Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management

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    EMPLOYEES’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE TRANSFORMATION PROCESS AT THE SOUTH AFRICAN POST OFFICE
    (2012-10-05) Mbanjwa, Nozipho
    Organisations continuously undergo transformation in order to survive the harsh environment that they operate in. French and Bell (2005: 80) argued that an “Organisation that learns and copes with change will thrive and flourish and others who fail to do so will be wiped out.” Organisational transformation occurs at the organisational, team and individual levels. From the point of view of the individual, employees’ attitudes towards change can either hinder or maximise the benefit the organisation gets from the transformation process. Therefore, this study focuses on employees’ attitudes towards the transformation process at the South African Post Office (SAPO). The study examines employee perceptions in a transforming environment and determines whether their attitudes enhance or hinder the process of transformation. Attitude plays itself out on three levels; feeling, thinking and behaviour (Vakola & Nikolaou, 2005; Laughlin & Early, 1982). The understanding of these three factors can assist the leadership of an organisation in predicting and influencing employees’ behaviour towards transformation. The South African Post Office is not immune to the demands of organisational transformation. This paper seeks to determine employees’ attitudes towards the transformation process at SAPO, which was initiated in 1991, with the unit of study being the Mail Business Unit. The research adopted a Durmaz’s (2007) Officer Attitude Survey as a data gathering instrument for the study. The officer attitude study was first done in the Turkish Police Force and it has also been used in the South African telecommunications industry. The questionnaire looks at employees’ attitudes in relation to specific factors, such as readiness for change, need for change, perception of the communication, training in the organisation, and organisational and personal benefits. The results of the SAPO study were largely positive, with SAPO employees aligned to the organisation’s goals, mission and objectives, and understanding and accepting that the organisation has to go through the transformation process. However, they were negatively impacted by how management makes decisions. There was also a strong sense of disappointment with the lack of communication, which inherently seems to have made employees question whether the transformation will be beneficial for them. However, Mail Business employees’ generally hold a positive perception about the transformation process taking place in their organisation. Organisational transformation should be supported by various interventions in order to maximise its impact. Enhanced communication and additional creation of a positive climate needs to be created by management and leaders of the organisation.
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    Mentorship as a tool of transformation in the navy
    (2011-10-24) Mnguni, Makhaza George
    This research report focuses on mentorship programme as a tool of transformation in the SA Navy. The first chapter of the paper provides a historical perspective of transformation in the SA Navy. It traces back the process of transformation by making reference to the White Paper on Transformation of the Public Service, 1996, the White Paper on Defence and the process of defence review. It is further outlined that mentorship as a tool for skills transfer has always been embedded in the SA Navy’s culture of force preparation, managed successfully through the divisional system (Chain of command). The failure of mentorship programme in the SA Navy is attributed to various factors as expounded in the problem statement, and there are three dimensions that are identified as the centre of the problem. The first dimension is that mentorship is not conceived as an integral part of leadership and management’s responsibility. The second dimension is that the majority of people in the middle and senior positions of leadership and management are white males, and they appear to be the centre of gravity against transformation. The third dimension is that the Department of Defence’s Human Resource Strategy 2010 has drastic implications on the future employability of a large segment of white males, who in essence are required to drive the strategy. This strategy seeks to address demographic representation within the SANDF (SA Navy). The literature review (Chapters 2 and 3) focuses on discourses around the nature and origin of mentorship, the role of power, human behaviour and organisations as social entities. The concepts of mentorship, power, change and organisation are explored in depth. The linking of these concepts enriches our understanding of how organisations work, how people compete for scarce resources, how power can be used to protect interests or even derail or advance change imperatives. On the other hand that provided the theoretical basis for analysing the impact of power distribution imbalances in organisations, in relation to mentorship in the SA Navy. Chapter 4 focuses on the research methodology and design, and Chapter 5 presents the general perceptions on the implementation of mentorship programme in the SA Navy, by presenting the data collected and the analysis thereof. In this chapter analysis of the data collected through the questionnaires takes place, and the views of protégés that are enrolled in the mentorship programme in the SA Navy are presented. The last chapter provides the findings and the recommendations of this research
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    THE TRANSFORMING CONTEXT OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN ASSOCIATION OF ART HISTORIANS (SAAAH)
    (2011-10-20) Ramgolam, Judy
    „1994 has marked the start of a new political dispensation. In order to concretise the transformation process, national frameworks of reference have been instituted. The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine whether the South African Association of Art Historians (SAAAH) should be aligned with the national transformation frameworks. Over the years there have been concerns by both black and white art historians who were of the opinion that the SAAAH had not transformed in line with the national policies and had remained an elitist body. The Association was analysed in terms of its organisational structure, design and political influences. One of the main findings of the research was that the SAAAH was at a decline stage. (Robbins, 1990: 20) Some of the salient factors that contributed to the decline of the SAAAH were its inability to respond to the changing needs of the environment and the lack of understanding of the need to diversify its membership
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    THE SENIOR MANAGEMENT SERVICE AND
    (2011-04-12) GENESS, SUNIL
    The Senior Management Service (SMS) is in its fifth year of existence. This study explores the perceptions of SMS members in terms of their policy and management role, motivations and incentives, performance evaluation, accountability and the future of the SMS in the overall transformation process of the public service. The research data was obtained using a questionnaire and interviews, whilst both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyse the data. The perceived policy advice role of the SMS is to identify policy gaps and advise in policy development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Despite contrary viewpoints, the findings show that the SMS is seen as lucrative for private sector candidates. Job satisfaction is generally high while SMS members are motivated by the opportunity to perform public service, the opportunity to impact on policy and the intellectual challenge that the public service provides. Pay for performance is deemed to be appropriate for the SMS whilst the most critical issues for the future are the impact of HIV/AIDS, the use of information technology, combating fraud and corruption, policy implementation and capacity building. The findings in this study compare favourably with other studies conducted on SMS members in other countries regardless that South Africa is at a different position on the public service reform continuum.
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    Transformation as a catalyst for development: the SARS case
    (2011-03-10) Adesanya, Adeola
    Pre-1994, the politics of exclusion manifested itself as apartheid and permeated South Africa (SA) both organisationally at micro-level and nationally at macrolevel. Post 1994, several attempts have been made at correcting this inequality and injustice and this precipitated the adoption of a new agenda of transformation, at both organisational and national levels. Transformational change was necessary in order to vigorously address the exclusionary legacy of apartheid.The purpose of this study was to determine if transformational change is developmental. Its focus is the South African Revenue Services (SARS). SARS was chosen as a case study because the process has matured a great deal and SARS has recorded success in exceeding targets set by the Finance Minister. The transformational process at SARS happened in phases with a series of small steps of success rather than leaps and bounds. One of the key findings of the study is that transformational change results in development but also that the process of transformational change is in itself developmental. In the case of SARS, there was an effort to develop required competencies of staff that remained after transformation. It was also established that despite the developmental nature of transformation, staff retention is a challenge at the end of the process because people are quite dynamic and therefore fluid in nature. To that end the study recommends that any process of transformation should pay attention to staff and their needs, in order to retain them after the process. If staff members are multi-skilled in the process, their newly acquired skills should be maximised by providing the necessary enabling environment in every manner (physical et al) that constantly challenges the staff members for growth.