Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / The primary focus of this study is to look at the interplay of the military and academic cultures at the South African Military Academy (SAMA). The question was raised about the nature of these two conflicting subcultures within the SAMA faculty, some avoidable damage that is being done, and ways to overcome the conflict for the future. Research data obtained from interviewing a sample of the SAMA members was used to investigate whether the two subcultures, which appear each to have a different ethos, can complement one another and how they define and shape the organisational culture of the institution. Findings from this study confirmed the existence of conflict between the academic and military culture and showed that this conflict has historical origins. It was further shown that part of the conflict arises from the tendency of the military culture to impose itself over the academic culture. The study revealed that this conflict also affects the civilian-military relations amongst the staff members, which impacts on the staff morale and organisational performance. It was found that ineffective organisational communication of the Academy was partly the source of this organisational culture and that the strengthening of an effective organisational communication particularly on the part of senior management of the Academy could go a long way towards creating an inclusive organisational culture that accommodates and encourages the coexistence of both the academic and military subcultures. The study concluded that peaceful coexistence of both these subcultures will lead to healthier relations between the civilian and uniformed members and to the SAMA as a whole. Recommendations for further consideration and action by the Military Academy were given.

<p>In the current fast-moving, global and complex business world, implementing organisational change has become one of the major leadership issues. Indeed, competitive organisations are turning out to be the ones that are flexible, able to adapt rapidly and continuously; strong leaders are turning out to be the ones who are transformational and who are able to implement change successfully.</p><p>However, as the business world is becoming more complex, organisations are following the same path and are developing increasingly complicated structures. Risk of failure in implementing change in such complex organisations is consequently high and leaders must lead strategic moves with dexterity. They must understand their role, the required skills as well as the importance of the people while starting to implement change. They must understand where to exert their influence and they should therefore be able to determine what are the key success factors to be taken into consideration in the implementation process.</p>

Over the past few years there has been growing interest in the study of leadership styles and organisational culture. Internal issues and external environment challenge the leadership of manufacturing organisations, Scarborough(2001). The focus of the research was to gain insight into the transformational leadership of manufacturing organisations. Although leadership scholars have generated a significant stream of research on transformational leadership, there has been a lack of attention to the specific features in the context of transformational leadership such as contingency theories, attribution theory, and organisational culture. The study investigates the effects of transformational leadership on situational determinants and organisational culture in manufacturing organisations in Pakistan. Podsakoff et al, (1990) a 23-item measure of transformational leadership inventory questionnaire was employed to evaluate transformational leadership in manufacturing organisations. The objectives of this research study are: Firstly to study transformational leadership in Pakistani manufacturing organisations. Secondly to study transformational leaders' behaviour in manufacturing organisations with respect to situational determinants, i.e., situation strength, attribution theory, feedback, and organisational culture. Thirdly to develop hypotheses concerning the relationship between transformational leadership, and situational determinants and to develop a model of relationship between transformational leadership, situational determinants and organisational culture. Lastly, to suggest further research guidelines for transformational leadership phenomena and leadership in Pakistani manufacturing organisations. Results from the research show that transformational leaders tend to create weak situations for their followers in manufacturing organisations; they favour discretion to their followers and delegate decision-making to followers. Transformational leaders also tend to make external attributions for the causes of poor performance in their organisations, and assume follower's mistake as a learning experience. They try to establish close contact with their followers and seek feedback directly from followers. Transformational leaders favour clan type culture more in their manufacturing organisations; however adhocracy culture is not completely ignored. A new leadership alignment model incorporating various concepts focusing on leadership style, organisational leadership, and situational strength has been introduccd. Results from the data analysis indicate that there is a need to train more leaders in Pakistani manufacturing organisations to benefit from the transformational leadership style, as it has beene stablished that transformational leadershipis an influential form of leadership clearly associated with high levels of individual and organisational performance(, Shamir & Kark, 2002). As pointed out by Bass, (2002) leaders will be prized for their innovativeness, responsiveness, and flexibility, all linked to their frequency of transformational leadership behaviour.

Knowledge sharing is an important element of knowledge management initiatives in organisations. It is well established in literature that cultural issues play an important role in influencing knowledge sharing practices. This research addresses cultural aspects that influence knowledge sharing within an academic environment. A single case study approach was adopted to explore the influence of culture on knowledgesharing practices within a Kuwaiti higher education institution known as PAAET. The complexity of the issues surrounding how PAAET operates necessitates the use of both quantitative and qualitative methods. Therefore, this research brings together evidence from a range of data collection tools. Thus, the literature review, the findings from a questionnaire survey, interviews and focus groups, and information from existing documents were analysed in order to identify how to promote an effective knowledge-sharing culture at the selected case study organisation. This research adds to the body of knowledge on "knowledge sharing" and extends this knowledge by addressing a total of twenty different factors categorised under four main headings: individual, organisational, national, and cross-cultural issues that both impede and facilitate knowledge sharing within a culture that is very complicated and very different from the Western culture. In addition, this research provides insight into how thesei ssuesm ight be addressedb y recommendings ome actionablep roposalsf or the authorities in the Kuwaiti higher education institute. These proposals offer some issues that could be considered when investigating and implementing successful and effective knowledge-sharing strategies. This research also provides the necessary theoretical underpinning to further develop the topic of knowledge sharing within complex institutions that are influenced by a multiplicity of factors. The research demonstrates that better performance and improved productivity can be achieved by implementing a coherent and balanced knowledge-sharing framework.

Purpose: The aim of this thesis is to elaborate on if organisational culture has an impact on the intention to use a CRM system. Methodology: The data was collected by use of an online questionnaire, the questions used were created based on the literature review andmeasured according to a 5 point Likert-scale Conclusion: Organisational culture has no meaningful impact on intention touse CRM. This since each of the culture types produced results which were outside acceptable perimeters. Out of the three aspects of the technology acceptance model,attitude has the biggest impact on intention to use CRM. PEOU and PU were not within acceptable perimeters. Neither PU nor PEOU had a statistical significant impact on attitude, leaving attitude as a sole positive contributor to intentionto use CRM. K

This exploratory study examines the relationship between the work-life balance and organisational culture of medical doctors and nurses in Nigeria. There has been an overwhelming majority of work-life balance studies undertaken in Western countries. This leaves Africa, most notably Nigeria, an understudied area of investigations. In order to achieve this objective, this study applies a qualitative research method. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were carried out with 62 medical doctors and 29 nurses across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Drawing on the data collected, this thesis makes two important contributions to this field of research. Empirically, the study enhances the work-life balance database most especially in the specific context of Nigeria, by revealing that the traditional culture of Nigerian health organisations has an enormous influence on the employees’ abilities to use work-life balance policies and practices. In other words, there is an overarching relationship between organisational culture and the use of work-life balance policies and practices by doctors and nurses in the Nigerian health sector. The findings also reveal that Nigerian doctors and nurses struggle to cope with the demanding nature of their jobs and their aspirations to fulfil their non-work responsibilities. Theoretically, the study identifies an important shift in the construct and application of border theory. Border theory explains how employees negotiate their daily movements across work and family domains, but fails to recognise that family is by no means the only non-work duty that is important to employees. Also, border theory does not deal with factors that determine employees’ movements across the border. These shortcomings are alarming, especially now that Generation X employees (workers born after 1963) prefer work arrangements that also cater for their non-work duties and responsibilities. Following these shortcomings, and with the data collected, a work-life border control model was developed. Practically, the developed model (work-life border control model) extends work-life border theory by incorporating other non- ii working live activities including familial duties and outlines factors that determine employees’ movement across the border. Also, the findings of this study provide a valuable insight into the reality of work-life balance practices in Nigeria. This study thus provides an important and timely understanding about the working and non-working lives of Nigerian doctors and nurses and provides feasible and practicable recommendations for the relevant authorities.

This research focuses on developing a framework for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) technology adoption by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). WiMax has emerged as a technology to overcome the limitations of traditional and existing broadband technologies and support a great number of organisations and consumers/citizens in providing a higher speed over substantial distances i.e. in areas that are difficult for wired infrastructure to reach. Despite all the interest in the types of broadband adoption as demonstrated by SMEs in several countries, there seems to be slow progress and lack of information supporting the decision making process for WiMax technology adoption by SMEs specifically in the context of KSA. This may illustrate that SMEs adopt WiMax technology solutions at a slower pace and make them characterised as laggards in terms of new technologies adoption. This research takes into consideration this literature gap and makes a step forward and investigates on WiMax technology adoption by SMEs in KSA with an organisational cultural view, vendors’ commercialisation strategies and government policies by analysing the normative literature related to this research. The data collection of this study was carried out in two phases including quantitative and qualitative approaches. The first phase of the research provided results indicated that, the Saudi SMEs who participated in this research are strongly dominated by clan culture and adhocracy culture. These cultures also have a positive impact on the Internet technologies adoption such as WiMax by SMEs. It is found that, the combination of clan and adhocracy cultures in Saudi SMEs is making them more likely to adopt latest Internet technologies. In the second phase, the results showed a wide difference in views among SMEs, WiMax vendors and government agencies involved in WiMax technology diffusion to SMEs in Saudi Arabia. Although WiMax technology started as an innovation that has the potential to be disruptive and could replace the widely diffused fixed wire line Internet connection, the research findings showed an interesting deviation from this path. In particular, the WiMax technology market analysis in Saudi Arabia highlighted the vendors’ tendency to treat WiMax technology as a sustaining innovation. Research findings also indicated that, the Saudi government provided funds for Information and Communications Technology‘s diffusion in the country. However, the level of awareness displayed by SMEs is persistently low. Knowledge deployment, mobilisation, innovation directive and subsidy have been emphasised by SMEs as the most important government interventions that might have an impact on WiMax adoption by them. Finally, further important issues have been uncovered by the research such as taxation, experience exchange, herd culture/bandwagon, consumer right protection and customer service in relation to the adoption of WiMax by SMEs. The perceived future prospect of these additional issues has been considered as an influence on adoption of WiMax technology by SMEs. The findings of this research can be useful to guide analysts and researchers in determining critical aspects of the complex issues involved in technologies adoption, and lead to suggestions for further valid research.

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This thesis attempts to discover what actions are necessary to mitigate these problems within textile companies. Theories on organisational culture, organisational learning, and international management, were addressed in relation to intercultural communication. Using an exemplifying case of one single person within Eton AB, a case study research design was conducted. The data was collected through a qualitative research strategy and method, using self-completion/self-administrative questionnaires, and analysed using grounded theory. The general result of the thesis indicates that few communication errors between Eton AB and the participant exist. Therefore this interrelation can be seen as a positive example of intercultural communication within a textile company. In this context, it was the authors’ intention to identify the influence organisational culture and organisational learning have on intercultural communication. Certain aspects within an organisational culture are of importance to create a better integration of employees, hence influence intercultural relations positively. Organisational learning, likewise, has a positive impact, since it contributes to the creation of a better environment for integration. This thesis concludes with generalised measures which can be seen as a guideline and as first steps for textile companies in order to reduce intercultural communication errors. / Program: Textile Management,textile value chain management

Organisations today are investing in the efficient management of their talented workforce, known as talent management (TM) in order to bear fruitful outcomes in terms of corporate sustainability. Some businesses choose to include all employees in their TM strategy-inclusive TM-whilst others only include the highest-performing employees-exclusive TM. It has been suggested that no matter which TM strategy they implement, contextual factors such as culture seem to drive the degree of their application. Thus, the rationale for this research is in determining the cultural factors that trigger the exercise of TM.This study's aim is to analyse the extent to which TM strategies are impacted by national and organisational culture. In addition, it seeks the critical exploration of TM in the context of key human resource practices (HRPs); the critical investigation of TM's application; the critical examination of national and organisational culture; and finally, the degree to which both types of culture affect TM's application. This study follows a conceptual framework which sets national culture as the independent variable, organisational culture as the mediating variable, and TM as the dependent variable. The body of theory overviewed is relevant to TM's concepts and its interrelation to both human resource management (HRM) and human resource development (HRD). Predominant national and organisational cultural frameworks are also overviewed. This research's sample includes six case studies from northern, central and southern Greece and adopts a mixed-methods approach using primary data collected through questionnaires and interviews, and analysed through SPSS and thematic analysis. Among the key findings is that national culture indirectly drives the adoption of specific TM modes through the development of certain corporate cultures. Additional findings shed light on the contemporary conception of 'talent' and 'TM,' as well as on the association between national and corporate culture. This study significantly contributes to knowledge by bringing in evidence from the business environment while also discussing implications for practitioners regarding the parameters that influence both their decisions and actions.