Business sustainability is a fundamental concern amongst business leaders and it is imperative that business defines an environmentally and socially sustainable path to financial prosperity. This focus on sustainable business practices has been caused by the perceived contribution of businesses to undesirable conditions such as environmental and social degradation including global warming and the global financial crises. This study suggests that a leadership style that differs from leadership that is currently causing business unsustainability is needed in order to achieve the goal of sustainable business practices. This study therefore proposes a new kind of leadership, called conscious leadership. The main contribution of the study is to increase the achievement of sustainable business practices by investigating the importance of conscious leadership in achieving this objective. Convenience sampling was used to select senior managers and directors from mainly JSE listed companies. This resulted in a total of 371 usable questionnaires (317 from listed companies and 54 from unlisted companies) being received. A quantitative approach was adopted to investigate whether conscious leadership would be related to increased sustainability competencies and more effective sustainability-related corporate governance and whether these in turn would increase sustainability behaviours which would generate sustainable business practices as measured by financial, social and environmental performance. Regression analyses were conducted to investigate the hypothesised relationships among these variables. Pearson correlations and descriptive statistics were also calculated. The empirical results showed that respondents in this study regarded conscious leadership, not as a separate construct, but as a way they governed their businesses. The empirical results showed that corporate governance and systems thinking competency had a strong interactive relationship and should therefore be cultivated within business firms. Corporate governance (including conscious leadership) and systems-thinking competency were positive influencers of employee relations, equal opportunities and workforce diversity. The empirical results however showed that corporate governance (including conscious leadership) had a negative influence on profitability. The present study cannot argue for the discouragement of corporate governance (including conscious leadership), as measured in this study, because reduced corporate governance would decrease healthy employee relations and the latter would decrease the achievement of equal opportunities and workforce diversity in these firms. A decrease in healthy employee relations would decrease profitability. The most important finding of this study is that senior managers and directors of big business firms, mostly JSE-listed companies, regarded conscious leadership as an important part of corporate governance. Corporate governance that includes conscious leadership must be developed to higher levels in business firms, so that the negative and not-significant relationships to profitability as viewed by lower and high conscious leaders respectively can be changed to positive relationships.

This study researched team building as a tourism offering. Team building has particular potential to benefit tourism in the Western Region of the Eastern Cape. Team building has grown in popularity and is offered by several tourism operators in the Western Region of the Eastern Cape. Team building can be practiced throughout the year by the use of numerous indoor and outdoor activities thereby attracting participants and tourists. The activity involves a wide range of tourism-related services and facilities which shows its potential value as tourism resource. The research methodology for this study aimed to identify the link between team building and tourism. Additionally, the study draws attention to team buildings possible socio-economic value which is added to a tourism business’s offering range and its effect on the host destination. A survey was conducted among a randomly selected target population representing role-players involved in team building and tourism activities, for which a questionnaire was developed by adapting the SERVPERF model. This enabled the researcher to identify the team building participants’ level of satisfaction with the team building operator, activity and host destination. Emerging from the gained insight into the dynamics between team building offerings and tourism businesses, recommendations have been formulated as to the relevance of team building for a tourism businesses’ offering range and the impact on the host destination. The research study identified numerous beneficial spin-off effects for the Western Region of the Eastern Cape driven from team building activities. These benefits were an increase in awareness of the destination, improved image of the Western Region of the Eastern Cape, and tourist engagement in other tourism offerings during their stay at the destination, among others.

The earth has been undergoing a process of global warming and climate change for a period exceeding 100 years. These two occurrences have had many adverse effects on the sustainability of the environment as well as on humans and organisations. The direct cause of global warming and climate change, including the consequential negative ramifications, are due to humans use of natural resources mostly in the form of the consumption of products and services. Organisations are regarded as the largest consumers of products and services within society and as a result are responsible for the major contributions made to global warming and climate change. In order to rectify the negative impact made by organisations in terms of their ecological behaviour and ensure organisational sustainability theory, stipulates that a behavioural change within leadership is required. Ecologically intelligent leaders who hold an affirmation of an ecological worldview and enact pro-ecological behaviours are pivotal to the proliferation of ecological leadership and a subsequent rise in organisational pro-ecological behaviour, towards a sustainable future. On the basis of the above mentioned statements, gained from various literature, a conceptual model was formed and an exploratory research study undertaken to substantiate the presence of correlational or causal relationships between a leader’s ecological intelligence with the enactment of ecological leadership and organisational pro-ecological behaviour. The sample consisted of 42 respondents who occupied positions of leadership within organisations that were members of the Southern African Association for Energy Efficiency. The findings provide substantiating evidence of the presence of ecological intelligence within leadership, the enactment of ecological leadership as well as organisational pro-ecological behaviour. Furthermore significant correlational relationships exist between ecological leadership and organisational pro-ecological behaviour. There is also substantiating indication that the enablers of a leader’s ecological intelligence, an affirmation of an ecological worldview and pro-ecological behaviour, facilitate the outcome of organisational pro-ecological behaviour.

The South African consulting engineering industry faces a challenge of relevance, particularly in the wake of government infrastructure investment through the planned National Development Plan and other current infrastructure plans. This challenge is even more so for small consulting engineering businesses within the industry who experienced a decline in earnings by ten percent in the first six months of 2013 as compared to the last six months of 2012 (Consulting Engineers South Africa, 2013:38). Government, as a job creator, has a duty to ensure that the conditions that these businesses operate in are favourable to them in order for the businesses to remain sustainable. Factors that contribute to the sustainability of small consulting engineering businesses need to be identified. Amathole District Municipality (ADM) situated in the Eastern Cape Province and which is the second largest province in South Africa but the second poorest (Eastern Cape Socio Economic Council (ECSECC), 2011:15 cited in Mtshibe, 2013:1) is one of those job creators. According to the Amathole District Municipality (ADM) (2013:38), the district, which comprises of seven local municipalities, is the 3rd largest economy in the province after the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality and Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, contributing twelve percent to the provincial economy. Figures published in the Division of Revenue Bill, 2014 (RSA, 2014:236) indicate infrastructure development allocations totalling R1.34 billion budgeted to the ADM for the next three years. This translates to job opportunities for the consulting engineering industry of this region. However, the latest ADM SMME procurement data reveals that in the past five years, only a small percentage of tenders awarded were to small consulting engineering businesses with a majority going to medium to large well-established enterprises (ADM, 2014). These results pose a serious challenge for policy makers who have a duty to ensure that work opportunities do not disadvantage emerging small businesses. The main objective of this study was to gain an understanding of the antecedents that impact on the sustainability of small consulting engineering businesses within the Amathole District Municipality. This was done by identifying antecedents to sustainability of small consulting engineering businesses through a detailed literature review. This literature review identified the competitive environment, regulatory environment and policy environment (independent variables) as being antecedents to sustainability of small consulting engineering businesses (dependant variable). In testing the above research objective, the researcher used statistical analysis methods to reach a conclusion with regard to these antecedents. The positivistic research paradigm (quantitative method) was selected in testing this research objective through the use of hypothesis testing. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires distributed to 100 small consulting engineering businesses using the databases of both the Amathole District Municipality and Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA). Out of the selected sample of 100 small consulting engineering businesses, only 81 responses were received, thus representing an eighty-one percent response rate which is considered adequate. The collected data was then analysed using inferential and confirmatory statistical analysis methods. The analysis was presented in the form of graphs and tables. The results of the empirical survey identified rival competitor influence, the competitive environment and policy environment as being antecedents to sustainability of small consulting engineering businesses within the Amathole District Municipality. Based on these findings, recommendations were made to the management of the Amathole District Municipality in an endeavour to make the environment within which small consulting engineering businesses operate more favourable for the businesses to be sustainable. Suggestions for future research were also made as a way to help in addressing some of the challenges that are faced by the engineering industry.

Companies are facing unprecedented pressure from various stakeholders to behave as responsible corporate citizens. The issue of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has therefore gained prominence as a central facet of both social and business platforms in recent years. There is overwhelming evidence from research literature that CSR is an emerging and increasingly important driver of employee engagement and organisational commitment. Studies however also point out that businesses that have engaged in CSR have generally failed to embrace fully the fact that it can be an important driver of employee engagement and not many of them are using this potentially powerful tool to attract, engage and retain employees. The primary objective of the study is to investigate the perceived economic benefit, social impact and environmental impact of CSR on employee engagement and organisational commitment in business firms. Convenience sampling was used to select a stratified sample of 150 employees from six different industries in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolis. While 150 questionnaires were distributed, only 91 respondents eventually participated (response rate = 60.7 percent). The data analyses included the calculation of Cronbach alpha coefficients, descriptive statistics (percentages, means, standard deviation and frequency scores), multiple regression, Pearson correlations and Scheffé tests. The empirical results show, among others, that the economic benefit of CSR has the strongest effect on affective commitment of employees; that the environmental benefit of CSR plays a big role in employees wanting to stay with their firms (continuance commitment) and feeling obliged to stay with their firms (normative commitment); and that the social benefit of CSR has a strong effect on the level of employee engagement. The managerial implications of these findings are discussed. The shortcomings of the study and gaps for future research are also highlighted.

M.Sc. / Corporations are beginning to realize that they are members of the wider community and must therefore behave in an environmentally responsible fashion. This translates into corporations that believe that they must fulfill environmental objectives in conjunction with profit related objectives. The recognition that a corporation is embedded within its surrounding environment has profound implications for the way that its business operations are conducted. No longer are the actions taken within the corporation considered to be separate from the external environment, and no longer are events unfolding outside the corporation considered to have no impact on the internal structure and functioning of the company. According to this mode of thought, everything is linked and interconnected. In recognition, smart corporations have initiated social, economic and environmental practices (Anon, 2002a) and incorporated these three components in to the Triple Bottom Line (TBL). The Triple Bottom Line was designed to promote the objectives of sustainable development (Elkington, 2003) by considering a holistic approach to business. Because sustainable development involves the simultaneous pursuit of economic prosperity, environmental quality and social equity, organisations that aim for sustainability need to perform not against a single, financial bottom line but against the triple bottom line i.e. economy, society and the environment. It is also true that a corporation, which is not socially or environmentally sustainable in the long term, is unlikely to be financially sustainable in the long term (Elkington, 2003). The main aim of this study is to investigate how the natural environment can play an integral role in the implementation of the TBL. Five main issues relevant to the TBL are investigated in the problem statement, to determine how the environment can possibly form an integral part of the TBL and thus justify the implementation of the TBL in a corporation’s business strategy. Each main issue is then broken down into a number of specific support questions for analysis. The 16 support questions were then individually analysed to determine whether or not the environment could in fact play an integral role in the implementation of the TBL. The five main issues of investigation and the 16 sub-questions showed that the environment could play an integral role in the implementation of the TBL in any corporation.

M.Com. (Business Management) / The financial downturn in developed economies has led to South Africa and the rest of Africa’s economies to become increasingly attractive to foreign investors. The establishment of operations in an emerging market poses various challenges for multinationals, one of which is implementing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) effectively across all its subsidiaries. The objective of this study is to determine whether there are differences in expectations of CSR in a multinational organisation and CSR in its subsidiaries which operate in emerging markets. This will allow the multinational to assess whether its CSR strategy meets the expectations of all stakeholders. The study is focused on the financial services sector, specifically the banking industry. Through qualitative research methods, a case study research design approach was utilised to study CSR activities in a global bank and CSR experiences in its African subsidiaries. Data collected from research subjects through interviews was analysed using open, axial and selective coding procedures. The study concludes that there are definite gaps in CSR expectation between a multinational and its subsidiaries based in African emerging markets. Global CSR strategies may be applied consistently across a multinational’s subsidiaries, but failure to address core issues faced in an emerging market economy renders such strategies impractical.

M.Comm. / The purpose of this study is to explore and substantiate why Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility (CSER) is important as a business practice in order to meet the productivity levels, enhance the image or reputation, financial bottom line and sustainability of the company. The belief that Business has a socio-economic responsibility is not a new proposition. Peter Drucker a well renowned sociologist argued that firms have a social dimension as well as an economic purpose in his second book, The Future of Industrial Man, in 1942. During the late 1960's and 1970's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) emerged as a top management concern in both the United States and in Europe only to seemingly disappear in the 1980's. Today, Corporate Social Responsibility is back on the agenda of many CEOs. This time it is also on the agenda of governments, both national and local, as well as NGOs, consumer groups, investors and other actors in civil society. The concept of CSER has now become an important business practice hence the need to further investigate its relevance within the South African context. Recently CSER as business practice has emerged as an important factor due to the everincreasing emphasis on human and environmental rights. The pressures for business to behave in an ethical manner has broadened its core functions, hence the need to embrace it in the organisational strategy. Due to some of these reasons CSER has now become a buzzword in the corporate world, among civil society groups and other stakeholders who have an interest in the behaviour of business. This spotlight has led to a more voluntary factoring in of ethical practices, social policies in the overall internal and external organisational strategy and operations of business. The raison d' etre for this paradigm shift, is also exacerbated by the new business focus, on triple bottom line reporting, which not only emphasises the financial bottom line but also transparency and accountability in the social and environmental aspects which are integral to the firm. The latter mentioned areas have become important benchmarks for overall performance, reporting and disclosure to stakeholders.

The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which CSR is incorporated into the management of projects within the Information Technology (IT) Sector. The study’s focus was particularly on IT Projects and IT Project Management. This research adopted a qualitative, exploratory approach as the study aimed to obtain new insights. Information was gathered from a cross-section of 8 companies, with 13 experts participating in semi-structured interviews. The study found that cost reduction is the real motive behind undertaking of IT Projects. The efficiencies brought about by IT Projects improve processes and cut out unnecessary waste. The reduction of operational risk, increase of revenue and reduction of costs are the true motivations for undertaking these IT Projects. If value creation is argued from this perspective, it could be considered a viable Business Case. The study found that CSR is well incorporated in organisations that have Project Management Offices (PMOs). Because the PMOs appear to engender good CSR practices, Management should seriously consider the establishment of PMOs to effectively address the incorporation of CSR into their IT Projects and IT Project Management. The use of IT Projects to develop beneficial products presents a solid Business Case for CSR incorporation. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / zkgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

A research article submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration Johannesburg, 2018 / MT 2019