M.Comm. / The aim of this study was to determine the level of capital and labour productivity in the South African manufacturing industry and their impact on the industry's level of competitiveness on the international markets. It was established at the outset that there is an important link between productivity and competitiveness. Before a quantitative analysis of South African manufacturing and that of some of this country's major international competitors could be done, it was first necessary to examine the theoretical foundations behind the concepts of productivity and competitiveness. It was found that international competitiveness can be judged in terms of the ability of industries to generate wealth more rapidly than their international competitors. It was established that the main driving force for achieving these goals is growth in the productivity of input factors. This, in turn, is determined by growth in human capital, research and development, government policies and economies of scale. Various macroeconomic measurements of productivity and competitiveness were examined. At the domestic level these included growth in domestic investment as a necessary requirement for increasing the capital stock and capital-labour ratio, as well as measurements of the level of domestic education. In order to make international comparisons unit labour costs; terms of trade; the real effective exchange rates and growth in exports were examined. The level of efficiency of the utilisation of input factors, capital and labour, was found to be critical to productivity performance. In the context of the Cobb-Douglas production function marginal productivity and the marginal rate of technical substitution were examined. That the ultimate aim of a production process is the optimal combination of input factors was highlighted and the efficiency criterion as a technique was discussed. The optimal utilization of the budget outlay was established as a test of whether or not economic waste occurs, and the methodology for establishing whether economies of scale exist was examined. The quantitative analysis of South Africa's international level of competitiveness at the macroeconomic level showed that South Africa's expenditure on research and development compares poorly with those of its competitors. Domestic savings as a percentage of GDP in South Africa is consistently below 20%, compared with 30 - 40% for Korea. In terms of growth in investment, South Africa did not fare too badly since the beginning of the 1990's compared to the industrialised countries. However, South Africa's investment level below 20% of GDP was far below that of Korea which was nearly 40% of GNP. It was found that South Africa's expenditure on education at about 20% of government expenditure was high in comparison to its competitors. However, the education level was shown to be inadequate, indicating that monies are not spent efficiently.

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

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Science in Industrial Engineering. October 2016 / The research project aimed at determining employees’ experiences of the application of the flow efficiency methodology. The flow efficiency methodology was the selected management methodology from the broader scope of process-focused methodologies. The significance of the flow efficiency approach is that it’s an alternative approach to the traditional management approach of optimising resource efficiency, but rather focuses on improving the flow of the process in which the resources work. The research was conducted in the context of the labour-intensive, South African manufacturing sector using a case study approach. The purpose of the research was to understand front-line employees’ and supervisors’ perceptions during the application of the flow efficiency approach. The assessed perceptions came from four selected change factors that stemmed from the Lean change iceberg model commonly found in literature. The motivation for research was two-fold: (1) prior research of the flow efficiency methodology in the socio-technical environment focused on operational improvement impact, and not on the impact on people; and (2), most research of improvement approaches and methods in South Africa tended to focus on success factors and pre-requisite maturity levels of various methods. The chosen flow efficiency approach required no pre-requisite culture requirements. The researcher was of the view that gaining an insight (through a case study) into employees’ perceptions of change factors during a flow efficiency approach, could lead to benefits of development and empowerment of employees and management in the labour-intensive, manufacturing sector of South Africa. The case study selected was a flow efficiency-based, improvement initiative in a multinational dairy plant in South Africa. The researcher used an unstructured, group-administered questionnaire to assess operational and supervisory employees’ perceptions of the selected change factors after process changes were made in the process where they work. The four selected process-improvement change factors derived from the Lean change iceberg were: Leadership Behaviour; Social System Change; Effectiveness of Change; and Employee Involvement & Empowerment. Content validity was conducted with external and internal experts to refine the questions and sequence of the questionnaire. A trained research assistant facilitated the multiple questionnaire sessions. Thematic content analysis was used to categorise participant’s responses into themes and sub-themes for each question. The occurrence of themes and sub-themes per question was tallied up and discussed for operational and supervisory employees with respect to the research objectives. The research did not yield a broad-based view on the impact of the flow efficiency management approach on employees’ perceptions in the greater industry context. However, it did give an insight, through the case study, into some universally applicable perceptions of changes experienced by South African, front-line and supervisory employees when the flow efficiency management approach was used. Perceptions of: leadership commitment and coaching, improved teamwork, simplification of jobs, improved flow, and improvements in individual performance, and employee empowerment were prevalent perceptions felt by most employees at both levels. / MT2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering, 2017 / Productivity is an important topic within the mining industry and advances in productivity open up opportunities to make the best possible use of South Africa’s mineral wealth. The report uses publicly available data to assess trends in productivity in the SA coal mining industry since the 1980s and to compare SA’s performance with that of the US and Australia. It is found that between 1980 and 2003, productivity growth in the SA coal mining sector was primarily driven by capital deepening. However, productivity growth has been negative from 2004 onwards, despite continued capital deepening. Possible explanations include resource depletion, investment lags, deteriorating worker quality, increased complexity, more stringent safety regulations and adverse labour market conditions. The report highlights skills development and investment in innovation as possible ways of addressing declining productivity performance in the SA coal mining sector and recommends improvements to the availability of data for productivity research purposes. / CK2018

M. Tech. Human Resources Management / This study was conducted to determine whether there is a relationship between organisational culture and assignment fulfilment in an energy provider. Factors comprising organisational culture and assignment fulfilment will be established and discussed. By making use of a detailed literature review, three factors of organisational culture and assignment fulfilment were identified. These factors were used to structure a questionnaire. The following factors of organisational culture were identified: values, managing employee-employer relationships and leadership. Assignment fulfilment factors that were identified are job involvement, job satisfaction and organisational fulfilment. Correlation analyses were used to determine whether there is a relationship between organisational culture and assignment fulfilment. Correlation analysis proved that there is a negative correlation between organisational culture and assignment fulfilment, because when one variable increases the other decreases. It was proved that employees are not fulfilled in the organisation due to the culture of the organisation. An organisation needs to focus on leadership in order to improve the culture of the organisation.

M. Tech. Business Administration / The purpose of the study was to establish the relationship between job satisfaction and productivity at the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS), given the fact that the organisation has been characterised by various people issues since inception, and suffered three employee strikes during a period of five year. Many challenges, ranging from disruptions emanating from labour disputes, and financial challenges which adversely affected the organisation's overall performance, were experienced. Given the critical role that job satisfaction and productivity play in determining the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of organisations, it was paramount to understand what motivates them and to what extent they are satisfied by the organisations and other contextual variables.

Interest in effectively publishing academic articles stems from involvement in statistical research support provided to academic researchers conducting their research. In the context of this study research output (RO) is defined as the publication of research findings (articles) in academic journals accredited with the South African Department of Higher Education and Training’s (DHET). The vantage point of this research is that of research support statisticians. New knowledge is continually required to drive decision making, policy formulation, industry, economies, regulation, development, innovation and progress (SESCES 2015:9; Pullinger 2014). Quality published research serves as a reliable source of new information. Therefore measures are globally and nationally implemented to stimulate article publication. Such measures and incentives include measurement of publication rate; journal impact ratings; government funding of research based on research output; acknowledgement as research-intensive institutions, promotion opportunities linked to publication rate and more. Although the literature reports on aspects of the production and publication of research findings, limited research is reported on research output productivity (ROP) viewed from the perspective of the statistical community that support research within the research process. Therefore a theoretical framework for ROP had to be developed. Classic grounded theory (GT) proved to be an appropriate methodology for this research based on its theory-develop properties. The literature, responses to an open- and closed-ended questionnaire, observational field notes of this researcher and informal discussion notes were inter alia used as data bases in the cycles of data-collection-analysis-and-comparison that characterise GT implementation. Theoretical components (‘categories’) that emerged in the research include the research process as central concept (the ‘core category’), a research practice component; role players in the research process; the attitude of researchers; knowledge of researchers; skills and attributes of researchers; research resources and research resource centres; and the research climate of the researcher environment. These components constitute the factors that impact ROP. Relational links - which forms the second leg of a developing theory - between these components are explained quantitatively in terms of multivariate linear regression equations; a profile of researcher-type (discriminant analysis) and qualitatively by means of the literature and field notes of this researcher. The emerged theoretical model indicates that knowledge and skills of academic researchers, as well as researcher-type directly impact on the research process and therefore on ROP. Furthermore attitude forms a discriminatory attribute of academic researchers. The objective with the development of the model of ROP was to identify important components of RO delivery and propose grassroots recommendations to promote ROP. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Didactics)

For business firms to continue as going concerns, productivity is a primary goal. In order for the firms to remain productive, it is imperative that managers continuously explore ways of improving productivity and employee performance. Employee productivity, in particular, is the measurement of performance and competitiveness in any business firm. A competitive advantage enables a business firm to, amongst others, survive financially, expand its operations and grow its market share. Creativity and innovation are fundamental sources of competitive advantage. In order for a business to retain its competitive edge, it must effectively enhance employee productivity, creativity and innovation. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate a creativity model that could contribute to the enhancement of employee productivity. More specifically, the study investigated how employee productivity (the dependent variable) was influenced by the independent variables rewards, a climate conducive for creativity and innovation, employee creativity, self-esteem and performance intent. The sample consisted of 82 blue-collar employees from various manufacturing firms in Port Elizabeth. The empirical results revealed that the firms’ rewards for performance and their climates for creativity and innovation were positively related to the creativity of their employees. The creativity and self-esteem of their employees were positively related to their employees’ performance intentions, while collectively these three variables were positively related to their employees’ productivity. The managerial implications of these and other findings are discussed in the study.

The South African national government has bestowed certain authority on local governments in order for community services to be delivered by officials who are closer to the community and who will consider community needs. Post-apartheid South Africa is confronted with a major challenge in ensuring that municipalities deliver optimal and professional services to ratepayers of all ethnic and diverse cultures. Municipalities have important objectives to implement, while service delivery is one of its major goals. The ratepayers in the NMBM have complained and protested against poor service delivery that resulted from poor job performance by NMBM employees. It is therefore necessary to investigate the obstacles that are hindering the NMBM employees in exhibiting effective and satisfactory job performance in order to deliver the required services to the customers. The primary objective of the study is improving employee job performance in the NMBM by investigating the factors that influence such performance. More specifically, the study investigates the influence of job involvement, team work, organisational communication, skills development and training, recognition and pay and rewards on the job performance of NMBM employees. Convenience sampling was used to select a sample of 250 respondents from the large population of about 2 000 NMBM employees. The sample was stratified to include all occupational levels including the executive mayor, portfolio councillors, executive directors, and financial officers, operating officers, chiefs of staff, directors, assistant directors, senior managers, professionals and blue collar staff. Two hundred and fifty questionnaires were distributed, but only 200 usable questionnaires were returned, producing a response rate of 80 percent. The empirical results showed that recognition systems, job prestige, skills recognition, and skills development and training were significantly related to the job performance of the NMBM employees. Job involvement, fringe benefits, pay and rewards, teamwork and organisational communication were not significant related to the job performance of the NMBM employees. The study provides managerial and future research recommendations in this regard.

An increase in the global competitiveness has forced manufacturing organisations to re-look their facility from a labour productivity standpoint. Leveraging a manufacturing operation into a competitive avantage must at all times support the organisation’s objective. It is therefore critical that the operation reviews its strategy so that it fulfils the ever changing needs in the market. Purpose – The main objective of this research is to identify the critical success factors to improve direct labour efficiency within Johnson Controls Automotive South Africa (Pty) Ltd (JCI). Design/methodology/approach – A combination of a comprehensive literature review and visits to the Uitenhage plant and head office were employed in the study. JCI practices were observed to highlight the level of direct labour productivity. This was followed by interviewing relevant and key personel who had an involvement in achieving direct labour productivity in the plant. A questionnaire-based research approach was adopted for this purpose and a total of 83 valid survey responses were received from staff in the Uitenhage plant, together with head office staff who directly supported the plant. The questionnaire was designed to identify and test perceptions of employees, regarding the factors of production, identified as sub variables. The research aim was to determine the most practical and effective strategies to improve direct labour productivity. Results were analysed and interpreted after which recommendations were formulated. Findings – Several critical success factors identified as sub variables were tested to understand their impact on direct labour productivity. Empirical results showed that organisational culture, leadership culture, employee engagement, communication and skills, development and training, had a significant effect on direct labour productivity. Respective ratings of these elements were discussed with the focus of improving this going forward. Research limitations/implications – Continued scepticim within JCI about the benefits of direct labour productivity to their business is one of the fundamental limitations this research faces. Originality/value – The novelty of the research project stems from the realization of key factors contributing to the improvement of direct labour productivity within the JCI enviroment. The results would provide JCI with indicators and guidelines for a successful implementation of direct labour productivity initiatives in the Uitenhage plant.