M.Com. (Business Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Com. (Business Management) / The objective of this dissertation is to provide a general, functional and business oriented model for strategic alignment. The development, measurement and implementation of strategic alignment play a major part during the positioning of an organisation in order to obtain and maintain a competitive advantage. Business conditions (internal and external) are now changing and creating new competitive situations due to factors such as (Beer, Eisenstat & Spector, 1990a:158): • Increased internationalisation of the entire value chain from vendors and producers to customers; • the extended need to measure strategic positioning and alignment; • increased customer demands for quality, lead times and delivery performance; • the need to invest in technology and competence development in respect of both products and processes. Successful organisations are those that evolve rapidly and effectively. Yet innovative organisations can not evolve in a vacuum. They must attract resources of all sorts, drawing in capital, partners, suppliers, and customers to create cooperative networks. The motivation of this study lies first of all in the economic and strategic importance of strategic alignment (internal and external) for an organisation. Secondly, it lies in the importance of network creation, not only for network competition but also to enhance total quality management (TQM), customer satisfaction and continuous organisational improvement. There has been much speculation about such networks, under the rubrics of strategic alliances, virtual organisations, and the like. But these frameworks provide little systematic assistance to organisations and managers that seek to understand the underlying strategic logic of change.

M.Com. (Business Management) / This study was conducted with the purpose of finding a thorough understanding, within the framework of business management, the integrating of the Information System strategy and Information Technology strategy, into the business strategy so as to move towards Strategic Information Systems. The individual enterprise needs more attention to participate in the implementation of the strategic planning process and the development of better techniques for the integrated Information Technology and strategic planning in the enterprise, and the increase in the management and control over Information Technology. Substantial consensus has been reached that an enterprise can only gain competitive advantage with the establishment of Strategic Information Systems. Most companies have an effective business strategy but those strategies are not integrated with the enterprise's Information System strategy and Information Technology strategy, and vice versa.

M.Com. (Business Management) / During August 1991, Kanhym Fresh Meat, Northern Transvaal, and Sams Meat (Pty) Ltd, Pietersburg, merged their activities in the Northern Transvaal to form a joint venture. The name of the new company is Pietersburg Abattoir (Pty) Ltd, trading as Meatcor. Because of the different cultures and the clashes between them, this project was undertaken to try and help create a new, strong corporate culture. The first section of this paper gives an in-depth discussion of the theory on corporate culture. It is very important that the people involved in the management of the company have a clear understanding of what a strong corporate culture is before any actions can be taken in trying to build such a culture. The next step was to make an assessment on the state of the current culture that exists in the company, as well as to define the desired culture of the middle and top management of the company. To be able to do this, a culture audit questionnaire was used. The questionnaire was answered by all middle and top management, as well as the directors of the company. The results of the questionnaire were plotted on various graphics. These graphics were used to assess the current culture within the company and also to define the desired culture of the various respondents. These results were then used to determine and define the gap between the current culture and the desired culture. The questionnaire tested 32 dimensions of culture and the results were given in these 32 dimensions, which were grouped into five main groups. The last part of the paper consists of an action plan to bridge the culture gap and to enable management to establish a new, strong corporate culture. The strategy to develop and establish a new, strong corporate culture is discussed under the five main dimension groups. I firmly believe that this paper, if used by management, would make an enormous contribution towards establishing a new, strong corporate culture which in the end will have a positive effect on the productivity and profitability of the company.

M.Com. (Business Management) / Any organisation being it at local authority or private sector concern operates in an ever changing and dynamic macro-environment. The City Council of Nelspruit realised this fact and conducted a situational analysis 10 conjunction with the National Productivity Institute during the first half of 1989. The situational analysis established that departmental plans and actions were not effectively coordinated and focussed towards the attainment of goals and objectives. Certain recommendations followed and as a result a strategic management model was implemented during the second half of 1989. Local Authorities find themselves since then. and even more since the promulgation of the Local Authorities Transitional Act (214 of 1993). in an even more volatile and dynamic macro-environment. It was therefore decided to conduct a literature search in order to recommend a recent and applicable strategic management model to the City Council of Nelspruit. The fact that local authorities forms part of the structure of government is pointed out while the unique role and function of local authorities in the process of governance is stressed. Attention is also given to important differences between public sector and private sector concerns. Particular attention is also given to the strategic management model as devised by Pearce & Robinson (l991: 11). This model describes strategic management as "the set of decisions and actions that result in the formulation and implementation of plans designed to achieve a company's objectives". In the study special attention is given to the implementation of the strategic management model. Strategic managers' attention is drawn to the fact that the organisational structure should he supportive to the chosen strategy. Management's attention is also drawn to the fact that the desired organisational culture is of utmost importance for the successful implementation of strategic plans. The literature search clearly indicated that the strategic management model of Pearce & Robinson (1991: II) can be implemented at the City Council of Nelspruit because it provides a step by step process whilst allowing management to take cognisance of the unique circumstances of the organisation. The use of checklists for the implementation of the strategic planning model is recommended. Each checklist provides management with a number of questions to guide the implementation process. Certain recommendations are made in the last chapter of the study. First of all it is recommended that the suggested strategic management model be implemented by means of checklists. Secondly, that councillors and officials be trained in the principles of strategic management. The strategic plan should thirdly be published and communicated to an the stakeholders and fourthly that the value of strategic management and the influence of the integration of local authorities be researched.

M.Com. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Com. (Economics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Com. / This dissertation is an attempt at defining the term 'unbundling" within the South African context. Unbundling has developed into a buzzword in the corporate chambers of South Africa. It is an important concept because it cuts through all aspects of business.Chapter 2 investigates recent events on the unbundling stage. Gencor unbundled into various companies, Barlow Rand demolished its conglomerate image. Johannesburg Consolidated Investments was transformed into three companies ...

In fulfilment of the requirements for the Masters of Management by Research degree Wits Graduate School of Business Faculty of Commerce, law and Management University of the Witwatersrand / The pressure on the current mining sector in South Africa has forced South African explosives companies to expand their activities into Sub-Saharan countries in order to sustain and grow their sales and profits. The purpose of the research was to assess the efficiency of the existing strategic frameworks presented by the literature and deployed by the explosives companies expanding operations in Sub-Sahara and to understand if and how they need to be adapted to suit the explosives market. The research was thus guided by the following research questions: How effective are actual strategic frameworks for the development of an African strategy for South African explosives companies willing to expand operations in Africa? Why aspects of current strategic frameworks do not apply to the commercial explosives business in Africa? Why would it be necessary to include other key variables in existing strategic frameworks to develop an effective strategy for the explosives business? How do other non-manageable variables such as politics, legal, cultural and administrative barriers impact on the shaping of the final strategy for South African explosives companies willing to expand their operations into Africa? The research method followed was a single case study research approach leading to the conclusion that, despite developing different strategies by existing explosives suppliers, they performed well and showed growth in sales and profits. Notwithstanding their success, the investigation revealed that some challenges and specific aspects of the explosives market were not addressed by either the explosives companies’ strategies or the main strategic frameworks described in the literature. Furthermore, the analysis identified external factors, such as commodity prices, which contributed more to the success of explosives companies than the strategies they implemented. The results of the analysis described above led to the development of a strategic framework which included the elements of strategies used by explosives companies, relevant model elements from existing strategic frameworks, external factors (rival explanation) such as commodity prices and variables which take into account the challenges encountered by explosives companies in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as specific aspects of the explosives market. It is believed that the strategic framework developed in the last section of the present research takes into account the particular aspects of the explosives market and empowers South African explosives companies with a framework which addresses the specific aspects of the explosives markets to develop successful businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa.

A thesis submitted to the Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Johannesburg 1991 / The purpose of this thesis were to investigate the effective strategic options aVailable to professional service orgtanizations in the face of the challenging and changing south African environment. Since these organizations are viewed as integrated archetypes of organizational form, strategy and the personal Characteristics, perceptions and values of their top management, they were researched from this perspective. The professions are also viewed as progressing along a continuum of industrialzation, as theoretically defined, and the progress of the organizations along this route was examined to establish their position as a predictor of possible future trends.A model of the effectiveness of professtional service organizations in the face of the environmental challenges is also tested. The research was conducted with the assistance of the partners and clients of 56 prominent organizations from six professions in south Africa, covering three different industrial sectors, the commercial sector, the building and construction sector and the health care sector. Theory indicated certaint possible adaptive options aVailable to organizations in general, but due to the lack of speCific theoretically researched models for professional organizations, an inductive approach was taken to the research problem. In this way, the research findings would dictate the eventual correspondence to the theory. Multiple operationalism was used as a research approach in different stages of the research process, as was triangulation of research methods to arrive at the research results. The findings indicate that there are five groups of professional organizations representing different configurations of adaptation to the South African environmental circumstances. Using the model developed in the research to measure organizational effectiveness, it was found that three of these groups appear to be effective, while the other two are less effective. Some of the attributes of these five groups were contingent on the type of industry and the type of profession. The profiles of the partners provided a particularly fertile area of theory development and a number of propositions were generated which can be tested in future research. It was concluded that an integrated typology Of five groups of strategy, organization and the profile of the top management team did exist and that three of the options proved to be more effective that the other two. Further guidelines for the management of professional organizations, included the examination of the consequences of co-operative strategies, particularly in the light of a possible increase in consolidation within the industries, are given.