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Thesis--University of Florida. / Description based on print version record. Typescript. Vita. Bibliography: leaves 312-314.

M.Ing. (Engineering Management) / Ensuring and maintaining positive cash flow is becoming more and more difficult, especially in the construction industry. Payments need to be collected to be able to sustain a positive cash flow and this is not an easy process. Organizations fail due to insufficient available liquid assets and this study is done to determine why payments aren’t made, including information on what payment provisions contractors agree upon, and why the trend in the industry is to keep cash rather than pay suppliers. The collection of outstanding payments is also investigated, including actions taken if payments are not made, what clauses are included in contracts to ensure payment and if interest is charged on outstanding payments. A credit application processes need to be in place to ensure the credit worthiness of the clients/ employers is reviewed. It is also very important that some form of contract is agreed upon, understood and signed by both parties. There are instances where the contract documentation is not provided or the contract documents is provided and signed, but one of the parties has not read or understood some of the payment clauses. This could also lead to delayed payments. Collection of outstanding payments could be to propose a payment agreement, by charging interest or alternatively, enforcing early payments by providing a settlement discount. One of the most mentioned reasons for companies holding onto cash is to ensure liquid capital is available to ensure positive cash flow and the continuation of the business. The main reasons why liquid capital is not available is poor management of funds, poor payment procedures and mismanagement of funds. It was found that most of the construction companies have credit application processes, contracts and payment provisions in place, but most of these companies don’t adhere strictly to the procedures set out in these documents. More attention need to be given to enforcing credit and collection policies in practice, as well as following the payment provisions set out in the construction documentation. Questionnaires were only sent to companies operating in the construction industry. Further investigations can be done on other industries (including construction, mechanical, electrical, medical, farming, food sector, fashion sector etc.), which can assist in assisting with payments made by companies or individuals.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Masters in Business Science / Employees often face many difficult situations that demand ethical decision making from the viewpoint of society and organizations. Various factors influence the outcome of ethical or unethical decision-making and behaviour of employees. This paper briefly examined some of the major factors that may affect ethical behaviour in construction companies. The strength of these factors may vary from individuals to individuals, organizations to organizations, and situation to situation. The factors that were investigated are personal values, corporate ethical values and the organisational climate. Age and gender were used as moderators in this study. South Africa is a developing country in which many private and public organizations are being faced with a lot of fraud and corruption. It is not only in private organization but also the government. This call for an investigation on ethical behaviour but to solve a problem one must find the source of the problem. The study was designed to answer the major question: Are there any significance relationships between personal values, corporate values and organisational climate and ethical behaviour in the South African construction industry? The researcher employed a quantitative research method. Data collection was done by use of questionnaires distributed to various construction companies. A computer programmer called SPSS version 25 and Microsoft excel were used to analyse data. Descriptive statistics was used to interpret data collected from the first section of the questionnaire that is the biographic information. Linear regression and correlations were used to test the proposed hypothesis. Multiple regression was used to test the moderation effect of age and gender. The findings largely confirm previous studies that personal values and corporate values influence ethical behaviour. However contrary to some previous studies, there was no significant relationship between ethical behaviour and organisational climate. Conclusions, findings and recommendations were drawn from the results. / NG (2020)