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, specialising in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation Johannesburg, 2016 / The prominence of international entrepreneurship in the global economy is of great importance and interest to researchers, entrepreneurs and governments alike. International business and accelerated internationalisation focus on multinational companies as well as entrepreneurial ventures for growth and innovative collaborations across borders in the global environment. The dominant logic for any corporate organisation today is to ensure that it facilitates and fosters an ecosystem that is conducive to innovation. The concept of generating opportunity through creativity and exploiting it with innovation, has proved to be extremely difficult, yet valuable. Innovation and control systems balance each other to ensure a pro-entrepreneurial organisational climate. Corporate entrepreneurship (CE) has received substantial attention in entrepreneurship research, which expands and develops a cumulative body of knowledge. The CE strategy is conceptualised by identifying key principles and components. This research is formulated to investigate the pro-entrepreneurial organisational architecture, as well as the entrepreneurial process and behaviour that individually and collectively encourage entrepreneurial orientation (EO). The relationships between the identified variables and moderators in a bank in the financial sector of South Africa are measured. Stevenson’s (1983) dimensions of entrepreneurial management, defined as a set of opportunity-based constructs, was measured by the EM measurement scale. Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) was assessed with the Miller/Covin- Slevin scale and linked to the entrepreneurial or innovative process of the company. Analysis of 178 samples (n=2229) indicated positive relationships between the variables, confirming theories in literature on the effects or predictions of the elements in the CE strategy on each other. The effect of success or failure in implementation indicated no moderating effect. Recommendations to address in future research are suggested. / MT2017

This research study sought to explore typical organisational structures that are prevalent in South African large construction companies, and investigate their behaviour towards employee involvement. The study proceeded by providing an understanding of the relationship between organisational structures and employee involvement, and draws general deductions of the influence of employee involvement on organisational performance. The aim of this research was to investigate the level of employee involvement on various organisational structures as employee involvement was felt as one of the contributing factors towards the success of any construction company. It was acknowledged that inappropriate organisational design leads to poor involvement of employees. The scope of this research is limited to the selected five large construction companies in South Africa. The research approach to the study was quantitative in nature, collected data was statistically analysed and presented through appropriate means. Research techniques employed for data collection were surveys and interviews. Surveys were completed by employees, while interviews were conducted with management level staff using a selfadministered questionnaire. A sample population of 71 respondents was obtained from a study response rate of 33%. The research findings confirmed the existence of a relationship between organisational structures and employee involvement. It was also revealed that from the large construction companies investigated, 60%, use hybrid (a combination of divisional and geographical) structures as their organisational structure. Two of the three (67%) hybrid structured companies achieved the best organisational performance measured over a period between 2008 and 2012. In conclusion, hybrid structures have proven to be the most appropriate organisational structures that are encouraging to employee involvement. From the findings, companies structured in this manner achieved the best financial results by becoming the first and second achievers in the overall financial assessment. Companies can be similarly structured, but may differ substantially in their effectiveness because organisational success lies in employee involvement and the quality of the human resources at its disposal. When implemented properly, employee involvement impacts the customer experience and subsequently, the overall organisational performance by means of high productivity and profitability. This study makes a modest contribution to the understanding of the relationship between employee involvement and organisational performance in the South African construction industry. Similarly to the previous studies in other sectors and countries, the findings of this study provided empirical evidence that employee involvement has an influence on organisational performance. The implications of this study to the South African construction industry are as follows: construction companies must constantly seek for opportunities to participate on projects outside the country. There are substantial work opportunities that are available in other developing economies such as: Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Congo, etc. At this point in time, the South African construction industry is not able to sustain all its role players. The South African government has to finally unlock the infrastructure expenditure plans that have been on the pipeline for a long time. This country as a developing economy still reflects huge infrastructural backlogs, and this expenditure could ignite the much needed growth and development for the entire economy. South Africa’s large construction companies are to expand and show real growth in as far as competing at global stage with some of the biggest construction firms in the world. This would lead to growth and expansion of all construction companies and effectively the development of the entire construction industry. The attempt to attain best practise international standards will also lead to improvements in poor performances that have constantly plagued the industry in the recent past. Keywords: Organisational Structures, Employee Involvement, Organisational Performance, Construction Industry, South Africa

Outsourcing has become a significant factor in the U.S. economy over the past two decades. Annual report disclosures made by a firm related to outsourcing are voluntary disclosures. Understanding the determinants and firm performance implications of initial outsourcing annual report disclosures is important to capital market providers, standards developers, and to the firms themselves. I identify and study firms making initial voluntary disclosures of outsourcing in their annual reports on Form 10-K between 1993 and 2003 after they make non-annual report related public disclosures. Specifically, I investigate if determinants of the initial annual report disclosure decision and subsequent performance are associated with the initial disclosure. This study contends managers disclose information related to outsourcing in their annual reports to reduce information asymmetry and to minimize agency costs. I hypothesize and develop a firm-related variable commonly used in agency theory to test this assertion. Signaling theory and voluntary disclosure theory also explain the determinants for firm voluntary outsourcing annual report disclosures. I develop several hypotheses defining determinants potentially associated with the likelihood of initial annual report outsourcing disclosure decisions, and test these determinants using a conditional logistic regression model and a matched-pair group of firms making public outsourcing disclosures but not making annual report disclosure. Using signaling theory, I also develop hypotheses testing if the initial outsourcing annual report disclosure sends a signal regarding future firm performance--specifically testing firm performance measures related to profitability and cash flow. I test these hypotheses using OLS models and the same matched-pair group of firms. I find firms with high levels of debt, high total cost ratios, and high returns on assets are more likely to make initial annual report outsourcing disclosure. / I also find firms may signal improvements in future levels of profitability when making the initial annual report outsourcing disclosure. / by Ronald F. Premuroso. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, FL : 2008 Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration in Project Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / Organisations in both private and public sector have embraced Project Management as the ideal means of managing projects with the hopes of ensuring that they deliver their intended benefit. Projects have therefore become particularly prominent within the public sector including Municipalities, as a means of fulfilling developmental goals and delivering services. This has resulted in organisations investing considerable resources to ensure that they build the capacity needed to effectively manage projects. This investment usually takes the form of training and development of project managers or adopting and implementing project management methodologies with clear processes that guide how projects are managed. Within academia there has also been a broad spectrum of research devoted to the field of project management. A major focus area of project management research has been to determine the value of Project Management by measuring aspects of an organization’s project management performance and how best they can improve it to ensure project success. However, despite the advances in Project research and the practice of project management, organisations continue to face low project success rates. Findings from previous research has found that project management is very context specific and that there is not a ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to implementing project management practices. Therefore, organisations should be tailoring their project management approach to best suit their unique needs. This study has therefore chosen to evaluate project management performance within Municipalities in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. The aim of which was to find how best municipalities can improve their current performance and ensure project success. The rationale for this research is further supported by evidence which indicates that project management within the public sector is generally less developed than in the private sector. In this study a construct was developed to define project management performance consisting of Project Management Maturity, the impact of project teams and effective project partnerships. Project management maturity was analysed adapting a project management maturity model developed by Labuschagne and Marnewick (2008). Project success was defined by five project success criteria that were identified through literature reviews. The success criteria consisted of the completion of a project within time, budget, quality requirements, satisfaction of the public’s needs and ensuring organizational success. A survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to 108 project managers working within a selected municipal department in South Africa. The results of this research has provided evidence of the link between project management performance and project success within municipalities. These findings provide insights on which aspects of their project management practice a municipality should focus on and develop to maximise project success. In addition, the research also contributes to a deeper insight into the application, benefits and pitfalls of project management maturity models.

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration in Project Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / The single most critical factor responsible for the success of any project is the human element as this is the point at which projects succeed. Senior technically qualified managers have recorded high failure rates in areas where they have hard skills relevant to the industry. The levels of technical expertise and technology should have facilitated the project execution process and increased the success rate of project management. Contrary to this, the IT industry for instance, has recorded an average 47% failure rates regardless of the fact that IT specialists manage them. Project management has been defined as a unique undertaking limited by time, quality and budget within a prescribed scope. Depending on the type of the project, there is a need for different expertise to operate in the different stages in the life cycle of the project as well as the elements or WBSs of the project. Where people are involved there is bound to be conflicts, and these conflicts need to be managed. Because of the nature of project management, specialists who together comprise of the project team head WBSs. This team originates from different sources, and in the matrix system is comprised of people seconded to the project but whose loyalty remains with their departments. Such teams are therefore comprised of people who may not share the same culture or work ethics, together with the differences in approaching their duties. It becomes the responsibility of the project leader therefore to enable these “secondments” to be satisfied in their new positions so that they can be productive. This research sought out to identify generic requirements to satisfy a team and get the best out of the team.

Skill deficiencies in organisations affect performance, productivity, economic growth and development. Despite quantitative studies and current policy discussions, which acknowledge that skill deficiencies have negative impacts on both employers and employees in developed countries, these studies placed little or no emphasis on the potential impact of skill shortages in developing economies. On the other hand, descriptive studies on skill shortages in Nigeria gave accounts of possible effects on economic growth, however, relatively little is known about the incidence of skill deficiencies experienced by organisations and their impacts on business and employee performance, growth and development. This mixed methods study explored the impact of skill deficiencies on organisations' performance, economic growth and infrastructure delivery, effects on employees, how these effects are managed and possible ways of sustaining skills. A sequential explanatory mixed methods design was used to explore both employers' and employees' experiences of skill deficiencies and possible management measures. This method facilitated the exploration of both convergent and divergent views between employers and employees, assisted in avoiding the subjectivity of using only employers' accounts and provided avenues for capturing salient features of why skill deficiencies occur. Both employers and employees participated in the survey (n=263) and interviews (n= 45). The results suggest that although oil and gas organisations experienced significant skill deficiencies on both business and employee performance and infrastructure delivery; higher impacts were felt in upstream organisations. The economic consequences of skill shortages on individuals, firms and aggregate economy extends to job satisfaction, hiring costs, adoption of new technologies and new work processes, workload, turnover and commitment. Both employers and employees identified that current skill deficiencies affect their performance, potentials for growth and provision of services to clients, adding that the many consequences necessitated the use of various skill and workforce development strategies in managing these effects. Even with the recognition that incidence of skill shortages require supply side response, while skill gaps needs training; the results nonetheless showed that training was used for both skill shortages and skills gaps alongside other workforce development. The findings clarified the causes and extent of skill deficiencies on organisations and proposes changes for remediation of these deficiencies. One of the changes required relates to the need for collaboration and partnership of the social partners of skills, and building links between the world of learning and the world of work. Overall, the structural factors highlight the need for reforming and rejuvenating the education system and investing in skills.

Employee engagement is the main topic of discussion among researchers and managers for over 24 years. Managing employee engagement is critical to the success of an organization, but 85% of manager's struggle with engaging employees. The purpose of this single case study was to explore employee engagement strategies that credit union managers use to increase productivity and organizational effectiveness. Expectancy theory was used to explore employee engagement, performance, and motivation of people in the workplace. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and observations with 6 credit union managers and company documents using thematic coding. Analysis of the data revealed that, among these credit union managers, effective communication, training and coaching, and rewards and recognition are management strategies required to improve employee engagement, productivity and organizational effectiveness. These findings may provide credit union managers with guidelines to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of engagement strategies to fit the culture of the credit union. The results of this study may provide credit union managers with guidelines on the causes of disengagement and how employee engagement could be improved within the organization. Researchers may consider conducting a multiple case study that include other credit unions within Louisiana to understand the similarities and differences between strategies used to engage employees. The results of this study may impact positive social change by improving the competitive environment of the credit union industry through engagement within community and society.

In pursuing sustainable competetive advantage, firms undertake a range of strategic initiatives such as innovation, customer relationship management, entering new markets overseas, and competetive actions within current marketplaces. Studies that examine these initiatives generally investigate the firm's strategy by either: (i) focussing on one strategy only, and examining its impact on firm performance and the role of employees in the implementation of this strategy; or (ii) studying the interaction of two or more strategies. This study explores the interaction between two strategies, innovation and market orientation, and identifies key components of the market orientation construct that interact with the innovation process. This study utilised both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The quantitative data collection used scales which had been previously developed that show high reliability and have gained a level of acceptance in the literature. A survey was sent to companies that matched the target population characteristics. The survey measured five things : (a) the market orientation of the firm, (b) the innovativeness of the firm, (c) the firm performance, (d)aspects of the firm's competetive environment, and (e) changes in the firm's competetive environment. The data analysed was gathered using appropriate statistical techniques. The qualitative research comprised a sermi-structured interview with key informants from a sample of the organisations who participated in the participated in the quantitative data. This study crossed two distict general disciplines, that of marketing and management, and presents four key findings (a) that firm innovation and firm market orientation are strategic reactions to changes in the market environment, (b)that market orientation is a part of the firm's innovation process, (c) information about customers and competitors is used in the innovation process when assessing the need to innovate, and (d) the employee is the link between market orientation and the firm's innovation process. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study is primarily about the Open Organisations Profile, a questionnaire developed in the United States by Professor Oscar Mink (1991) to assess openness in the workplace and thus assist in decisions on organisational change and development. The Open Organisations Profile was developed as an assessment tool of the Open Organisations theoretical model. The Open Organisations Model offers researchers a lens to assess an organisational system and the system’s ability to adapt to internal and external changes in its environment, while maintaining a sense of unity.While the Open Organisations Profile has been used extensively in Australia and the United States of America, limited research has examined its psychometric properties. This current set of studies aimed to examine the psychometric qualities of the instrument. The first study examined the reliabilities and factor structure of the Open Organisations Profile. Results indicated that the Open Organisations Profile displayed high internal consistency ranging from r = .80 to r = .95. Furthermore confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed the theoretical three factor model of unity, internal responsiveness and external responsiveness.The second study assessed cultural differences and similarities between Australia and American using the profile. The findings suggested that significant differences existed between the countries and also between male and female values across the nine dimensions measured.The final study examined the relationships between the three higher order factors of openness and customer satisfaction and sales performance. The study found that the three factors of openness had a mediating effect on customer satisfaction and sales performance. The three studies showed the Open Organisation Profile offers researchers a reasonably reliable and valid instrument for assessing the openness of an organisation and its ability to adapt to internal and external changes in the organisation’s environment. Furthermore, the Open Organisations Profile could be used as guide to the areas that need to be addressed to help the organisation improve service delivery, customer satisfaction and financial return.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri--Rolla, 2007. / Vita. The entire thesis text is included in file. Title from title screen of thesis/dissertation PDF file (viewed November 26, 2007) Includes bibliographical references (p. 52-58).