Project failure continues to be a concern even though standards and procedures have been in place for years to counteract the issue. Many reasons for the high rate of project management failure have been purported in the research literature (Bauer, 2006; Hammoud, 2008 & Kerzner, 2002). This study analyzes the problem of high failure rate of major capital projects within Transnet Freight Rail. In addition to reviewing research literature that addresses projects failure concepts, critical success factors, project management principles, strategic alignment, skills and capabilities of project managers and how these factors might relate to major capital projects failure, the study will examine possible problems at the organizational and functional level that might be contributing to the high failure rate of major capital projects within TFR. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / M.B.A.

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

M.Com. (Business Management) / Affirmative action is extremely topical in South Africa today, not only in terms of business principles but among individuals and communities as well. Since the establishment in the late 1850's of the South African Railways and Harbours and it's eventual change to the present-day Transnet, a "white" culture was constantly being established. For the past number of years Transnet is engaged in bringing about a culture change to transform the company into an equal opportunity company. The purpose of this study is to describe the the full meaning of affirmative action in Transnet and to put the importance of such action for both the Company and it's employees into perspective. The methods used by Transnet to apply affirmative action with the least possible resistance and interruption of business are also discussed. In Transnet affirmative action is part of a process known as the tum strategy. Through a personal interview with the Group General Manager (Human Resources) of Transnet the origin and implementation of the turn strategy is explained. The tum strategy consists of thirteen substrategies that must be completed before the exercise can be called a success. The success of the turn strategy could rest on the evaluation and monitoring of the results of the substrategies. A spirit of co-operation between Management and organised labour was achieved by involving both parties as members of the Turn Strategy Council. The Turn Strategy Council is responsible, inter alia. for monitoring the turn strategy. In conclusion specific findings and recommendations are made. Although it may be necessary to make adjustments to suit local circumstances, the value of the study is in the opportunity it affords other companies/organisations to use Transnet's model to implement affirmative action.

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

D.Phil. / The primary objective of this thesis is to follow a systems approach to improve property management in state departments and state-owned enterprises. The public sector, bureaucracy and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) globally and in South Africa (SA) are examined using a systems approach to provide the context for property management in state departments and SOEs. The effectiveness of property management in SA‟s National Department of Public Works and National Department of Public Enterprises are evaluated. Property management in rail transportation organisations globally and in SA receives focused attention. The SA state-owned company Transnet Limited, primarily a rail transportation enterprise, and Propnet, Transnet‟s property management unit, are examined in depth. Lessons learned, findings and recommendations are presented in a Management Matrix. The Management Matrix is incorporated in a State Property Management Transformation System, the implementation of which will improve property management in state departments and SOEs both globally and in SA.

M.Ing. / This report addresses an empirical study into the re-structuring of Transnet group of companies. The study is based on the outcome of the re-engineering process focusing on Spoornet as a member of Transnet. The departments partially studied are, the Infrastructure Maintenance department and Train Operations department with-in Spoornet. The objective of this study is to achieve a break-even point between maintenance and the business side so as to increase operational profit in Spoornet. Outsourcing is a management tool used to make more profit. It is also a way of getting rid of unwanted business units. This will help increase shareholder value and reduce operating costs so that management can focus on core business units. The results expected from outsourcing in this study are aligned with the business process engineering "BPR" results. From the BPR results the business units were classified as core and non-core business units. Non-core business units were discontinued while core business units were further classified into core department, which is the running of trains, and the non-core department as maintenance departments. The maintenance departments are fully represented on a functional level while they used to have a full representative on the corporate level before restructuring. Cutting-off these logistic support departments at a corporate level, can have an effect on maintenance being undermined due to lack of specialists input at a higher level in terms of systems engineering and maintenance. This can lead to system's lack of maintenance and an increase in systems failure, making the system un-reliable and unsafe for the passage of trains while on the other hand the business will be lost back to the competitors, who in this case is the road freight business. A case study is discussed in the dissertation where value added techniques such as the business turnaround process, outsourcing and Integrated Logistic Support "maintenance" were applied in this study.

D. Litt. et Phil. / The white paper on privatisation and deregulation in the Republic of South Africa, was tabled in 1987. This paper outlined a policy for the possible privatisation of state-owned enterprise. Generally this step was favourably met by "Big Business" and a number of political players, but rejected and resisted by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). This phenomena led to the central assumption of this study. It was assumed that the rejection of privatisation (or manifestations thereof, such as commercialisation) by COSATU, would not necessarily be indicative of the cognitions and attitudes which labour union employee members, hold of privatisation/commercialisation. The purpose of this study was to explore this assumption. This assumption was to be researched among a sample of official members of the South African Railway and Harbours Workers Union (SARHWU); an affiliate of COSATU. A further purpose was to explore the influence which an official communication action, (aimed at the employees of a commercialised parastatal), may have had on the cognition and attitude of the sample. The aim was to draw from these findings to formulate directives for the internal strategic communication management of commercialisation to black SARHWU members. To achieve this purpose, the concept privatisation and commercialisation were conceptualised, and fundamental differences between the two concepts highlighted. An extensive "theoretical study was undertaken to identify the communication principles on which the communication of innovation (change) are based. The concepts of privatisation/commercialisation and the principles of the communication of innovation, were integrated into a framework for the formulation of a communication strategy and strategic communication plan for commercialisation.

M.Ing. (Engineering Management) / The survival of organisations during the recent recession in South Africa and the rest of the world forced them to eliminate unnecessary expenditure, ineffective personnel and processes. The drive towards maximum project success became essential in order to survive. The researcher identified a concern within a technical team in the Transnet Freight Rail (TFR), a major rail based transport company. The research problem as identified is: That project teams are compiled randomly or by availability of personnel which promotes possible project failure and not by competency and without regard to team role efficiency. The researcher decided to investigate the influence of compiling a project team where the team members function within their preferred team roles. It was found that the Belbin Self Perception Inventory (SPI) is an effective instrument to determine the preferred team roles of project team members. This study is a qualitative one. A literature study supported the fact that employing team members in their preferred team roles does make a noticeable difference to the productivity of individual team members and the team. A failed project was identified within the TFR technical team. The Belbin SPI instrument was used to determine the preferred team roles of all the team members for the chosen project. The actual team roles performed by every member in the chosen project were determined by means of an interview with the team leader. The data obtained from the SPI was compared with the interview data and it was found that three of the four team members involved in the chosen project were not employed within their preferred team roles. This lead to a conclusion that, should the team members have been employed in their preferred team roles, their project would have been much more likely of being successful. This study points the way to a further quantitative study where the possibility of predicting project success could be investigated.

D.Phil. / The strategic change process that the South African Transport Services, South Africa's largest transport undertaking, had to undergo with its transformation into Transnet Limited in April 1990, was one of the most extensive any undertaking in South Africa had yet to go through. Central to the change process was the transformation of the company from an "undertaking of the State" to a commercialised/privatised entity. The process is characterised by three phases viz. deregulation, commercialisation and possible future privatisation. This discontinuous change process affects every aspect of the company, in particular the Human Resource processes thereof. Against this background an extensive theoretical conceptualisation of change management was devised from a modernist perspective. A model was developed describing the WHY, the WHAT, the HOW (process and micro-dynamics) and the WHO of the change process. Human Resource Management was identified as Human Resource Provision, Human Resource Maintenance, Human Resource Development, Labour Relations, Equal Opportunities/Affirmative Action and Social Investment. This dissertation is the result of an extensive diagnostic exercise on micro-level within Transnet to ascertain what the perceptions of Transnet employees are towards cardinal Human Resource variables. These variables were identified against the background of Human Resource theory and deemed as critical for the successful strategic change of Human Resources in Transnet. Against this background, problem areas could be identified, the readiness of employees to change could be scientifically measured and the overall "fit" of employees with the changing conditions could be ascertained. A test sample of 1 875 employees of all employee groups in Transnet (excluding the general group) was taken. The sample was spread out over ten regions of the country. The practical research was done in conjunction with the HSRC in September 1991 - roughly 18 months after Transnet was formed amidst an extensive process of commercialisation. An effective response of 60% was achieved. All statistical processing and analyses were done at the HSRC's computer centre in Pretoria. To make sense out of the mass of information, a factor analysis was done. Two main factors were identified in a second order analysis - one factor which was construed as broad Human Resource Management/Social Investment and a second as broad Labour Relations/Equal Opportunities. The main finding of the research was evidence of an entrenched Human Resource system and that a gap exists between aspects of Transnet's mission and the practical realisation thereof and perceptions of employees on the work floor. A participative culture has not yet been formed while additional problem areas were identified as the management style of the company, employees' motivation, discrimination, work organisation and individual relations, work security and upward mobility. An extensive strategic change model was conceptualised out of these findings so that problem areas could be addressed and managed effectively. Due to the diversity of Transnet's work force a second model, namely a typological model, was devised. The model was conceptualised after further statistical analysis (MANOVA/ANOVA) was done. Accordingly, further problem areas were identified around population group, language, region and occupation.

Please read the abstract in the dissertation Copyright / Dissertation (MSW)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted