Masters Degrees (Public Administration)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10413/15184

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Conflict management approaches used by South African construction project management professionals.
(2016) van Aardt, Ian.; Bozas, Alec.
ABSTRACT In the construction industry, conflict is almost considered ‘normal’. It is to be expected, given that construction is a diverse industry, involving many people from different trades, industries, and professions. At the same time, any single project will engage many parties, each bringing to the endeavour their own divergent objectives, interests, and needs. The aim of this study was to establish the prevalence of conflict situations within the construction project management environment. The research objectives were to assess the frequency and intensity of conflict, as well as to determine the present level of conflict management skills in use. In order to understand the many facets of conflict management and how they would be applicable to this study, a literature review was first undertaken into the emergence, causation, typology, and management of conflict. Then to achieve the research objectives, a descriptive methodology was used in order to collect data of a qualitative nature. An online questionnaire was developed and deployed to 625 participants with valid results received from 122 out 153 respondents. The findings of this study indicated that construction management practitioners experience conflict frequently and will likely have been involved in a conflict scenario within the past month, if not more recently. The results further indicated that practitioners generally believe that conflict stems from a lack of effective communication and complex ambiguous information, rather than from technical matters and difficult personalities. To deal with this, most practitioners have had to develop their own methods and techniques for managing conflict and regard having a positive mind-set as the most important attitudinal requirement. Furthermore, practitioners rank the skills of listening, questioning, and defining issues as the most important for effective conflict management. As an outcome of this study, construction practitioners are provided with some insights into the prevalence of conflict in construction projects and the motivation for better skills development in conflict management is provided. Finally, it is recommended that all contracting parties familiarize themselves with contractual documentation and attempt to hold workshops early on in projects in order to diffuse any adversity resulting from conflicting views and interpretations. The aim is to develop a mutual understanding around the raison d'être for the contract and to hopefully set a positive tone, under which it will be possible to manage towards mutually favourable outcomes for all parties involved in a project.
The effects of government decisions on the South African poultry market.
(2017) Larcher de Bito, Nikelle.; Bozas, Alec.
ABSTRACT The South African poultry industry makes up the largest portion of the nation’s agricultural sector and contributes significantly to the population’s daily protein consumption. Because of its importance, legislative changes made to the poultry industry require assessment to ensure its continued stability. This dissertation therefore calls attention to the impact of governmental legislation on the South African poultry industry. It also examines governmental involvement in inspections of slaughterhouses, import approval and follow up inspections. Furthermore, it determines that the government department responsible for inspections, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), is understaffed, underfunded and thus unable to perform its necessary duties adequately. In order to demonstrate the South African government’s impact on the poultry industry, this study discusses the relevance of new legislation with regard to employees, customers, supply chain, profitability, fair trade, sustainability, national food security, imports and dumping. The results of this study, which were gathered using semi-structured interviews with judgment sampling, highlight critical concerns and loopholes in the South African labelling legislation. For example, the expiration dates of products are often extended after processing. This serious oversight represents a mere fraction of the lack of health and safety regulations within the poultry industry, and leads to the inevitable risk of food contamination. The South African government has been slow to react to these concerns, only recently becoming actively involved in the formal process of safely exporting produced poultry to Europe. This dissertation argues that the South African government must overhaul its legislation on poultry and compile one uniform set of regulations from farm to table. These new regulations would be applicable to all local producers, importers, retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers. Overall, the current state of the South African poultry industry would improve drastically with an improved set of regulations, the guarantee of fair trade, prompt proactive government response to problems and co-operation among involved parties. KEYWORDS: Poultry Industry, National Food Security, Brining, South Africa, Imports, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Fair Trade, Dumping, Government
Leadership impact on organizational productivity: a study of Eskom, Newcastle Zone: KwaZulu-Natal.
(2016) Sibisi, Thobile Princess.; Bozas, Alec.
Abstract Leadership forms part of the imperative issues in organizations and it is a fundamental aspect of transformation. It is therefore a critical aspect of management, which aid leaders in promoting productivity and to realise the goals of an organisation. Almost every human activity has an element of leadership in it. Investors acknowledge the importance of effective leadership when they say that a leader can make a success of an irresolute business plan. Lack of leadership has a great negative effect on any organization. Without leadership companies stagnate, lose vision and fail to meet their set goals. Therefore the leadership style employed in the organization will either enhance or hinder transformation and productivity. The aim of this research work was to examine the impact that leadership and styles have on organizational productivity in Eskom KwaZulu-Natal: Newcastle Zone. The objectives of this study were to examine impact of Transformational, Transactional, and Laissez-faire leadership styles on productivity. The human resource database of 295 employees served as the sample frame for the research with a probability sample of 123 employees. A questionnaire instrument was utilised to elicit valuable information from the respondents. The questionnaire consisted of 28 and 5 quantitative and qualitative questions respectively. The study was administered through a link to online survey (Question Pro) emailed to all participants. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse data. The findings revealed that a stronger relationship exists between leadership and employee productivity in that the style employed by the organization can either improve productivity or hinders productivity. The leadership behaviours employed by transformational and transactional leadership showed positive influence in productivity than those of laissez-faire. The key recommendations for the study were introduction of employee engagement in order to maintain a certain level of relationship between management and workforce in order for the organization to appreciate higher levels of productivity. Also organizations need to employ different leadership styles whereby, one or a combination of leadership style may be employed because of the positive impact they have on productivity.

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Public Administration) by Author "Bozas, Alec."