A report on a study project presented to the Department of Social Work School of Human and Community Development, Faculty of Humanities University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Masters in Occupational Social Work, March 2017 / Managing absenteeism is one of the most challenging issues that managers have to deal with because it is an issue that affects all businesses regardless of sector, size or age. The aim of the study was to gain an insight and explore the experiences of line managers when it comes to managing absenteeism within the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD) focusing on the gaps, challenges, what they encounter or undergo and the dynamics involved when managing and addressing absenteeism within the department. A qualitative research approach using a case study research design will be used to understand the challenges associated with managing absenteeism. The population of the study comprised of managers. Eleven managers from the GDARD were purposively sampled for the study. Data was collected using in-depth; semi-structured interviews to allow the researcher a platform to ask open response questions, when exploring the managers experiences and perceptions about the management of absenteeism. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis by carefully identifying significant themes that emerged from the informants’ experiences and perceptions about management of absenteeism. The findings revealed that managers have negative perceptions and experinces when it comes to the challenges that they have encountered. The study derived recommendations on how to enhance the management of absenteeism within the department. / XL2018

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management. September 1995 / The aim of this research Was to investigate the management principles, key philosophies and culture of CASHBUILD LTD (Cashbulld). The Cashbuild Group is a leading wholesale and retail supplier of building materials in Southern Africa. The unique management style of Cashbuild has been widely popularized over the past fifteen years. As demonstrated by largest ever recorded sales of a South African business book, "The Corporate crusaders", by Koopman, Nasser and Nel, a publication which popularized the Cashbuild story. Opinion amongst many South African academics in the management field, has held that Cashbuild is unique management approach can provide an Afrocentric archotype for all South African organisations currently attempting to adapt to fundamental environmental shifts. The methodology takes the form of a qualitative case study. The "Four World" Business Sphere Model of Ronnie Lessem was used as an analysis tool. In the spirit of an Afrocentric style this paper does not only focus on the tangible and observable systems and structures of the organisation, but explores the values of key individuals and the very spirit of that company. The chosen data sources include direct observation,relevant

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Finance and Investments in the FACULTY OF COMMERCE, LAW AND MANAGEMENT WITS BUSINESS SCHOOL at the UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND / The South African hedge fund industry is reported to have had R52 billion (USD 4.8 billion) assets under management at the end of December 2013. This compares to the global industry which is reported to have surpassed USD 2.6 trillion at the end of 2013. Due to the relative infancy of the local industry, little research exists to analyse the performance of South African hedge fund strategies. This study focuses on the performance of South African hedge fund strategies under different market regimes, taking into consideration market and economic factors specific to South Africa. The analysis shows that the hedge fund strategies offer a diversification benefit to more traditional asset classes, and the results of the study can be used to inform an investor’s allocation decision. The findings of the analysis are used as the basis of a portfolio construction framework for constructing a portfolio of hedge funds. The framework is predicated on the investor having a view on the forthcoming macro environment. The framework enables the investor to identify funds and strategies that have produced a stable alpha over a similar market regime for inclusion in the portfolio of funds. After identifying those funds and strategies most suited to the anticipated macro environment, the number of funds to be included in the portfolio is taken under consideration to determine the optimal number such that the performance and risk characteristics of the portfolio are not compromised. The analysis takes the higher moments of the distribution into account to cater for the non-normal nature of hedge fund distributions.

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Science in Building (Project Management in Construction) to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Construction Economics and Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017 / The prevalence and persistence of problems of late project delivery, cost overruns, poor quality and many others, coupled with the lack of concrete solutions to eliminate the causes of these problems over many years have driven construction industries around the world to reconsider their design and construction processes that are used to deliver projects. A government led study in the UK recommended re-thinking the design and construction process; learning from the manufacturing industry. The process protocol was developed as a result, in order to bring about a common and agreed project delivery process. Other construction industries around the world have considered adopting similar models, believing change intended to introduce process-thinking for consistency and standardisation is required to improve project delivery. In South Africa, the existence of a common and agreed project delivery process is not clear. This study has endeavoured to explore the current phenomenon among professional councils and bodies on the existence of a common and agreed design and construction process. The research is a general opinion survey without the need for a statistical analysis. Therefore, utilising the qualitative research method was deemed to be most appropriate at this high level stage. From the research findings, it has been concluded that while there are six stages recognised by all professional councils and associations, these stages are not used as a project delivery process. The six stages are only applied to the measurement of the professional fees due at a given stage though not applied the same way by all professional disciplines. The underlying details in the stages overlap between disciplines in some instances and are inconsistent as well. The general consensus, from the research participants, is that a more defined and agreed process is required. The government has already taken the lead with the initiative of developing the Infrastructure Delivery Management System (IDMS) for public infrastructure projects. There is unanimous agreement among the research participants that the IDMS would be appropriate to be applied throughout the industry as a starting point for process standardisation. / XL2018

A research proposal submitted to the School of Construction Economics and Management, University of the Witswatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Master of Science in Building (Project management), 2016. / The adoption rate of BIM (Building information Modelling) in South Africa is substantially lower than many other countries both developed and developing, which is surprising given BIM’s significant advantages particularly in automating clash detection within design information, which has been a significant challenge for designers and project managers. Such clashes between inter alia different building services and systems are frequently a major cause of cost overruns and delays on South African construction projects. The benefits of such BIM functionality may well be the necessary driving force behind BIM adoption. However, in adopting change, the industry is often slow and often requires clients and end users to drive change in a fragmented industry as they are often the parties that stands to benefit the most, and this is arguably true of BIM. This study focuses on private sector clients of the South African construction industry, and whether they have identified the potential of using BIM to minimise clashes between building services on their projects. The study reviewed literature on the current state of BIM adoption internationally and in South Africa along with the benefits of using BIM on projects in South Africa and abroad. The benefits of BIM adoption were summarised and were distributed to several pre-selected interviewees to read. Interviews were conducted based on a questionnaire that was set up drawn from client organisations in the private sector. The data was represented graphically and the outcomes of the interviews analysed. The interviewees were generally of the mind that they should not be the driving force behind BIM adoption. They all agreed that their consultants should implement any cost or time saving technology as a value added service to them. Keywords: BIM, Building Information Modelling, Clashes, Clash Detection, Property developers, Designers, Developers, Variations, / EM2017

A research report submitted to the faculty of commerce, law and management, university of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of master of management (in the field of public and development management). YEAR: 2015 / Knowledge sharing is a critical component of knowledge management and a new phenomenon in the South African public sector. To introduce knowledge sharing in government, the Department of Public Service and Administration included it as one of the core management competencies for senior management service officials. There is a general perception that government employees are not keen to share what they know, as sharing empowers your colleague to compete with you for power and promotional opportunities. The purpose of this research study was therefore to investigate the perception of staff members on knowledge sharing activities in Limpopo Provincial Treasury department. In particular, the study was aimed at answering the following questions about the department: (1) What is the perception of employees on knowledge sharing as a catalyst to achieve operational and service delivery objectives? (2) What is the readiness level of LPT employees to share their experiences and know-how for the benefit of the institution? This was a qualitative research. The data was collected through the questionnaire distributed to employees grouped in two stratas, namely senior management and middle management services. Discussions were held, mostly with members of the dysfunctional knowledge management committee and other identified staff members. Relevant departmental documents were also reviewed as part of the research process. The outcome of the study is that the state of employees’ perception towards knowledge sharing is generally positive but in practice, there is little knowledgesharing taking place due to unconducive organisational culture and lack of leadership to position knowledge management as a strategic focus of the department. The study recommends that LPT adopts knowledge management as a strategic focus and put plans in place to preserve institutional memory

A research project submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science in Building. / A Systematic Approach for Managing Design Changes on Global Collaborative Projects: A Case Study Analysis of Medupi Structural Steel Z Myeko The complexity of construction work means that it is hardly possible to complete a project without changes to the plans or the construction process. The complex construction projects are characterized by its schedule slip. Every project is liable to variations ranging from changes of the mind on the part of the client, or their consultant, to unforeseen problems raised by the main contractor or sub-contractor. The effects of frequent changes in design include difficulties in settling variation claims, disruption in the flow of production, dispute resolution and regrettably litigation which have their negative effects on the project’s completion time and cost. To ameliorate these negative effects on the execution of global collaborative projects, there is the need to implement a functional and effective design change management system. The effects of design changes on structural steel connection design, detailing and fabrication is conducted. Concrete works and other works are outside of the scope of this study. The research study is an applied research since its objective is to select and recommend the most appropriate design management tool or method, to solve an existing problem of a global collaborative project. The research involved collection of data from project managers, engineers, detailers and draftsmen involved in the design of the structural steel component of the project, therefore qualitative research was undertaken. The quota sampling method was chosen. The qualitative method consisted of a literature review and questionnaire. Relevant literature was reviewed in order to explore existing design management tools/methods. A mathematical tool for analysis of the data collected through the questionnaire was required in order to increase the validity and integrity of the data. This tool allowed for an analysis into the level of agreement or concordance between the respondents due to the fact that they were all from the same organization. The coefficient of concordance provided a reliable tool for measuring agreement or concordance between ranks in a rank structure. This further scientifically ascertained the reliability of the respondents. From the empirical and theoretical findings of the study, it was found that there is a need for a design management tool/method which would lead to less claims and disputes. It was found that global collaboration had a big impact on the magnitude of design changes. Through the research, a design management tool which most likely to manage design changes on global collaborative projects is determined.

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Science in Building to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Construction Economics and Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017 / This study examines the lack of application of ethical values by construction project managers towards work activities under their control. At the same time, this study also examines the barriers preventing construction project managers from acting ethically. The non-application of ethical values by the construction project managers is resulting in an increase in the amount of rework during the construction process which is in turn impacting on the timeous completion of construction projects. Interpretivist and positivist research methodology was applied to this study through a single case study which was tested through a later set of interview questions. The case study took place at the Medupi Power Station construction project and composed of interviews and questionnaires distributed to construction project managers working on the Medupi Power Station site. The further interview questions took place in Johannesburg. The further interviews were undertaken to determine supporting evidence for the previous findings established through the initial data collected in the study. The findings of the study established that a failure of the construction project manager’s ethical values is resulting in an increase in the amount of rework occurring on a construction project which is having a negative impact on the successful timeous completion of these construction projects. The findings from this study further established that although there are current barriers in place to prevent construction project managers from acting unethically, the implementation of an ethical code of conduct would have a positive influence on the amount of rework that is currently occurring during the construction phase of construction projects. / XL2018

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Building, 2016. / This study aims to determine the barriers to effective risk management on small construction projects that exist within the South African construction industry. This was based on the realisation that few studies exist on risk management for small construction projects. This study sets out to fill this gap in the existing literatures with specific reference to the South African construction industry particularly for small projects. The research methodology was based on cross-sectional survey of registered industry practitioners with the South African Council for Project and Construction Management Professions (SACPCMP) using a semi-structured questionnaire administered online. From 325 practitioners that viewed the online questionnaire, 57 responded, this translates to a response rate of 17.5%. The respondents rated the identified barriers to effective risk management, the perception that risk management implementation will impact on project performance and provided qualitative feedback on contractual and attitudinal issues pertaining to risk management implementation. The barriers identified as inhibiting effective risk management the most were lack of knowledge, complexity of analytical tools and lack of time. The research revealed that perception of key decision makers pertaining to risk management, impact on risk management implementation. The consensus from the participants was that implementing risk management would positively impact on project performance, especially quality performance. The results revealed that in the South African construction industry Sixty-nine percent of the practitioners indicated SMMEs lack the required skill to implement risk management effectively. Sixtynine percent of the practitioners indicated that risk is not allocated to the party best equipped to manage the risks. Lastly fifty-six percent of respondents noted that construction partnering and shared risk management may assist in overcoming the barriers to effective risk management implementation as presented in the current research. / EM2017

Master of Management in Finance & Investment Faculty of Commerce Law and Management Wits Business School University of The Witwatersrand 2016 / The Value-at-Risk (VaR) measurement – which is a single summary, distribution independent statistical measure of losses arising as a result of market movements – has become the market standard for measuring downside risk. There are some diverse ways to computing VaR and with this diversity comes the problem of determining which methods accurately measure and forecast Value-at-Risk. The problem is two-fold. First, what is the distribution of returns for the underlying asset? When dealing with linear financial instruments – where the relationship between the return on the financial asset and the return on the underlying is linear– we can assume normality of returns. This assumption becomes problematic for non-linear financial instruments such as options. Secondly, there are different methods of measuring the volatility of the underlying asset. These range from the univariate GARCH to the multivariate GARCH models. Recent studies have introduced the Independent Component Analysis (ICA) GARCH methodology which is aimed at computational efficiency for the multivariate GARCH methodologies. In our study, we focus on non-linear financial instruments and contribute to the body of knowledge by determining the optimal combination for the measure for volatility of the underlying (univariate-GARCH, EWMA, ICA-GARCH) and the distributional assumption of returns for the financial instrument (assumption of normality, the Johnson translation system). We use back-testing and out-of-sample tests to validate the performance of each of these combinations which give rise to six different methods for value-at-risk computations. / MT2017