Generally the pharmaceutical industry operates in a heavily regulated and controlled environment. In South Africa, the regulations governing prescription drugs do not allow the pharmaceutical companies to advertise the prescription drugs directly to the consumers. As a consequence, the greater part of the marketing efforts of the pharmaceutical companies is directed at the medical practitioners, who occupy the crucial decision-making position for the prescription drugs. The study broadly investigates the relative influence of the various promotional factors that may influence the General Practitioner's choice of prescription drug and more specifically, focuses on the characteristics of the pharmaceutical sales representatives that may influence the prescribing behaviour of the General Practitioners. An area sample of 67 general practitioners in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, was carried out. A total of 58 responses were analysed to determine the perceived influence of various factors on the GPs' choice of new and existing prescription drugs. A specific attempt was made to determine the key influential factors with respect to the promotion by the pharmaceutical representatives and GPs' appreciation of basic statistics used in the presentations by the pharmaceutical representatives. / Thesis (M.B.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that influence the consumers' decision-making process in the selection of shopping centres. The South African society is undergoing a rapid transformation in its consumption patterns. The development and expansion of shopping centres means that consumers, in most cases, have an increasing choice of shopping destinations that meet their needs for goods, services and entertainment. The development and rapid expansion of planned shopping centres, often called Shopping Malls, has been one of the greatest retail revolutions in South Africa in the last twenty years. The competitive retail environment poses serious threats and opportunities for growth and profitability of shopping centres. The empirical research, which was conducted amongst shoppers at the various centres in the greater Durban area, confirms the significance of the various situational influences, which are the physical surroundings, the social surroundings, time, task definition and antecedent states as they impact on the shopping centres. The findings of this study reveal that stakeholders of shopping centres should go beyond the tactical aspects of shopping centre operations and adopt a strategic approach to business, in which customers' needs and competitors' actions are monitored in their quest to obtain preference vis a vis their competitors. The need to create and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage over other centres is at the heart of ensuring the continued viability of individual shopping centres. Against the urgent need to adopt a strategic approach to shopping centre development and management, recommendations are provided for developers and managers to acknowledge the impact of the dynamic aspect of the factors that influence the consumers' decision-making process and their implications for shopping centre development and promotion. This study is aimed at providing valuable information to a variety of stakeholders such as the tenants, property developers, investors, shopping centre managers, retailers and consumers at shopping centres as well as academics interested in consumer behaviour and the impact of shopping centres in South Africa. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

A company cannot survive without giving attention to quality. Ensuring quality in products is so important that many companies give major attention to actively managing processes to make sure that quality permeates everything the company does. Quality management is a company's unique approach for addressing all aspects of quality. It requires vision, a quality policy, a quality standard, a quality system and the control of the system. The water industry is a natural monopoly in which no competition exists to provide customers the opportunity to choose between different suppliers. Due to the monopolistic nature of a water utility, the tendency was previously to neglect the customer and his needs. For water utilities, the quality of the product water has always been the important factor mainly because of their responsibility towards the protection of public health. The quality emphasis was mainly towards meeting the demands of the primary and secondary sector of the water industry that is to provide water of an acceptable standard to the customers. It was only during the 1980's that water utilities became concerned about service quality in pursuance of the example set by the broader industry. Since then the emphasis on quality shifted gradually towards the tertiary sector of the water industry, the provision of quality services to the customer. The Namibia Water Corporations Act, 1997 requires that a performance contract should be concluded between the owners of the company (the State) and the Corporation. It further requires that the Namibia Water Corporation (NamWater) should formulate and maintain service standards in respect of the provision of water, services or facilities. As both these requirements are primarily based on efficiency, performance,achievements, cost-effectiveness and the optimum use of resources, there is a need to develop a system that will address all these aspects. This document describes the outcome of a study to develop a quality management system for NamWater that will address all these aspects, to identify shortcomings within NamWater and to monitor progress regarding meeting the quality standards on a continuous basis. Together with the development of a proposed quality policy document, this study also resulted in the compilation of a proposed set of service standards as prescribed by the Namibia Water Corporation Act of 1997. Performance gaps where existing practices in NamWater do not meet industry's best practice were identified by making use of performance indicators developed by the International Water Association (IWA) and the benchmarking exercise of the Water Utility Partnership (WUP). A set of performance indicators was developed to monitor the progress of NamWater in meeting standards on a continuous basis. The study concludes with a proposal for a quality management system for NamWater to ensure that the work is carried out in accordance with the quality policy and the quality standards. To identify possible performance gaps in NamWater, the information from the Water Utility Partnership programme on performance indicators and benchmarking was used to evaluate the performance of the NamWater against other water utilities in Africa. In general terms, the performance of NamWater is better than in many other African countries. However, by evaluating the results of the benchmarking exercise performance gaps were identified within NamWater that needs urgent attention. This study identifies the Sales Process as being the area to concentrate on as a first priority, with the focus on the improvement of revenue collection, the improvement of customer relations and the decrease in total cost. The Support Process should be the second priority with the improvement of the asset management organisation high on the list. There are two fields in the Production Process that needs special attention. They are unaccounted-for-water, and supply interruptions. The identification of industry's best performers in the various fields where performance gaps exist is beyond the scope of this study. It will form part of the implementation phase of a quality management system for NamWater. To monitor NamWater's performance on a continuous basis over time in meeting the requirements of the quality policy, various performance indicators have been identified. These indicators will also identify future performance gaps, determine various performance trends in the company, and measure and monitor the benefits of the implementation of best practice. Performance indicators were identified (from the IWA and WUP programmes) due to the fact that it will serve the abovementioned purpose and it is compatible with the present situation within NamWater. As can be seen from the performance gap analysis all three processes in the NamWater organisation have shortcomings that will have to be addressed through a quality management system. The situation is ideal for the implementation of TQM for NamWater. Such a project should be high on the priority list of the management of the company. / Thesis (M.B.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

This dissertation examines the emergent understanding of the dynamics of Remote Employment in an organisation. It reflects on the workings of value adding employment where individual employees operate from home and away from the "office environment". In so doing, it hopes to raise within organisations new levels of awareness that will make this employment form meaningful and fruitful. Within the body of the dissertation, relevant theoretical constructs are outlined. These form the basis on which emergent understanding using Systems Thinking is discussed. These theoretical constructs are placed upon an underlying foundation that focuses upon Systems of Meaning and the influencing factors that both encourage relationships and best accommodate participant stakeholders. Meaningful relationships are explored from a cognitive perspective. Such an approach also serves as a proposition for sustaining all forms of employment relationships irrespective of the participants particular work locality. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

Is it possible to improve project management practice by incorporating systems thinking techniques and tools in the process? This is the simple premise on which this study is based. It is a premise that is not particularly ambitious, but one which potentially may assist project management in certain environments to become more effective in practice. Why is it that project management needs to become more effective in practice? This is owing to a growing body of knowledge that points to the difficulties encountered by the practice of project management in complex environments. In simple terms, the literature has it that since project management is a 'hard' approach to problem solving, it cannot respond adequately to change and/or unexpected phenomena thrown at it by an unsympathetic environment. The incorporation, therefore, of a 'soft' approach in project management practice, like for instance, systems thinking techniques and tools, should make project management as an approach more robust and effective in difficult and problematic environments. The testing of a hybrid project management/systems thinking model, therefore, is what is attempted in this study. In what way does this study seek to apportion value on this hybrid model? This study makes use of meta-learning to the degree that it tests its own hypothesis in the process of its writing. The idea here is that the study itself be treated as a 'project' and that it be completed by utilising this hybrid model which incorporates both traditional project management methodologies, and systems thinking techniques and tools. This may be viewed as a curious conceit, but it is hoped that the reader will not find it untenable, and thus an invalid assessment of how this hybrid approach can function. The outcomes should speak for themselves, whether positive or negative. Clearly, to pursue this line of questioning requires a working knowledge of both project management practice and systems thinking. These two approaches to problem solving are discussed at length in this study, with pointers to their strengths and weaknesses, and to their potential for useful interaction, and a hybrid model is mooted which, it is envisaged, should prove useful to project managers. How does one assess the success of the new hybrid model? There are various ways that one can check the hypothesis, but ideally one would need to closely observe the life-cycle of an actual project, a project that is implemented and completed using the hybrid model mooted earlier. This kind of project is not always particularly easy to come by, nor is it a simple procedure to convince a project manager to adopt such a hybrid approach. It is for this reason, therefore, that this study is treated as a 'project' and its efficacy as a project commented on during the course of and at the conclusion of the study. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

Since the 1970's banks have been deploying Technology Based Self-Service Systems (TBSS) such as ATMs as a means of replacing human centred interaction with technology in the process of service creation with their customers. TBSS research on A TMs has been dominated by investigations focusing on the use of ATMs for cash withdrawals. However, in recent years, ATMs have evolved to handle new functions such as bills payment, cash deposits or funds transfer. Therefore, the generalisability of extant knowledge to these new functions remains un-answered. Furthermore, new fimctionalities have introduced the need to consider additional variables to those related to the traditional use of ATMs as means for withdrawing cash. One such variable that merits examination is risk, specifically the impact that perceptions of risk have on consumers' intention and ultimate use of ATMs. Responding to the above observations, the aim of this study is to examine drivers of intention to use new ATM functions. In order to address the above research gap, a theoretically grounded model is proposed. Specifically this study adopts the technology acceptance model (TAM) which draws from two general behavioural theories, the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and its extension, the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Attitude, ease of use and usefulness determinants of intention to use ATMs for depositing cash found in TAM are expanded by the inclusion of risk. In addition the moderating impact of consumer traits and specific factors supported by extant research and the recommendation from expert informants are also includêd in the model. Data, obtained through a postal survey addressed to ATM customers from a Spanish bank: collaborating in the investigation resulted in 461 usable replies that were analysed using Partial Least Squares. The explanatory power and stability of the model are confirmed and the need for segmenting respondents depending on whether their age is above or below 35 year old is established. Despite there are similarities within the two segments (i.e., attitude and usefulness are found significant); there are differences that need attention. Inherent novelty seeking is found significant in the younger segment while risk is found significant in the older segment. The results make the following important theoretical contributions to the subject matter. There are confounding effects due to the lack of segmentation in previous research. Attitude and usefulness are significant for cash withdrawals and cash deposits while ease of use is significant for cash withdrawals but not cash deposits and risk is significant for cash deposits but not for cash withdrawals. The results from the present study challenges the view and results that demonstrates moderating effects. On the strength of the above managerial guidelines are proposed.

This thesis discusses many vital issues related to the Libyan economy in general and the privatization programme in particular. The current study has adopted a triangulation strategy to achieve its objectives including descriptive-analytical and field study approaches. It has relied upon a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews to acquire the necessary data. The most important reason for relying on these two methods was primarily due to lack of information on the subject of this study. The study addresses the main barriers that impede the successful progress of the privatization programme in Libya. In this regard, the 21 factories of the Libyan National Textile Company (LNTC) were selected as a case study, through which the disadvantages inherent in the privatization programme have been exposed. Moreover, in a comparative analysis, the field survey included 40 New Private Firms (NPFs) initially owned by the private sector. In this context, the hedonic technique has been applied in order to make comparison between the two groups of firms in terms of their performance and profit maximization. This study specifically addresses both the administrative and the economic aspects of privatization, raising the following three main questions concerning the status of privatization in the context examined, and the factors influencing the outcomes observed: (1) Has the privatization programme been a success or a failure and what have been the main underlying reasons? (2) To what extent were the attitudes of managers and workers in privatized factories a barrier to the smooth implementation of privatization? (3) What are the main prerequisites for a successful privatization programme in Libya? Among the major findings of this study are that privatization in Libya had been negatively influenced by many fundamental problems prevailing at both the micro and macro economic levels. In particular, as found from the application of the hedonic technique, the NPFs have been more successful in attaining profit- maximization than the LNTC. This is particularly worrying as the latter group were privatized well over 15 years ago with a resulting much larger share of the market.

The legal duty of Best Value requires local authorities to fundamentally review all services in order to achieve continuous improvement. They must challenge how services are delivered, compare performance with those of others, consult the local community to assess whether needs are being met and explore the potential use of competition in future delivery. 'Challenge', 'compare', 'consult' and 'compete' are referred to as the 'Four Cs' and underpin the legislative Best Value framework. This research aims to explore how effectively Best Value can be applied to the provision of Emergency Management services by U.K. local authorities. Five key factors were identified as influencing the way Emergency Management services are provided: level of funding; legislative base; service monitoring; culture and public awareness. A census of service stakeholders within all mainland U.K. local authorities was conducted. Analysis of data collected revealed a range of associations between the five key factors and stakeholder perceptions relating to Best Value implementation. This data was also used to identify and critically evaluate the application of several existing quality management models in assisting local authorities achieving the 'Four Cs' within Emergency Management. This evaluation revealed usage of these models, either in isolation or combination, exclusively within the service would not achieve the effective measurement of the 'Four Cs', nor address the perceived drivers and barriers to Best Value implementation. Using primary data and literature review findings, a specific support model applying Best Value principles to Emergency Management was developed. This support model is regarded by practitioners as having the potential to assist local authorities in achieving implementation of rigorous and comprehensive Best Value Reviews within Emergency Management.

The pursuit of "excellence" is a preoccupation for leaders and change agents who wish their organisations to be the best that they can be. "How do we achieve excellence?", they ask. "Is there a formula, a roadmap?" There is no shortage of offerings: total quality management, business excellence, process redesign, lean thinking... the list seems endless. Advocates of the latest offering trumpet its efficacious properties, sceptics see reinvented wheels, scholars bemoan hype that threatens to discredit worthy methodologies. Diagnostic benchmarking attempts to bottle organisational excellence and make it accessible and usable for change agents and their colleagues. It presents in various forms, from Ishikawa's quality diagnostic to the Baldrige Framework, the EFQM Excellence Model, the PROBE tools and many others. It offers a means of checking the organisation's health and identifying actions that will help it to progress on its journey towards excellence. This study has subjected diagnostic benchmarking to intensive scrutiny to better understand its role as an enabler of organisational improvement, thus addressing an important gap in the body of knowledge. It has deployed an inductive methodology in the case study setting of an English local authority, which has committed energy and resources to diagnostic benchmarking and has been officially designated as an "Excellent Council". Through the eyes and interpretations of those who are engaged in its deployment, the role of diagnostic benchmarking is revealed to be less formula or roadmap, more stimulus and aid to reflection and learning. Its meaning for participants ranges from "a gold bar that others won't share" to "a waste of time when I might have been doing my job". The study concludes that diagnostic benchmarking has played a role as an enabler in this particular setting, and suggests contingent factors that may have worked for and against its effectiveness in that role.

High labour turnover and associated costs have been subjects of considerable debate in the hospitality industry. Central to this ongoing discussion is understanding why hospitality management graduates leave the industry. Research studies suggest some answers, such as the nature of work conditions in the industry or a lack of career planning by hospitality students. This doctoral thesis is concerned with the process of leaving the hospitality industry. It explores the interplay between self-efficacy and career inheritance, and its influence on career commitment by gaining insights into how hospitality management graduates arrived at the decision to leave the hospitality industry. In the context of the changing nature of careers, from traditional linear to flexible protean, this interdisciplinary research provides insights into the process that leads to the individual leaving the hospitality industry. Career commitment, conceptualised as a psychological contract between the individual and a chosen career, informs this process of leaving, which is further explored using the interplay between the concepts of self-efficacy and career inheritance. Drawing on life history methodology, which allows for an exploration of unique life experiences and an in-depth understanding of academic and career decisions, semi-structured interviews were conducted with hospitality management graduates no longer employed in the hospitality industry. Underpinning and informing data collection and analysis was critical realism, with its unique perspective on epistemology as constructed, and ontology as realist yet stratified. The interview data were analysed thematically, which involved coding participants’ responses into pre-assigned and emergent themes. Empirical evidence reveals that the decision to leave the hospitality industry is a result of a cumulative power of events. The concept of the leaving process is the original theoretical contribution of this thesis, which explains the interaction between the three concepts indicated above. It demonstrates that exiting the industry is a developmental journey punctuated by significant career turning points. The speed of decline in commitment, which is representative of the duration of leaving, is dependent on the interaction between career inheritance and self-efficacy. Alongside an integrative definition of career, characteristics of a career manager and the principles of the legacy of hospitality as further research findings, this doctoral thesis concludes by proposing a collaborative approach to career management. Limitations of this study are evaluated and avenues to further research are also proposed.