This study focusses on language and the communication of meaning within the ICT systems development project management environment. Neglecting to identify the importance of language within the multi-national and multi-cultural ICT project is a major risk to the success of the project. The diversity of the cultures and languages of the project’s human resources and the existence of language barriers are identified and proven as being risk factors that need to be managed as part of the project management plan. The author compiled a framework that incorporates guidelines and critical success factors for an ICT project to assist in identifying and managing specific problems and risks related to language and the communication of meaning within the project. This framework emphasizes the importance of communication that transfers meaning and not only information. / Dissertation (MCOM(Informatics))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Informatics / unrestricted

Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / Development should not be viewed as just a project but must be understood as an overarching strategy with a thorough implementation plan and specific targets as well as review mechanisms. All different spheres of government, organs of civil society and business have a tremendous role to play in pursuit of sustainable economic growth and development. In Khayelitsha there are emerging trends of bulk infrastructure spending and community led partnership that seek to unlock the economic potential however this progress has thus far been limited to retail development with no productive industrial development. / South Africa

This enquiry investigates the entanglement of the Natural History and Ethnographic museums in the construction of racist ideologies, the perpetuation of colonial reasoning and its continuities in South Africa today. It draws our attention to the fact that the museological institution was complicit and colluded in the perpetuation of colonial "crimes against humanity", thereby rendering its own institutionality a colonial "crime scene" that requires rigorous "de-colonial" investigation in the "post-colonial" era. In the attempt to shed more light into the miasma caused by colonial and apartheid rule, I turn to the practices of 'scientific enquiry' and public exhibitions to advance an argument that these museum exhibits were a precursor to genocide. The study further argues that, these public exhibits of Africans were instrumental in popularizing theories of racial ideology and white 'supremacy', dehumanizing Africans and thereby creating public justification for colonial dispossession of Africans. To support my argument I discuss the underpining politics that informed the making and dismantling of the South African Museum's "Bushman" diorama. Further to the discussion about dioramas, human zoos and other forms of racializing spectacles, I make reference to the haunting narratives of the African Diasporas to provide context and perspective. These African individuals are: Sarah Baartman ('The Hottentot Venus') and El Negro 'object 1004' and then Ota Benga, the "Congolese Pygmy", who was displayed with an orangutan at the Bronx Zoo in America in 1906, and labelled "the Missing Link". Part of my attempt to understand the story of Benga, I set on a journey to track him to the United States (US). To point out and expose these human wrongs I incorporate and discuss images of decapitated heads, prepared skulls and images of emaciated Africans, not to reproduce colonial traumas, but to unveil the gravity of the violence that was emitted against those who were deemed 'lesser' beings, namely the black Africans and KhoiSan in particular. The colonial museum collected these human remains for race 'science' under politically motivated circumstances to feed to the idea that black 'inferiority' and white 'superiority' as a new global socio-political order. The evidence of diverse materials (photographs, manuscript letters etc) that I have used here point to the toxic collusion between the colonial administration and the museological institution in the perpetuation of racial violence in South Africa. The contribution among many other contributions of this study is the interrogation of these colonial traces in the museological institution and the proposal of a decolonial project framed in the form of a Museum Truth, Repatriation and Restitution Commission (#MuseumTRRC). The MuseumTRRC as both a socio-political and museological tool sharply invokes the interplay between the construction of race and the establishment of the colonial museum in a way that helps us understand how the museological institution influenced laws of racial separation that South Africa's apartheid past was built on. The MuseumTRRC is presented as the sine qua non in the framing of the 'new museum' of the future. In a nutshell, the study presents to us new ways of seeing museums and their sociological impact of their collections on people's lives today. It presents what I term in this thesis as 'museumorphosis', a process of radical epistemological shift that should take place in the museum in order for the museological institution to effectively respond to the sensibilities of the 21st Century and beyond.

This research investigates the interaction process between building clients and construction professionals. The context of the interaction is the first meeting between the parties to discuss a potential construction project. The objective of the research was to determine whether clients, with differing levels of construction experience, and construction professionals, from different disciplines (architects, quantity surveyors, consulting engineers and contractors), exhibit distinctive interaction characteristics, both in terms of how they interact and the subject matter of their interactions. In order to test a number of hypotheses about the interactions an experimental procedure was developed. This involved arranging a series of interviews between the different client types and the construction professionals. 44 interviews were conducted with each one being recorded and then transcribed. Additional data was collected in the form of participant questionnaires and personality tests. Transcripts were coded using systems developed for this investigation, using measures of nature of interaction and subject matter. Processing and analysis of the data was conducted using ethnographic computer software and programs written specifically for this research project. A database was created from the interview data which allows selective retrieval of segments of interviews. The database comprises of approximately 215,000 words, with 58,000 codes assigned to text segments. The results of the analysis are presented in both quantitative and qualitative forms, and show that there are significant differences in the interactions. In interviews between inexperienced clients and professionals the professionals make the greater contributions, dominating the clients. There is a reversal of the roles when experienced clients interact with professionals, with the clients assuming the dominant position. In addition the results show that in interviews between inexperienced clients and professionals, the four professional disciplines emphasis different factors. All professionals raise issues relating to primary factors such as time, cost and quality. However, the discussion of other building factors was more specific to a particular professional discipline. Finally, the research also concluded that the element of personality differences in interviews was an influential factor in determining whether their outcome was perceived as successful by the participants.

This research investigates the interaction process between building clients and construction professionals. The context of the interaction is the first meeting between the parties to discuss a potential construction project. The objective of the research was to determine whether clients, with differing levels of construction experience, and construction professionals, from different disciplines (architects, quantity surveyors, consulting engineers and contractors), exhibit distinctive interaction characteristics, both in terms of how they interact and the subject matter of their interactions. In order to test a number of hypotheses about the interactions an experimental procedure was developed. This involved arranging a series of interviews between the different client types and the construction professionals. 44 interviews were conducted with each one being recorded and then transcribed. Additional data was collected in the form of participant questionnaires and personality tests. Transcripts were coded using systems developed for this investigation, using measures of nature of interaction and subject matter. Processing and analysis of the data was conducted using ethnographic computer software and programs written specifically for this research project. A database was created from the interview data which allows selective retrieval of segments of interviews. The database comprises of approximately 215,000 words, with 58,000 codes assigned to text segments. The results of the analysis are presented in both quantitative and qualitative forms, and show that there are significant differences in the interactions. In interviews between inexperienced clients and professionals the professionals make the greater contributions, dominating the clients. There is a reversal of the roles when experienced clients interact with professionals, with the clients assuming the dominant position. In addition the results show that in interviews between inexperienced clients and professionals, the four professional disciplines emphasis different factors. All professionals raise issues relating to primary factors such as time, cost and quality. However, the discussion of other building factors was more specific to a particular professional discipline. Finally, the research also concluded that the element of personality differences in interviews was an influential factor in determining whether their outcome was perceived as successful by the participants.

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Management consultants experience numerous hindrances to the successful completion of strategy projects. Hindrances create an inability to strategise and are the result of inability preconditions. These preconditions accumulate into liabilities that not only limit the management consultant's ability to earn economic rents, but also that of its clients. Liabilities are rooted in the resource-based view and stem from previously identified liabilities such as the liabilities of newness and legitimacy. The consequences of unmitigated liabilities in the process of strategising are, however, not limited to the loss of economic rents. Unmitigated strategising liabilities will further result in prolonged competitive disadvantage. Combined, these consequences transform the liabilities into a strategic liability for the management consultant's client, which could bring about business failure. While academic literature is full of articles investigating the consultant–client relationship, it remains silent on the liabilities or hindrances faced by management consultants during the strategising process. Considering that these liabilities are effectively costing organisations billions of US dollars; can be regarded as strategic liabilities; have not been investigated by academia; and fall within both Domain H and Domain G of Strategy-as-Practice research that has been earmarked as future directions in this field, it is critical to identify, understand and mitigate the liabilities that consultants are most likely to encounter in the process of assisting organisations with strategising. The primary objectives of the research that informs this dissertation are to: <ul> <li> Identify liabilities that consultants face during the strategising process;</li> <li> Determine interrelationships between the relevant liabilities;</li> <li> Identify possible mediating and moderating factors associated with the relevant liabilities;</li> <li> Determine to which extent the relevant liabilities are experienced by consultants;</li> <li> Develop a conceptual framework for mitigating the liabilities</li> </ul> The research that informs this dissertation was undertaken from a Strategy-as-Practice perspective and is presented in three research articles. The first research article is based on research that set out to establish a theoretical baseline for the two subsequent articles. It endeavoured to identify and present a theoretical management consultant liabilities framework through the combination of an integrative literature review procedure and the systems approach. Semi-structured interviews were subsequently conducted to determine the practical relevancy of the theoretical liabilities framework which resulted from the first article. Snowball sampling was used and a saturation point was reached after 17 semi-structured interviews were conducted with practising consultants. The results of this research informed research article two. The research on which this dissertation was based contributes to the accumulation of Strategy-as-Practice knowledge. Used correctly, the resultant framework could reduce the number of management consultants with an inability to strategise successfully. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Business Management / unrestricted

Background: There are numerous studies in the Information Technology (IT) field on IT project success and/or failure and reasons thereof. There is much discussion about what constitutes IT project success and the main determinants are generally a subjective matter. Several studies address critical success factors and some address success criteria about IT projects. However, the combination of mechanisms, success criteria, and critical success factors has not been adequately researched or widely addressed and hence the need to conduct this study which seeks to examine the aforementioned relationships and propose a modified model to explain the links among them. Objectives: The main objectives of this study are: 1) To identify and discuss the role played by success factors (input variables) in an IT project; 2) To identify and discuss the role played by success criteria (output variables) in an IT project; 3) To identify and discuss the role played by mechanisms (mediating variables) and impact thereof on an IT project; and 4) To identify, investigate and explore the interrelationships between the aforementioned constructs and how they impact the success of an IT project. Research Methodology/Approach: A modified model of the Black Box of IS Project Success Mechanisms was utilised to guide the data collection process. The model was based on three fundamental constructs developed from various sources of literature viz. success criteria, critical success factors, and mechanisms. The study made use of a single case study based on a data migration project which one of the major corporates in South Africa executed. The data migration project provides for a distinct type of IT project suitable to meet the study objectives. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews, and a thematic analysis was conducted to identify success factors, mechanisms, and IT project success criteria. Findings: The findings revealed that there are several success criteria measures viz. the traditional project management triangle (cost, scope and time), non-functional requirements, customer satisfaction, other stakeholders' requirements, quality assurance, organisational benefits, and learning and growth. Further, there are several critical success factors including project management factors, team-related factors, organisational factors, business process factors, and governance and risk factors. There are core mechanisms that are pivotal to the success of the IT project which includes project visibility, teamwork, and effective communication.

The study aims to investigate project managers 'and project participants' experience of communication in connection with knowledge transfer in and between projects within the school system and academia. This essay is based on the question of what affects communication in knowledge transfer in and between projects. The essay is based on semi-structured interviews with 12 respondents, both project managers and project participants in compulsory school, upper secondary school, and college and university. The collected data has been processed and compiled through thematic analysis and is presented thematically in the results section by answering the question. The emerging themes in the study are how leadership affects communication, the need for communication of previous experiences and knowledge, the content of communication and how it is conveyed, why motivation is important for communication, the impact of psychological barriers on communication and how access to time affects communication. The result of the study shows that the experience of communication in knowledge transfer in and between projects depends on many different factors that depends on both personal and organizational reasons. The conclusion shows that communication in knowledge transfer in and between projects is largely made possible by the social climate that prevails within and between project groups, which depends on the leadership but also the project participants' personal characteristics and abilities.

The construction industry is unique with many challenges. Managing claims can be one of the greatest challenges. Construction projects are becoming more influenced by factors that lead to claims. The literature review highlighted a few of these factors which include: safety issues, design errors, delay, and changes. Moreover, the literature review presented studies in performance measurement and benchmarking as a way to mitigate these factors. The research presented the results from a benchmarking study used to improve contractors that performed work for the Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg District. The study selected and analyzed 40 random construction contractors. Five performance elements were identified to measure each contractor. A five-point scale evaluated each contractor based on these elements. The results of this research indicated that benchmarking is an effective tool for improving performance and mitigating the cause of claims.