This study evaluated the relationship of varying body mass index and average annual health care costs and absenteeism in a group of 524 municipal employees. The 269 employees with health care claims and the 487 employees with attendance records were categorized into five different BMI categories based on self-reported weight and height. Findings from the study suggest that as BMI increases, average annual health care costs and average annual absenteeism increase. However, BMI was only significantly related to absenteeism. The study also found significant relationships between education and health care costs and absenteeism. No significant differences for health care costs or absenteeism were found based on race, age, gender, wellness center membership, or smoking status.

This research project examines how managers in local-government-owned business organisations justify their adoption of an entrepreneurial orientation and their interpretation of their role in entrepreneurial terms. To explore these justifications, interviews were conducted with the senior management of four local-government- owned business operations and one local council. They were: Metrowater, The Edge, Taieri Gorge Railway, Chatham Islands Council and Chatham Islands Enterprise Trust. These interviews were then analysed, utilising a critical discourse method. In addition, interviews were also conducted with senior managers in the Rotorua District Council and Taupo District Council who provided a sharp contrast to the former organisations and suggested a means by which the neo-liberal approach within the sector might be countered. Through speaking with the various local govermnent business managers contacted for this project, I concluded that managers of local-government-owned business operations have a strong institutional identification with the private sector. This identity is so strong that many of the managers interviewed have rejected the very notion that they are public employees of any sort. The managers have adopted an entrepreneurial approach because they see this as essential to gain professional legitimacy with their peers in the private sector. This has caused them to place distance between themselves and the owners of the business that they manage (that is, the councils), and the local citizens they ostensibly serve, to the extent that they have described their job as providing goods and services to customers rather than providing services for citizens. I will show that the adoption of such an attitude is inappropriate when placed within the context of local-government-owned and operated business concerns. From the point of view of European settlement, New Zealand is a very young country, especially in the administrative sector. To provide a background to this project and to suggest the main lines of development of local government in New Zealand, I have included a prologue that outlines the history of local government in New Zealand.

Payment for services has been a challenge for municipalities for sometime in South Africa. This has caused municipalities to employ a number of strategies to assist in the collection of revenue. The methods of collection that have been used in the past mostly focused on the stick approach where your services would just be cut until you make the payment. Methods like Masakhane tried to explain why ratepayers needed to pay but fell short as the emphasis was on payment for services and not on the obligation for the municipalities to provide quality services as well. Loyalty programmes are used widely by the private sector and are proving worthwhile in getting customers to become loyal. The purpose of this study therefore is to find out the effectiveness of the municipal payment incentive scheme as a loyalty programme in the City of Tshwane- Soshanguve. Relationship building, the researcher found, is an important component in establishing loyalty amongst customers. This study follows the conceptual framework for modelling customer lifetime value and building customer equity. Soshanguve which is a township was chosen as an area of focus. Soshanguve is one of the biggest areas in the City of Tshwane area. The sample had to be representative of such a big population of about 88 000 households. The study used a stratified random sampling method of 375 Soshanguve households. The results attained from Soshanguve can be applied to other townships found in the City of Tshwane as they have similar characteristics. Structured interviews were conducted with 375 respondents who were drawn from ten different wards that are billed by the municipality to represent households. The questionnaire had both open ended and closed ended questions. The data that was collected was analysed using content analysis from the computer and open ended questions were self analysed. Secondary research was done using City of Tshwane documents and its website. The researcher found that municipalities and government departments have not used this kind of a loyalty programme to encourage payment; City of Tshwane is the first in South Africa to employ such a strategy. The study found that respondents believe the City of Tshwane should offer affordable services and improve service delivery as part of improving payment for services. The incentive scheme, although in its early stages was found to be a motivating factor for the majority of the respondents to pay on time because they want to qualify to win and get the cash back rewards and prizes offered by the scheme. The study found that there was a need to use local merchants that can be accessible to a large number of people. The researcher also found that the marketing and visibility for such a scheme was of utmost importance. On the overall the respondents were happy and proud to have such a programme, for them the municipal incentive payment scheme showed a caring side of the municipality for those meeting their obligation. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

No abstract available.

Thesis (M.B.A.: Business Studies Unit)-Durban University of Technology, 2008. xi, 96 leaves / The amalgamation of municipalities came into effect as a legislative requirement brought about a number of challenges for the local government. One such major challenge relates to the impact that these amalgamations will have on human resource practices of the various municipalities. Literature study reveals that during any merger or amalgamation, less attention is paid to the human element of a merger until the merger is almost complete. This lack of attention impacts negatively on the merger results. Like other municipalities, Ethekwini Municipality is a product of this legislative requirement. It was formed as a result of the amalgamation of different municipal entities that had different human resource practices. The problem facing eThekwini Municipality is the misalignment of human resources policies and their effect on the working environment. This study looks at the impact of this amalgamation on the human resources practices of the eThekwini Municipality. The sub-objectives of the study are: to ascertain employees’ perceptions of amalgamation; to determine whether employees believe that the human resources’ matters are handled in a manner that will bring about stability and equity in the workplace; and to establish whether different perceptions exist between employees of the former Durban Metro Central and those of the erstwhile entities. / M

Thesis (M.B.A.: Business Studies Unit)-Durban University of Technology, 2008. xi, 96 leaves / The amalgamation of municipalities came into effect as a legislative requirement brought about a number of challenges for the local government. One such major challenge relates to the impact that these amalgamations will have on human resource practices of the various municipalities. Literature study reveals that during any merger or amalgamation, less attention is paid to the human element of a merger until the merger is almost complete. This lack of attention impacts negatively on the merger results. Like other municipalities, Ethekwini Municipality is a product of this legislative requirement. It was formed as a result of the amalgamation of different municipal entities that had different human resource practices. The problem facing eThekwini Municipality is the misalignment of human resources policies and their effect on the working environment. This study looks at the impact of this amalgamation on the human resources practices of the eThekwini Municipality. The sub-objectives of the study are: to ascertain employees’ perceptions of amalgamation; to determine whether employees believe that the human resources’ matters are handled in a manner that will bring about stability and equity in the workplace; and to establish whether different perceptions exist between employees of the former Durban Metro Central and those of the erstwhile entities.

No abstract available.

The main objective of the study is to explore the accountability of the ward councillors through the application of the Batho Pele principles in Lukhanji Municipality. Accountability is regarded as the key aspect for any government in which it should be monitored and maintained. The main problem to be addressed by this study is the ways in which the ward councillors can improve accountability applying the Batho Pele principles. To address the research problem and to achieve the aims of this study, an empirical research was done by distributing self-administered questionnaires to the participants in Lukhanji Municipality. The research findings revealed that in Lukhanji Municipality poor accountability of the ward councillors in which it needs improvement. Another finding is that poor accountability is caused by the lack of understanding of the Batho Pele principles, lack of understanding of the accountability mechanisms and poor relations between the community and ward councillors. The research findings of the study pointed to the necessity to make a set of recommendations on improving accountability through the application of Batho Pele principles in Lukhanji Municipality.

Since 1994, the South African Government embarked on an ambitious Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP) to correct the injustices of the past. One of the major programmes, which the government is implementing within the RDP framework, is the ―Integrated National Electrification Programme‖ (INEP) with the aim to address the electricity backlog by 2012. Recent figures from Statistics SA, indicate substantial progress with regard to access to electricity throughout the country and especially in previously disadvantaged areas. This study is an investigation of the impact of access to free basic electricity (FBE) on the welfare of indigent households in Buffalo City Municipality (BCM). This study aims at better understanding ways in which indigent households use electricity and to what extent access to electricity is improving the level of poverty in the households. Empirical evidences from pro-poor electrification programmes worldwide and especially in Asia suggest that greater access to electricity by poor people leads to economic and social development at both micro and macro levels. This study investigates the impact of electricity on household poverty, with focus on household income, household health and children‘s education. This study used mixed research methods to investigate the research problem. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected using survey questionnaires, focus group discussions and interviews of key informants.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for Doctoral Degree in Philosophy – Management Sciences, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017. / South African municipalities are key institutions that are close to the heart of communities and therefore, their employees form the cornerstone of service delivery to communities. Many municipalities have been blamed for unreliable delivery of basic services whilst those that are located in rural areas still struggle to generate own revenue and faces serious skills shortages. It is important to note that there has been very little research conducted in rural districts and other similar sized municipalities on evaluating the impact of skills development, service delivery and management of learning transfer. Existing studies although they provide useful data, they seem to be aggregate, broad and not tailor made for rural district[s] and some other South African municipalities. Studies which are directed at local municipalities adopts ‘one size fit all approach’ and they did not consider that rural district municipalities have enourmous challenges in evaluating the impact of skills development in service delivery and attracting people with requisite technical and managerial expertise. According to Punia and Kant (2013) most literature on impact and evaluation of transfer training is mainly drawn from the corporate sector. Furthermore, Topno, (2012), Pallares, (2012), Bird and Cassel (2013), they similarily pointed that existing models on evaluating effectiveness of development programs in various companies have the most limitations in assessing post training job performance and organisational impact. This is supported by Wenzel and Cordery (2014 stresses that for the past 40 years, evaluation and impact of learning transfer concept remained complex, underdeveloped and with limited clearly defined empirical findings. Raliphada, Coetzee and Ukpere (2014) indicates that there are organisational factors affecting learning transfer in the South African Public Service. The identification of factors affecting learning transfer is a critical step toward ensuring that successful strategies are developed to remove barriers to learning transfer and ultimately improve implementation which leads to enhanced service delivery (Raliphada et al 2014). Since 2000, Government has undertaken steps to transform South African municipalities. However, systematic problems contributing to poor management and service delivery challenges have continued to engulf local government and in most instances such grievances translated to service delivery protests across the country. Amongst dilemmas facing local government in South Africa is the shortage of skills, poor management, corruption, conflict management and unreliable service delivery. Researchers consistently argued that grievances concerning local government relates to unreliable service delivery, shortage of skills and poor management. The purpose of this is to assess the role of line managers in implementation of skills development at the UMzinyathi rural – district and other similar sized municipalities and impact on service delivery. The study investigated perceptions of line managers, skills development facilitators and employees about the impact of skills development on service delivery at uMzinyathi District Municipality in Kwazulu Natal. The study investigated challenges experienced by managers in training and skills development. The questions were to indicate how challenges in training and skills development can be addressed in rural –district municipality and other South African municipalities. The research adopted qualitative methodology. Furthermore, thematic analysis was used for presentation and discussion of the results. The responses or data collected from participants was interpreted and analysed. The findings of the study imply that there is no human resource development strategy, absence of mentoring and coaching, managers are not involved in skills development, there are no Skills development facilitators, high management turnover, poor planning, absence of effective employee performance management system across all levels in a municipality, no proper training and development sections and there are no tools to measure impact and success of training in local municipalities of a District. The research proposes that integrative transfer of training model developed by Lee C et al (2014), be extended to UMzinyathi District municipality in KwaZulu-Natal and other South African municipalities. The study is also suggesting that existing transfer of training model be modified to add the evaluation of impact and post organisational performance. The study targeted a rural district municipality because of limited research directed at this sphere of government. The modified Integrative Transfer of training Model will contribute to the new knowledge which is currently not existing in the municipalities. The model is modified to consider not only post training job performance but to add the evaluation of organisational performance and impact influenced by skills development programmes. / D