Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management (ETDs)
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Browsing Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management (ETDs) by Faculty "Faculty of Commerce, Law, and Management"
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Item Coaching as an enabler for South African executives to unlock added value from demographically diverse teams(2020) Roberts, PatriciaThis research explores the potential for coaching to enable leaders in South African companies to extract added value from demographic diversity in their teams. The research contributes to an understanding of how coaching can enable South African business leaders to overcome any personal inhibitions they may have related to people from other demographic groups and to shift their thinking beyond the tolerance of diversity to a point at which there is active engagement in pursuit of the added value that demographic diversity can bring. The action research process included seventeen interviews with participants who volunteered to be part of the research coaching. They consisted of two teams in two companies – eight people in one company and nine in another. The participants were demographically diverse leaders of demographically and culturally diverse teams. They all operated in demographically diverse situations, both related to upward and downward reporting lines. The research coaching consisted of six, monthly, three-hour group coaching sessions for each of the two teams and monthly individual coaching sessions for each participant for six months. The action coaching thus took six months (138 hours of action research, excluding pre- and post-coaching interviews) to complete. Participants were interviewed at the start and end of the coaching process about how coaching had impacted their ability to extract value from demographic diversity in teams. Their responses were analysed against the key questions the research aimed to answer. The participants shifted from tending to operate in business as though all people are the same, to acknowledging and honouring difference as a potential value addition to every thinking process. The research outcomes show the potential for South African businesses to operate in a way that encourages the active extraction of value from demographic diversity. It offers recommendations to address this in a way that enables companies to take advantage of the richness of diversity present in South Africa.Item The emancipatory potential of extinction reporting in the public sector : an analysis of trends in South African National Parks(2019) Buchling, Michael CarlSouth Africa is home to biomes which cannot be found anywhere. The rich biodiversity within her borders requires protection from extinction events and activities which can lead to a decrease in biodiversity mass. SANParks is responsible for the conservation and preservation of biodiversity within South Africa and reports on how it meets its mandate not only to protect biodiversity but also to use biodiversity in a sustainable manner which improves the socioeconomic circumstances of local communities. The study is the first to explore biodiversity disclosure themes in a state-owned entity in South Africa, responsible for the conservation, and uses the disclosure to construct an emancipatory extinction account. The study is qualitative, using content analysis to investigate the disclosure themes in the SANParks reports. The findings indicate that SANParks increased the quantum of information on biodiversity over five years (2013 – 2017) suggesting an integrated thinking approach is adopted by SANParks in disclosing biodiversity. While the current disclosure practices of SANParks does not provide a comprehensive extinction account, the results of the content analysis are used to develop a reporting framework which can be used to provide a detailed emancipatory extinction account, drawing on principles from the IIRC, financial accounting literature and biodiversity-related literature. The study adds to the existing body of knowledge by incorporating the six capitals in the extinction reporting framework.Item Equalising taxing rights in the digitalised economy: an analysis of diverse tax practices implemented globally(2019) Forman, AshleighThere are limitations to the application of existing international tax laws as a result of digitalisation as these were formulated based on traditional ‘brick and mortar’ transactions. These laws are not well suited to the realities of the ‘modern way of doing business’ as they do not cater for business models which can generate returns from offering digital services in a jurisdiction without being physically present in that jurisdiction. Ultimately, if left unaddressed, these weaknesses threaten to expose tax authorities to erosion of national tax bases and profit-shifting manipulation (OECD, 2015b). The international tax framework needs to be responsive to the changing nature of global economies in the digital age. The tax framework should be able to accommodate new digital businesses which operate and create value in different ways (Saint-Amans, 2017). As a result, “there is a disconnect between where value is created and where taxes are paid” (European Commission, 2018b). In response to digitalisation, different jurisdictions have hastily imposed their own domestic tax practices to prevent further base erosion and to improve the collection of tax revenue (Petruzzi and Buriak, 2018). The OECD has attempted to address these tax challenges but has failed to provide clear guidance on taxing rights, as well as on how the profits should be allocated (Medus, 2017). The objective of this report is to summarise the tax practices implemented by the United Kingdom, the European Union, Italy and India in responding to the digitalisation of the economy. The aim will be met through a correspondence analysis between the different tax solutions implemented or proposed by these jurisdictions, and the problems identified in taxing the digital economy.