Since 1997, when Thailand faced a severe financial crisis as a result of IMF debt, many Thai organisations have seen fit to use Buddhist Training and Development (T&D) programmes to change the way in which their employees work and think. Buddhist principles suggested that the crisis occurred due to the nation's mistaken focus on certain objectives, without paying attention to the wellbeing of humans. In other words, the country was absorbed with consumerism. It has been advised that focussing on Buddhism would aid in the mental recovery of the people affected by the crisis and improve the human resource development (HRD). This research takes a social constructionist epistemology, trying to understand and interpret data under the interpretive paradigm. The study explores the practise and provision of T&D based on Buddhist philosophies in a sample of Thai organisations by interviewing organisational practitioners; including trainers and trainees and observing the T&D courses. The work examines Buddhist T&D in the context of social responsibility and organisational ethics, whilst also considering the implications of its findings on the design of T&D courses for modern Thai business organisations using the content analysis method. Finally, it considers the impact of the research on the researcher as a trainer, lecturer and T&D practitioner. The findings of this thesis offer a clearer picture of Thai organisations in three areas: organisational development including T&D, social responsibility and morals, and Buddhist teaching and practises. The study is achieved by focussing on the overlapping areas of mind development, morality and modern perspectives such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) and management competency of business. In addition, the thesis explores how T&D of staff in Thai organisations can be utilised for the long-term benefit and success of staff themselves, organisations and society. It also identifies the strengths and opportunities the Buddhist approach offers. The characteristics of employees within Thai organisations are analysed along with their impact and effect on organisations. Particularly in relation to jobs, this thesis explores the ways to release anger, conflict or stress in the organisation and display good leadership characteristics. Finally, this DBA (Doctor of Business administration) thesis proposes a new T&D processes combining the Western style of business knowledge and Thai Buddhist T&D. Three new theoretical frameworks are contributed: Transformation of Learning Organisational Development and Buddhist T&D, Employee T&D Model and Buddhist T&D Policy. The roles of contributions to professional practise in an organisation as a leader and as a member of the organisation are also presented.

Whilst there have been calls to theorize and explore how disability and ableism are constructed through organizing processes as a contribution to the critique of knowledge construction in organization studies (Harlan and Robert, 1998; Hearn and Parkin, 1993; Mumby, 2008), to date such calls have not been developed. Drawing upon the disability studies literature, a disability studies informed theoretical lens is developed and fused with the epistemological project in organization studies to answer the research question “What can disabled academics’ career experiences offer to studies of organization?” The theoretical potential of a disability studies lens is developed through a narrative inquiry with eight disabled academics. To interpret disabled academics’ narrative accounts the voice-centred relational method (Mauthner and Doucet, 1998), genealogical snapshot(Carabine, 2001) and voice and visibility framework (Simpson and Lewis, 2005; 2007)were fused. This enabled an approach to interpreting how disabled academics both construct through narrative and are constructed through discourse to explore their career experiences. Through a fusion of the disability studies lens and disability studies, boundaryless and academic career literatures, in-depth interpretations are offered which identify new insights into, and surface some of the discourses contributing to, the career boundaries disabled academics experience. This focus contributes to the boundaryless and academic career literatures by extending research to participants whose experiences are underresearched and under-theorized. The thesis offers insights into the different career boundaries disabled academics experience to those currently identified within the boundaryless and academic career literatures. The importance of, and negating responses to, disability and impairment effects related ways of organizing are argued to contribute to the career boundaries disabled academics experience. Ableism is argued to inform some of the discourses theorized, contributing to the perception of disability and impairment effects related ways of organizing as negated differences outside of normative expectations. The UK Higher Education context is complex. The career boundaries and discourses informing perceptions of disabled academics’ organizing requirements are argued to contribute to a hyper-complex organizing context. Within this hyper-complex context, disabled academics, and those they relate with, must negotiate to organize academic careers. This thesis offers a disability studies lens to organization studies as a productive theoretical lens through which disability and ableism are theorized and identified as productive categories for analysis, and as contributions to, studies of organization.

This study explores how a concentrated ownership structure and the underlying firm strategies/activities or practices influence the performance of family-controlled publicly-listed firms in Malaysia. Specifically, it aims to enhance our understanding of how differing types of significant owners, control-enhancing means, business groups and firm diversification affect firm performance within a national corporate governance system characterized by pervasive political involvement in business. It also aims to enhance out understanding of the role of board independence in moderating the above effects. the distinctiveness of this study arises from its approach of considering ownership structure and the underlying firm strategies/activities or practices in an integrated manner with particular emphasis on their inter-relationships. Multivariate with moderate regression analysis were utilized as primary tools of analysis. Based on a sample of 314 firms, major findings include (i) the proportion of family equity ownership positively influences corporate performance, (ii) group-affiliated firms generally under-perform non-group affiliated firms, (iii) the heterogeneity of business groups results in considerable differences in performance. Specifically, size of business group has a negative moderating effect on the firm diversification-performance relationship, (iv) profit redistribution occurs in firms that have a high level of family ownership and that are affiliated to large business groups, (v) board independence in general lacks effectiveness in moderating the influence of firm strategies or activities on firm performance. In terms of practical/managerial implications, the study demonstrates (i) the importance of conceptualising corporate governance in a broader sense, particularly in emerging economies such as Malaysia, (ii) how policymakers and regulators may identify and better monitor firms that are more likely to expropriate investors and/or exhibit governance problems, and (iii) a potentially fruitful approach to be adopted by investment professionals in selecting firms with better overall governance structures and performance that enhance their investment returns, particularly in the long term.

The United Kingdom is committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 as part of a strategy to mitigate climate change. As housing is responsible for approximately 26 percent of all UK carbon emissions, housing carbon reduction is a key component in meeting this target. Local Authorities are faced with the problem of how to improve the quality of existing housing stock, provide additional social housing to meet increasing demand, and cutting emissions from both new and existing housing stock. The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) is being used as a means to deliver new and refurbished social housing using private, rather than public capital, and is expected to enable the delivery of sustainable, rented homes. However there have been concerns about the use of the PFI model to deliver public sector housing which meet sustainability goals. The overall aim of this thesis is to examine whether the UK’s Public Finance Initiative (PFI) can achieve the procurement of sustainable social housing. In order to address this aim, the study considers the technical and contextual issues that affect sustainability in PFI housing projects, focussing specifically on one such project in the North East of England. With regard to the technical issues, the research introduces a methodological tool that has been developed to assess the sustainability of PFI housing projects. It is envisioned that the tool will be useful for assessing the sustainability of other housing projects procured under a public private partnership arrangement. The contextual issues are examined by means of an ethnographic study carried out from within North Tyneside Councils PFI procurement team over a period of 2 years. The results of the study suggest that the PFI procurement model can be used to deliver sustainable housing, but is currently hampered by a lack of skills, knowledge and understanding. These problems are particularly acute at the project management and governance level within the procuring local authority. The study identifies the need for clear guidance on incorporating sustainability into the procurement of PFI projects. It also recommends the use of appropriate tools to assess the sustainability of plans and build capacity within local authority procurement teams.

Local economic development (LED) has been in existence for decades. In South Africa the concept received momentum immediately after the first democratic elections in 1994. It was soon conceived as a mechanism for addressing social and economic ills such as unemployment, poverty and declining economic activity, particularly in small towns. In order to accelerate LED given its urgency, in 1998, the government introduced and subsequently promulgated the White Paper on Local Government, which mainly sought to advance the notion of a developmental state, and LED was central to that. Later in 2006 a proper LED Framework was adopted, which had as its main objective, to guide LED implementation. Up until the present time, LED implementation has not been a resounding success. Many studies have focused on implementation and challenges thereof. However, focusing on implementation alone may not be adequate. In order to bridge that gap, this particular study specifically focuses on LED conceptualization in order to assess the correlation between conceptualization and implementation outcomes. The area of the study was Ugu district in the lower south coast of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Immediately after the first democratic elections in 1994, local economic development as a concept gained momentum. LED conceptualization was mainly centred on LED planning, which as empirical evidence has suggested, did not provide the anticipated success in terms of implementation results. Further, LED planning in South Africa focused mainly on a market-led approach, which is largely premised on pro-growth as opposed to the market-critical approach which draws much input on the pro-poor thinking in terms of both conceptualization and implementation of LED-focused initiatives. This study therefore sought to build from that proclamation. The assertion is that LED planning has become obsolete. The proposed approach was the adoption and conceiving of the dynamic complexity approach, which is mainly centred on self-organization of the system of which LED is one such sub-system. The affirmation is that, LED is neither a static nor a fixed phenomenon. It involves continuous evolution and co-evolution of agents such as banks, entrepreneurs, government etc., within the system which therefore becomes a never ending process. During such process of evolution and coevolution, new order emerges, which can be identified as an outcome-based local economic development. From the study’s findings, indications are that LED conceptualization indeed plays a significant part in shaping implementation outcomes, and indeed outcome-based LED. This conclusion is based on five (5) critical areas which were covered in the study, namely project implementation rationale, comprehension of local economic development, funding for local economic development, roleplaying by diverse LED stakeholders and complexity of local economic development. For example, the findings and analysis shows that many LED-focused interventions were implemented without proper conceptual assessments having been done, which led to ill-informed implementation and therefore poor results. Further, the comprehension of LED as a programme is also a problematic area. Due to diverse stakeholders whose interests are not necessarily the same, LED is viewed differently, which also has a direct implication in as far as co-operation and roleplaying by LED stakeholders is concerned, which further causes challenges in terms of implementation. Lastly, the final assertion is that LED is a complex phenomenon. However, in terms of the findings, this assertion is not observed by all stakeholders, which again is a conceptual matter. Adversely and perhaps as expected, LED facilitation and implementation is a problematic area within the Ugu region. The direct implication is that LED’s conceptualization needs to be revised, and in the process all stakeholders must internalize and advocate for emergence-based local economic development. / Theses (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2011.

The South African government is faced with tremendous pressure to address the high unemployment and poverty rate in the country. One of the strategies that have been adopted by the government for job creation is promoting start-up of new small businesses and supporting the existing small businesses to ensure their sustainability. Small businesses are perceived as an instrument for job creation and will contribute to the economic growth and development of the country. Due to a high failure rate of small businesses in the business sector it was necessary to carryout this study, to explore and understand all the key factors that affect the growth of small businesses with the objective of analysing findings and providing possible recommendations. This research study used data extracted from eThekwini electricity and PMB municipality electrical contractors' databases. A survey was conducted on a sample of small black electrical contractors in the vicinity of Durban and Pietermaritzburg areas, with the use of questionnaires. The quantitative data was captured and analyzed using the statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The study was able to identify problems or challenges encountered by small black electrical contractors. According to the survey the root cause of failure to acquire finance by small businesses was that they lack skills drafting and providing financial plans, financial statements, financial projections and the required collaterals and securities. The results received from the questionnaire survey were presented and analyzed. The analysis included an examination of the overall profile of the sample and a determination of whether or not there was any significant lack of transparency. It looked at participation aspects of small black electrical contractors, which account for differences in responses to the questionnaires. The study recommended that Government should provide a legal framework with a specified focus on regulating the extent South African Revenues Services (SARS) practises its powers on small businesses. Instead of closing down the small business that fails to pay tax in time, SARS should provide assistance to ensure the sustainability of those small businesses. SARS' penalties and interest on tax owed should be reduced and there should be a limit on accumulating interests and penal ties, or small business may fail to ever settle debt. / Thesis (M.B.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

Since the birth of a new democracy in the Republic of South Africa in 1994, municipalities across the country have embarked on several service-oriented programmes primarily to improve the quality of life of ordinary citizens within their areas of jurisdiction. Subsequently, these programmes which include Land Use Management System (LUMS), Integrated Development Planning (IDP), Integrated Sustainable Rural Development, Local Economic Development (LED), Urban Renewal Strategy, Property Rate Implementation and Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) have been tailored to fast track service delivery in municipalities by building capacity and promoting small, medium and micro enterprises in local communities as a means of alleviating poverty (Local Government Programmes, 2004, paragraph 4). In order to speed up the development planning processes in the Province with regards to Integrated Development Planning, Spatial Development Framework and Land Use Management, Integrated Sustainable Rural Development, Local Economic Development (LED) and Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG), it has been identified that local authorities require a GIS application to integrate spatially related municipal information with other business information (Sarkar, 2004, paragraph 1). In view of this, the Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs (DLGTA) has for the past six years, provided financial and technical support to the ten (10) District Municipalities and about thirty (30) Local Municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal to facilitate the establishment of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in these municipalities (DLGTA Municipal GIS Capacity Building Manual, 2004). It is further noted that although a substantial amount of grant funding and technical support has been provided to the 10 District Municipalities and thirty Local Municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal, the full utilization of GIS as a decision-making support tool has not, as yet, been realised in some of these municipalities. This scenario thus calls for the need to ascertain municipalities' expectation and perception of the quality of GIS support services rendered to them by the Department and also to measure the gap thereof. To do so, the researcher employed SERVQUAL scale methodology to measure the service quality gap between municipalities' expectation and perception of the quality of GIS support services. A selfadministered questionnaire, which covers the five (5) dimensions of service quality, namely; tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy, was compiled and forwarded to the 10 District municipalities and 20 Local Municipalities in the Province to complete and return to the researcher within a specified time period. Fourteen (14) of the thirty (30) questionnaires sent out to these municipalities were returned to the researcher. The data was then analysed and conclusions were drawn. The research discovered that responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangible dimensions are significant to municipalities in that they all had average expectation statement scores above 6 on the Likert 7-point scale. This means that respondents strongly agree to the expectation statements relating to these dimensions. On the other hand, the average expectation statement score relating to reliability dimension is below 6. The research result has shown that DLGTA is perceived by municipalities for rendering a desirable level of services to municipalities with respect to aspects relating to reliability, assurance, empathy and tangible dimensions. However, DLGTA seems not to provide prompt service to most of these municipalities and not showing signs of readiness to respond to their requests on GIS matters. It is also noted that there is a wide gap between municipalities' perception and expectation for responsiveness (-1.19), empathy (-0.90) and assurance (-0.98), and this seems to confirm the view that responsiveness and assurance dimensions are the most significant variables out of the five determinants of service quality, and thus require service improvement attention. The outcome of the survey reflects that the GIS concept is relatively new to some of these municipalities, and thus municipal officials want to feel safe in their transactions with DLGTA on GIS matters. As a result, they expect DLGTA officials to attend to them promptly and must have the knowledge to answer their GIS related questions. They strongly require DLGTA staff to give them individual attention and possibly have their best interest at heart. In this study, the responsiveness dimension is classified as having a poor service quality whiles the reliability dimension (with a narrow gap) has the superior service quality. To minimise or eliminate these gaps, it has been mentioned that DLGTA should be guided by the eight principles of Batho Pele which seem to take care of the key requirements of the five service quality dimensions as discussed in this dissertation. Based on this outcome, recommendations were made and a future research proposal outlined. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

One of the major challenges for organisations operating in today's global business environment is to improve productivity, reduce costs and enhance customer service. Six Sigma methodology has become a popular approach in a number of organisations as a business improvement tool. This research presented Six Sigma as a business transformation methodology within Lonmin operations. The purpose of this research was to identify the primary factors in the Six Sigma framework, and to evaluate the relationship between these factors in the framework and their contribution towards transformation in terms of business improvement. This research critically evaluated the application of Six Sigma within Lonmin in the South African context. Quantitative data was obtained from questionnaires distributed to the different Six Sigma role players within Lonmin. A probability sample was used; sixty five (65) Six Sigma candidates were drawn from Lonmin with a Six Sigma population size of one hundred and twenty (120) employees listed in the Six Sigma database. Data was collected using an e-mail based questionnaire developed by the researcher. The main contributions of this study showed that communication and organisational culture were the most important factors to transform business performance when Six Sigma was integrated with business principles. The study revealed that project selection was a vital element in the process that determined the value towards business improvement. Six Sigma must be supplemented by other programmes (Theory of Constraints, Design For Six Sigma) in order to be more effective in attaining business performance. This research will benefit management to evaluate and structure an aligned methodology for transformation. Employees will be motivated to attain greater knowledge and skill. Research will prove beneficial to organisations that need to transform their organisation. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2010.

The study reviews the implementation of DAS and IQMS in Vulindlela Circuit from 2003 to 2006. The systems thinking approach and Soft Systems Methodology served as a point of leverage in identifying problematic situations besetting the implementation of DAS and IQMS. The use of systems tools provided the means for creating dialogue between the facilitator and the SMT members and principals. The study illustrates the use of the systems maps, spray diagrams, iceberg tool, brainwriting and rich pictures in surfacing the assumptions and beliefs about the failure of DAS and IQMS. With this approach, SMTs and principals developed their ideas about the way they could implement DAS and IQMS. Systems thinking provided a perspective for approaching the problematic situations. A conceptual model for DAS and IQMS evolved though the collaborative efforts of SMT members and principals. A developmental and holistic model evolved from this process of school development. A new way of thinking about problematic situations is presented to participants. A process of dialogue set the stage for. school development. Notable improvements are highlighted as indicators of improvement during the implementation of DAS and IQMS. The approach promotes active participation, dialogue, reflection and continuous inquiry and a shared vision in the formulation of conceptual models. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2006.

Transformation of the Construction Sector is part of a wider transformation of the social and economic environment of South Africa. Publication of the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, 2003, Act Number 53 of 2003 (BBBEE) in January 2004, initiated the next phase in transformation (SAACE, 2004b, p1), which required the development and publication of sector specific Transformation Charters. / Thesis (M.B.A.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.