MBA & MM Theses

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Corporate governance

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Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    GOVERNANCE OF STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES IN ZAMBIA
    (2014-02-19) Kateshi, Misael Fitzgerald
    Reports of the Auditor-General indicate that governance of State-Owned Enterprises continues to be a challenge in Zambia. Unfortunately, not many studies have been carried out on this subject matter. The purpose of this qualitative study therefore was to explore contributory factors to poor governance in SOEs in Zambia focusing on the Ministry of Finance. Data was mainly collected through interviews. Participants were the Office of the Auditor-General, two State Banks, and independent experts in addition to the Ministry. Although situated in one ministry, this research has enabled the gaining of insights into challenges that ministries face when supervising parastatals. Findings indicate that a combination of a weak supervisory system, lack of capacity in terms of manpower in the Government Investments Unit at Ministry of Finance, and lack of a specific policy and legal framework for SOEs may be the major issues at play when exercising the supervisory function.
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    A FRAMEWORK FOR GOVERNANCE IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA
    (2011-11-03) Maharaj, Kiren
    In the context of predicted positive economic growth in South for the next three years, the economic landscape will be characterised by a growth in investment in South Africa. Some of the investment will be underpinned by the infrastructure developments by state owned enterprises such as Eskom and Transnet. These infrastructure investments will comprise the recommissioning and construction of new power plants and investments in harbours and rail infrastructure and will be executed through projects. To access the funding required for these projects South African entities may find themselves competing for investor funding. Investor confidence will be an important criterion to access funding and credible corporate governance arrangements based on internationally accepted principles will improve access to global capital markets. Organisations will have to provide assurance that project activities are carried out on the basis of good governance so that the outcomes of projects contribute to sustainable performance and ultimately economic growth. This report examines the key governance principles that should be incorporated into the project lifecycle based on examining key literature sources in the areas of governance and project management. The outcome of this report is a framework which South African corporations can utilise to determine the governance structure and governance practices that apply to a project environment within the context of broader corporate governance
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    CORE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE DILEMMAS FACING BOARDS
    (2011-10-24) Serretta, Hyram
    Directors and boards currently face many complex challenges in times of diversity, change, competition and regulation. A key factor of success in practicing good corporate governance is the board‟s ability to cope with paradox. The purpose of this research has been to explore the core corporate governance dilemmas facing boards. Furthermore, the purpose of the study was to determine best practice for managing paradox in the context of corporate governance. The investigation was qualitative in nature. Content analysis was done on the results and the constructs identified by sample respondents were compared to the literature. The main finding was that there are six core corporate governance dilemmas facing boards and that boards require specific competencies in order to cope with these dilemmas. Eight competencies were identified. These findings were summarised in a model that provides a consolidated view of the core corporate governance dilemmas and of what competencies of the board contribute to coping with these dilemmas. The model provides a tool for directors wishing to shape their boards to manage paradox and specific core corporate governance dilemmas facing them.
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    Corporate Governance
    (2011-06-06) Ntshangase, Jacob Sabelo
    Since the advent of the SA community radio sector in the early 1990s, ongoing governance and management problems have been indicative of a chronic lack of corporate governance compliance. Despite numerous interventions by a range of service providers in the sector, including government’s efforts to make huge financial resources available through the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA), the sector has been unable to find solutions. The purpose of this research was to investigate governance and management approaches in the community radio sector to identify shortcomings in terms of corporate governance compliance. The study also intended to establish key policy pointers the sector would need to review in order to effectively address corporate governance compliance. The research was restricted to key stakeholders with a minimum of five years of experience within the community radio sector. Members of the 2006/7 and 2007/8 NCRF Board of Directors also participated. Data collection methods consisted of face-to-face interviews and discussions, documents and observations. This report documents that corporate governance noncompliance remains a chronic failure in the sector. It concludes that deliberate interventions towards implementing a culture of corporate governance, by capacitating governance and management structures to operate effectively would be a solution
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    GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES IN ENSURING
    (2011-05-19) MLATE, ABIGAIL ADELAIDE
    In many countries such as New Zealand and Singapore, state owned enterprise (SOE1) reform efforts had failed to deliver continued improvements in the performance of SOEs as they still did not fully address the fundamental governance challenges confronting SOEs. State owned enterprises continue to face challenges in terms of disparity in the governance frameworks existent and an inability to strike a balance between competing demands in terms of the ability to balance between the social objectives and profit maximisation to ensure the sustainability of the enterprise and the changing legislative environment within which they operate to ensure improved performance. In order to successfully conclude the process of economic transformation, the state’s ownership and privatization policies as well as the corresponding measures to implement those policies must be carefully and precisely designed in ensuring that SOEs perform. Furthermore, the role of leadership is seen as a critical factor in the governance of SOEs. This research explored the Transnet Limited case against the backdrop of SOEs restructuring in South Africa. The study illustrates that for SOEs to be competitive and efficient in their operations, it was important that they operate within a proper governance and institutional regulatory framework. It also maintains that it was essential to have continued improvements in corporate governance within the public sector to allow for effective asset management, investment policies, accountability and transparency to address ‘principal-agent’ challenges. The study further indicates that SOEs in South Africa were moving in the right direction; however they were still confronted with challenges and those challenges were similar to both developed as well as emerging markets
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    An Evaluation of APRM Communication Strategy
    (2011-04-18) Atam, Millan
    In 2003, a decision was taken by African Heads of State and Government to establish the Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), a voluntary initiative, which had as goal to enable member states to assess and assist each other in conforming to economic, political and corporate governance standards and ethics amongst others. By the end of the first year, twenty-three African countries had voluntarily acceded to the APRM and by the time of this research it had 29 members, being over fifty percent of the overall African Union membership. This initiative brought with it high hopes and expectations for the peoples of the African continent. Six years later, the African Peer Review Mechanism is still struggling to assert itself. While it has been able to achieve some results, why is it that a lot of these is still largely unknown across the continent? There was reason therefore to believe that effective communication is the probable culprit. The APRM Secretariat and Panel of Eminent Persons may not have invested enough in finding channels of accountability and information to the average African. This has resulted in the current apathy towards the APRM agenda across the continent and even amongst member countries. This research is aimed at evaluating the communication strategy of the APRM, and to assess if the lack of buy-in and active participation from stakeholders could perhaps hinge solely on the lack of appropriate communication or if there are other contributing factors. Through in-depth interviews and a number of field visits, this research has been able to use qualitative research to establish that indeed there is no structured communication strategy within the APRM Secretariat, which is supposed to be the engine-room of APRM efforts. But then, it also establishes that communication is only one of the many shortcomings of the APRM. Others include; poor management, lack of transparency and accountability which seem to be the root causes for the Secretariat being unable to carry out its tasks effectively. This study therefore recommended that in order to resolve the problem of communication, there is need to re-evaluate the role of the Panel, the Secretariat, the Country Offices and put in place checks and balances that would address the root problems
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    The trade-off between compliance and value in
    (2011-03-30) Coetzee, Irma
    This study examines the role of the board of directors of companies in various industries in South Africa with regard to the future strategy of the organisation. Specifically in the backdrop of an environment where there is increased focus on the internal controls within organisations due to the guidelines around effective corporate governance, the goal was to ascertain whether the board still focuses on the future value of the organisation. One of the propositions tested as part of this research states that the board is in fact only focused on internal controls and does not provide sufficient input to the strategic thinking process about the future direction of the organisation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with directors of companies in order to establish the role that the board fulfils in that company and whether there is a balance between creating value on the one hand and mere compliance on the other. Content analysis was performed on the transcribed interviews. Due to the fact that convenience sampling method was used, there were more executive directors on the list than non-executive directors. The findings were interesting and shed light on the actual role that the boards are playing in large public companies in South Africa. An interesting finding was the fact that there was such a large difference in the involvement of executive directors as opposed to non-executive directors and that the executive directors generally seemed to discount the value that the nonexecutive directors contribute to board decisions, providing a topic for interesting further research. It was generally found that the propositions that formed the basis of this research held true in the cases that were reviewed. In South Africa the executive directors tend to act autonomously in the directing and controlling of the companies in which they operate, with mere ratification from the full board of directors and insufficient involvement from the non-executives in the strategic thinking process. The strategic scorecard that was developed by CIMA is a useful tool that should be used by companies’ boards in order to ensure that they spend sufficient time focusing on the strategy and the future direction of the organisation. The scorecard covers all aspects of strategy at the appropriate level of involvement that is required from the board to ensure that they monitor and oversee the strategy development and implementation processes effectively.