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Faculty of Management Sciences

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Start date: 2021Subject: search.filters.subject.Complexity

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    Embedding the advancement practice in South African universities : lessons from the Kresge Inyathelo Advancement Initiative (KIAI)
    (2024-05) Sedumedi, Mosimanegape David; Hardman, Stan
    The South African Higher Education academic enterprises are besieged with multiple challenges that threaten its viability. Both the government and academic leadership bemoan the dwindling fiscals and turbulent economic markets as factors contributing to this undesirable trajectory. This manifested in 2015, following the October student uprising over increases in student fees. Their main grievance was a call for zero-percent fee increase for the sector. The call later gravitated towards a demand for free education. Universities on the other hand, lament their dire need for student fees to augment the government funding to keep afloat. The impasse brought about by the students’ demand for free education on one hand, and the University’s quest for sustainability on the other, brought the South African Higher Education institutions’ viability model into scrutiny. Notwithstanding government’s obligation to public funding in a South African context, Universities are challenged to develop their own Advancement capacity to to mobilise resources from alternative funding sources. Advancement in this instance refers to a systematic and integrated approach to building and managing the external relationships with key constituencies and stakeholders thereby positioning an organisation to attract support (Inyathelo, 2015). This research is therefore aimed at contributing towards institutional Advancement body of knowledge, positioning it as a possible viability strategy. The study employs Stanford Beer’s (1981) Viable Systems Model’s diagnostic capability to analyse the Advancement practice to the end of informing organisational self-knowledge.
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    Leadership capabilities for improving financial management ineffeciencies in the public sector
    (2023-06) Ntuli, Leanett Fanyana; Hardman, Stanley George
    A sound public financial management system is a precursor for the enhancement of service delivery and poverty reduction in an independent, democratic South Africa. The government has, through various Acts, closely regulated financial management in public institutions to ensure sustainable resource management for future generations. However, complex challenges related to leading and managing such institutions have continued to monopolise the realities of public financial management in towns and cities. Basic amenities such as water, electricity, and roads remain in a deplorable state, more so in disadvantaged communities. A volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous socio-economic landscape has exacerbated overspending and further widened the budget deficit gap. Legislators and public office bearers spend most of the time debating and aligning policy instruments towards compliance with standard procedure. They have not considered the relationship between convectional management and their leadership capabilities and its effectiveness in enhancing proper financial management and the resultant service delivery. Thus, an appreciation of the dynamic nature of how various institutions interact with policies and procedures, and inherent values, societal beliefs, as well as ethics, in effective management of finances is key, with this option enabling a robust approach in the management of public financial systems. Essentially, the research applied a multi-methodology research approach, which used a combination of System Dynamics, Soft Systems Methodology and Critical Systems Heuristics. The study revealed that if the Municipalities could recruit competent staff, the level of irresponsibility in the accounts or finance department would reduce inefficiencies and accountability will improve. This research unearths how systems thinking can develop and enhance leadership capabilities in an environment that allows for continuous learning. The outcome of the research is pertinent to public financial management practitioners, managers, and politicians, on how to enact sustainable public financial management.
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    An investigation into the complexities of simultaneously being an accounting academic and a researcher – a Durban University of Technology (DUT) case study
    (2021-05) Ramsarghey, Anchal; Hardman, Stanley George
    An investigation into the complexities of simultaneously being an accounting academic and a researcher – a Durban University of Technology (DUT) case study The purpose of the study is to provide insights into the contextual relevance of research expected of accounting academics in their pursuit of new knowledge. Accounting academics are aware that the theoretical underpinning of their discipline is regulated by International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and thus, restricts accounting research. Capacity to undertake accounting research becomes a major concern. “what can I research and what is it going to do for me and my students?” is a very common question. Research is intended to generate new knowledge in a discipline but can be a means of reviewing and improving existing practice. Research reveals evidence-based methods of performing tasks efficiently. The research results should then feed directly into curriculum reform and design, thereby ensuring that what is being taught in future is relevant. Thus, research is informing teaching and learning. Graduate attributes will be enhanced resulting in students who are able to cope with real life accounting problems. This leads to a quest for further research, and the process begins anew. A Systems Thinking lens was used throughout the ethnographic study using Soft Systems Methodology predominantly. The Viable System Model and System Dynamics diagramming and modelling techniques are also used to unravel the problematical situation, with a view to construct a framework of enquiry for the study. A living theory paradigm with the aim of improving my practice was maintained throughout the study by the practitioner-researcher using action research. This study was intended to explore the teaching-research nexus using systems thinking to develop leadership capacity. In this context, leadership capacity was the change agency to enhance research output and curriculum reform. The results indicate that the factors that inhibit research are identifiable to develop a strategy to mitigate those factors using Soft Systems Methodology’s learning cycle. Recommendations for possible research areas that fall outside the realm of “technical knowledge” to address the complexities brought about by additional legislated practices to the profession have also been recognised. The results are the design of a framework for accounting academics to utilise to maximise their research productivity.