Until recently South Africa experienced an economic decline, however, despite the current positive trends, many large corporations are compelled to reduce personnel costs. Retrenchments have therefore become an increasingly common occurrence within South Africa. This has had an impact on the level of organisational commitment, absenteeism and turnover. Studies support the link between the levels of organisational commitment of employees, absenteeism and subsequently labour turnover. There is a relative lack of research in South African organisations into the influence of retrenchments on employees within call centre environments that have undergone retrenchments. The aims of this study was therefore to identify the levels of organisational commitment amongst call centre employees who survived a retrenchment that occurred in 2001.

Thesis (M.M. (Business Executive Coaching))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School, 2017 / The body of knowledge on transformation is growing and previous researchers have set a foundation by focusing on different aspects of B-BBEE and legislative redress. Scientific research on coaching as a tool to facilitate legislative redress is emerging. The objective of the research was to add to the emerging body of knowledge and uncover how South African businesses approach transformation, what processes and resources they use and what best practices are applied and if opportunities existed to introduce new concepts and frameworks, such as Coaching. The study used qualitative research methodology. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with two employees in four different organisations, four technical signatories in two verification agencies and four B-BBEE consultants. The organisations who participated in the research qualified as level, one, two and three contributors to B-BBEE. It was assumed that the B-BBEE level would indicate the extent of transformation in the organisations. Transformation in South Africa remains a contentious issue for business and employee responses to redress range from positive to negative. Organisations have been slow to respond to the people aspects of transformation. From the research, it was evident that organisations, verification agencies and consultants interchanged B-BBEE and transformation, implying that in South Africa, the concepts were similar, if not the same. Organisations’ responses to B-BBEE were still very reactive and at the time of the interviews, the respondents all expressed varying levels of concern to the gazetting of the amended B-BBEE Codes of Good Practice. The view held, was that the amended codes would require organisations to take a more strategic view of transformation. Only one of the four organisations interviewed confirmed that they had a transformation strategy. As for the other organisations, the strategies could be described as emerging Best practice is beginning to emerge and on some elements of the scorecard, improvements can be seen as organisations adapt approaches to yield a return on investment. Coaching as a resource to facilitate transformation was approached with caution even though the respondents recognised that third party interventions were necessary. The research builds a case for coaching as a tool to embed learning and development as organisations shift from a tactical response to B-BBEE to a more progressive or authentic goal. / MT2017

Until recently South Africa experienced an economic decline, however, despite the current positive trends, many large corporations are compelled to reduce personnel costs. Retrenchments have therefore become an increasingly common occurrence within South Africa. This has had an impact on the level of organisational commitment, absenteeism and turnover. Studies support the link between the levels of organisational commitment of employees, absenteeism and subsequently labour turnover. There is a relative lack of research in South African organisations into the influence of retrenchments on employees within call centre environments that have undergone retrenchments. The aims of this study was therefore to identify the levels of organisational commitment amongst call centre employees who survived a retrenchment that occurred in 2001.

The aim of this research was to develop a substantive grounded theory describing the process of change and the management of organizational inertia, or resistance to change, by strategic leaders transitioning churches from a programme-based to a cell-based model. The grounded theory was developed using the conventions of the Straussian version of the grounded theory method, and relying largely upon the collection of incidents through interviews with leaders of churches that embarked upon the cell-church transition. In all, 38 interviews were conducted with leaders of churches representing a range of denominations located in a number of provinces in South Africa. Based on the premise that substantive theories are contextually bound rather than context free, the contextual characteristics of this study are highlighted. Drawing from organizational theory, it is recognised that churches can be conceptualised as solidary organizations, normative organizations, congregations and voluntary organizations or associations. Viewing churches as solidary organizations highlights the role of solidary rewards in the change process, while viewing them as congregations, emphasises their religious character. Furthermore, the context of the study is embedded in the nature of the specific type of change being embarked upon, as represented by the cell-church transition. Drawing on concepts derived from the change management literature, the type of change I investigated, I classified as intangible, episodic, teleological, second-order change, highlighting the importance of social interaction. The grounded theory that was constructed describes the phases of the change process, and how the actions of leaders interact with the sense of community of the church. Three effective patterns of leadership were identified (i.e. the freewheeler, the focused-pioneer and the reflexive-accommodator) along with their ineffective counterparts (i.e. the static non-leader, the rigid combatant and the popular people pleaser). It was argued that effective leadership involves balancing the three effective patterns over time, and that a failure to achieve this balance produced an ineffective pattern. Furthermore, ineffective leadership damaged the credibility of leaders, as their actions harmed the sense of community. A loss of credibility compromised the leader’s ability to lead change. A number of approaches to understanding organizational inertia or resistance to change were examined in an attempt to locate the grounded theory in the literature and to use the literature to shed light on the findings of this study. While this literature did provide some useful insights and confirmations, no single theoretical perspective seemed to supply a comprehensive explanation. Instead, social capital theory offered a more encompassing explanation, and as such, showed much promise as a body of literature that can be used to develop an understanding of organizational change. Finally, recommendations are made for future research and the value of this research is discussed.

The research problem that was investigated in this study was to identify, explore and confirm the problems and management obstacles encountered with the change process in the South African Police Service (SAPS) from the time when South Africa became a democracy in 1994. Although national legislation and SAPS policies and directives that encourage change in the SAPS indicated the movement towards change to implement transformation, it is questionable in what way these principles of transformation are successfully implemented, what the significance and implications of these legislation and directives are, and also the effect they have on transformation in the SAPS. Data was collected from questionnaires, a literature study, focus group interviews and interviews. Structured questionnaires concerning transformation in the SAPS were designed and distributed to 39 station commissioners in the Pretoria and Soweto policing areas. Furthermore, a literature study including material such as official SAPS documents, media and newspaper reports, library sources and national legislation regarding change has been presented. Data was also collected from non-commissioned officials who participated in four focus groups interviews, and four semi-structured interviews were conducted individually with four station commissioners in the Pretoria and Soweto policing areas. International best practices have also been consulted. The research conducted indicated that although progress has been made with transformation in the SAPS a breach exists between national legislation, SAPS policies and directives and the implementation thereof, which have an impeding influence on the transformation process in the SAPS. It is clear that internal communication is an essential and dynamic instrument in the SAPS, however, communication of the transformation process does not have the impact at ground level that it is supposed to have. It is also clear that members at ground level lack knowledge of the transformation process in the SAPS and the implementation thereof. In addition, conveying the sense of urgency to members at ground level need attention and must be communicated clearly and timeously. Training and development at the lower hierarchical levels of the SAPS also need priority to enhance service delivery, public relations, the morale and conduct of members. A high number of members also need to be motivated during transformation and their readiness towards the process has to be addressed to adapt to the changes. Reasons for resisting transformation in the SAPS need urgent attention as well because this has a negative effect on the daily functioning of members. The recommendations drawn from the conclusions made in this study may provide a number of solutions that can be implemented in the SAPS to reduce the obstacles impeding the transformation process in the SAPS to enhance and improve transformation in this organisation. / Criminal Justice / M. Tech. (Criminal Justice)

Organizations in South Africa have been going through a great deal of change in recent years. However, little is known about the effects on employees. This study aimed to ascertain the psychological impact of change on the employees of a large public service organization, the South African Police Service. The findings were contrary to what was expected with the only significant difference between the samples being for anxiety in black managers. Circumstances outside the work situation were the strongest predictors for stress, anxiety and depression. However, factors in the work situation played a more significant role in predicting the variance in stress and anxiety in the second sample. The within group differences were the opposite of what was expected with black managers having higher stress and depression levels than their white counterparts in both samples and higher anxiety levels than both their white and coloured counterparts in the second sample. / Psychology / M.A. (Research Psychology)

There has never been an age in which change did not take place. However, the increase in the unpredictability of many factors of the 21st century means that organisations are susceptible to, and must embrace change. This results in an increase in the pace at which organisations may have to deal with change. This research study evaluates the interventions considered to bring about optimal change within organisations. In order to complete this study it was necessary to address the fundamentals of change management, tools utilised to manage change and the current theoretical models that assist organisations in managing change. The study took place within the Eastern Cape as it is regarded as the second fastest growing economy in South Africa. The researcher used the automotive cluster as the population for the study as it is the largest industry within the Eastern Cape. Based on the theoretical findings of a literature survey a questionnaire was developed and distributed to a randomly selected sample in the automotive cluster. The objective of the questionnaire was to evaluate the theory used and to develop a process model of change management. The results of the empirical study were statistically analysed and interpreted. Among the most important findings of the research was the fact that organisations in the Eastern Cape do not follow any specific theoretical model for managing change and very few organisations have a formal change management policy. Although the respondents to the survey acknowledged that it is imperative to engender an awareness of change management principles, especially among top management, the majority does not adhere to this principle because it is too time consuming! This research study highlights a number of areas where the management of change can be improved and presents a practical process model that can be adapted and used by the majority of organisations within the East Cape Motor Industry Cluster.

Diversity management is of strategic importance in all organisations throughout the world. Its importance is derived from the belief that workplaces by nature consist of diverse employees, who in one way or another are different in terms of race, gender, religion, or any other difference that may have an impact on the business and its employees. The differences among people need to be managed. This study investigated the influence of diversity management initiatives on business and social outcomes in South African businesses. Literature reviews on diversity management and multicultural education in various parts of the world have revealed an impact on the influence of diversity management initiatives on business and social outcomes. However, existing South African literature on diversity management does not conclusively expose the effects of diversity management on business and social outcomes, hence the need for this study. The study was based on a conceptual framework, which included variables on diversity management initiatives, diversity management models, institutional development theory and business and social outcomes. Hypotheses for the study were also developed and tested. In testing the hypotheses, the empirical data collected was subjected to a series of statistical tests, using STATISTICA version 13. MANOVA tests were conducted to determine the existence of differences among variables and the extent to which the variables differed was measured by means of ANOVA tests. Tukey post hoc tests (Tukey HSD) were used to determine practical significance among variables. The study was also subjected to Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient analysis tests to ascertain the existence of relationships between all diversity management initiatives and business and social outcome factors. The analysis was concluded by conducting an exploratory factor analysis. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to confirm or reduce the number of factors and the number of factors was subsequently reduced. A Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient test was also done for the extracted factors, after which a regressions analysis test was conducted to confirm the existence of relationships between the extracted diversity management initiatives factors and business and social outcomes factors. This formed the basis for the development of a proposed diversity management model. The model of the implementation of diversity management initiatives is an important contribution to the study because it shows the different aspects that guide the process of implementation. The model is based on the implementation of a formal diversity management change strategy and programme of action; employment equity plan and strategy; and the recruitment and empowerment of women and people living with disabilities. The study was not without limitations. Challenges with regard to access to respondents were experienced and this was one of the delays in data collection. Another challenge experienced was that the study did not include qualitative research approaches, which could have been used for in-depth responses. The study provides an important milestone for the use of diversity management initiatives in South African companies.

D.Litt. et Phil. (Public Management and Governance) / This study focused on the variables that influence change leadership competencies to strategically manage transformation within the South African public sector. One of the key aims was to develop a competency framework for transformational leaders in senior public management positions. The thesis provided a conceptual description and explanation of appropriate and adequate leadership concepts, theories, approaches and phenomena that influence leadership role competencies for change management. It also contributed to a specific level of understanding of appropriate and adequate change concepts, theories and phenomena regarding the problem of change leadership role competencies. Furthermore, the study also investigated strategic leadership concepts, theories and approaches for addressing the problem of strategic leadership role competencies. A modernist qualitative research methodology was followed, where grounded theory was applied as the research strategy. Furthermore, a qualitative coding paradigm was established to develop an integrated model of strategic and transformational leadership competencies in order to manage organisational change. Importantly, the qualitative coding paradigm was developed to enable public sector employers to develop a competency framework that encompass the key leadership skills, behaviours, attributes and knowledge for senior public managers who have to cope effectively with organisational change within a public sector environment. The study contributed to the development of a substantive theory of the organisational change process. Furthermore, on a practical level, it contributed to the disciplinary and methodological fields of Public Management, Public Leadership and Public Governance.

M.A. / The management of human resources is becoming increasingly important for the continued existence of South African organisations. Political, economic, technological and demographic pressure is forcing organisations to change. Employee involvement through the activation of small groups is of crucial importance to organisations that have to adapt to a fast-changing environment. Organisations must establish the necessary climate, structures and processes that effect teamwork, flexibility and quality service-rendering in a supportive way. Quality circles are an improvement intervention for organisations, which is based on the principle of participative management. Quality circles are aimed at improving individuals' working conditions through participative management, which will promote self-management in support of an organisation's objectives. The successful implementation of quality circles results in motivated employees who will give the organisation the necessary competitive edge to tackle challenges in a dynamic way. At a time when matters such as transformation, affirmative action and equal opportunities play an important part in the South African Police Service, training education and development are of cardinal importance. The correct implementation of the participative management style serves as the basis of an organisation's success. The quality circles technique sets guidelines for the correct implementation of the participative management style. The participative management style has a positive impact on performance, production, morale and job satisfaction. Numerous research findings prove that participative management does indeed make a difference. Quality circles represent a technique that facilitates the process of participative management. The need for an interventionist strategy to facilitate the process of development and change within the South African Police Service has been identified. This study subscribes the said need since its objective is to make recommendations that could be of value to the South African Police Service. An exploratory study was done with regard to the implementation of the participative management style in the South African Police Service. Data was gathered by means of questionnaires that were processed quantitatively, with the purpose of establishing to what extent the SAPS is experiencing the need for quality circles and which problems should be addressed by means of quality circles. Through this study the SAPS was made aware of the advantages and the functioning of the quality circles for the effective implementation of the participative management style. The recommendations are practical an could lead to increased productivity and job satisfaction. Qualitative data was gathered by means of and extensive literary study and quantitative data was gathered by means of questionnaires. The trustworthiness of the method of gathering the qualitative data was confirmed by means of literaturecontrole The reliability and validity of the method of gathering the quantitative data was confirmed by means of a factor analysis.