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The thesis is an attempt at a comprehensive discussion of the legal and constitutional rules that apply to civil servants considering the current changes experienced in the UK Home Civil Service. The research focuses on three main areas, namely; the legal aspects of the relationship between civil servants and the Crown as employer, secondly, the rights of civil servants to associate and the right to freedom of expression, and thirdly, the constitutional aspects of the minister-civil servant relationship. Changes in the Civil Service manifested by Next Step Agencies, market testing and contracting out public services has resulted in the fragmentation of the uniform structure of the Civil Service. Question is raised, for instance, whether a more coherent legal definition of a civil servant is needed, whether these changes are affecting the security of tenure of civil servants, and whether the quest for job security should turn to, for example, judicial review. The introduction of contracts of service for civil servants is applauded but insufficient consideration has been given to its compatibility with the Crown's power to dismiss at pleasure. In the sphere of the right to associate and trade unionism generally, the advent of Whitleyism in the early 20s was the main reason for the development of trade unions in the civil service. Since 1979, the government's interventionist policy resulted in more restrictions for trade unions in pursuance of their activities. The GCHQ affair was a classic situation when the policy of restriction was at its extreme. Nonetheless, trade unions continue to exist and industrial actions are cautiously tolerated by the government. Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights lay down a standard of proportionality as to any restriction imposed on the freedom of association. Yet the failures of the GCHQ unions appeal in Strasbourg indicates a strong acceptance of the need for restrictions in freedom of association in the civil service. The unions' success at ILO appeared ephemeral. Despite the concern that civil servant's neutrality will be affected if they are allowed to engage in political activities, the Masterman and the Armitage Committee viewed that certain amount of freedom should be given to civil servants in this area. So far political activities of civil servants have not caused substantial controversy. The formation of Next Steps Agencies should provide more rooms for flexibility in giving permission for civil servants to participate. Civil servants are also subject to the duty of confidentiality in civil law as well as in criminal law under the Official Secrets Acts. The amendment to section 2 of the 1911 Act have removed the draconian effect of unauthorised disclosure by civil servant. Yet the 1989 Act has left out the need to protect civil servants who disclose in the public interest. In their interpretation of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Court and Commission were also not in favour of protecting whistleblower or would-be whistleblower in the public service. The first report by the Nolan Committee inquiring the standards in public life recommended a form of whistleblower's charter. This is a welcome change and the government should adopt the committee's proposal. Ministerial accountability to Parliament is the corollary to civil service anonymity. It has been accepted that civil service anonymity has not been properly protected. There were occasions when civil servants are being asked to do unethical, unconstitutional and sometime illegal acts. The Armstrong Memorandum was an attempt to provide an independent line of appeal but its failure was clearly illustrated when there was only one appeal brought by a civil servant for the last eight years. The new Civil Service Code includes a new line of appeal to the Civil Service Commissioners but only after the internal appeal procedure has been exhausted. It is only hoped that the failure of the Armstrong Memorandum is not repeated. The fact that senior civil servants are playing a more prominent role vis-a-vis Parliament, a rethinking of the present arrangement of accountability should be made. Such a rethinking need not lead to giving a constitutional personality to civil servants. It must however be an acceptance that they are carrying heavier responsibilities and therefore they should be given a proper recognition of their role in Parliament.

The initial direction of this research was in the application of Quality tools and techniques, within the framework of the EFQM Model for Business Excellence. Three quality improvement projects managed by the author (Cost of Quality, BPR and Benchmarking) sought to identify the key elements of a process improvement methodology. However, the completion of the three case studies led the author to review the whole approach of the research. The review led to the need to develop an understanding of the culture and the environment of an organisation as a precursor to implementing quality improvement. The ability of an organisation to manage the process of continuous improvement or TQM implementation was fundamentally dependent on the culture of an organisation. Organisational culture is the bedrock upon which organisational change is based and an understanding of the culture could help the practitioner focus on key change issues at the outset. The main work in the research then set about attempting to develop and test a model of organisational culture and climate which would help practitioners develop a fuller understanding of organisational culture and internal environment before interventions were carried out. A process for developing an understanding of organisational culture and climate was derived, using information obtained from the culture, quality and climate literature and the review of the case studies. This process included the use of various tools and techniques such as multi-item questionnaire and focus groups. The process used Focus Groups to identify key issues within Lloyds TSB and to help develop a multi-item questionnaire, termed PCOC. The PCOC questionnaire was then tested in four different Areas of Lloyds TSB and the results were analysed and compared to identify similarities and differences across Business Areas. The implications for the implementation of quality improvement were identified and recommendations for managing change were made.

M.Comm. (Economics) / The purpose of this study is to examine the pattern of gross domestic saving in South Africa. This study looks at gross domestic saving in South Africa in general and the trends of its components in particular. It addresses the impacts of internal and external policies on the disaggregated domestic saving in South Africa. This is done with the aim of establishing the channels through which these policies influence the components of South Africa’s domestic saving. This study focuses on current economic literature while examining gross domestic saving and its attributes. A brief discussion of gross domestic saving on emerging market region puts sub-Saharan Africa’s gross domestic saving, particularly that of South Africa, into perspective. Hence, the developments in South Africa’s domestic saving are compared with those of some selected countries. An analysis of gross domestic saving in South Africa for the period 1970 to 2004 indicates a long-run downward pattern. The disaggregated domestic saving in South Africa shows that although three components contributed to the decline in South Africa’s domestic saving, the public sector appeared to be the main culprit in the decline. Thus, the net saving by the government had been negative since early 1980. The study observes that the patterns of saving of the three components are influenced by both internal and external factors. iv These internal and external factors are made up of fiscal and monetary policies, and the balance of payments. Without over-emphasising the importance of gross domestic saving in any economy, it is crucial for South Africa to encourage a positive saving culture for improvement in meaningful domestic investment for long-term economic growth. This study, therefore, suggests that in a developing economy like the South African economy, a positive saving attitude could be encouraged through the use of internal and external policies. Hence, the positive impact of internal and external factors could motivate all stakeholders in gross domestic saving to seize any available opportunity to boost their savings, thereby raising South Africa’s gross domestic saving.

Social and economic changes that happened in Brazil in the 1990s have changed the organization of female employment in the country. In this study, I examine the participation of women in the informal sector in Brazil in 1996 and 2005. Using micro-level data from the Brazilian Monthly Employment Survey, I find Brazilian female workers became older, more educated, and that female informal employment increased over the period studied. Although selfemployment was reduced, an increase in wage-employment in informal manufacturing was noticed, which indicates growth in subcontracting. Higher share of female headed households, lower income and higher poverty levels were predominantly found among informal sector female workers. Large share of female informal work in disadvantaged conditions indicates the existence of a dual labor market in Brazil. Globalization and the adoption of neoliberal practices in Brazil seem to have exacerbated the underprivileged condition of working women in the country.

M.Com. (Economics) / The motivation for this study has its origin in the observation that informal sector activities in South Africa had increased significantly since the nineteen-eighties. The initial interest was stimulated by the desire to discover more about the nature and extent of the informal sector, as well as the effects it is having on employment, income generation, policy making and general economic equilibrium. Investigating the occurrence of informal sector activities in the developed countries, the centrally directed economies and the Third World countries led to the conclusion that the different definitions for informal sector activities, the nature of such activities and the reasons why people become involved in such activities, differ from country to country. In South Africa it was observed that the formal sector's inability to create sufficient employment opportunities for all its citizens led to more and more people joining the informal sector. As far as the nature of the informal sector is concerned it was found that a variety of economic activities are being carried out, the most important being trade and hawking. The highest concentration of participants were found in the Natal/KwaZulu area. Marginally more male than female participants were involved in this sector. Most participants were younger than 40 years of age. Participants worked long hours and frequently have to provide a service for seven days a week. Most undertakings were operated solely by the participant or with the assistance of family members, employees are only employed in exceptional cases. participants experienced great problems in obtaining finance and appropriate accommodation. Little research had been done so far to identify and quantify the involvement of Whites in the informal sector...

This study investigates the main drivers of excess liquidity in the financial sector of Lesotho using Vector Auto Regression (VAR) analysis. The study also undertakes a comparative analysis of Lesotho and CMA economies for economic and financial sector characteristics to benchmark and assist policy recommendation. The results of the study suggest that excess liquidity in Lesotho’s financial sector is driven by undeveloped financial sector as reflected by significant private sector credit to GDP ratio in the results, government expenditure and central bank activities in the open market operations, together with past levels of excess liquidity in the model. Compared to CMA, financial intermediary in Lesotho is relatively undeveloped with government dominating economic activity. The banking sector is observed to be non-competitive for deposits as hinted by the wide intermediation margin compared to other CMA countries.

Esta tesis presenta un Manual orientado a la Micro y Pequeña Empresa (MYPE) de la Industria Gráfica Offset como estrategia ante la informalidad existente de ese sector, utilizando como herramienta competitiva una esquematización de la propuesta de las políticas públicas y Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (TIC) que brindan diferentes organismos públicos. La informalidad empresarial ha ido evolucionando con el tiempo, sin que se definan criterios exactos que determinen la formalidad de una empresa, se tiene que esta puede actuar en informalidad siendo aparentemente formal. En un modelo económico como el que posee Perú, mantenerse dentro de la informalidad garantiza desaprovechar ventajas competitivas que solo se obtienen con la formalidad. Hoy en día los costos de acceso a la formalidad ya no se consideran una barrera burocrática, pues es el Estado quien asumió otorgar a los empresarios las facilidades necesarias para acogerse a las líneas de la formalidad. Podemos aproximar el concepto de competitividad empresarial a la MYPE y convertir una micro empresa de subsistencia en una de acumulación ampliada, creando una relación entre el Empresario, el Estado y la sociedad. Para determinar una estrategia coherente de mejora competitiva de la MYPE de la industria gráfica y orientar sus conductas a la formalidad, se buscó analizar las diferentes alternativas provenientes del sector público, privado y las aplicadas en otros países; así se determinó que por medio de capacitación y acompañamiento, se puede alejar al empresario de comportamientos informales. La formalidad y competitividad de un micro y pequeño empresario, pueden reducir problemas sociales como el subempleo y la evasión tributaria. / Tesis