The notion that different ownership types may create a divergence in outcome naturally led to an appraisal of the performance of the Nigerian electricity industry and to the investigation of the influence of ownership structures upon performance as a way of explaining the disappointing state of electricity production in Nigeria. This research is primarily concerned with the factors that influence performance, the estimation of efficiency and productivity of the National Electric Power Authority (NEP A) - the integrated public utility responsible for electricity in Nigeria. The first part of the thesis is concerned with developing a conceptual framework for the performance assessment of the public enterprise focusing on transformation of inputs to outputs. The various principles and methods of measuring efficiency are considered. And consequently, an appropriate methodology for the appraisal of NEP A's performance and an examination of how NEP A's production efficiency can be improved is outlined. This provides the basis for the empirical and data analysis, which forms the second part of the thesis. The empirical analyses use the two popular approaches for measuring efficiency. These are the non-parametric (data envelopment analysis and Malmquist productivity index approach) and parametric (stochastic frontier method) approaches. The third part of the thesis investigates the issues pertaining to the reform of the electricity industry from an ownership perspective. Attention is given to privatisation and regulation. Given the state of the industry in Nigeria, and the fact that reform is imminent, a modelling approach is used to examine the impact on performance of changes in ownership type and the organisational structure of the electricity industry. The thesis concludes with a summary of the research findings and draws policy implications of the study for the reform of the electricity industry in Nigeria.

Information technology has fundamentally exercised an impact on the employment relationship. Firstly, and most obviously, technology is often used as a substitute for labour. However, improvements in information technology have also served to complement labour. Thus triggered employees to strive to maintain their status not just as another commodity of production, but a vital cog in the organisation. Organisational structures changed to such an extent that employers consult their employees about introduction and implementation of new information technologies in the workplace in order to ensure a well organised introduction and structured implementation. The aim of this research is to conceptualise the influence of information technology from the literature, and to determine how new information technologies affect and are affected by the efficiency and effectiveness of task execution on the geographical distribution of work, and the distinct differences that can be observed under varying technical conditions in the characteristics of organisational structure and culture, which are cooperation, influence, communication and employment policies. A study population was• identified within an information technology environment. The study population can be defined as employees in different organisations of one information technology environment in Dubai (United Arab Emirates). A stratified random sample of 360 of the total population of 540 employees (66.67%) in the information technology environment was targeted. A response rate of 70% was achieved, of which 252 responses (99.6%) could be utilised. According to analyses of the data and results of the study the researcher was able to conclude that the need for the implementation of advanced information technology in organisations had increased, that is, if organisations wished to operate in the modem world of business, but it was revealed that little if any corrective channels or procedures accompanied such implementation to ensure effectiveness and efficiency. The researcher established that setting clear goals and objectives for the organisation would help to maintain harmonious relationships. This can be only achieved if the parties to the employment relation understand their stand and role concerning new information technologies. The research consists of the following chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction. Chapter 2: Theories of information technology and labour relations. Chapter 3: Influence of information technology on the role players within the labour relations. Chapter 4: Empirical discussion Chapter 5: Overview, recommendations and concluding remarks. Recommendations for the future research are made. / MCom (Industrial Sociology) North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006

Information technology has fundamentally exercised an impact on the employment relationship. Firstly, and most obviously, technology is often used as a substitute for labour. However, improvements in information technology have also served to complement labour. Thus triggered employees to strive to maintain their status not just as another commodity of production, but a vital cog in the organisation. Organisational structures changed to such an extent that employers consult their employees about introduction and implementation of new information technologies in the workplace in order to ensure a well organised introduction and structured implementation. The aim of this research is to conceptualise the influence of information technology from the literature, and to determine how new information technologies affect and are affected by the efficiency and effectiveness of task execution on the geographical distribution of work, and the distinct differences that can be observed under varying technical conditions in the characteristics of organisational structure and culture, which are cooperation, influence, communication and employment policies. A study population was• identified within an information technology environment. The study population can be defined as employees in different organisations of one information technology environment in Dubai (United Arab Emirates). A stratified random sample of 360 of the total population of 540 employees (66.67%) in the information technology environment was targeted. A response rate of 70% was achieved, of which 252 responses (99.6%) could be utilised. According to analyses of the data and results of the study the researcher was able to conclude that the need for the implementation of advanced information technology in organisations had increased, that is, if organisations wished to operate in the modem world of business, but it was revealed that little if any corrective channels or procedures accompanied such implementation to ensure effectiveness and efficiency. The researcher established that setting clear goals and objectives for the organisation would help to maintain harmonious relationships. This can be only achieved if the parties to the employment relation understand their stand and role concerning new information technologies. The research consists of the following chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction. Chapter 2: Theories of information technology and labour relations. Chapter 3: Influence of information technology on the role players within the labour relations. Chapter 4: Empirical discussion Chapter 5: Overview, recommendations and concluding remarks. Recommendations for the future research are made. / MCom (Industrial Sociology) North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006

Successful implementation of new technologies is necessary for survival in today's increasingly competitive banking environment. The banking sector is now the UK's largest investor in new technology. As a result of de-regulation and new technological opportunities, the dominant market position of the traditional banks is under threat from new market entrants. Such organisations are harnessing the latest technology to develop their services, and are not constrained by the costs of running national branch networks and integrating a diverse historical legacy of incompatible computer systems. This thesis addresses the question of why the massive investment by UK retail banks in information technology is not being translated into significant productivity gains. The issue is referred to in the literature as the IT productivity paradox. It will be argued that the importance of the banks to the economy as a whole, and the position of the industry as the UK's largest investor in new technology, make it a particularly suitable arena in which to study this phenomenon. Six empirical case studies of recent new technology projects are analysed by the development of grounded theory. The findings indicate that dysfunctional organisational structures and cultures, together with poor management of expertise, combine to sabotage change and constrain the potential of new technology projects. Most significantly, a lack of organisational learning is contributing to the paradox. Even successful projects had limited impact because the lessons learned were not disseminated throughout the organisation. The study concludes that the full potential offered by information technology will continue to elude the banks until their apparently complacent attitude towards organisational change is addressed.

This thesis analyzes the functioning of the structures of the collaborating institutions within the European grant funds. The cooperation of different institutions is usually not easy and has unique characteristics. The aim of this thesis is to identify factors influencing cooperation, and propose an optimal methodology for institutional cooperation, resulting from the qualitative analysis of the functioning of the cooperation of selected cooperation projects.

Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls, is one of the United Nations (UN) core objectives. However, the UN has been struggling with achieving gender balance in its own organisation, despite numerous attempts. Men have been in numerical dominance at the UN since inception, especially on senior positions. This case study takes place just months after the System-wide strategy for gender parity was launched by Secretary-General Guterres. It captures the initial reactions through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with five women working in one UN body at the UN Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Through these stories and experiences, this thesis aims to analyse the UN as a gendered organisation, focusing on organisational structure and culture. I argue that gendered processes of the organisational structure and culture preserve the male-dominance by having including effects on men and excluding effects on women. In this thesis I use gendered processes (Acker 1992), combined with post-structural policy analysis (Bacchi 2009) and complex systems theory (Ramalingam 2013), as analytical tools to show how equality is constructed and understood as an idea and in practice.

The use of nonviolent tactics has become the most common way to achieve change. The field of civil resistance has been predominantly focussed on the dynamics related to the outcome, however, about the types of organisational structures that are most effective, is no general consensus, yet. This thesis will try to fill this research gap by combining insights from organisational science, social movement studies, and civil resistance literature. The research question that is posed is: How does the organisational structure affect the outcome of civil resistance campaigns? A theoretical typology is created, proposing a four-fold classification system based on two relational characteristics, namely (1) the extent to which relations are either formal or informal, and (2) the extent to which the relations are hierarchical or lateral. A distinction is made between four quadrants with four different types of structures that affect four critical factors that affect the outcome of civil resistance campaigns: mass mobilisation, loyalty shifts, tactical diversity, and resilience. A ‘nested analysis’ approach is used combining quantitative and qualitative methods of research. After having conducted the analysis, the study showed that organisational structures affect the outcome of civil resistance campaigns in several ways. However, the main findings that were expected to be found did not yield significant evidence, as such the formulated hypothesis can ultimately be rejected. The results of the quantitative analysis show that the odds of success are 2.98 times larger in campaigns with formal organisational structures compared to informal structures, and the odds of success are 17.7 times larger in cases with centralised structures compared to clustered structures. Overall, centralised structures have the highest odds of success. Furthermore, the qualitative analysis suggests that unity, trust, and organisational capacity affect the likelihood that civil resistance campaigns achieve success. Future research should focus to further develop this theoretical model, assess the interaction between structural conditions and type of organisational structure adopted by civil resistance campaigns, and the impact that ICTs have on mobilising processes and organisational structure of civil resistance campaigns.

The objective of the study is to examine psychological needs of individuals working as volunteers. The needs can then be understood in relation to the structure of the organisation they are a part of. The results of the empirical study are based on twelve qualitative interviews, where three individuals per organisation were chosen from four different organisations in the south of Sweden.  The result shows three important motives. The first one is the identification of the interviewees’ psychological position, and what factors were expressed as essential. The second motive presents a description of the needs, and the character profiles. The third motive describes the organizational structure’s impact on the individuals’ dedication to their commitment. Based on the analysis of the empirical results, the interviewees working as volunteers have a similar conception of needs. The analysis also shows that a majority of them have similar character traits. The volunteers in this study value the characteristics and values of non-profit commitment. They also value how their primary and secondary needs become satisfied through their volunteering, which they bring forward as something that their paid work does not provide. The choice of organisation, to which they are committed, has been of prime importance. The analysis shows that the non-profit commitment fulfils the purpose of self-realization. However, in order to satisfy the needs of volunteers, the form and structure of the organisation have to function properly. External factors that are not maintained may influence the motivation, which can lead to a lack of drive force and abandonment of the commitment.   Keywords: Volunteering, non-profit organisations, needs, motivation, organisational structures, leadership.

Leadership as a concept has been an area of significance for several decades. While the contribution of research to leadership concept in the industry has been substantial the same cannot be claimed with regard to the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). There is a paucity of research studies in the context of HEIs, particularly in regard to business schools. Deans of business schools were hardly the subject of research in the leadership literature till recently. But with collapsing business empires in the last decade (for instance Lehman Brothers), business school deanship came under scrutiny as the leaders in those business empires that collapsed were graduates of renowned business schools. The review of the literature with respect to challenges affecting HEI and business school leadership threw up many challenges. The challenges investigated were leadership styles, leadership practice, leadership effectiveness, decision quality, follower commitment, follower satisfaction, management style, organisational setting and orgaisational culture. Each challenge was assumed as a factor affecting deans of business schools as leaders. The review of the literature provided the theoretical basis for determining the nature of each factor. Leadership style was defined as the independent variable influencing leadership practice. Five leadership styles namely transactional, transformational, laissez-faire, democratic and autocratic leadership styles were made as independent variables to determine leadership practice. Leadership practice was identified as the independent variable influencing leadership effectiveness although the relationship between leadership practice and leadership effectiveness was supposed to be influenced by mediating factors namely decision quality of deans of business school, follower satisfaction and follower commitment. Academic and administrative staff were considered as the followers. Management style and organisational setting were considered as moderating variables of leadership practice of deans of business schools. Oraganisational structure was used to represent organisational setting as the variable. Organisational culture was used as the control variable. The theoretical framework was drawn to represent the linkage between the factors. The model developed was supported by already established theories that were tested for reliability and validity. The leadership style and leadership effectiveness models were developed which was the focus of this research. Leadership style-leadership practice linkage provided the theoretical framework to determine the style practised by the deans. Leadership practiceleadership effectiveness linkage mediated by decision quality, follower commitment and follower satisfaction provided the theoretical framework to determine the leadership effectiveness. Survey questionnaire was the method used to collect data. The questionnaire was sent to 600 academic and administrative staff members of business schools from eight different countries. The results showed that the transactional leadership style was the leadership style practised by the deans of the business schools. Other findings were as follows. That transactional leadership indirectly but positively influenced the leadership effectiveness of deans through decision quality and follower satisfaction. The mediation of the transactional leadership practice-leadership effectiveness linkage by decision quality and follower satisfaction was significant and in the positive direction. Management style and organisational structure were found to act as moderating variables of transactional leadership practice of deans positively. Transformational, laissez-faire, democratic and autocratic leadership styles were found to have significant and positive correlation with transactional leadership style implying that these four styles could moderate the transactional leadership style-leadership practice linkage. The study offers insights into how deans of business schools might develop their leadership attributes either by enhancing their transactional leadership style or changing their style or combining different styles to suit the situation.

P(p)ublic A(a)dministration is influenced by multiple factors, inclusive of complex policy issues, multi-faceted forms of accountability and hybrid governance models. Consequently, public administration organisations must strengthen their adaptive and complexity capacity to deal with environmental complexity through adopting a different leadership model that is characterised by distinct but complementary leadership functions. Complexity leadership theory (CLT) is thus adopted as an appropriate theoretical lens for the study due to its integrative, collective and relational approach to leadership, in spite of its limited application in the public administration context. Against this background, the purpose of the study is to apply CLT as the basis to determine the required leadership competencies that should underpin a complex adaptive system such as the Governance and Administration (G&A) Cluster of the South African government because of concerns regarding the unevenness or lack of appropriate leadership competencies, behaviours and skills to make the government cluster system effective. To address the purpose of the study and the underlying research problem, a mixed methods research approach was adopted to investigate the leadership competency implications of Public Administration reforms plus their links with intergovernmental relations developments, and the implications of the transition from leader-centric practices to collective and hybrid forms of leadership. An analysis of existing literature in these areas leads to the conclusion that the G&A Cluster, which is an intergovernmental relations structure, is an integral part of hybrid organisational arrangements whose effectiveness requires a different approach to leadership. The literature analysis further identifies a disjuncture between leader-centric practices and conceptions of leadership as a collective, collaborative and hybrid phenomenon. The disjuncture is attributed to the scarcity of leadership and competency-based management (CBM) literature to guide the development of complexity leadership practice, especially in inter-organisational arrangements, and reliance on theoretical analysis as the basis to propose competencies for complexity leadership. Thus, the study addresses the research question and simultaneously contributes towards knowledge and practice by providing an empirical lens to the dynamics of collective leadership in a government inter-organisational structure and advancing CBM through articulating seven adaptable principles and six competency clusters that inform the development of a meso level leadership competency framework for inter-organisational arrangements. The study is also contributing to the application of CLT in P(p)ublic A(a)dministration and improved understanding of CLT’s leadership functions by clarifying its competency dimensions. The study concludes with an outline of implications and recommendations for inter-organisational leadership competency development and practice as well as recommendations for further research. / Thesis (PhD (Public Administration and Management))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (2019-20210) Office of the Public Service Commission (2021) / School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) / PhD (Public Administration and Management) / Unrestricted