Thesis (MComm (School of Public Management and Planning))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / Knowledge management is a well-founded management approach that has been successfully applied across the corporate sector and holds the same benefits for public sector organisations. Knowledge management is a management philosophy that impacts on various components of an organisation, in particular the organisational processes and the information and communication configurations within the organisation. Knowledge management can significantly advance organisational efficiency. However, it must be ensured that different organisational processes and departments collaborate and that functional silos are eliminated. Knowledge management requires long-term commitment and dedication from all organisational members. Furthermore, there are certain knowledge management enablers in an organisation that need to be developed and that are necessary for the achievement of organisational effectiveness. These enablers are the organisational culture, the human resources, the information technology, organisational structure and the strategy and leadership. As previously mentioned, this management philosophy can be successfully applied in the public sector. Local government organisations, who are largely responsible for service delivery to the public can effectively implement knowledge management practices as a strategic tool to achieve their service delivery and operational goals. The need therefore exists for local governments to take on the role of knowledge-based organisations that prosper on the capabilities of knowledge workers. In order for local governments to deliver services, function well and operate in an environment characterised by transparency and accountability, local governments must have effectual strategies and governance policies in terms of the knowledge present within their organisations.

The purpose of the study was to investigate knowledge practices in Nkangala District Municipality (NDM), situated in the Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. The objective of the study was to discover NDM managers’ level of understanding participation and establish any challenges of knowledge sharing in NDM. This study employed qualitative research method. An interview guide was designed to collect data through in-depth interviews. To determine the number of participants for the interview, stratified and purposive sampling methods were used. The study established that there is little knowledge and understanding of the knowledge sharing concept by NDM managers, hence, it is not formally recognised by the institution. However, managers acknowledged that knowledge sharing could play a huge role in improving service delivery. The study recommends that NDM should consider introducing the knowledge sharing concept, through the establishment of a knowledge sharing section. A culture of knowledge sharing could be developed through the development of knowledge sharing policies, which should be aligned to the Integrated Development Planning (IDP) process of NDM. In addition, the study recommends an upgrade on the existing ICT infrastructure and internet connection, especially in rural municipalities. This will ensure that ICT fully supports knowledge sharing activities. The study suggested that an additional study is conducted to establish knowledge sharing practices among the lower level staff members of NDM. / Information Science / M.A.(Information Science)

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The South African society and economy are characterised by a duality - one is highly developed and able to participate in the global KnowledgeEconomy; the other, largely focused on subsistence with no access to the "infostructure" and opportunities of the Information Age. At the root of this duality is the disparity in skills between the developed and developing sectors of our society. Whileskills development is required in the developingsector along with other measures to address the "digital divide", skills retention through the transfer and sharing of knowledgeis required in the developed sector where various factors are causing a flight of skills from South Africa. These disparate objectives further exacerbate the unequal distribution of skills, knowledge, opportunities, and income and increase the chasm between "the two economies", negating any participation by South Africa in the global Knowledge Economy. Communities of Practice, as a proven and mature knowledge management strategy, is proposed as an appropriate method whereby skills development and knowledge transfer can take place in South African organisations and it is proposed that the National Skills DevelopmentStrategy recognises communities of practice as a core element. Individual and organisational learning in terms of skills development and knowledge transfer as well as the nature, support, structure, and value of communities of practice are conceptualised and described to provide a broad understanding of and illustrate the contribution that that communities could make to South Africa's ability to participate in the KnowledgeEconomyand closing the divide between our "twoeconomies". / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: KENNISGEMEENSKAPPE AS 'N NASIONALE VAARDIGHElDS ONTWIKKELING STRATEGIE Die Suid Afrikaanse samelewing en ekonomie word gekenmerk deur 'n dualiteit - een sektor is hoogs ontwikkel en neem deel aan die globale Kennis Ekonomie; die ander is hoofsaaklik gefokus op oorlewing met geen toegang tot die inligting infrastruktuur van die Inligtings Era nie. Die ongelykheid in vaardighede tussen die ontwikkelde en ontwikkelende gemeenskappe is die kern van die genoemde dualisme. Die ontwikkelende sektor benodig dat die vaardighede van die breë samelewing ontwikkel word ten einde hulle in staat te stel om deel te neem aan die kennis samelewing. Aan die ander kant is daar 'n behoefte by die ontwikkelde sektor om bestaande kennis oor te dra en te deel ten einde die aaneenlopende verlies aan kennis en vaardighede te bekamp. Kennisgemeenskappe as 'n bewese kennisbestuur strategie, word voorgestel as 'n gepaste metode waardeur die ontwikkeling van vaardighede en die oordrag van kennis kan plaasvind binne Suid Afrikaanse organisasies en dit word aanbeveel dat kennisgemeenskappe erken word as 'n kern element van die Nasionale Vaardigheids Ontwikkeling Strategie. Individuele en organisatoriese kennis inname/bestuur in terme van vaardigheidsontwikkeling en kennis oordrag asook die aard, struktuur, ondersteuning en waarde van kennisgemeenskappe word bespreek. Dit word gedoen ten einde 'n breë begrip daar te stel van die aard en inhoud van, en die bydrae wat kennisgemeenskappe kan maak tot Suid Afrika se deelname aan die Kennis Ekonomie te illustreer. Dit word gestel dat kennisgemeenskappe kan bydra om die dispariteit tussen die twee ekonomieë in Suid Afrika aan te spreek.

The South African public service is experiencing a high staff turnover and difficulties to retain staff. These will result in the loss of talented and knowledgeable employees and consequently a loss of institutional memory, and will create a knowledge gap. The purpose of the study was to explore whether talent management and knowledge management are integrated and whether they support staff retention in the South African public service. The qualitative data were collected through document analysis and semi-structured individual interviews with seven senior managers and six middle managers who were selected purposefully. Three main themes and ten sub-themes were identified and discussed. The findings indicated that talent management and knowledge management were applied in an ad hoc manner and that there were no approved policies. However, it was found that performance management formed the basis for talent management and that the current talent management approach failed to retain talented employees. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

Changes and challenges that have occurred in the past two decades have forced a radical shift in the basic foundations of how business is conducted. Internal, as well as external forces have forced organisations to constantly monitor their surrounding environment in order to create an awareness of opportunities and threats to allow them to survive in their competitive environment. Organisations need to gather all the information at their disposal, and turn the raw data into intelligence through a process of analysis and an exercise of human judgement. By utilising the potential offered by information systems in the process of generating intelligence and creating a corporate knowledge base to be used in strategic decision-making will lead to competitive advantage and constant innovation. Strategic Intelligence has information as its foundation. This research proposes that through its ability to absorb sources of information, the synergy of Business Intelligence, Competitive Intelligence, and Knowledge Management combined to form Strategic Intelligence, will allow organisations to incorporate all of their information and intellectual capital into a single database or system which will meet the intelligence requirements of management. The purpose of this study is to identify the current use of Strategic Intelligence in the Long-term Insurance Industry in the South African environment, and through the use of a survey questioned the benefits or problems experienced by executive management who have not yet implemented and used Strategic Intelligence as an input to the Strategic Management process, and identified the perceived value Strategic Intelligence could add in the decision-making process. The research study shows that organisations have not yet fully embraced a model for a cooperative global internal corporate Strategic Intelligence System or Portal that will incorporate all aspects of Strategic Intelligence into a single, easily manageable resource for management’s strategic planning and decision-making process, even though it could enhance their ability to withstand the onslaught of global competitors and expand their business into new markets, protect their local market or identify potential merger or acquisition targets, and increase innovation within the organisations. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management

This research report captures a detailed exposition of an investigation on Knowledge Management (KM) practices in public and private sector entities in three industries (health, education and business loans) of Limpopo province – a proxy of the rural areas of South Africa. The investigation was necessitated by a need to understand KM in organisational context experiencing constraints in terms of resources that enable KM. It was found through an intensive literature review that there were very few empirical studies on KM practices of organisations operating in the rural areas, particularly in Africa. The theoretical framework of the study emanates from the knowledge-based view which has been popularised by the seminal work of Peter Drucker and Nonaka in the early half of the 90s. The knowledge-based view as presented in chapter 2 recognises the strategic role of knowledge in organisations. Its genesis is traced from the theories of classical scholars such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Various empirical studies of entities which have adopted the knowledge-based view are presented in chapter 2 of this report. The researcher observes from an intensive KM literature study that the average modern organisation could be categorised as knowledge-intensive considering that knowledge workers constitute the majority of its workforce. The definitions of a knowledge-based organisation and knowledge workers are presented in the operational definitions of key concepts. Arising from the identified gaps in KM literature as presented towards the end of chapter 2, this study was conducted as a comparative study between public and private sector entities in three research industries focusing on their extent of ICT application and degree of knowledge-oriented social factors for information and knowledge sharing. The investigation was guided by three research objectives as discussed in chapter 1 of this research report. The main purpose of the study was to answer two fundamental research questions as reflected in chapter 1. In answering the two research questions, the researcher identified four research hypotheses in line with the findings established from KM literature. These hypotheses are discussed in chapter 2 of this report.The underlying hypothesised statement guiding the study was to determine whether there were any significant differences in KM implementation between public and private sector entities in the three research industries in terms of four research constructs. These are: application of ICTs for knowledge and information sharing, degree of achievement of knowledge-based outcomes, tacit knowledge acquisition and the degree of knowledge-oriented social factors. Organisational culture, organisational structures, human resource practices and leadership comprised the social factors tested in the study. The research data were collected through a mixed research design approach combining the advantages of a survey instrument and interviews (this is fully reflected in chapter 3 of this research report). The research results (as presented in chapter 4) pointed to some form of significant differences in KM implementation between public and private sector entities in the education and business loans industry, but there were no significant differences in KM implementation between public and private sector entities in the health industry. Arising from the findings of the study, a model for improved KM implementation is presented in chapter 4 (figure 4.16). It was found during the investigation that all the research entities approached KM implicitly through KM related practices. KM related practices were found to be far more entrenched in the health industry (both public and private sector entities), the private sector entities in the education and business loans industries than was the case with the public sector entities in the education and business loans industries. In the entities where KM related practices were found to be entrenched, there were concerted efforts towards improved organisational processes. The study has managed to unravel the importance of KM related practices in laying the foundation for a formalised KM approach. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / D.B.L.

Knowledge management (KM) has been cited as a strategic asset and a source of competitive advantage for organisations. While the issues of KM have been widely discussed by many researchers, there is a paucity of studies pertaining to the role of KM in enhancing organisational performance, especially in the banking sector. The focus of this research was to investigate the role of KM in enhancing organisational performance in selected banks of South Africa. The objective was to find out how knowledge was identified, captured, organised and retained in order to enhance performance of the banks. There is uncertainty about whether the use of KM could partly solve the banks‟ approaches to improving their quality of service to their communities in the modern information environment. Though KM has been implemented in commercial and business environments towards operational advantages and financial gains, KM survival principles and tools might help South African banks improve performance and fulfil their mandate. Knowledge, when properly managed, can significantly enhance an organisation‟s performance. The research design that was used in this study was an embedded case study design. Quantitative data were collected from a sample of middle level managers with the aid of a survey whilst interviews and document analysis were used to collect qualitative data. The findings of this study indicated that KM concepts were not universally understood at selected banks. The findings showed that collaboration between banks and the communities in creating a meaningful and relevant knowledge environment was essential for the survival of organisations. The banking industry practices were not deliberately based on KM but the study established that they were amenable to KM practices. The recommendation was to perform a knowledge inventory which could help develop appropriate institution-wide policies and practices for proper and well-organised methods of integrating work processes, collaborating and sharing (including the efficient use of knowledge technology platforms), and developing an enabling institutional culture. / Information Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Information Science)

Defence organisations have now significantly developed and in the process they have applied various measures to sustain their progresses and encourage innovation. One of those measures is by embarking on KM programs. KM in military is seen as a strategic approach to achieving defense objectives by leveraging the value of collective knowledge through the process of creating, gathering, organizing, sharing and transferring knowledge into action. It is through proper knowledge management practices that an organisation embraces and manages its knowledge generation, knowledge acquisition, knowledge organisation, knowledge storage, transfer, knowledge sharing, and knowledge retention. The purpose of this study was to investigate knowledge management practices in the Department of Defence (RSA). The objective of the study was to find out how the department appreciates, understands, interprets and handles its knowledge. This study employed triangulation method to present trustworthiness of both qualitative and quantitative research approaches using positivist research design. Questionnaires, interviews and document analysis were employed to collect data. In order to arrive at the number of participants who received the questionnaires, a probability sampling method called stratified random sampling was used as well as purposive sampling. When setting up a study, it was essential to review the research identified in the literature review and to determine whether there is anything relevant to the research design of the proposed study. The study found that knowledge management was hardly understood generally in the department and was not an approach used and institutionalised for the benefit of the organisation. However there was embedded knowledge management appreciation from a few staff members in the department, only managing their own knowledge regarding learning, capturing and storage. Additionally there is a significant number of staff members who believe knowledge management is a way to go in the future and strongly believe their Defence Department needs to adopt a comprehensive and inclusive KM approach. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)

Technology and globalisation has shaped the experiences and expectations of adult learners in the 21st century. How adults learn and what they want to learn is highly influenced by the world they live in at any given time. The need for customisation, extending traditional learning experiences into new learning experiences will address the quality and value of higher education learning in South Africa. Restructuring of current programmes to be more flexible, accessible, interactive, that supports collaboration of learning activities and accommodates different learning styles, will enrich the adult learners’ learning experience and quality of learning. In suggesting the use of an alternative learning strategy, the use of a hybrid study approach (HSA) has been suggested and investigated. Limited research has been conducted in the use of a hybrid study approach (HSA) and more on what has been said was conducted on pure online learning, therefore this study focused on managing the quality of learning in higher education through a hybrid study approach (HSA). Since the researcher’s interest was to gain insight and understanding of learners’, tutors’ and institutional managements’ perceptions, understanding, concerns and experiences in their real world conditions when using a hybrid study approach (HSA), the qualitative research method was applied. The researcher focused on the micro-level of managing quality of learning by assessing the ‘learning’ when learning with technology. The study adhered to ethical principles and techniques to enhance the validity of the findings. The study found that a need for redress and reform of training and education in South Africa, especially with the integration of technology in higher education, extending into a hybrid study approach (HSA), which is in harmony with international standards of academic quality, knowledge, expertise and skills is needed in a changing global economy. A one-for-all learning approach was found not well suited for the needs of society today and does not foster an all-inclusive learning approach. The move to a knowledge society where learners are interconnected and where information circulate around the world faster than ever, it is evident that much learning occurs in a social environment and does not happen in splendid isolation. It was found evident that life demands and other different roles adult learners need to fulfill, adults intentionally search for educational settings that support their way of learning. / Education Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Education Management)

The objective of this study was: (1) to determine the relationship between job embeddedness (measured by the Job Embeddedness Scale), work engagement (measured by the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale), and turnover intention (measured by the Turnover Intention Scale); and (2) to determine whether employees from different groups, namely age, race, gender, marital status and tenure differ significantly in their levels of job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention. A quantitative survey was conducted on a non-probability purposive sample (N = 153) of staff in a higher education institution. Correlational analyses revealed significant relationships between job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention. Multiple regression analyses showed that organisation links and dedication negatively predicted the participants’ turnover intention. Significant differences between age, race, gender, marital status and tenure were also found. The findings contribute valuable knowledge to the field of Career Psychology and can be applied in the retention of employees in the higher education institution. The study concludes with recommendations for future research and practice. / Industrial & Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)