Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management (ETDs)

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    Digital skills development at a global assurance, tax and advisory consulting firm in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Saley, Azhar; Gobind, J.
    Digital technology continues to evolve, and the way employees work is constantly changing. To keep up with the rapid technological developments and compete in the digital economy, organisations need a digitally skilled workforce with the skills and capabilities required to drive digital transformation. However, a qualification audit conducted by the Consultancy X HR team in February 2022 indicated that the qualifications and certifications of employees do not equip them with the skills required to support the consultancy's digital transformation journey. The purpose of this study was to investigate the low uptake in digital skills development for employees at a global assurance, tax and advisory consulting firm in South Africa. This study followed a qualitative research design, and data was collected through semi-structured interviews, which involved the researcher conducting 60-minute virtual interviews with 9 participants to collect in-depth insights and data from participants on their perceptions of digital transformation and the digital skills uptake at Consultancy X, the impact of the emerging technologies on their roles and the effectiveness of the organisation's current digital skills development approach. The thematic analysis technique was used to analyse the themes and patterns in the feedback from participants. The study found that the low uptake in digital skills development at Consultancy X was primarily due to time constraints resulting in digital skills development not being prioritised, lack of exposure to digital technologies/skills and resistance to change from employees. The findings also revealed that the organisation’s current digital skills development approach is ineffective due to limited resources being available to support digital skills development and leadership not actively driving digital skills development. However, employees are willing to learn and adopt emerging technologies if they have clarity on the objectives/benefits of the technology; the technology is user-friendly and saves them time. Recommendations were made that may assist the leadership team at Consultancy X in increasing the uptake in digital skills development
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    Blockchain technology: an examination of use-cases in the accounting profession
    (2020) Malinga, Sibusiso
    The accounting profession is one of the most sought-after professions. Worldwide, accountants are in high demand, making this a lucrative career. Most companies, nonprofit organisations and government departments need accountants and rely on accounting skills to ensure that finances are managed professionally and that there is accountability. However, the accounting profession demands a great deal of manual work, which takes up time. Manual tasks are also prone to errors. The primary objective of this study was to determine the current manual accounting tasks and the tasks that can be automated with blockchain technology. The secondary purpose was to determine how the automation of ongoing accounting tasks will affect the accounting profession. The study adopted a mixed method of research. The sample comprised 21 accountants representing two companies in South Africa, and the sampling techniques were chosen for convenience and were of a purposive nature. The results provided some valuable insights into current manual accounting tasks. These tasks can be automated by blockchain technology, the time spent on these manual accounting tasks, the frequency of the manual accounting tasks, and the anticipated impact of automating tasks in the accounting profession. The results showed that blockchain technology could save accountants a great deal of time that could be used on more valuable tasks in terms of financial analysis and reporting. The study will assist accountants in a leading logistics company with identifying manual tasks currently being undertaken. Recommendations regarding blockchain technology will be made available to the company, and this research will contribute to the optimisation of the accountant’s time and tasks. The study will add to the blockchain technology and the body of knowledge (BoK) in the accounting profession.
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    The effects of individual and organizational factors on ethical behavior in the South African construction industry
    (2019) Makonye, Chido
    Employees often face many difficult situations that demand ethical decision making from the viewpoint of society and organizations. Various factors influence the outcome of ethical or unethical decision-making and behaviour of employees. This paper briefly examined some of the major factors that may affect ethical behaviour in construction companies. The strength of these factors may vary from individuals to individuals, organizations to organizations, and situation to situation. The factors that were investigated are personal values, corporate ethical values and the organisational climate. Age and gender were used as moderators in this study. South Africa is a developing country in which many private and public organizations are being faced with a lot of fraud and corruption. It is not only in private organization but also the government. This call for an investigation on ethical behaviour but to solve a problem one must find the source of the problem. The study was designed to answer the major question: Are there any significance relationships between personal values, corporate values and organisational climate and ethical behaviour in the South African construction industry? The researcher employed a quantitative research method. Data collection was done by use of questionnaires distributed to various construction companies. A computer programmer called SPSS version 25 and Microsoft excel were used to analyse data. Descriptive statistics was used to interpret data collected from the first section of the questionnaire that is the biographic information. Linear regression and correlations were used to test the proposed hypothesis. Multiple regression was used to test the moderation effect of age and gender. The findings largely confirm previous studies that personal values and corporate values influence ethical behaviour. However contrary to some previous studies, there was no significant relationship between ethical behaviour and organisational climate. Conclusions, findings and recommendations were drawn from the results.