed using the independent t-test to accept or reject the proposed hypothesis. Using the Trust Based Commitment Model, the findings of this study show that customers’ commitment to the brand influences them to engage in more loyalty behaviours than those customers in mere functional or personal relationships with the brand. The implication of the results in this study is that the consumer’s commitment to the brand leads them to exhibit loyalty behaviours towards the brand, with the adoption of co-branded products being a possible outcome. As the study is limited to the impact of leveraging a strong sporting brand amongst the adult black male consumer segment in Johannesburg, the study cannot be used to make any inferences on the viability of adopting co-branding to leverage the strength of sporting brands amongst other consumer segments in South Africa.

A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science in Development Planning in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg / The failure of government to provide social services to the people has become an opportunity for the NGOs. NGOs entrance into the development arena was not to take over the work of the government but to assist the government in improving the living condition of the people. NGOs were able to develop various development programmes at grassroots level. These programmes were developed to empower the people and provide them with skills that will enable them gain employment or become self-reliant or entrepreneurial. Irrespective of the successes and failures of NGOs programme in the development arena, they are still faced with challenges of skills scarcity and unemployment. This report is interrogating the role NGOs play in Johannesburg and Alexandra in particular. This is in the context of technical skills development. It assesses the impact of NGO’s on the youth in Alexandra. Various methods are used in the gathering of data ─ these include written materials, case study, structured and semi-structured Interviews, in-depth Interviews, purposive sampling, focus groups, and sampling methods. We also look at various areas such as, youth attitude towards skills development, and problems faced by the NGOs in the study area. These include lack of NGO autonomy; difficulty of access; lack of finance and the rate of crime. In the end the research demonstrates that the programmes implemented by the NGOs have not had any significant impact.

M.A. University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities (Forced Migration Studies), 2012 / Background: This research investigates the psychosocial needs of cross-border unaccompanied minors (UAMs) within urban Johannesburg, a city that attracts nearly half of all the cross-border migrant population in South Africa (Landau and Gindrey, 2008). The focus of the research is dual; firstly, it explores what the prime psychosocial needs of UAMs are by eliciting them from the UAMs themselves via participatory research workshops. South Africa, by law, has an obligation to all UAMs to provide for them. By ascertaining these needs, this study reveals discrepancies between existing psychosocial programmes designed and provided by the government or service providers and the needs of the UAM. Secondly, the research examines how UAMs are trying to satisfy their psychosocial needs. Identifying the psychosocial needs of UAMs and their coping mechanisms gives us a better understanding of the nature of the issues UAMs face, as well as their subjective perception of and priority they place on those issues. This can consequently contribute (a) to providing constructive suggestions on designing psychosocial programmes by governmental, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), and non-profit organisations (NPOs) and (b) valuable input to further research on livelihood-seeking UAMs, a group that is currently under-represented in cross-border UAM studies, unlike asylum seeking or refugee UAMs. Aims: The aim of this study is to understand the psychosocial needs of UAMs and how they are meeting those needs in Johannesburg. This will provide insights on the nature of the psychosocial needs of UAMs that will ultimately be helpful both to government agencies as well as NGOs and NPOs responsible for programme planning, legislation, and execution of policies regarding cross-border UAMs. Finally, the study aims to draw attention to livelihood-seeking UAMs and to encourage further research on this particular group of UAMs. Therefore my research question is: what are the psychosocial needs of cross-border UAMs in Johannesburg? Methods: In this study, a qualitative research approach is used with the aim of uncovering the psychosocial needs of cross-border UAMs. This was done by using participatory action research and a visual methodology. The data was elicited via two participatory workshops, the first with 36 cross-border minors participants and the second with 12 cross-border UAM participants. This was followed by a series of group discussions after the workshops. Afterwards, a comparison between the participants’ visual inputs with their narratives and responses allowed me to extrapolate their psychosocial needs and ways in which they meet those needs. Adding to the study, 11 semi-structured interviews were conducted with service providers from various organisations, both non-governmental and governmental. Finally, the data was compiled from both the cross-border UAM s and service providers to answer the research question and objectives. Conclusion: This research identifies and discusses the following psychosocial needs of crossborder UAMs: family, a care-giver, documentation, fitting-in with their South African peers, security, schooling, better life quality (economic and social advancement), counselling, and playing. The four themes in bold text represent psychosocial needs, which continue to be unmet or unfulfilled by service providers current responses. Although the basic (ontological) needs of cross-border UAMs seem to be met (i.e., food, housing, clothing), psychosocial needs - those needed for emotional well-being - are undermined because service providers do not see them as fundamental as basic needs. One conclusion from my study is that NGOs can better cater to UAMs’ psychosocial needs due to their flexible infrastructure that can accommodate personalisation and prompt redesigning of programmes offered, in contradistinction to the recalcitrant governmental infrastructure. Currently service providers, such as governmental departments, NGOs and NPOs use the law (such as the Children’s Act (2008)), regulations or psychosocial programmes to aid cross-border UAMs, but these laws and programmes are manufactured for either homogenous groups or very specific groups such as refugees and asylum seekers. However, there are persisting gaps in the services available. These gaps are due to the varied nature of psychosocial needs that each ‘child’ has to meet, which is also contingent on their own background and personality. Under the Children’s Act (2008), minors are categorised as a homogeneous group and therefore individual needs are overlooked. Organisations both governmental and non-governmental have tried to incorporate child friendly practices, although in most of the interviews it was mentioned that policy, such as the Children’s Act (2008), is not necessarily ‘child’ or ‘family’ friendly. Overall this research indicates that NGOs and NPOs are well-equipped to cater to the psychosocial needs of UAMs, such as school, family reunification and basic needs. Certain psychosocial needs, however, such as ‘fitting-in’, are still unmet. In these cases, UAMs resort to catering to their own needs (lke living on the street in selfappointed families), relying on service providers for emotional support and/or basic needs.