M.B.A. / The importance of a free market in a post apartheid South Africa has been acknowledged. The benefits should be spread so that all individuals may be able to share in the wealth generated by the people within the country. Privatisation is one mechanism for redistributing the wealth ofthe State, and the use of an Employee Share Ownership Participation Scheme (E.S.O.P.S.) is a way in which the wealth can be spread over a large proportion ofthe population. This was a basic policy of Thatcher's Government in the U.K. The same rationale is apt for the South African situation. An E.S.O.P.S., is similar to a profit sharing or a pension plan, and may be grouped with various holistic empowerment strategies. There are however two fundamental differences from these two traditional plans: 1. It invests only in the equity ofthe employer 2. The E.S.O.P.S., provides the organisation with an increased finance tool, through an increased ability to borrow. One of the business trends, in the U.S.A. and the U.K. and more recently in South Africa has been to extend the ownership of shares to employees. This secures a stake in the company, an avenue for retiring owners, and as protection against hostile takeover bids. Other motives that have been used are, as an educational experience and also as a part of participative management philosophy. The author has made a study of the acceptance of E.S.O.P.S., schemes in the South African Mining Industry and the impact of this concept on the workers through an attitude survey. The author headed the Department of Mining Engineering in the new University of Johannesburg, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment. He lectures the subjects Mineral Engineering Management, Coal Mining and Coal Services to candidates for the National Diploma (NO) and Bacculareus Technologae (B Tech) in Mining Engineering.

Employee participation is a common and popular aspect of most labour relations systems in many countries, including South Africa (the RSA). For years now, there have been debates around the actual benefits of employee participation initiatives to both the business and its employees. Various factors influence the development of participation initiatives within businesses. Some of these factors include legislation, management perceptions and attitudes, socio-economic factors, political and business complexities. These factors vary from one economy to another, from industry to industry, from company to company and may be classified into internal or external factors. It is even suggested that participation initiatives and levels of implementation may be different within the same organization, from department to department, and from one geographic set-up to another within the same organisation. It is for this reason that this research was undertaken. RoyalServe(RS) has an average of 12 000 employees and about 800 sites or branches or units within the RSA. A number of employee participation models and initiatives exist within RS, and it has been argued by many (inter alia trade unions, employees, managers) that the implementation of these models varies from one site to the next - with one of the major influencing factors being the size of a branch or site. Employee participation initiatives and models are established either voluntarily or in response to compliance with legislation. Some scholars and practitioners have suggested that employee participation models that yield positive results for both parties are the ones that are voluntary and have not been undertaken for legal compliance purposes. Others argue that even in cases where it is legislated and practiced for compliance, the end result remains the same. From a comparative point of view, the Japanese and German models of employee participation have been, for some time now, crowned as classic examples of employee participation. Interestingly, the two models (Japanese and German) were implemented for contrasting reasons. The Japanese model is voluntary whereas the German model is legislated. Both models remain leading examples of how successful participation can be, regardless of the reasons for its implementation. Royal Serve Cleaning operates in three Sub Saharan countries: South Africa, Lesotho and Namibia (making it a transnational organisation). The Head Office is situated in Midrand, Johannesburg, RSA. The following regional offices exist to provide immediate and more flexible support to both employees and clients at regional level: Cape Town: Western Cape; Midrand: Gauteng Province, Limpopo, North West and Mpumalanga; Bloemfontein: Free State, Lesotho and Northern Cape; Durban: KZN; Port Elizabeth: Eastern Cape; Namibia.The primary goal of this research was to investigate how the size of a site influences the implementation of employee participation within RoyalServe Cleaning (Pty) Ltd. Put differently, the question to be answered by the research is: are employee participation initiatives applied similarly across all sites within RoyalServe regardless of size? Another question that has been answered in this research report, albeit indirectly, is: do RoyalServe employees understand the various participation initiatives in place at all levels of the organisation? Accusations have been leveled by some employees that employee participation initiatives at RS are benefiting only those employees based at the big sites at the expense of the smaller ones. The research methodology followed in this paper includes: A review of the available literature about RoyalServe employee participation strategies, initiatives, minutes, reports and practices; The development of a questionnaire which was then distributed to selected employees at all levels within the organisation. The analysis of information gathered in the above activities and recommendations formulated was based on gathered data.

This thesis is based on the grounded experience of an internal change agent attempting change initiatives in two organistions over a period of five years. The practical reality of what happened is narrated in a number of sequential and comparative case studies which detail how the process of change evolved, what happened and the role of the internal change agent, A feature of the experience has been how the change initiatives were deflected, slowed, curtailed and thwarted. From what happened a Theory of Counterchange has been formulated. This derives from twelve propositions grounded in the experience. Counterchange is a dynamic process which focuses on the individual affected by a change initiative. It can evolve where there is a discrepancy between a person's goals, values and self-interests and how that person defines and attaches meaning to a particular situation.

Organisations are constantly seeking for ways and means to enhance their profitability in a global economy. The current organisational trend to gain the competitive advantage has become a more people orientated focus. Numerous studies grant acclaim to employee engagement for its perceived increase in financial performance. A dominant driver effecting levels of employee engagement, is leadership. It is this driver, in particular, that is examined in this study. The aim is to determine to what extent leadership has an impact on employee engagement, which in turn directly impacts on the organisations bottom-line. The study was done by utilising existing secondary data on employee engagement (Connexion survey for 2008) in the Enforcement and Risk Management Division of SARS. A quantitative research study was conducted, utilising measures such as Cronbach alpha coefficient test and factor analysis, to establish a relationship between the two factors. The main finding of the research is that leadership has a profound impact on levels of employee engagement in the organisation of choice. It is also deduced that employee engagement, as a strategy to enhance an organisation’s competitiveness, is a continuous process that must be sustained for a number of years to fully perceive the value. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

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

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 1997 / While employee participation has existed in various forms since the late 19th century, the thinking behind terms like 'participative management' and 'stakeholding' began to take root after the second world war in some companies in the major industrial nations ...[No abstract provided. Information taken from first chapter] / MT2017

Lam Pik Ki. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-80). / Abstracts in English and Chinese; questionnaire in Chinese.

Despite the large number of studies of organisation culture, there are still gaps in the current literature, in particular concerning the way in which culture is defined, how values are disseminated and reinforced, and how employees contribute to culture change. This thesis examines these gaps via research carried out in two local councils in New South Wales, namely Wollondilly and Wingecarribee Shire Councils, specifically focusing on their tourism departments. The research reports on the following: how organisation culture is defined and shaped in an organisation; the values of an organisation and how they are disseminated and reinforced on a day-to-day basis; and, the contribution employees make to culture change. Moreover, the thesis will examine the organisational members own definition of culture as a way of examining some of the definitions in the literature. The data for this study comprises interviews, questionnaires, surveys, personal observation and secondary sources. The study demonstrates council staff’s views on culture, and how culture is defined by, and embedded in, an organisation. Through examining the organisation members’ own views of culture, values and their participation, the thesis aims to contribute to the literature on organisation culture by more closely aligning definitions from the literature with empirical data from case studies of organisations / Masters in Commerce (Honours)

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