With soaring unemployment rates coupled with stifled growth and rising inequality, the economic outlook in South Africa is disheartening. Entrepreneurial activity is viewed as a catalyst of economic development, and as such, government and policy makers should be creating an environment in which the determinants of entrepreneurship can be fostered. Entrepreneurial intention has been shown to be a leading indicator of future entrepreneurial activity. With an understanding of the links between entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial activity, and economic growth, it is clear that the South African economy faces a challenge; not only is economic development slow, but levels of entrepreneurial intention are low. This research paper planned to study the significance of the Theory of Planned Behaviour through structural equation modelling, as a predictor of entrepreneurial intention within a sample that has previously received little attention, and is commonly known to produce numerous entrepreneurs including high impact entrepreneurs; the South African Jewish Community. The results illustrate that the Theory of Planned Behaviour was a sound model with the sample data; however the Theory of Planned Behaviour did not provide a significant prediction of entrepreneurial intention within the South African Jewish Community. Further analysis discovered that within the Jewish Community of South Africa, perceived behavioural control provided powerful predictive strength of entrepreneurial intention. Attitude toward the behaviour and subjective norms provided insignificant predictive strength of entrepreneurial intention. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / zkgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

As there are now more dual income earners in the workforce, people are facing greater pressure from both their families and their place of work to commit more of their time and energy. Unfortunately, time and energy are limited resources so either their family or careers may have to endure some form of compromise. Clearly family situations can have an impact on one’s career yet little has been done to measure how much people do in fact consider their families with respect to their careers. The purpose of this report then is to bridge this gap in the literature and provide meaningful recommendations for businesses. This research report explores the difference in attitudes that male and female managers have towards compromising their career goals for their family. It then examines if aging and having children have any influence on these attitudes. In order to measure these attitudes a quantitative analysis using primary data from a questionnaire was conducted. The findings indicate that compromising one’s career for family is not only a feminine problem and that when people do compromise their career goals they are more willing to compromise on extrinsic career goals rather than intrinsic career goals / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / zkgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

This research focuses on the relationship between branding and company share price. This research’s purpose is to investigate the impact of branding indicators on a company share price. There has been a lot of research that has evidenced a positive relationship between marketing, of which its core component is branding, and firm performance. Even though it has been evidenced that strong branding leads to firm performance, stock analysis literature has not taken into consideration branding indicators as a key component in predicting the future performance of a company’s share price. This research addresses insights on the direct relationships between branding and share price values, which has not been extensively studied. Literature reviewed outlined three important measures of brands which offer a view of the future performance of a brand. These brand performance measurements are brand value, brand ranking and brand ratings. These are measures which are publicly available and have been measured over time. The research utilised data from Brandentity which is a brand valuing organisation which reports brand performance annually. The research investigated the impact of the change in brand value, brand ranking and brand ratings on company share price. The investigation shows brand rating as the only brand indicator tested that significantly positively impacts a company share price. This was found to mainly be because its orientation is competitor’s performance and future brand performance. Brand value and Brand rankings were found to have no significant impact on a company share price. The research thus concludes that brand indicators have a positive impact on a company share price and therefore brand measurements should be used as part of stock analysis to predict future performance of a company share price. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / zkgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

There has been a vast amount of academic research done in the field of employee satisfaction and the resulting impact of this dimension on employee innovation output and institutional entrepreneurship. However, there is a dearth of literature on how to retain employees and their tacit knowledge in firms. This study, therefore, seeks to identify Institutional Entrepreneurship (IE) as a key pivot point of strategy, that firms can exploit when endeavouring to actively improve employee retention levels. In this interpretation, the researcher seeks to make a distinction between generally entrepreneurial companies and employee driven innovation or intrapreneurship within companies. There appears to be an appealing synergy that the fostering of institutional entrepreneurship initiatives can offer business strategists. By incorporating plans for IE into core strategy, they could potentially create sustainable competitive advantage from new business innovations. What this report aims to show is that businesses that make a concerted effort at fostering IE can also protect their current competitive advantage contained in the tacit knowledge of their workforce. This all happens in a climate that is better equipped to deliver organic growth. The main objective of the research is to establish that there is a relationship between the propensity for an employee to remain in a firm in the near future and their perceptions of whether or how strongly their firm supports IE. A secondary objective is to explore whether this association is stronger among young employees, specifically those who are from the cohort that has been defined as ‘the millennials’, with an assumption that this relationship, therefore, will become more important in future. This research report has set out to prove that by orchestrating strategies to improve institutional entrepreneurship, firms can enjoy the benefits of increased employee retention in conjunction with increased organic growth. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

This research study investigated the concept of professional workers’ propensity to embark on industrial action in the context of organisational justice on an individual level; as well as the collective conditions of union commitment and professionalism. The study also made enquiries into the perceived Janus face of professional trade unions in terms of how they aim to be perceived as professional associations, acting as guardians of standards, professionalism and their members’ status, which is contradicted by their organisational mandates to extract concessions from employers through industrial action on a collective level. Data was collected through a quantitative approach, using survey questionnaires which were distributed to scheduled airline pilots in South Africa in their capacity as professional workers. The survey questionnaires elicited 199 responses, which provided valuable insights into professional workers’ propensity to embark on industrial action in the context of organisational justice. The responses, on average, were instructive, aside from the fact that no significance could be attributed to professionalism as a moderator of professional workers’ propensity to embark on industrial action. Contrary to expectations and prior research, it was found that the collective conditions captured by union commitment were statistically more significant than any individual factors, represented by organisational justice constructs, on professional workers’ propensity to embark on industrial action. Professional trade unions are indeed Janus-faced; a duality that presents trade unions with a dichotomy in that on the one hand they have a mandate to extract concessions from employers, but on the other hand are expected to remain professional and uphold the status and standards of the industries that they represent. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

Tobin’s q ratio employs a fundamental principle that enterprise values cannot deviate excessively from, namely the replacement value of the assets required to generate the future cashflow of the business. This ratio formed the cornerstone of this research that investigated whether an index based on the ratio would indicate time periods of market missed valuations; determined whether the q effect exists and the probability of its persistence over a 24 year period across different ranked quintile portfolios. Finally the research examined a new supply approach valuation technique that altered the q ratio, and could improve the spread in the q effect to improve investment yields. The Tobin’s q index was compiled using the most recent estimate and the index included the top 160 shares by market capitalisation, excluding the resources and financial sector for firms listed from 1990, to create a representative index for the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Tobin’s q long term average was 1,83 at December 2013, indicating a consistent upward bias mainly due to share valuations. A time serious approach was followed to compare cumulative returns between different ranked quintile portfolios, ranked by Tobin’s q to analyse for style effects. Tobin’s q displayed style characteristics, although it was not as prominent as other value indicators. The adjustment from the supply approach could not improve investment yields. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / zkgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

Despite modest increases in the appointment of women in top management levels over the past 10 years, the proportion still remains low at 20% in 2012 (Department of Labour Republic of South Africa, 2013). Even with substantial evidence showing a positive correlation between gender diversity and business performance, women are still underrepresented at senior management, executive management and board levels. The purpose of this research was to identify the key organisational culture factors which are influencing gender diversity levels in companies, particularly in senior and top management levels. Through quantitative descriptive research methodology, the research aimed to identify which of these factors are promoting and inhibiting increased gender diversity levels in companies. The data were collected from women and men working in South African organisations by means of a questionnaire. The questionnaire was completed by 69 respondents. This research study determined that organisational culture factors promoting increased gender diversity in organisations with higher gender diversity levels are different to factors inhibiting increased gender diversity in organisations with low gender diversity levels. The research brought insight into which organisational culture factors can be used as enablers to create an organisational culture which is conducive for increasing gender diversity / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / zkgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

This study is focused on improving understanding around moral decision-making as a critical component of managerial decision-making, considering that many decisions involve a basic conflict between selfishness versus fairness (Forgas & Tan, 2013). Changing factors in the business environment is influencing managerial decision-making, making this ‘the perfect time’ for increased research into managerial decision-making (Milkman, Chugh, & Bazerman, 2009). As this working environment within which managerial decisions are being made is changing, understanding decision-making is increasingly becoming fundamental to the study of management in organisations (Taggart et al., 1985). Within such a changing economy, the key factor is the increased reliance on intellectual abilities over either physical effort, or natural resources. Yet, ‘where there is effective management, that is, application of knowledge, we can always obtain the other resources’ (Drucker, 1993). When then considering such management actions and specifically the role of employees within such an economic structure, the primary deliverable of a knowledge worker is a good decision (Milkman et al., 2009). The importance of a ‘good decision’ is therefore paramount in the current knowledge economy, and those industries which depend heavily on the ‘application of knowledge’. In exploring this topic, this research study explores predominantly four fields of study. The first is decision-making in the most fundamental sense, by understanding the different systems whereby decision-making occurs. This is contextualised by focussing on managerial decision-making and highlighting a particular instance of moral decision-making. The premise is that although moral decision-making is a subset of managerial decision-making, the human processes involved in the decision making is universal and findings should accordingly be transferrable to the whole discipline of decision-making. In expanding the area of moral decision-making the notion of fairness, norm violations and negative reciprocity is explored. This provides a context within which to study moral decision-making. Concepts such as the universal acceptance of fairness are discussed, as well as an equally universal desire to punish norm violations through negative reciprocity. Existing research on this disconnect between the intent to punish and the physical execution of this intent is explored with the conclusion that personality type offers some indication, but that additional research around this topic is required. It is in Moral decision-making: Personality Type as influence on Moral Intuitionism Len Marais 13403797 Page iii addressing this weakness in current academic research that this research study aims to make a contribution. The approach to this research is to do personality type assessments of voluntary subjects where after a moral decision is posed to them and their responses captured. By studying the relationship between these personality types, and traits, as well as the decision made inferences can be drawn on the extent to which personality type is an influence on moral decision-making. Finally the environment of management consulting is introduced. This working environment exhibits many of the characteristics which define the knowledge economy. The study concludes by answering the research question, ‘Is Personality Type, or its decomposed traits, an accurate predictor of moral decision-making’?, in the positive: Yes, there is statistically significant proof that a strong, linear relationship exists between moral decision-making, as defined by the decision to enact revenge, and the Sensing personality trait, as measured by the Jung Typology Test™. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

Safety climate provides an indication of the perceptions of employees with regard to safety management in an organisation. Although there have been many studies on safety climate, a common platform to measure safety climate has not yet been agreed upon. This makes it difficult to compare climate performance across industries and organisations. This study endeavors to identify the common thread that flows through all safety climate studies through extensive literature review and develop safety climate measurement tool in the form a 65 question survey. The survey was validated using confirmatory factor analysis and expert review. The study further looks at the elements of safety climate that affect the behavioral safety management and determines how an organisation performs on those identified elements through descriptive statistic models.100 employees of a large petrochemical organisation based in South Africa participated in the survey. The results required that several of the questions in the survey be reevaluated and therefore the survey will need to be re tested. The results also demonstrated that the sample organisation had considered and implemented the elements of safety climate that are required for a behavioral safety program. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

Kelly’s mobilization theory does not provide for the role of any cost/risk analysis as part of the process of deciding to embark upon collective action. On the other hand the theories advanced by the like of McAdam, Wiltfang and Simmons considering the incorporation of a cost/benefit analyses as part of the decision to embark upon collective action, do not have regard to the development of a sense of injustice. This study harmonizes the two approaches in seeking to answer the question why employees engage in unprotected strikes considering the significant risk involved. In doing so the study identifies the kind of triggers that would induce such a sense of injustice to trigger participation in unprotected strikes, whilst also investigating whether participants in unprotected strikes actually moderate their conduct to decrease the risks of such participation. This study considered all 98 reported judgements of the Labour Court and the Labour Appeal Court that were reported by LexisNexis. The methodology used in this study was content analysis of a quantitative nature. Descriptive statistics were used to identify patterns, relationships and trends. The analysis of the reported judgements shows that procedural disputes involving single issues at single employers, arising from time-sensitive unilateral changes to workplace practices, are likely to trigger unprotected strikes. The study further demonstrated that employees participating in unprotected strikes and their trade unions actually moderate their conduct to decrease the risk of dismissal. A close relationship between the profound sense of injustice that triggers unprotected strikes and the decisions to moderate the risks were established. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted