Organisations worldwide are continuing to offshore more and more of their work tasks across national boundaries, to countries with lower labour costs. These offshored tasks, which were performed by local knowledge workers in the past, now also include activities like research, development, and innovation. In a time where growth industries are those with the highest degree of knowledge work, and the most profitable organisations are those with the most knowledge workers, the importance of retaining these valuable resources by ensuring a healthy employment relationship cannot be over emphasised. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact that knowledge task offshoring has on the employment relationship of knowledge workers. A quantitative research methodology was followed, and the responses of 85 individuals were examined through the theoretical lenses of the psychological contract, organisational commitment, turnover intention and job insecurity. The main findings of the research was that offshoring resulted in higher levels of perceived psychological contract breach and violation scores, while it did not have any negative impacts on the scores for job security, turnover intention, organisational commitment or perceived employer or employee obligations associated with the psychological contract. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / lmgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

Investment into offshore wind farms has been growing to address the growing threat of climate change. The majority of offshore wind turbines (both current and planned) are founded on monopiles, large circular steel pipe piles ranging from 4.0 m – 7.5 m in diameter. Based on available borehole records, most planned wind turbines in the UK will be founded in overconsolidated clay deposits. Monopile design is done via usage of the well established p-y curves. However, there are issues with the usage of the p-y curves. Firstly, the curves may be unsuitable to model the monopile’s behaviour as it is expected to behave similarly to a rigid pile rather than flexibly. Secondly, the curves may not accurately estimate the initial pile-soil stiffness. Thirdly, the curves are not comprehensive enough to account for the accumulated strain and stiffness changes resulting from cyclic loading. Considering these issues, research was carried out to improve the current design of monopiles in clay by carrying out displacement controlled monotonic and load controlled cyclic load tests in a centrifuge. Results from monotonic tests suggest that the DNV (2014) design methodology to construct p-y curves in clay based on Matlock’s (1970) soft clay criterion significantly underestimate stiffness. Findings suggested that the experimental p-y curves could be characterised through modification of the criterion. Modification of the criterion produced estimates that matched the 3.83 m monopile experimental curves. Pile toe shear force was observed to contribute little to ultimate lateral resistance and stiffness. Despite the marginal contribution, an effort was made to characterise the pile toe shear force. Estimates of the modified criterion on the 7.62 m monopile did not match the observations, indicating that further research should be carried out to improve the modified criterion. The cyclic tests displayed two distinct regimes; the stiffening regime and the softening regime. Results suggests that cyclic loads of different characteristics influence the locked in stress conditions of the soil which in turn influence the excess pore pressure behaviour, hence dictating whether the stiffening or softening regime takes place. Suggestions were made regarding the conditions that dictated whether the stiffening or softening regime would take place. In the stiffening regime, the stiffening rate decreased with increasing strain while as the accumulated rotation rate increased with vertical load for the same cyclic load magnitude. The softening regime was determined to be extremely detrimental as the high rates of softening and accumulated rotations could cause failure of the system in the short-term. Recommendations were made to estimate the cyclic stiffness and accumulated rotations resulting from both stiffening and softening regime.

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Ship automatic pilot system design has captured the attention of many prominent control engineers with the increasing demand for accurate and more adequate pilots to keep a tighter control in more confined waterways and reduce fuel consumption by improving the course of navigation. Strategies for ship control involving both classical and modern schemes are examined. These include the pole-assignment controller which is an attractive scheme with a simple nature. Modern optimal techniques are also used to reduce the propulsion losses and minimise the travelled distance; the minimum variance controller is implemented for both course-keeping and course-changing requirements. The self-tuning (adaptive) approach which combines the controller design and the identification of system parameters is implemented and various parameter estimation algorithms are examined. Finally a dual-mode adaptive autopilot is designed that can be switched between course-keeping and course-changing with the helmsman taking over if the situation demands.

Notwithstanding that civil liability for pollution damage as well as compensation is emphatically recognised and established under international treaty, there is a conspicuous absence of a single comprehensive regional framework as well as universal treaty that address this issue with regards to offshore oil and gas exploration. The reason for this might not be unconnected to the occasional occurrence of offshore platform and oil well blowouts. Meanwhile, offshore operations pose a constant threat to the marine environment particularly in the face of new and continuous technological advancement as well as human quest for energy-oil supply, which has encouraged ultra deep exploration of oil and gas, therefore making ecological disaster imminent. The adoption of regional arrangement has been the trend adopted to tackle this predicament and this has been made more pronounced by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) by its declaration that ‘as much as bilateral and regional agreements are in view, global one is not’ coupled with the deafening silence of other related United Nations’ organs on the issue. So in the light of this, this study argues that Africa’s single and comprehensive regional treaty on offshore oil rig regulation is long overdue. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2015 / Centre for Human Rights / LLM / Unrestricted

Abstract  In 2001, the Australian government implemented the Pacific Solution, which is known today as Operation Sovereign Borders. This policy is designed to hold asylum-seekers arriving by boat to Australia on Pacific islands that are geographically and politically external to Australia, keeping them in what is commonly known as offshore processing and detention centers. This thesis examines the way in which these offshore processing detention centers are portrayed in the media and provides a comparative study between Australian and international publications through qualitative text analysis of the consistently occurring themes in news coverage of the issue. The importance of the thesis originates from the previous lack of international media coverage and criticism revolving around the offshore processing detention centers.

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