This research is an experiential learning history of a change management process that occurred within the local government Development Management Department of the Ethekwini Municipality in the South African province of KwaZulu Natal. The department is the gatekeeper of development for Ethekwini and offers the plans approval service in the municipal area. The department underwent an internal change management process in 2000, which aimed to streamline the plans approval process and minimize the approval timeframe. The Municipality’s decision to change the existing system was motivated by the lack of foreign direct investment into the city due to the bureaucratic plans approval process. This research used the qualitative framework and case study approach to understand the context of the requirement for the change, the implemented changes and the aftermath of the changes. A sample group of 38% (from the department) was interviewed, their responses consolidated, grouped and graphically represented, enabling the unpacking of the change management experience. The author then analyses the data against systems theory and change management theory to enable a greater appreciation of the complexity of the process and the high impacts of specific choices in the change management process. The findings of the research indicate a high degree of unresolved stress relating to the imposition of the process of change management on employees. The author draws the conclusion from the evidence presented that the inclusion of the recipients of change, in the process of change will mitigate against these stresses. This research documents the experience of the change management process by the recipients of change. In so doing it offers a greater level of insight of the way in which change is experienced, thereby promoting better choices by practitioners in the field of change management. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2009.

Organizations normally introduce and implement changes in their respective departments. The general assumption is that the changes are meant for the improvement of operations, efficiencies and cost control measures, among other things. This research project was prompted by the fact that Eskom is introducing Shared Services within its Transactional Procurement and Supply Chain Management. It is important that this study is undertaken, through a survey, involving top executives, upper and middle management, as well as operational employees. Perceptions of the inherent successes or failures the new system might have on Eskom as an organization will be ascertained. Perceived difficulties will make the results more interesting, in that the sampling methodology used has to be compatible with the targeted research market. The results of the survey are important for sharing with Eskom’s management as the findings have a direct bearing on the improvement of the project. Whether Eskom should proceed or not with the introduction of Shared Service within the Transactional Procurement and Supply Chain Management is the problem statement of this research project. Although this project is meant for a particular market sector in the organization, the consequences of the benefits accrued and/or losses incurred will reverberate throughout the whole organization as it has multiple independent transactional procurement and supply chain outfits running in all their departments in South Africa. Whether the previous dispensation was beneficial or not, is subject to what is referred to as the ‘burning platform’ in Chapter 1. The researcher was an Eskom employee at the time of the research project, and the project was aimed at looking at Eskom’s corporate challenges. The survey was conducted conveniently among Eskom employees comprising two sets of respondents: executive management and operational employees drawn from upper and middle management together with supervisory and front staff. Convenience Sampling was done among what was believed to be the employees within the value chains of Procurement and the Supply Chain. The survey results have shown the distinct difference between the perceptions of the executive management and operational employees in that the former are more supportive of the project and well aware of its introduction, while the opposite is true for the operational employees. There was also a marked agreement noted where both responding groups regard the current set-up within the procurement and supply chain management as being fraught with problems. Both groups also agree that this section does not yield the required results. These research findings are significant for Eskom’s management to take note for benefits to accrue by virtue of a buy-in from the different stakeholders. The Eskom employees are expected to implement, manage and improve the efficiencies within the Procurement and Supply Chain Department, and this research project can be taken to have served as an unofficial but important research tool on behalf of the company. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2011.

The study explored transforming social development project management practice into delivering sustainable benefits for orphans in Zimbabwe, in particular and more generally, in southern Africa. The endemic failures to deliver basic services to vulnerable children despite increased efforts necessitated this enquiry. Applying multiple research methods in combination, namely, guided story-telling and interviews, document review and media tracking, and practitioner-experiential-action-research (PEAR), the study confirmed that orphans in Zimbabwe lived under conditions of extreme deprivation and vulnerability (EDV). Management of service delivery for orphans was dependent on unpredictable short-term donor funding, undermined by a hostile ‘adult-world’ and political environment, bad governance, poverty, and AIDS. Public service delivery and social welfare system in Zimbabwe had collapsed, marred by corruption. Programmes were not informed by an accurate understanding of orphans and their desperate carers. Social development intents were not practiced. The situation was conducive to “corrupting” the otherwise “spiritual” - responsible, astute and ambitious child. Within such a milieu, traditional project management designed for ordered situations became inappropriate. Based on new understanding of orphans and their service delivery milieu derived from research findings, I propose a systems-oriented project management framework based on “pluralism”, “holism”, “totality” and “experiential learning”. The framework takes a multi-paradigmatic approach to solving complex problems of vulnerable children, mixing positivist, interpretive, emancipatory and postmodern systems ideas. The framework requires a balancing of morality and scientific empiricism in order to attain sustainable child development. In this regard, the thesis proposes ‘moral capabilities’ and additional project management knowledge suitable to the challenges of orphans in southern Africa. The systems approach promotes comprehensive delivery of basic needs of orphans, and continuous improvement of their long term holistic development. According to the framework, success of projects is measured by accrued benefits from the perspective of orphans, and not that of service providers. For its application, the framework adapts the project-spiral cycle, replacing the project life-cycle, recognizing that the needs of orphans go beyond single short-term project cycles. The spiral cycle builds on the strengths of conscious-experiential-learning in service delivery, and on dialogue and collective consensus with poor communities targeted by service delivery management systems. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2010.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the field of strategy by way of its historical trajectory and to consider the major branches that constitute this broad, but fragmented discipline. It is an interdisciplinary endeavour that draws specifically on systems theories and complexity theory as a way to enrich the field. The strategy field tends to be philosophically unreflexive. As a result it is dominated by an objectivist ontology, which underpins strategic choice. One of the aims of this thesis is to explore the implications for strategy, if instead, an interpretive stance, based on an ontology of social constructionism, is adopted. The literature has not fully explored and developed different ontologies in the context of strategy and hence has left a major gap in theorising about strategy. This thesis attempts to address that gap and therefore one of the contributions of the study will be a tentative theory of strategic enactment. This research attempts to answer the following key questions: 1. What are the major theoretical frameworks and conceptual models that frame the field of strategy? 2. How well do these frameworks and models contribute to strategy under conditions of high ambiguity and uncertainty? 3. What contributions may be made by applying complexity theory to the field of strategy? 4. What are the implications of adopting an interpretive approach to strategy? 5. What are the implications of strategic enactment on strategic leadership? Given that these research questions are of a philosophical and theoretical nature, the research methodology and approach is one based on theoretical exploration. It is therefore not an empirical study, but a conceptual one embracing both breadth and depth. It is broad in that it covers multiple literature sets which include bodies of knowledge in organisational theory, leadership, strategy, systems thinking and complexity theory. It is deep in its interrogation of core conceptual constructs that are pertinent to the strategy frame of reference and in its comprehensive coverage of the major topics that circumscribe the field. While it relies on an extensive coverage of existing texts it is not a hermeneutic study from a methodological point of view. It does not purport to interpret and to elicit the meaning of texts. The term interpretive in the title instead refers to the ontological notion of sensemaking and interpretation that is central to strategic enactment. Interpretive in this sense is not an interpretation of texts in a hermeneutic fashion, but interpretive in relation to enacting reality. Despite being a theoretical study it still draws on deductive, inductive and abductive reasoning. The study makes several contributions. It re-conceptualises strategy in a way that lends itself to be generalisable across all sectors, approaches strategy formulation and implementation as a single intertwined process, interrogates, combines and integrates strategy-related and other concepts in way that has not been done before, provides a theoretical basis for scenario planning and demonstrates how it may considered as a soft systems approach, presents a practical methodology for undertaking scenario planning, critiques existing CAS-based theorising about strategy, leadership and organisation and draws out the potential of complexity theory for strategy and leadership. The final contribution of this study is a tentative theory of strategic enactment that highlights key constructs such as identity and agency that have been underemphasised in the strategy literature. Such a theory offers alternative explanations from that of strategic choice, and is able to deal with the phenomenon of emergence in organisational settings. It is unique in that it integrates complex adaptive systems with an interpretive approach to organisational strategy. The following may be identified as key findings of this study: • Strategy is still a pre-paradigmatic field and hence its theoretical underpinnings are of necessity eclectic. • While strategic choice is the dominant approach, many of its tenets are contested, especially when organisations are considered as complex adaptive systems. • Deliberate strategy is not possible as all forms of strategy are ultimately emergent. • Agency is an important construct in strategy. Agency does not reside in the key power brokers alone, but extends to all organisational actors and their structural networks of relations. Agency is also invested in non-human actors in the form of artifacts. • Agency is limited to micro-level actions and does not embrace macros states of the system. • Identity is an important construct in strategy. The identity of agents is shaped in their interactions with other agents. Who they are impact on what they can and cannot do, and also impact who they construct themselves to be. In this sense there is a strong link between agency and identity. • Identity is also shaped in situated activity in practice and therefore strategy-as-practice is important. • Strategic enactment presents alternate explanations for the utility of strategy tools and strategic plans from strategic choice. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2009.

This study used a complex adaptive systems approach to explore innovations geared towards the rehabilitation of offenders in the Department of Correctional Services. It examined how innovations came about in view of the complex adaptive nature of the department, which is defined as a complex system with agents having various schema and mental models. It used complex adaptive systems approach as a lens through which to view the emergence of correctional innovations. This was achieved through a multi-methodical qualitative research approach to data collection, using interviews and documentary data to unpack public sector innovation, with the Correctional Services‟ Service Delivery Improvement directorate as a unit of analysis. This study further explored the compatibility of the five bedrock principles of a complex adaptive system and how such principles have shaped the emergence of innovations in a public sector organization where all innovative efforts are geared towards the improvement of service delivery as opposed to profit-making for competitive advantage, as is often the case with the profit-making sectors. In view of the dynamic and nonlinearity nature of organizational systems, the use of a complex adaptive systems perspective provided this study with a pivotal tool to analyse innovation as an emergent property of a complex adaptive system rather than as a carefully planned organizational element emanating from either strategic planning or research and development initiatives of an organization. This is further strengthened by the lack of employment of complexity science in public sector organizations like Correctional Services in particular. The study sought to achieve ground-breaking work in using complex adaptive systems perspective in innovation within the Department of Correctional Services, a terrain that has not been ventured into before. It was seen to be of crucial significance to explore innovation using complex adaptive systems and to adopt a paradigm that was initially designed for the natural sciences, and has been adopted by profit-making organizations and cascaded to the non-profit making sector as represented by the Department Correctional Services. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2011.

Some of our teachers are so imbued with the idea that violence solves problems for them at school that they don't realize that there is an effective alternative discipline that is humane and violence free. They are not alone in this trap. Parents and learners too also strongly believe that inflicting reasonable pain is morally an acceptable disciplinary measure, and a deterrent. This study seeks to understand the reasons that make teachers perpetuate the culture of corporal punishment today, despite the fact that the 1996 South African Schools Act abolished the practice in all public and private institutions by declaring that the use of any form of physical punishment is unlawful and unconstitutional. Anyone, therefore, who contravenes the act, is guilty of an offence. This legal concept seems to be confined within public and private institutions, and does not extend to the parents at home and to society at large, where the culture of physical punishment is still widely practiced. From the point of view of Systems Theory we regard a school as a social system. Regard for the perspectives of the people involved in this human system is important in identifying problem situations, exploring them, and developing a grounded theory to account for them. In this study I employ the Primary Research Paradigm and use surveys as a means of collecting the research data. Winberg (1997:30) says that Primary research occurs through direct interaction between the researcher and the researched. It is sensitive and sees with the eyes of the researched and walks in their shoes. I use triangulation, combining conversations, interviews, observations, questionnaires and documentary analysis to collect data on the feelings, attitudes and perceptions of teachers, learners and parents. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2008.

As the first decade of the 21st century nears its end, it is undoubtedly clear that the challenges facing the world today are profoundly different in both character and prominence from those faced by various societies during the last decade of the 20th century. In part, this change derives from, among other things, the rapid growth in the use of information technology, intensification of globalization and its attendant consequences and the hyper-competitive business environment within which most, if not all, business organizations operate. These factors, together with the visible and unrelenting shift away from the 'industrial economy' to 'service economy', accompanied by an emphasis on human rights culture across the globe, are radically changing the way people as citizens and people as customers, individually and collectively, understand their role in this new emerging context. Coupled with this changing network of individual and collective psyches is the changing nature and role expected of both the business and government institutions. In response to these changing expectations, businesses and governments are continuously seeking to find creative and working ways to better respond to the needs of their stakeholders. As part of this developing dynamic, the government of the Republic of South Africa has sought to target its strategy planning process as one mechanism through which the enhancement of its service delivery endeavour may be achieved. Taking the cue from their national counterpart, provincial governments are following on the same footsteps. In view of the prominence enjoyed by the strategic planning process in government circles as a tool, firstly, for linking and integrating departmental budgets and service delivery intentions, and secondly, channel efforts and energies of public servants to enhance service delivery improvement for the electorate, the need to examine the strategic planning process becomes critical. This study, therefore, finds its conceptual origin in the context of this developing dynamic. To this end, the KZN Department of Arts, Culture and Tourism has been identified as a case to study whether the strategic planning process is understood, and therefore used, as a value-creating imperative for service delivery enhancement in the public sector, or mechanism for compliance. To accomplish its purpose, the study relies primarily on the responses received from interviews conducted with the employees of the Department of Arts, Culture and Tourism on the question of the department's strategy planning process. Coupled with this primary source of information, literature review was also conducted as a secondary source. This process is important in that it provides an opportunity for the researcher to conduct a comparative analysis, firstly, to establish whether what the department says it does strategically has any link or relation to what is contained in the literature on strategy. Secondly, it affords space to assess whether the rhetorical articulations of the department on its strategic planning process link back to what the department does in practice around the same phenomena. On the basis of this analysis and assessment, the study moves on to articulate, whether, in its own opinion, based on its findings, the strategy planning process is currently used by the department as a value-creating mechanism for service delivery improvement or a mechanism for compliance. / Thesis (MA-Leadership Centre)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2008.

The research undertaken explores how the culture of a business can be changed. when in distress. Because of the intangible nature of culture and culture change, the research firstly identified what culture is and how it is represented within organisations before exploring how culture could be changed while a firm is in crisis. A number of pragmatic and practical ways of changing culture were identified. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

The management of knowledge has taken on greater importance in 21st century as more companies compete in the open market. The company that is aware ofwhat knowledge it possess and is able leverage its knowledge effectively will have a significant advantage over its competitors. A major stumbling block to implementation of knowledge management initiatives has been organizational culture. If the culture of the organization is not conducive to knowledge sharing, no knowledge management initiative will ever succeed. This study was focussed on examining the cultural landscape ofthe Generation Division of Eskom in order to understand what impact it will have on future knowledge management initiatives and to provide insight on what issues need to be addressed in order to facilitate a culture of knowledge sharing within the Division. Hermeneutics, coupled with systems thinking, was used to identify the factors within the Generation Division's organisational culture that influenced knowledge sharing. Trust, compassion for fellow employees and mutual respect were identified as critical factors that inhibited the development of meaningful relationships amongst employees which is pivotal to sharing tacit knowledge. This study recommends paying more attention to developing and improving employee relationships than investing in expensive IT infrastructure to transfer tacit knowledge. / Thesis (MCom.)-University of Kwazulu-Natal, 2005.

The study did a systemic analysis of eThekwini Municipality's design for effectiveness looking at community participation in local governance. The study was conducted by using Participatory Action Research methodology. The researcherwas able to determine emergent themes. The findings revealed that firstly, people view the Municipality's system of governance as unresponsive. This is because of lack of effective mechanisms of communication between the councillors, officials and the communities. Moreover, there is lack of delivery of services to the community, resulting in people feeling that their needs are not being addressed; therefore there being no need to participate. Secondly, there is also a general feeling that local government does not consult with the people when taking decisions on crucial matters. Thirdly, there is uncertainty about whether community inputs have any influence on decision-making. This concern was expressed in a variety of ways, including the feeling that their input did not matter because the essential decision 'appears' to have already been made before the participation process commencesor ends. Fourthly, there is overwhelming evidence that there is a direct correlation between participation levels and unhappiness and dissatisfaction around the levels of service delivery of the municipality. Lastly people at the grassroots level do not have knowledge on how government structures function. This makes it difficult for them to have meaningful and effective means of participation. All the undesirable effects outlined above, provide a sound and compelling basis on justification for a Community Participation Policy design. While the legislation prescribing citizen and community abounds, local government authorities have remained indifferent; or they have not been visible in pursuing methods and mechanisms that foster citizen participation in project management and decision making processes. As a result of this study, the Council has made the amendment of Section 12 of the Municipal Structures Act to ensure that eThekwini Municipality becomes a ward participatory type of municipality. Also, community participation policy has been developed to change the present situation or context that invited the problem on ineffective participation. The policy aims at changing mindsets for municipal officials so that they take the issue of involving communities more seriously. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of Kwazulu Natal, 2005.