Theses and dissertations (Management Sciences)
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Item The influence of intrapreneurship in Public Sector organisations : a case of parastatals in Zimbabwe(2021-11) Chamba, Lucy Tambudzai; Chazireni, BoboPublic sector organisations are pivotal to the economic growth of economies, hence the expectations by governments and citizens for these organisations to execute their mandate effectively. Parastatals in Zimbabwe are performing dismally in terms of service provision and public value creation which has led to poor service provision and the general inaccessibility of public services. To date, value in most parastatals is created by adherence to standards, despite the acknowledged benefits of intrapreneurship. However, changes in the business environment as a result of the 4th IR require agility and innovation in parastatals, if these entities are to create value effectively and efficiently. The purpose of the research was to establish the influence of intrapreneurship on the organisational performance of parastatals in Zimbabwe. The study set out to investigate the influence of intrapreneurship orientation on intrapreneurship as well as on the performance of parastatals. The study also investigated the impact of organisational elements on the practice of intrapreneurship in Zimbabwean parastatals. The research adopted the pragmatist paradigm and used a mixed-methods research design. The study was cross-sectional and used the concurrent embedded approach to data collection. Quantitative method was the main data collection technique while qualitative data was concurrently collected to augment quantitative results.The objects of study were 107 parastatals from the thirteen sectors of the Zimbabwe’s economy. The population comprised 535 employees from the 107 parastatals in the country. Purposive sampling was used to select five respondents from each of the parastatals from the five generic divisions of parastatals, that is, finance, ICT, marketing, operations and human resources. Recruitment for respondents was on volunteer basis. Questionnaires were distributed to 300 respondents, comprising of general employees and junior and middle management. Interviews were conducted until saturation point, such that a total of 28 interviews were held with senior managers from parastatals across Zimbabwe. Data from questionnaires were analysed statistically using STATA and Warp-PLS 6.0, and interview results were analysed using thematic network analysis. Study findings reveal a low intrapreneurship orientation in most parastatals which results in low intrapreneurship levels and consequently poor performance. The study provides empirical evidence that intrapreneurship has a positive significant influence on organisational performance. The major managerial implication of the study is that intrapreneurship in PSOs hinges upon intrapreneurial orientation, which should form the core of an intrapreneurial architecture. The study may also assist leadership in parastatals to foster the practice of intrapreneurship in their organisations by ensuring that the organisational factors which are key enablers of intrapreneurship are harnessed. An intrapreneurial framework was designed which may be implemented in parastatals in a bid to make these PSOs high-performance organisations. The study recommends that intrapreneurship be adopted in PSOs as a strategy to enhance the efficacy of these enterprises while achieving their twin goals of public value creation and dynamic efficiency.Item Customer centricity in enhancing organisational objectives at a selected government parastatal(2021-10) Swartbooi, Angelique; Bayat, Mohamed SaheedThe selected Government Parastatal is an operating division of a State-Owned Entity, wholly-owned by the South African Government. The parastatal operates 3 800 km of pipeline throughout South Africa, transporting refined petroleum products, crude oil and methane rich gas. The focus of the parastatal is to provide an integrated pipeline service offering to customers, by maximising product volumes, while minimising logistical costs. The parastatal services six of the leading petroleum and gas companies in South Africa through its pipeline service offering. With the assistance of an external service provider, the parastatal conducted a customer satisfaction survey in the financial year 2018/19, with results indicating 70 percent customer dissatisfaction with their current service. The results highlighted areas of concern such as clear and proactive communication, operations and service delivery and delivery on contractual agreements. It is held that being customer-centric means being involved and invested in the organisation, knowing and helping customers to satisfy their needs. Nonetheless, organisations need to develop a new set of operating beliefs that are customer-focussed, with literature proposing customer-centricity as an important factor in the long-term growth and sustainability of an organisation. The parastatal selected for study is a service-driven organisation and its business depends on its customers, thus, it is important to consistently ensure a high-level of customer service. Organisations that focus on a customer-centric perspective have been shown as able to address customer needs. This research project will, therefore, focus on the role of customer-centricity and how it can enhance organisational objectives within a selected parastatal, through an evaluation of the need for a customer centric culture and the significance of employee participation in customer-centricity, in addition to an analysis of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as a tool in evolving the Government Parastatal as a customer centric organisation. The study will employ a quantitative research design, with a 5-point Likert scaled questionnaire, comprised of closed-ended questions that will be distributed to the targeted population of 400 and a sample size of 199. A web-based survey will be used to distribute the questionnaire and a link emailed to participants, while hand delivering to those without email acces. Responses will be analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 27. At the conclusion of the study, the researcher hopes to recommend the significance of customer-centricity to the Executive Management team of the government parastatal and how it can enhance organisational objectives. The researcher also expects to find a correlation between employee participation in creating a customercentric culture in an organisation and achieving organisational objectives.