Theories within organisation and management studies have offered several concepts and models which indicate that organisational values are important factor for organisational success, including reputation building. Nevertheless, existing theory is still inadequate to explain the link between organisational values and organisation’s reputation because it does not account for the enabling factors that underlies the two concepts. This study argues that the implementation of organisational values is an important organisational action for acquiring positives perceptions of organisational values which influences employee behaviour and shapes organisational reputation. It specifically shows and elucidates the enabling mechanisms that reinforce organisational values to impact on employee perceptions and behaviour. This is important because when employees share and exemplify the values in their work, they are likely to behave in ways that support the organisation’s strategy which impacts on external perceptions and build reputation. This study employed a qualitative approach through a single in-depth case study. It reflects that the understanding of ‘what is going on’ within organisation is most appropriately achieved by building concepts and constructs from empirical studies. By using semi-structured interviews, focus groups and non-participant observations, the data develops and evolves through the responses and behaviours of participants. Employees were selected through purposive sampling and the snow-balling technique was used to reach customers. The data were structured and coded using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that the process of aligning organisational values and employee values is significant for understanding how organisational values influence employee behaviours, which in turn enable the organisation to build its reputation. The data suggest that four remediation phases: aware, articulate, accept and act, are important for explaining how a gap between organisational values and employee values can be reduced. This remediation process enabled the senior management team and employees to understand how their perceptions and reactions towards the implementation of organisational values impact upon attitudes and behaviours. The findings suggest that organisational values can be reinforced through various social influences. Social interactions can occur in different forms including the involvement of leaders of the management team in creating, exampling and communicating values as well as through expanding the employee’s role in enacting values through empowerment and trust building. However, the findings emphasise that the process of cascading and instilling values through a top-down or hierarchical is no feasible. Instead, it is a hybrid approach that requires employee buy-in and involvement especially in communicating and enacting organisational values. This is an important insight because employees regularly interact with each other which provide a valuable platform to persuade and influence other colleagues to embrace organisational values. Additionally, the findings also build on the reputation literature by demonstrating the role of reciprocity and mimicking in behaviour as the consequences of social interactions within the organisation. The opportunity to regularly interact with colleagues enables employees to want to reciprocate in return for what they have received in the workplace. This tacit understanding of reciprocity for mutual benefit and the tendency to imitate other’s behaviour improves employee perceptions of organisations which in turn contribute towards reputation building. The study advances current understandings in the organisational reputation literature by providing a unique theoretical and empirical insight into how organisational values can impact on reputation building. It also highlights the important role of internal mechanisms for shaping both internal perceptions and behaviour as well as external perceptions of organisations.

South Africa has institutionalised the application of combined assurance’s Three Lines of Defence Model (TLDM) through the 3rd and 4th editions of the King Code. Albeit, failure of the TLDM has been documented in recent corporate governance scandals in South Africa. These failures point to the inadequacy of the model in its theoretical underpinnings that place more emphasis on compliance than moral development (acts vs virtue ethics). In this research study, the adequacy of the TLDM was assessed, as well as its effectiveness in dealing with Agency. It was further sought to establish whether competitive advantage could be created through TLDM implementation in South African organisations and to quantify in relative terms, the scope for competitive advantage creation through TLDM application. A mixed research methodology (convergent design) was used to gather quantitative and qualitative insights from governance practitioners in South Africa (concurrently over a cross-sectional time frame). 204 survey respondents and 11 interviewees participated in the study. A statistically valid model for creation of competitive advantage was developed from the quantitative findings while a framework for competitive advantage was developed from the qualitative findings. The findings of the study confirm the inadequacy of the TLDM that it lies in poor implementation by South African organisations than in the model’s theoretical underpinnings. It was concluded that competitive advantage can be created though TLDM implementation in South African organisations, and the scope for creation of competitive advantage is relatively significant. The implementation of TLDM with compliance fixation mediates the creation for competitive advantage through TLDM, while moral development focus in TLDM implementation moderates the relationship between TLDM Adequacy in ethics underpinnings and competitive advantage creation. While the inadequacy of the TLDM was established through this study, the support for the TLDM was still overwhelming, although support for additional levels as contemplated in the Five Levels of Assurance Model (FLAM) was considerable. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / D.B.L. (Strategy and Governance)