4. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - Faculties submissions

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    The role of digital technologies in enabling subsistence farming in rural KwaZulu Natal
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Zulu, Mamakhethe; Magida, Ayanda
    Food security has grown in importance over the years, ranking among the world’s most pressing issues. High food demand has led to poverty, yet sustainable food production methods have proven effective in reducing it. Because of both macro and micro environmental factors, the adoption of digital technology in agriculture have recently had a significant impact on the global landscape. Digital technologies are assisting in meeting the increasing need for sustainable food production on a worldwide scale. This has been achieved by incorporating several digital technologies such as robotics, automation, sensors, Internet of Things (IoT), and data analytics into agricultural processes to maximize crop yields, lower emissions, and optimize farming inputs. By allowing the traceability of goods and processes, this can enable transition from hard human labour to continually automated processes and thus improving agricultural productivity. This study aimed to investigate how digital technologies can enable subsistence farming in KwaZulu Natal. A qualitative approach was adopted for the research, thirteen participants who were subsistence farmers were interviewed using open ended questions. Thematic approach was used to analyse the findings. The findings revealed that adoption of digital technologies was still in its infancy stages, and this was attributed to socio-economic factors such as lack of digital skills, lack of capital to purchase and maintain farming technologies, access to reliable power sources and water. Incorporating technology into farming practices could lead to innovative farming in the rural communities of KZN who still practice conventional farming methods. By applying digital farming technologies, farmers can obtain precise and up-to-date observations on several factors impacting their yield, including plant health, soil quality, meteorological conditions, and the prevalence of pests and diseases. Digital technologies assist agricultural The role of digital technologies in enabling subsistence farming in rural KwaZulu Natal iii producers and academics to make better judgments by analysing the findings. Data obtained can enhance productivity, cut expenses, and oversee resources. Though unevenly, Southern Africa has been rapidly going digital. But the revolution that digitisation promised has not yet materialised in the food and agriculture sectors. Even if these technologies may still be in their infancy in Southern Africa, policymakers must have a forward-thinking mindset to foster an atmosphere that encourages the usage of digital solutions. Encouraging regulations, infrastructure, expertise, and government assistance will be critical in building the foundational elements required to enable DT in agriculture to flourish. It is important not to undervalue the importance of straightforward, useful, and relevant digital tools in African agriculture, particularly when interacting with farmers in rural arears.
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    Understanding The role of digitalisation in funeral insurance claims in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Suliman, Mohamed Ameen; Tweneboah, George
    This research report studies the role of digitalisation in funeral insurance claims in South Africa. The study seeks to understand the benefits as well as the challenges faced by digitalisation in funeral insurance claims in South Africa. A qualitative research study was undertaken within a large funeral insurer based in South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with employees of the organisation who had expert knowledge of funeral insurance claims. Inductive thematic analysis was the method of choice for understanding the results. The study's findings were that digitalisation has a role to play across multiple points in the claims journey. Benefits of digitalisation include driving efficiency of back-end processes with applications like automation of the claims process as well as supporting fraud detection with artificial intelligence. Challenges of digitalisation include the adoption of digital tools by the insurer and the customer, cybersecurity and the socio-economic dynamics of customers in rural areas. Insurers would benefit from digitalising their workflows to unlock efficiencies within their existing claims processes. Customers would benefit from these efficiencies, as well as the enhanced customer experience that digital channels can provide. The study was limited to employees within a single funeral insurer in South Africa. Further study could be to replicate the study across the broader funeral insurance industry, capturing more players within the market. Additionally, further study on the interactions between particular technologies and their effect on the claims process would be valuable
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    Senior Managers’ perception of their role in facilitating digital transformation in the public sector – South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Mosia, Emanuel Mmuelli; Craffert, Leona
    Digital transformation is a new phenomenon in the public sector. Previous studies have also found that public sector is performing poorly compared to private sector in their endeavours to transform. The study was intended to establish how senior managers perceive their role in facilitating digital transformation of the Department, excluding the actual assessment of digital maturity. The study drew guidance from Unified Model of Digital Maturity and Dynamic Capabilities Framework which both demonstrate the role of senior managers in the rapid changing environment due to technological disruptions. The study used semi- structured interviews to collect data from the population of 386 senior managers, where 15 senior managers were interviewed either face-to-face or virtually. The study finds that senior managers understanding of their role in facilitating digital transformation is fair to average. Their understanding of digital transformation is a simple switch from paper to paperless. Additionally, silo approach was found to be one of the impeders of digital transformation in the Department. The Department should be developing digital transformation strategy to guide the senior managers, coalesce all the efforts and be intentional in investing in digital transformation of the Department.
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    The perceived impact of digital technology on talent management in the Banking Sector
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Kubheka, Mduduzi; Gobind, Jenika
    The purpose of the study was to explore how banks have used digital technologies to formulate talent strategies and manage talent that is agile and relevant to their businesses. The race for talent has become highly competitive as talent is one of the most critical resources required to win in today’s competitive market and technology in Talent Management (TM) is helping organisations manage talent effectively (Ghate, 2022). As business competition intensifies in banking, the need to attract, develop, and retain talent that is relevant to and agile for digital business is fundamental. This study investigated the impact of digital technologies in TM within the banking sector to add other studies that have already been conducted on TM for a digital business. The research questions formulated to investigate the impact of digital technologies in TM within the South African banking sector were 1) What digital technologies are used to manage talent? 2) How have these digital technologies been used to formulate TM strategies? What influence do digital technologies and TM strategies have on talent profiles. The conceptual framework developed a combination of theoretical frameworks being the Metcalfe’s Law theory and Talent Pipeline theory. Metcalfe’s law theory was chosen because it closely aligns with the more digital technologies are being used efficiently and effectively in managing talent the more value can be created for organisations. Talent Pipeline theory was chosen because it is the closest theory to cover the element of this study on talent identification, development, and retention. The data was collected from recorded online or face-to-face interviews by asking open-ended questions that are intended to elicit views and experiences. The profile of Participants were C-suite Executives, Managing Executives, and Senior Managers within the 5 largest South African banks. The C-Suite Executives are the owners of the Strategy formulation process and therefore are responsible for the digital technology and TM strategy. The Managing Executives are the implementers of the business strategy. Lastly, Senior Managers provided insights into their experiences as consumers of digital technologies and beneficiaries of iii the different TM processes. Included in the Senior Managers were those who had been recently hired and provided insights, specifically into the recruitment experience. 10 Participants participated in the study. The key findings from the study revealed that digital technologies such as Big data for talent analytics, Cloud computing, ERP systems, LMS, virtual classrooms, and social media are used to acquire, develop and retain talent. The study further highlighted that these digital technologies are used to digitalise employee profiling, recruitment, learning, performance management, succession planning, and understanding employee sentiments. This digitalisation resulted in better decisions making on appropriate retention strategies, learning and development activities, succession plans, engagement drivers, and career growth opportunities for employees
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    Digitalisation of government services for service delivery: Case of The City of Ekurhuleni
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Dlamini, Luke Mhlonishwa; Mawela, Tendani
    The implementation of digital solutions presents numerous opportunities for both private and public organizations, aiming to enhance effectiveness, efficiency, and gain competitive advantage. While the private sector has already embraced digitalisation, the public sector has lagged in adopting technology. This study aims to highlight the benefits of digitalisation, identify the challenges hindering its adoption, and propose a framework for its implementation. Digitalisation is viewed as a means to enhance agility within organizations. South African municipalities and the public sector have faced widespread criticism from citizens regarding inefficiency and ineffectiveness. Therefore, many of these entities have initiated efforts to automate their services to enhance service delivery. Automating services and systems could have addressed criticisms of poor service delivery. However, this effort is hindered by unstable and unreliable networks, as well as a shortage of experienced personnel to oversee the digitalisation process. Consequently, South African municipalities often outsource many of their services to third-party companies through professional services to overcome these challenges. Despite the well-documented benefits of outsourcing digitalisation services, municipalities lack guidance on how to do so successfully. Insufficient research has been conducted on this emerging trend of digitalisation. Thus, this study aimed to formulate a model for the implementation of digitalisation in the city of Ekurhuleni. Employing a qualitative approach, data was gathered from the city's ICT department. Subsequently, qualitative analysis was conducted on the data obtained from middle and senior management. The findings revealed that organizational factors, either collectively or individually, exert a significant influence on the adoption of digitalisation. The analysis revealed that technological factors, including innovation characteristics and organizational readiness for technology, are significant determinants of digitalisation adoption. Environmental factors were also identified as influential in this regard. This study addresses the lack of literature on digitalisation adoption in municipalities and proposes a model that can guide further research in this area. Additionally, the developed model can inform decision-making processes regarding digitalisation adoption in government. Other cities can utilize this model to inform their own digitalisation strategies, thereby making a valuable contribution to practice and management.
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    Exploring digital transformation challenges and opportunities in a short-term insurance company during hard lockdown
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Nyoni, Thembinkosi; Magida, Ayanda
    Organisations have been digitalising, and by 2020, COVID-19 ignited acceleration towards digitalisation, with many organisations trying to enable two parties to business, employees, and customers to work remotely and access products, respectively. The objective of this study is to explore digitalisation challenges under COVID 19 lockdown, contribute to the existing body of knowledge of digitalisation and the success of future digitalisation initiatives. Due to benefits associated with digitalisation, prior to 2020, some organisations had opted to lead in this phenomenon, while others had brainstormed an idea with consideration of pros and cons. Since Covid 19 lockdown did not allow for formal steps to be taken to end up agreeing on digitalising, it was of interest to conduct a study around the development on challenges encountered and opportunities availed during the rushed approach. The research adopted a qualitative approach and gathered data through Microsoft teams virtual meetings on a one-on-one basis with seven participants out of ten invited. This approach allowed the researcher to take advantage of its strengths such as allowing participants to express their opinions freely. Participants were sampled using purposive sampling to ensure the right participants with the required level of authority were interviewed. Content analysis was used to unpack the collected data and required themes emerged. Findings identified challenges that were encountered by the leadership while digitalising during the Covid 19 lockdown. In as much as some maybe generic and expected in any project and environment, the most notable unique ones were restricted movement, collaboration difficulties, working with IT and testing system usability, external factors and logistics, and change management and client behaviour. These unique challenges align to the generalisation that if Covid 19 lockdown imposed a unique business environment, implementation of digitalisation initiatives during the lockdown faced unique challenges too. iii Antithetically, opportunities were identified during and after digitalising under Covid 19, realised, and seized because of digitalising under Covid-19 lockdown conditions. The most glaring opportunities included continuous improvement culture, effective decision making, work life balance, and lots of learnings. During the implementation, continuous improvement culture and effective decision making were immediately seized while work life balance and lots of learnings showed up at the end of the digitalisation initiatives. Considering theoretical frameworks applicable to this study, two were identified but were not of much value since they were put together during the Covid 19 lockdown, and these are the three block Digital Transformation Framework by Zaoui and Souissi (2020), the seven pillar Digital Transformation Framework by Javadi (2022). While the findings suggest that there were unique challenges and opportunities identified due to the lockdown situation, it implies that unique environments present unique challenges to be carefully considered when implanting a digitalisation initiative, while looking out for unique opportunities to look out for. Lastly, recommendations for further studies were put together seeing that digital transformation is still a new phenomenon
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    Digital Transformation Initiatives in Gauteng Provincial Government
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Makhubele, Nomsa Tintswalo; Genga, Cheryl
    Digital transformation is a crucial aspect of modernising the public sector in South Africa. The Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) has been leading the implementation of various digital technologies to improve efficiency and citizen engagement. One of the digital transformation initiatives implemented in Gauteng is e-recruitment, which aims to streamline the hiring process. This qualitative study used a purposive sampling of HR personnel to investigate the acceptance of e-recruitment in the Gauteng Provincial Government, which has fourteen provincial departments. The study was conducted using focus group interviews to understand the general experience that the HR officials have with the e-recruitment system, its impact and effectiveness, and how these relate to digital transformation. A study sample of ten (10) HR personnel participated in the study. The study's findings indicated that while e-recruitment is perceived as user- friendly and advantageous, its benefits were outweighed by several drawbacks. Inadequate IT infrastructure, a deficiency in customer engagement tools, and a lack of core process and workforce enablement were identified as factors that diminished the perceived benefits of the system. These drawbacks can influence an organisation's digital transformation journey. It is recommended that Gauteng address its Digital Application and Impact dimensional elements urgently. Addressing these issues is crucial to ensuring that Gauteng maximizes the return on its investment and fast-tracks its digital transformation. The study confirmed that in the enterprise context, such as public service, where adoption is mandatory, a lack of perceived benefits does not necessarily lead to system abandonment, but it can affect its digital transformation. System adoption can be sustained if one of the two factors of TAM is in place, as was the case with the ease of use sustaining the use of the system alongside the departmental strategy of digital transformation and modernisation
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    A study into the identification of human factors in digital transformation in a South African rail logistics company
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Chikirwa, Lloyd Michael
    As world industries rapidly move towards digital transformation (DT), organisations are making concerted efforts to become more sustainable in the face of technological revolution. DT has become a compelling necessity for organisations looking for a competitive edge. However, understanding how human elements affect DT’s adoption in South Africa's freight logistics industry remains largely unexplored. The investigation aimed to close this gap by inquiring into the human elements of DT, emphasising digital leadership, digital culture, digital talent, and DT relationships. Over 180 senior management employees of Company X were surveyed. The responses were analysed, and the validity of the hypotheses was assessed utilising Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Amos version 28 structural equation modelling (SEM). The results confirmed that digital leadership significantly impacted digital culture and talent. As such, digital leadership plays a central part in ensuring favourable outcomes for DT. While digital culture positively influenced DT, the same was not established for the impact of digital talent on DT. The result contradicted previous research findings and justified further study. Overall, the outcomes emphasise the value of human elements in successful DT. Consequently, organisations commencing with DT should prioritise digital leadership, culture, and talent as strategic levers for DT's success
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    The Impact of digitalisation on job security at selected Financial Services’ organizations in the Capricorn District of Limpopo
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Nhlongwana, Nhlamazi; Appiah, Erasmus
    This abstract summarizes a research study on the impact of digitalization on job security within chosen financial organizations in the Capricorn District of Limpopo. The study explores the effects of digital transformation on employees' sense of job security, examining communication channels, awareness of strategies, and the prioritization of job security. Utilizing a cross-sectional survey approach, the research gathers quantitative data on employees' perceptions and experiences. Findings highlight varying perceptions regarding the impact of digitalization on job roles and organizational responses. Recommendations are provided for financial organizations to address skill gaps and balance profitability with employee well-being. The abstract underscores the importance of proactive measures and transparent communication in navigating digital disruptions effectively while fostering resilience in the digital era
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    Digitalisation in the banking industry – the future of banking
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Basdewo, Kishen; Matasane
    The South African banking sector has undergone a profound digital transformation due to rapid and continuous technological advancements. Being Africa’s largest economy, South Africa offers a unique context for examining the trajectory of digital banking and its ramifications for business and society. The emergence of new technologies has fundamentally changed how banks generate and deliver financial services. In particular, digitalisation has empowered banks to operate predominantly online with minimal physical branches, giving rise to novel intermediaries like peer-to-peer lending platforms and payment service providers. Despite the evident significance of digitalisation in the banking sector, its transformative effects raise concerns about financial inclusion and the security of customers’ confidential information. Additionally, while many customers embrace digital platforms, a considerable segment still values the human touch, especially for more intricate transactions. Against this background, this Research Report seeks to explore the impact of digitalisation on the bank/customer relationship. The research further evaluates how emerging technological innovations are creating novel sources of systemic risk which could in turn pose regulatory and policy challenges. The data for this research report was collected from amongst others, various pieces of relevant legislation, scholarly articles, case law, as well as reports from financial regulators and commentators. The research findings reveal that the technological advancements compel banks to change their operating models to meet customer demands. While this introduces challenges both the consumers and banks, effective implementation holds significant benefits for both parties