MBA & MM Theses

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    The roles of engineering consultants in the southern African power sector
    (2014-01-21) Moodley, Dinesh Pithambaram
    Historically, a main theme behind the roles of engineering consultants has been the constant adaptation to the progressive requirements of their clients. It therefore stands that the roles of engineering consultants require constant reevaluation to ensure that they are up to date with clients’ needs today. This study, based in the context of southern African power systems, aims to identify and evaluate the key roles required from engineering consultants. An online and paper survey was presented to clients, of engineering consultants, to evaluate the extent to which they have; currently, and intend to use, the services of engineering consultants in key roles. The study statistically compared the current and intended uses of 22 roles using the technique of depended t-tests and non-parametric related tests. These tests revealed statistically significant positive differences between the current and intended uses of consultants in all roles, each of which indicated greater intended future use. The study found that while the traditional roles, like specialist ability and accountability, were not being threatened, roles which were considered new to the field were growing at a higher rate. In addition, while clients indicated higher overall use of consultants in future, public sector clients revealed higher use than private clients. In summary, advisory and technical roles remain key for clients in the short term, however, staff issues such as retention and training are growing concerns for clients which need to be addressed by consultants. The trend reveals engineering consultants requiring the establishment of a more holistic, customer oriented approach to serving client needs
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    Managing the Performance of Consulting Engineers within a Multi-Project Environment in South Africa
    (2011-04-19) Theron, Erik
    The performance of consulting engineers in large South African firms who work on more than one project simultaneously – each project with its own project team, different client, and scope of work, quality, budget and time constrains – is driven by their motivation in the work place. An increase in the performance of the consulting engineers results in more successful projects and therefore more successful clients. The objective of this research study was to improve the performance of consulting engineers operating within a multi-project environment in large engineering consulting firms in South Africa through determining and managing the key factors that influence their performance. The concepts consulting engineer, consulting firm and multi-project environment were defined and characterised and the factors that affect their performance, as described in the literature, were presented as propositions. Consulting engineers from the twenty largest CESA (Consulting Engineers South Africa) registered consulting firms responded to a questionnaire by rating performance-related manifest/measurable variables and also suggesting additional factors affecting their performance. The exploratory factor analysis done on the qualitative data revealed that the performance is managed by having excess specialist capacity, having a clever and strategic reward system, letting consulting engineers experience leadership, managing the workload and knowledge through alignment to organisation vision, creating an optimal working environment and enforcing group work where knowledge is shared. The consulting engineers suggested that the client and social involvement also influence their performance and these factors could be managed. No correlation existed between the actual factors affecting the performance of consulting engineers and the number of years of experience, the engineering discipline or the management position. Knowing and understanding the actual factors, they could be utilised in managing the performance of the consulting engineers that will lead to increased client‟s satisfaction.