Thesis (M.A. (Sociology)) --University of Limpopo, 2017. / The study sought to investigate the problem of dissatisfaction by residents of Malamulele in Thulamela Local Municipality (LM) with service delivery. The dissatisfaction of the residents manifested in violent protests in Malamulele and surrounding communities where citizens demanded to have their own municipality separate from Thulamela LM. Residents alleged that the Thulamela LM gives preference to Thohoyandou area and surrounding communities on issues of governance and service delivery while neglecting Malamulele. The problem under study was viewed from a social exclusion and relative deprivation points of view, which elucidate possible causes of dissatisfaction and resultant protests. The study adopted a qualitative research design where data was collected through interviews with sampled residents that were purposively selected took into consideration the manner in which the sample would assist in providing data towards achieving the aim and objectives of the study. Data was analysed using the thematic method of analysis where themes and categories emerged to assist in interpreting the data. Based on the findings of the study, recommendations were made. Some of the key findings were that Malamulele residents were dissatisfied with poor service delivery and poor governance by Thulamela LM, the violent protests were due to poor service delivery and tribalism and poor service delivery, Malamulele residents needed their own municipality, and that the relationship between the Venda-speaking people and Tsonga-speaking people is bad. Some of the key recommendations are leaders should engage communities to manage their hopes and expectations from government, exercising Constitutional rights should not result in devastating government property and violence, and citizens should be consulted in policy-making and other government activities that involve them. It is believed that these recommendations will go a long way to address similar problems and to enhance literature on the ongoing debate on governance and service delivery issues.

Many factors can influence service quality, however the main determinant of customers’ perceptions of service quality is often their interaction with service staff (Zeithaml & Bitner, 2009:351), resulting in the importance of employees in service delivery. Internal marketing (IM) acknowledges this, and is similar to other marketing activities within an organisation, which focuses on staff in order to enhance external performance (Papasolomou & Vrontis, 2006:179). The aim of the present study has been to investigate the elements of IM as predictors of employee satisfaction and to determine the relative importance of various IM attributes and with this in mind the primary and secondary objectives driving this study were: • to confirm the IM scale as used in the study by Jou et al. (2008:73) in a South African context; • to determine how well the identified IM elements predict employee satisfaction by: • determining if any of the identified IM elements are predictors of employee satisfaction; • assessing the relative contribution to employee satisfaction of each of the IM elements found to be predictors; and • investigating whether certain biographical factors, such as gender, tenure and level of customer interaction, also explain employee satisfaction A literature study of IM theory pointed to a number of broad definitions of the concept, identifying IM as either a tool, an internal process or as a process supporting external activities. IM can also be a working mix of elements aimed at motivating employees (Papasolomou & Vrontis, 2006:178) toward inter-departmental co-ordination in order to achieve a more customer-orientated approach to service marketing. This working mix of elements is known as the IM mix, being elements under the control of management that can be implemented in order to illicit desired responses from employees (Ahmed & Rafiq, 2002: 27). The IM mix elements put forward are varied and numerous, and there is much debate as to which of the elements constitute an IM mix. Against the background of these disparate IM mix elements, it was necessary to reconfirm those elements pertinent to an IM programme in a South African context. It was found that job quality and reward together with empathy and consideration are significant predictors of IM and should therefore form the cornerstone of any IM programme. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / hj2013 / Marketing Management / unrestricted

No abstract available. / Dissertation (MAdmin)--University of Pretoria, 2002. / School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) / unrestricted

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2019 / Over the last decade, business process outsourcing (BPO) has become increasingly important in the South African context. For economic and strategic reasons, organisations have embraced an outsourcing strategy as one of their core activities in order to be competitive in the business arena. On this matter, the standard of services delivered by BPOs is crucial to achieve customer satisfaction. However, the lack of effective quality management practices, which impact on service delivery negatively, ultimately paves the way for customer dissatisfaction with service quality in BPOs. This issue needs to be considered carefully by BPOs. Thus, this study has investigated employee perceptions in relation to the key measurements for service quality, namely reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles through the SERVQUAL model to measure the quality of service delivery at a BPO in Cape Town, South Africa. A quantitative research method was applied and data were collected through a semi-structured survey questionnaire from the group of employees (n=188) at the selected BPO in Cape Town. The statistical software program SPSS Version 25 and Microsoft Excel were used for data analysis. Descriptive statistical results were generated as well as the validity and reliability of the dataset determined. The research findings revealed that the key factors to which particular attention needs to be given are reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. It is revealed that it is imperative for the BPO to intensify continual training and skills development for their employees. Given the findings of these key factors as focus areas for good practice, this study has drawn special attention to the selected BPO and other BPOs in the South African context to advance their service quality to maintain their services up to standard and to remain competitive. The research could benefit BPOs in South Africa and Africa in general as more and more companies are outsourcing their services on the continent.

MPM / Oliver Tambo Institute of Governance and Policy Studies

Many students in primary and secondary schools are impacted by a chronic health condition. Researchers have postulated that interprofessional collaboration between medical and mental health providers can be beneficial in improving the academic, behavioral, and social-emotional outcomes of students with chronic health conditions (Drotar, Palermo, & Barry, 2003; Shapiro & Manz, 2003). An emerging area of focus is on the school-based collaboration between school nurses and school psychologists regarding supporting students with chronic health conditions. This study investigated school nurses’ perceptions of the benefit of collaborating with school psychologists, school nurses’ awareness of the roles of school psychologists, the frequency of collaborative practices, the relationship between the awareness of roles and frequency of collaborative practices, and the barriers and facilitators to the collaborative process. A total of 1,054 school nurses were recruited from National Board for Certification of School Nurses to participate in the study, and 240 surveys were completed (23% response rate). Findings indicate that school nurses perceive the collaborative practice as being beneficial for supporting students with chronic health conditions. Additionally, school nurses were able to accurately identify many roles of school psychologists. Despite school nurses perceiving collaboration with school psychologists as beneficial, and being aware of the roles of school psychologists, the frequency of collaboration between school nurses and school psychologists was low. Further analysis found a significant and positive relationship between awareness of the roles and collaborative practices. Benefits of the collaborative process included cross-disciplinary problem solving and the opportunity to share resources.

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Communication Science at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2012. / The under-resourced and overused public health sector of South Africa has been the subject of national policy reform initiatives and frequent government led investigations. Subsequently, in October 1997, the government introduced eight Batho Pele principles to serve as acceptable policy and legislative framework regarding service delivery in the public service. However the media has constantly criticised the public health system for their pathetic service delivery. Hospitals and clinics have been portrayed as being overburdened and under-productive. Multiple efforts by the government to remedy (and rescue) the situation have not decreased nor diminished the problems. The primary goal of this study is to examine the current quality of service offered by the public health system in South Africa especially in terms of service delivery proposed by the Batho Pele principles. More importantly, how the Batho Pele principles are communicated to the external publics will be evaluated to ascertain the challenges key government sectors face in the adoption and application of these principles. The participation of patients and staff members of two public health facilities in KwaZulu-Natal provided this study with valuable information on which this study is based. The data was collected through the use of structured interviews of in-patients and questionnaires for both outpatients and staff members. A total of 255 patients and 92 staff members participated in this study. Further, the study exposes provocative and controversial issues in the public health system and hopes to stir awareness amongst its respective leaders and its publics. This study demonstrates how challenges faced by the public health organisations through poor ineffective communication techniques caused it to fail to meets its intended purpose. This study also exposes provocative and controversial challenges which place our health care system at risk of total annihilation if left unattended. The study speaks to issues of accountability such as: planning, budgeting and decision making and the plight of the people of our nation.

The expansion and diffusion of mobile phones globally has resulted in the provision of financial transactional services over the existing mobile phone platforms, generally referred to as mobile money. The supply end of mobile money services is an important factor in the success of the financial transactions offering. This research assessed vulnerabilities in the mobile money supply network that are inherently related to the existence of the principal – agent problem and their implications on availability and access to the services. The research study was conducted using a qualitative approach. Qualitative information was collected through interviews guided by open – ended questionnaires. Thematic analysis approach was followed to systematically analyse the data and generate findings of the study. Agent transactional data was analysed to complement the findings from qualitative analysis The findings suggest that the principal agent problem permeates the mobile money delivery network mainly after businesses joining as agents and manifests as moral hazard. Moral hazard is the dominant feature of the principal – agent problem, with adverse selection very low. Drivers of moral hazard are demonstrated by the influences and demands of agents’ core businesses and challenges in agent monitoring and training. The existence of the principal – agent problem has limited or no implications on access and availability of services. However, overtime the combined vulnerabilities identified related to the principal agent problem are likely to manifest into risks that are likely to affect access and availability of mobile money services. Regulators, Mobile Network Operators and agent enterprises must collectively review monitoring approaches for mobile money service providers to address challenges identified and increase the effectiveness of monitoring. Service provision standards should be reviewed to suit the various business environments the services are provided within. Mobile Network Operators and agent enterprises need to institute stronger partnership arrangements that enhance ownership and obligations for all parties, in particular agent enterprises. Agreements must enable application of different mobile money delivery models suitable to meet the demands and requirements of the agents’ core businesses. Innovations such as Near Field Communication (NFC) can be integrated with Point of sale (POS) applications and mobile money platforms to reduce the administration burden on agents and human error. Such applications must consider the cost implications of adoption from the agents’ business perspective.

The thesis addresses the research question: How to describe, understand, and explain IT service delivery? Based on the research question, the following research questions were derived:  How to analyse IT service delivery based on ITIL in order to determine its current situation? How to formalize elements of IT service delivery in maturity level that can be used to assess its current status? These research questions are answered by two IT artefacts: an analysis method and a maturity model for IT service delivery. Both of them are constructed by design-science research guidelines. The analysis method is focused on understanding the IT service delivery in organizations; it is founded on the IT service delivery processes of Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) version 2. The method proposed has been applied through three case studies of Nicaraguan Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The maturity model is oriented to formalize and assess the maturity level of IT service delivery; it is supported by IT service delivery elements that are considered significant for managing IT service delivery by the Nicaraguan ISP sector, by IT service concepts, and by maturity model properties, and complemented by the IT Service Capability Maturity Model. The maturity model provides a mechanism for evaluating the maturity level of IT service delivery through a set of maturity statements and includes a graphical representation; it is also applied to the traceable information of the current status of IT service delivery of one of the Nicaraguan ISPs. / QC 20110209

This thesis explores how the Hungarian service delivery practitioners construct the vulnerability narratives of their asylum seeker and refugee clients and how they reflect on the implications of their intervention. For the method of inquiry, the study employs qualitative thematic analysis in order to identify reoccurring themes and patterns within the material written by professionals, paraprofessionals, and volunteers. When applying the concept of vulnerability and reflexivity in service delivery practice, the analysis suggests that the consequences of war, conflict, fear of persecution, and the hostile environment in Hungary further perpetuate clients' vulnerability. Furthermore, mental health issues, the lack of access to education, the unemployment problems resulting in financial hardship, and housing difficulties are all impacting the vulnerability experiences and coping mechanisms. Also, the material suggests that besides the objective categorizations of vulnerability, there are also its subjective perceptions that emerge in the narratives through the reflections of service delivery practitioners, expanding the concept of vulnerability.