M.Com. (Business Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The current social, economic and technological climate requires the management of change, which is sustainable. One sustainable corporate quality will be the ability to learn as an organisation. Individuals have traditionally equated learning with the acquisition of knowledge, during early age. The understanding of learning changes as individuals learn as a group within an organisation. Often organisations fail to make the connection between learning and training. To become learning environment there should be an existence of three critical issues, namely, individual, team and organisational learning. The five requirements of learning organisation, namely, systems thinking, personal mastery shared vision, team learning and mental models should be mastered to build a learning environment. A learning environment seeks to create its own future, which assumes that learning is an ongoing and creative process for its members. The concept believes that organisations, which learn develops, adapts and transform itself in response to the needs and aspirations of the people. One of the reasons to fail this connection would be the absence of immediate tangible benefits that organisational learning can provide. The other difficulty could be in translating the theory into practice in the absence of explaining the process sequentially. Organisations are experiencing the need to develop capabilities to handle challenges irrespective of the barriers. The learning organisation constitutes a new perspective on learning which emphasise a shift in organisational management with respect to education, training and development. One way of adopting such capabilities is through adopting the precepts of the learning organisation. The academics, management and practitioners have joined hands in unravelling the concepts and processes of the learning organisation and change management. The study attempts to examine and explain the thinking and synergise various approaches to provide the relationship between the organisation change in Eskom by creating a learning environment. This is not a prescriptive document or critique on the current philosophy, but to create a learning environment model for Eskom within which change will be effected. The information will assist Eskom to accelerate its learning rate to sustain competitive advantage. The organisation needs to embrace change rather than to react to solutions. / Thesis (D Admin (Public Administration))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) / unrestricted

Leadership in South Africa have been gIven the major responsibility of having to transform and renew their organisation in order that they may now compete in the global economy and that they are furthermore aligned to the socio-political dynamics and imperatives of the country. Ensuring organisational renewal and survival and meeting the requirements of labour legislation places extraordinary pressure on company leaders. Most South African leaders obtained their managerial experience and expertise during a period characterised by environmental stability and predictability and are now faced with unfamiliar conditions and environmental stressors for which most of them are dismally prepared. This study demonstrates that given the turbulent environment in which leadership had to operate, there were few leaders who were able to meet these new challenges within their organisations. The way in which these leaders were able to shift their organisation from its present state to the desired state was examined in this study. The study showed that despite the use of transformational leadership to effect many aspects of the transformation process, all leaders tended to resort at some stage of the transformation process, to a dictatorial and overtly 'quasi-military' style of leadership. Once the organisation had been renewed and stabilised, leaders were more likely to incorporate traditional elements of transformational leadership. Leaders therefore only tended to become more democratic, participative and person centred once their organisations had become sufficiently stable to cope with new and threatening conditions. / Dissertation (DPhil (Industrial Sociology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Sociology / unrestricted

Business and academic communities have indicated that organisations have the ability to maintain a long-term competitive advantage through leveraging knowledge within the organisation. This is through the implementation of a knowledge management programme. During implementation of the programme, employees’ commitment and participation is crucial in ensuring successful execution of the knowledge management programme. Change management has been identified as one of the strategic inputs which enable organisational commitment towards this programme. This study aimed at establishing the change strategies that organisations undertake when implementing knowledge management, as well as determining the relevance of Kotter’s eight steps of change during knowledge management implementation. An exploratory design, using a qualitative research methodology approach, was utilised. Twelve organisations formed part of the sample and a total of 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted. The data that was collected underwent content analysis and was thereafter aligned to the change management models. The findings from this research indicated that Beer and Nohria’s proposed change strategies, specifically Theory E&O (combination) is the most dominant strategy overall when implementing knowledge management. Kotter’s eight steps revealed that all steps are relevant when implementing knowledge management. It was concluded that as more of the steps are included and executed during implementation, the success of the knowledge management initiative increases. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

The increased competition in the business environment requires organizations to be innovative and dynamic in order to survive. Entrepreneurial behaviour holds the enabling forces for such innovative and dynamic behaviour and could also become a strategic advantage for an organization. The purpose of this research is to investigate the influence of organizational culture on entrepreneurial capital of employees. A quantitative research methodology was followed to collect the research data. The organizational culture of 185 respondent’s organizations was measured with the organizational culture assessment instrument and was classified according to the competing values model. The entrepreneurial intent, a proxy for entrepreneurial capital, of these respondents was measured with the theory of a planned behavior instrument. Sequential multiple regression analysis was used to analyse the relationship between entrepreneurial intent and organizational culture. The results confirm that an organization’s culture indirectly influences entrepreneurial capital through the antecedent of planned behaviour. This research contributes to explaining why certain organizations are more entrepreneurial than others. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014 / lmgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

There are many divergent opinions on the nature of organisational culture and organisational climate and the relationship between these two constructs. This study was conducted to assess the level of change in organisational culture as measured by an externally administered survey, the organisational climate as measured by an internal survey, and the development in financial performance over the same period. The subject was Comair Ltd, a successful airline operating out of South Africa. The research was conducted in three sections; firstly the organisational culture was examined using the Denison Organisational Culture Survey as administered by Denison Consulting in the USA. The author compared a pre-existing survey from 2011 which contained 53 responses, and a newly commissioned survey in 2014 for which there were 24 responses. Secondly, the author compared the internally administered Comair Think Vision Climate Survey over a period of three years – 2012 to 2014. The response rate for the latest survey was 96% of all Comair employees. Lastly an analysis was conducted of the company’s key financial ratios over an extended period. Notwithstanding concerns regarding the practical significance of the Think Vision data, all three areas showed marked improvements. The financial performance of the company improved dramatically since 2012 and both the culture and the climate survey demonstrated increases. Of interest was the fact that both surveys independently indicated a move towards a more structured, mission oriented company. This development can be traced back to specific developments taking place in the company over the same period. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / zkgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

This research sets out to provide enhanced knowledge on the impact of transformational leadership on employees' innovation behavior. In particular, drawing on leadership and innovation literature, this research attempts to examine such a relationship by both theorizing and testing the extent to which employees' readiness for change mediates on it. Moreover, this research takes the view that the effectiveness of transformational leadership varies according to the presence of different moderating variables. As such, employees' perceived high commitment work system of their firm as well as these employees' learning capability are examined as moderators on the aforementioned relationship. I collected multi-source and supervisor-employee matched data from two hotels, and the results of data analysis supported the total effect of transformational leadership on innovation behavior, the mediating effect of readiness for change, as well as the moderating effect of employee learning capability. The moderating role of high commitment work system was also found significant but opposite to the initially hypothesized direction. Practically, this research offers implications to managers the importance of leadership on facilitating the change and innovation processes in organizations.

Studiens syfte är att undersöka medarbetares respons på konflikthanteringsstilar vidorganisationsförändringar driven av digitalisering. Studien använder hanteringsstilar frånmodellen The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) utformad av Thomas ochKilman (1974). Digitalisering blir allt vanligare och är något som organisationer måsteimplementera för att fortsätta vara konkurrenskraftiga. Förändringar drivna av digitalisering,precis som alla sorters förändringar, kommer att skapa konflikter. Hur dessa konflikterhanteras av ledare är centralt. Medarbetarnas perspektiv har hamnat i skymundan gentemotledarens perspektiv inom forskning och denna studie vill lyfta vikten av just medarbetarna.Genom fokusgruppsdiskussioner har vi kunnat analysera medarbetarnas respons tillkonflikthanteringsstilarna som presenteras av TKI.Studiens slutsats är att medarbetaren har en betydande roll i konflikthanteringen, då derasrespons avgör utfallet av hanteringen. Vår studie finner även en samstämmighet med tidigarestudier, trots att olika perspektiv speglas. / The purpose of the study is to analyze employee's response to conflict management styles inorganizational changes driven by digitalisation. The study uses the model The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) designed by Thomas and Kilman (1974).Digitalization is becoming more ordinary and is something that organizations need toimplement in order to remain competitive. Digital-driven changes, like all kinds of change,will create conflicts. The employees' perspectives have been overshadowed by the leader'sperspective in research and this report wants to highlight the importance of the employee.Through focus group discussions, we have been able to analyze employee's response to theconflict management styles presented by TKI.The study concludes that the employee has a significant role in conflict management, as theirresponse determines the outcome of the action. Our study also finds consistency with previousstudies, although different perspectives are reflected.

Communication is usually seen as a tool for success with organizational change. What makes communication so important is that it lays the foundation for the understanding and perception of the organization and the process of change. This study is about communication between the manager and the employee at times of change. The purpose of this study is not primarily to streamline communication in organizational change, but first and foremost to understand how communication works, what perceptions and reactions create communication between both the manager and the employee. The most important lessons come from six people: three managers and three employees' experiences and perceptions of communication in organizational change in a public organization.  In this study, I explore how managers and employees perceive organizational change, what roles they have in change itself, how their communication works. Here I also discuss what it means to lead change for a manager and to follow the leader for an employee. The results of this study show that there are uncertainties in communication and the desire to improve it. Thanks to this study, it is possible to understand how a lack of communication affects the employee in organizational change, while good communication creates the conditions for successful organizational change.

This article focuses on a case study in revolutionary change. A private school in Mexico City that had functioned for 49 years under the educational arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints underwent a change in mission, purpose, structure, function, and administration in eight months. Research about organizational change contains many conceptual models and principles intended to guide an organization through large-scale change. However, this change occurred without any strict reliance on a specific change model. This qualitative study is directed at empirically discovering what main factors led to success rather than relying on anecdotal assumptions. The change is separated into three major phases: a five-month announcement and planning period, the three-month start-up phase, and a year-long stabilizing period. Data sources included 14 interviews with people who participated in the change, a focus group with managers, and archival documents related to the functioning of the organization during these phases. Six prominent themes came from the data analysis related to change success factors. The most salient was that individual employee attitude's, beliefs and efforts were the main perceived contributing success factor. Others include continuous planning at multiple levels in the organization, the major difficulty yet positive feeling about the change, how different work teams formed and worked together; the role of experienced leaders, the support given to employees in their responsibilities, and sufficient resourcing. Future research should look at the effect of culture clashes when multiple teams are combined under a new vision and purpose and how these cultural differences are moderated by the relationship between organizational factors and employee factors.