Faculty of Management Sciences

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Assessing the impact of language diversity on communication : a narrative inquiry conducted at a South African stevedoring company
(2021-11-14) Naidoo, Ashegan; Adam, Jamila Khatoon
Prior to 1994, South Africa was a country that had segregation among race groups due to apartheid legislation. Post 1994 South Africans had to deal with the combining of culture and races. The merging of communities required businesses to employ previously disadvantaged groups for a more diverse organisation. Although this produces superior results over uniformity, since development and creativity are more reliant on diversity working together and capitalising on their individuality than on high-intelligence sole thinkers (Herring, 2009). It also has its own set of unique challenges, according to Herring (2009) diversity can present conflict, separating a nation and other issues that diminishes an organisations effectiveness and productivity. There is a rising pressure placed on employers and employees for accountability in the workplace and an increasing importance for evaluation of performance (Denzin and Lincoln, 2003). Twenty-three years post-democracy South Africa faces many challenges in various sectors of society. Living in a rainbow nation means living amongst people of different nationalities, beliefs and customs. At the organisation which this research is based upon, there are people of varying races and culture. The problem with this is that in a predominantly English medium of instruction, the employees who communicate via other languages are finding it difficult to understand and follow instruction. Hence, the purpose of this study was to assess the impact of language diversity on communication at a South African stevedoring company. This study was driven by three research questions, namely: What are the identities of the participants of the study? Secondly, what are the employee experiences of the effects of language diversity on communication? And lastly, how does communication style between the participants affect the rate of productivity at the workplace? This research study was supported by using the principles of the Social Identity Theory and the Communication Accommodation Theory. The paradigmatic approach used viewed this research study through the lens of the interpretivist paradigm in order to understand and learn from the narratives of casual employees at a South African stevedoring company. This research study was performed within the boundaries of the qualitative design. The narrative inquiry methodology was applied to this study in order for the researcher to narratively explore the lived experiences of the participants. Five participants were selected for this study by putting into effect the principles of the purposeful sampling method. Field texts (data) were generated by employing the unstructured interviews and the collage inquiry method. The generated data was then analysed through two methods of analysis. These methods are the narrative analysis and analysis of narratives. The findings of this study show that one of the key components of high productivity is effective communication. Due to many employees including all five participants being second language (Isizulu) speaking, a barrier to language could be considered as a communication barrier. Communication barriers arise when the individuals involved speak in completely different languages from one another (van Rosse et al., 2016). Language barrier or linguistics barrier can be defined as miscommunication (Harzing and Feely, 2008). In any company or organisation, communication is the pillar of strength for any organisation, and poor communication has severe repercussion to productivity. The success of an organisation depends heavily on the flexibility and the effectiveness of the internal organisational communications between all levels of employees. For this reason, it is the job of managers to lead employees with effective communication.
Assessing the social well-being of children in Durban left behind by parents working outside the borders of South Africa
(2022-04) Buthelezi, Ntombizodwa Elaine; Adam, Jamila Khatoon
In recent times, South Africa has seen an increase in temporary migration of working mothers and fathers compared to previous years leaving their children behind regardless of age. Children are left in not so familiar environment to learn to cope without their parents. Young and middle-aged males and females are away from homes for periods from 6 months to 12 months or even more before their first home visit from seeking greener pastures and financial stability. The absence of parents has led to children encountering challenges that range from schoolwork, poor social adjustment, short-lived happiness, signs of loneliness even when amongst fellow children. Furthermore, children tend to assume adult responsibilities, thus protecting and defending younger siblings. Children left behind by migrating parents live in difficult conditions and are subjected to different challenges such as social instability, low education performance, psychological effects. This study aimed to assess the social well-being of children left behind by South African parents working outside the country. A qualitative exploratory study was undertaken using a non-probability sampling technique known as judgemental sampling. The target population for this study was all families that are taking care of children who have been left behind by parents seeking greener pastures outside the country. The sample size for this study was six families in the KwaZulu Natal province specifically in the Durban area. Data were analysed using NVIVO. The findings of this study showed that children face loneliness due to the absence of their parents. Due to the lack of parental care, they feel helpless because they cannot do as they wish. No parental support when it comes to school activities. The limitation of this study was that the sample size was small as such the findings cannot be applied beyond the current scope. Future research should be conducted across South Africa using a large sample size. Also, a comparative study should be undertaken to broaden the understanding of the problem.
Customer perceptions of quality service delivery within the department of Financial Aid at a University of Technology
(2023-05) Naidoo, Agendri; Adam, Jamila Khatoon
With over thirty-four Private Universities in South Africa targeting students (customers) by marketing their services; offering free learning devices, state-of-the-art learning tools, modern amenities and other visually appealing packages, it has become imperative for Public Universities to find ways and means to secure the best students (Customers) to sustain their image and service excellence. For this study, a service quality tool known as the SERVQUAL/RATER model was used to measure a public University of Technology's Customer Perceptions of Quality Service Delivery within the Department of Financial Aid. Both one-on-one interviews and online questionnaires were applied using the SERVQUAL/ RATER genetic formula (SQ= E-P) to form part of the qualitative and quantitative methods to achieve the most accurate results. These results were achieved by measuring the five dimensions: tangibles, responsiveness, reliability, assurance and empathy. Using forty statements, rating customers' expectations minus rating customers' perceptions established the gaps. In this study, all five dimensions of the SEQUAL/ Rater model displayed negative quality services. According to the attached statistical report, the largest gap (-2.01) was established from responsiveness, making this an even greater challenge for Public Universities since this reflects that they take long periods to respond to the issues of students. Recommendations were made for amenities such as access ramps for differently abled students and staff performance/project workshops to be held. Developing a few direct NSFAS helpline stations with their central information call-logging system generating reference numbering is highly recommended to reduce student waiting periods and frustrations and improve quality service delivery overall.
Developing measures to improve employee engagement in public Technical Vocational and Educational Training (TVET) colleges in Gauteng Province, South Africa : an investigation of antecedent and outcome variables
(2021-11) Amoo, Akinlawon Olubukunmi; Adam, Jamila Khatoon
This study investigated the antecedent and outcome variables of employee engagement within the public Technical Vocational and Educational Training (TVET) colleges in South Africa’s Gauteng Province. Job demand in the form of work overload, job resources in the form of supervisor and co-worker support and role clarity, personal resources in the form of self-efficacy, individual differences in the form of proactive personality, and psychological conditions in the form of psychological meaningfulness and psychological availability were assessed as the possible antecedents to employee engagement (referring to job engagement and organisation engagement). Discretionary effort and turnover intention were assessed as the possible outcomes of employee engagement. Adopting a quantitative cross sectional design survey, a random sample of 190 lecturers across 43 campuses of the eight public TVET colleges in Gauteng was used for the study. Twelve variables were considered with six major hypotheses. The research hypotheses were tested through correlation analysis and structural equation modelling. Results revealed that some of the proposed antecedents significantly predicted employee engagement. For example, workload has a statistically significant positive and direct effect on psychological availability (β = 0.28, p < 0.003), and a statistically significant negative effect on job engagement (β = -0.32, p < 0.000) and organisational engagement (β = -0.37, p < 0.000). Supervisor support has a statistically significant positive relationship with psychological meaningfulness (β = 0.27, p < 0.003), job engagement (β = 0.35, p < 0.000), and organisational engagement (β = 0.23, p < 0.000). This study also supported the view that psychological conditions are positive antecedents of employee engagement, and that employee engagement can influence positive employee intention and behaviour in an organisation. Implications for scholars and practitioners, especially management of public TVET colleges and the South African government are discussed as viable options for providing conditions that aid the development of employee engagement and consequently organisational performance.
Employee satisfaction with union representation at a selected South African University of Technology
(2021) Govender, Shamilla; Adam, Jamila Khatoon
Komsi (2010: 7) identifies three reasons for workers joining a trade union. The first motive is to better know workers’ rights, the second is because of belief in collective action and the third is to promote the interest of one’s self and co-workers. The Durban University of Technology (DUT) has three trade unions on campus, i.e., TENUSA, NEWAHU AND NTEU. Each trade union representatives, known as shop stewards, face the difficulty of having to support two, roles i.e., (i) the role of either a lecturer, administrator or administrator support and (ii) that of a shop steward/executive member. The trade union representatives are elected at an Annual General Meeting (AGM) for a period of between one and three years and expected to perform union activities over and above their own job functions and responsibilities. The aim of this study was to survey employee satisfaction with union representation at a selected University of Technology. The objectives of the study were to determine whether union members are happy with union representation of their interests to identify the areas of representation that is lacking and to recommend ways in which worker interest can be improved. The population consisted of all full-time staff members of the Durban University of Technology. These included academics, academic support and administrative support staff; male and female; of diverse race groups; working on all seven campuses of the University. The initial sampling method used for this study was stratified systematic because the population comprised of distinctly different categories of workers and each category was sampled separately to ensure that it was equally represented. The researcher used questionnaires as the data collection tool. The following factors were taken into consideration in determining the best possible way of distributing the questionnaires: the large sample size of 620 staff that needed to be surveyed and the wide geographic spread of the selected sample elements. To facilitate easy collection the researcher opted to use Microsoft Forms as the data collection tool. Microsoft Forms is a lightweight, simple tool that allows you to easily construct a form, collect real-time responses, and display automated charts to show your data. You can create a form in minutes, no training needed and respondents can fill it out on any browser without downloading a separate app. After numerous followup attempts, the response rate was still very low requiring the researcher to conduct a purposive / convenient sampling method targeting all unionised staff. The study found that the members surveyed were very satisfied with the effectiveness of their unions. Members indicated that union officials were available as soon as you needed them; gave members a choice in how the union works; kept their members updated and treated complaints properly. Members were satisfied with the membership fees and were actively involved in electing their union leadership. Notwithstanding, the fact that there was overall satisfaction by the members survey, the researcher provided recommendations on each of the areas that received a minimally negative rating.
Entrepreneurial intention of matric commerce students in rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
(2022) Phetha, Mondli Honesty; Adam, Jamila Khatoon
Entrepreneurship is widely accepted to be an effective mechanism for elevating tripartite challenges of unemployment, inequality and poverty. This study was conducted to gauge whether matric commerce students in rural areas of KwaZuluNatal have the intention to start their own businesses. The study put heavy reliance on entrepreneurial intention models and focused on the relationship between exposure to entrepreneurship education, personality traits of entrepreneur and social capital as variables of the study, aimed to establish whether they are related to the intention of matric commerce students to start their own businesses. The current literature was consulted in an effort to understand diverse views on entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial intention models; entrepreneurship education and its role in strengthening entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial selfefficacy, entrepreneurial competencies and entrepreneurial intention; the influence of social capital on entrepreneurial intention, key drivers and enablers of entrepreneurial intention and personality traits that influence entrepreneurial intention. A survey was conducted among commerce students in 11 districts of Kwa-Zulu Natal. The respondents for the study comprised 433 matric commerce students of which 38 were from Amajuba, 45 from Ethekwini, 43 from Ilembe, 39 Sisonke, 33 from Ugu, 47 Umgungundlovu, 56 from Umkhanyakude, 47 from Umzinyathi, 36 from Uthukela, 34 from Uthungulu and 15 from Zululand. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics and nonparametric statistics. The findings revealed that seventy percent were ready to start a business after their studies and believed that their professional goal was to be an entrepreneur. Some significant relationships were found between entrepreneurial intention and the key variables of the study. The study developed an entrepreneurship model using the personality traits influencing entrepreneurial intention, social capital and entrepreneurship education as variables of entrepreneurial intention. The study recommended that government authorities should come up with awareness programmes that encourages business start-ups especially considering the fact that unemployment looms the South African market. The government authorities should channel the curriculum even more positively in order to interest these matric students in starting a business after leaving school. The authorities are highly encouraged to provide free workshops and training activities that will equip these matric students as far as the management of financial records and assets of the business is concerned besides the academic subjects they are getting. The study recommends that future researchers may consider the same scope and area of study but making use of a different methodological approach. Studies may use an approach that will be able to rank the level of entrepreneurship intention of these matric students. Alternatively, the same research can be conducted but in the form of a comparative study across African countries and this will enrich a wider and better understanding at continental level. A study on entrepreneurial intention of commerce matric students can also be examined in the context of both urban and rural areas of South Africa in order to ascertain the net effect as entrepreneurship cuts across both in the rural and urban areas
Integration of pharmaceutical care in rural public health : a case study in Ugu and Umzinyathi districts in KwaZulu-Natal
(2019-06) Pillay, Naleeni; Adam, Jamila Khatoon
South Africa’s Healthcare system being in transitional phase presented opportunity for pharmaceutical service development within the public sector, however, strong leadership with visionary advocacy and stewardship is indispensable. The National Health Insurance (NHI) mandate and the growing emphasis on primary healthcare (PHC) re-engineering, further strengthens the prominence of many healthcare professionals and processes towards equitable and quality healthcare service delivery, among them pharmaceutical services. This research sought to identify the gap in the provision of pharmaceutical care services within the rural public context. There are several reasons why an investigation into the role of the pharmacist in PHC facilities is warranted. Firstly, several pharmaceutical processes within the public sector have and are contributing to a void in the pharmacist primary role and responsibility, thereby promoting their expansion into PHC, which at present is limited. Secondly, the growing incidence of communicable and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by the lack of clinical governance questions the quality of patient-centred care and outcomes. Thirdly, the absence of antibiotic and anti-retroviral clinical stewardship and the World Health Organization calling for professional collaboration in managing NCDs highlights the need for pharmaceutical care (PhC) intergration. Therefore, the study focus aimed to guide the development of a collaborative pharmaceutical care model, within the rural domain, by applying a mixed methodology to describe the roles and responsibilities of the Primary Care Drug Therapy (PCDT) pharmacist; identifying enabling and disenabling factors to consider in developing a collaborative health care team through the perceptions of key informants, authorized nurse prescribers, visiting doctors and pharmacists working at the public primary healthcare clinics, and by conducting the South African Pharmacy Council (SAPC) legislative assessment of the ‘ideal’ clinics. The basis of the argument encompassed philosophical perspectives, legislation, role and collaborative advantage theory including moral theory of Ubuntu and care ethics related to rules and regulations of pharmaceutical care practice. The study harnessed healthy discussions among public healthcare professionals. The outcome supported unanimously a need to integrate pharmaceutical care and that a Pharmacist can add a meaningful role to the delivery of optimal patient care. A role of collaborative practice was preferred, citing conclusively themes of role clarity, resources & location and drug supply management by 100% of the respondents. An interprofessional team of doctor, authorized nurse prescriber and pharmacist at facility level to ensure a public health, primary care, clinical patient outcome focus was favoured by 97% of the respondents. Continued training of nursing staff and pharmacists was advocated by 94% and 62% of respondents respectively. Further themes of patient safety (82%) and quality of care (76%) were highlighted. The Kruskal Wallis test (p<0.05), illustrated statistically significant differences for doctors and authorized nurse prescribers in four medication related processes, diagnosis & prescribing; administration/documentation; education & training and medication review, with nurses moreover monitoring patient safety. Pharmacists instead placed more emphasis on monitoring compliance, educating patients about chronic medication, providing drug information to prescribers and identifying prescribing errors than over prescribing rights. The barriers identified were transport unavailability for outreach services, language deficiencies, scarce resource equipment and the shortage of doctors and authorized nurse prescribers.The pharmacist advocacy in these under-resourced rural communities that was demonstrated beneficial is one that drives pharmacovigilance in adverse drug reporting, antibiotic stewardship, clinical governance with continuous prescription audits followed by structured training for PHC authorized nurse prescribers, patient engagement and interaction to ensure optimal patient outcomes and safety. The factors to be considered for such an intergration rely on facility infrastructure, co-location, SAPC legislative compliance standards among them, role clarity building on relationship and trust, leadership, principles of Ubuntu and care, a culture of accountability and responsibility, implementation time, and local context. Encounterted limitations of time, distance and challenging terrain confined the research study to two rural districts wherein selective sampling further narrowed the clinics to ideal status. Future action research of a larger sample across more rural health districts and primary healthcare clinics is hence recommended to validate and expand the findings of the study which commits to apprise significant role players in Sub-Saharan Africa that may wish to pursue similar practice within a rural context, in the hope of changing “Africa’s health care landscape”.
Strategic management in construction firms with focus on small and medium enterprises
(2021-05) Rambaruth, Amit; Adam, Jamila Khatoon
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play a vital role in the economy and have contributed significantly to the growth of the economy, however, there is still a high failure rate. Many face a threat of failure within the first few months of establishment and the lack of strategic planning may prevent them from achieving their full potential. The aim of the study is to investigate Strategic Management in Construction Firms with Focus on Small and Medium Enterprises. The study intends to conduct a full investigation into the use of strategic management amongst SMEs. The findings will provide insight for SMEs on whether or not there are any benefits in adopting a strategic plan. The research will address the factors that influence the adoption of Strategic Management in an organisation, to identify influencing factors that contribute to strategic management to improve performance and to identify challenges faced by SMEs in implementing a strategic plan. There is a need for a clear understanding of the extent to which SMEs use strategic management in their organisation and the challenges that they are experiencing in strategic management. The data were collected from 105 small and medium enterprises in the eThekwini region using an online survey tool. The respondents were asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire. The data for this study was then analyzed using Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26.0. The research concluded that that majority of the eThekwini-based SMEs in the construction industry are applying strategic management practices in their business and through this application they have improved the performance of their business. The study also concluded that there were high levels of agreement with the influencing factors that drove SMEs to adopt a strategic plan and high levels of agreement with the contributing factors of strategic planning in improving performance of the business. Furthermore, the study found that there were high levels of agreement with the challenges facing the implementation of a strategic plan in an organisation. Given, the positive results of strategic management, it is recommended that SMEs adopt strategic management in their businesses and attain the necessary knowledge that is required to implement a strategic plan. It is also recommended that SMEs develop procedures and policies to address the challenges faced in implementing a strategic plan, thereby, ensuring effective strategic planning in their operations.