4. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - Faculties submissions
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Item Impact of the hybrid working model on organisational culture in a South African Bank(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Legana, NthatiThe Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the conventional ways of working and forced many organisations to adopt remote or hybrid work arrangements. This paper examines how hybrid working, which combines working from home and working from the office, affects the organisational culture during and after the Covid-19 period. The paper reviews the literature on the concepts of hybrid working, organisational culture, and the impact of Covid-19 on work practices. The paper proposes a qualitative research design that uses semi-structured interviews and document analysis to collect data from a sample of employees and managers in a South African bank that implements hybrid working. The paper aims to explore the perceptions, experiences, and challenges of hybrid workers and to identify the factors that influence the maintenance or change of organisational culture in a hybrid work environment. The paper also discusses the ethical limitations and significance of the studyItem Entrepreneurial orientation and value sustenance of a South African firm during the Covid-19 pandemic(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021) Carim, Shakira; Murimbika, EdwardThis study's overall theoretical issues related to the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation adopted by organisations to survive the COVID-19 pandemic economically. As the world was economically thrown into upheaval and crisis, many organisations faced bankruptcy and stopped trading. The motivation of this study was to understand measures adopted by organisations by applying the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation to survive the COVID-19 crisis and whether it proved fruitful. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) that relate to innovation, proactiveness, risk-taking and autonomy had impacted and helped sustain firm value, measured through business financial performance, business retention, and moderated by financial reprieve received, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted in an emerging market context and focused on organisations operating within a South African context. The focus was placed on those industries that were negatively impacted by the crisis. In an organisational setting, a quantitative empirical study was conducted based on responses of 133 participants. Service, retail, and manufacturing enterprises were included in the sample, of which the retail and manufacturing enterprises housed dedicated IT departments. Through electronically distributed questionnaires, their organisational employees were invited to participate in the study. Regression analysis was used to support the hypotheses and literature read using the SPSS v27 tool. It was established that 72% of the responses were received from the manufacturing sector, 20% from the service sector, 5% from the IT sector, and 3% from the retail sector. The main results and findings of the study are summarised belowItem Dental occupations in transition: Boundary contestation and curricula for Oral hygienists in South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-09) Vergotine, Glynnis; Allais, Stephanie; Shalem, YaelThis study sought to understand how changes to the scope and autonomy of the oral hygiene occupation in South Africa have influenced relations among dental occupations. Over the past two decades, legislative advances in South Africa have sanctioned new possibilities for mid-level dental occupations such as oral hygienists, allowing them greater independence and additional procedures. The division of labour within the dental profession is that oral hygienists and dental therapists supplement the work that dentists do by offering some of the basic dental services. The changes to oral hygienists’ scope and independence have initiated boundary contestations around the work and training of dental professionals. The qualitative study involved analysing relevant regulatory documents and included semi-structured interviews with representatives of professional bodies and regulatory bodies as well as practitioners and lecturers representing the three dental occupations, and curriculum analyses. A key empirical finding is that the regulatory changes have not been implemented and this is so not only because of contestations by dentists. The study highlights boundary contestations between dentists and oral hygienists. These contestations are about specific procedures in the expanded scope of practice and the opportunity for hygienists to practice independently. The study found that boundaries have been established from outside of the oral hygiene occupation by dentists, to control their work and training. Dentists’ power is exhibited in the labour market and the education and training arena and provides justifications for why the official legislative changes in scope are not being implemented. Despite this, hygienists also place boundaries on themselves, so within the occupation, there are various ways in which hygienists limit their advancement. The hygienists are hesitant to perform certain procedures and have not opened independent practices. This suggests that pressure to narrow the scope and autonomy may not only come from outside of occupations but also from the inside of an occupation. The thesis shows a web of power relations between occupations and provides insights into a dominant occupation controlling the jurisdiction of subordinate occupations; but more unusually, it reveals the dynamics within the mid-level occupation that stifle its advancement.