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Faculty of Management Sciences

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Knowledge management

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    Prospects for, and challenges of, knowledge sharing in the South African public sector : a literature review
    (2022-11-07) Matlala, Mpubane Emanuel; Maphoto, Asania Reneilwe
    Today’s rapid pace of globalization has driven the current business environment into a permanent state of dynamic change. In the process, organizations have realised that, to ensure their survival, they need to efficiently manage the knowledge and skills available to them. Central to such a management practice is knowledge sharing which has come to play an important role in the building of sustainable competitiveness in a turbulent business climate. In a knowledge culture, it is the sharing of information that promotes innovative thinking. If government departments fail to adopt knowledge sharing practices, the preservation of their organizational memories is put at risk, also in view of the regular transfer of experienced workforces. The lack of a fruitful implementation of knowledge sharing practices diminishes the capacity to sustain government departments and this impacts negatively on the country’s economic growth. The current study reviews the prospects for, and the challenges posed by, knowledge sharing practices in the South African public sector. The objective of the study is to describe what possibilities the 21st century holds for improved knowledge sharing in the South African public sector. The collected data is analysed using a thematic content approach. The results outline that organizational structures in government departments are hierarchical and this hampers information sharing. The prevailing organizational culture does not support and encourage the creation and sharing of knowledge among staff members. The skills needed to facilitate the sharing of knowledge are insufficient, while there is no clearly defined responsibility for initiatives concerned with knowledge management. The study recommends the public sector organizations of South Africa to clearly formulate precise processes, policy frameworks and responsibilities that ensure the effective identification, capturing, managing, transferring and sharing of knowledge within the organizations.
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    A professional development framework supporting life sciences educators' pedagogical content knowledge in the relationship between the human nervous system and the endocrine system
    (2022-09-15) Naidoo, Nathasia; Lourens, Melanie Elizabeth; Lourens, Melanie
    The aim of this study was to determine whether current professional development programmes are effective for Life Sciences educators within the Kwa-Zulu Natal Department of Education to gain pedagogical content knowledge. The main problem focused on the quality of education determined by the quality of educators who are knowledgeable of the content and knowledgeable about strategies to be used to convey learning of the content. An objective of the study included determining whether current Life Sciences educators gain aspects of pedagogical content knowledge through teacher professional development programmes. The objectives also included the development of a Conceptual Framework Model to improve Life Sciences education. The study made use of a quantitative research methods approach. A structured questionnaire in the format of scaled questions namely the Linkert scale was used. The target population comprised of 210 Life Sciences educators in the Umlazi District of the Kwa-Zulu Natal Department of Education. For the purpose of pretesting, 10 samples were randomly selected. Therefore, from a target population 200 Life Sciences educators, 132 samples were randomly selected for the purpose of this study. A total of 127 questionnaires were returned by the sample respondents, providing a high response rate of 96%. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26.0.0. Results were shown as descriptive statistics of the quantitative data obtained in the form of graphs, cross tabulations and other figures. The use of correlations and chi-square test values were interpreted and used to test the 10 hypotheses for various components of this study. The researcher observed some significant results from the data analysis which included: more than 40% of respondents required a form of professional development to improve pedagogical content knowledge and that more than 40% of teacher training workshops need to be aspect specific. This study culminated with proposals for future research in this field of study.
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    The antecedents of supply chain performance : a case of KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa
    (2019-08) Mbambo, Daluxolo; Hove-Sibanda, Sibanda, Progress
    Over the past years, there has been a growing significance in supply chain management (SCM) as a vehicle through which many companies/firms can reach a competitive advantage. Despite the importance of supply chain within today’s economy, little is known about how SCM mechanisms can contribute to firm performance. The main purpose of this study was to evince the influence of trust on supplier development, knowledge creation and supply chain performance (SCP) in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province, South Africa (SA). It was a cross-sectional study that was conducted with different samples and several variables. This is a quantitative study which used a probability and non-probability approach. The study was conducted using both the simple random technique and convenience sampling. Descriptive analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS 25 software package. A sample size of 495 respondents was used in this study. In total, 310 questionnaires were received from all respondents who participated in this study. Results specified that trust does not have any direct impact on SCP. However, based on the beta coefficient values, trust predicts better knowledge creation than supplier development. The empirical results show that an organisation/firm that has a high level of knowledge creation with its suppliers will yield greater performance within its supply chain (SC). As the supply chain performance enabled process was empirically defined, firms are therefore able to design appropriate collaborative strategies for their SC. Thus, the capability to integrate external knowledge from different sectors could be a major factor in firms’ improvement capacity. This study recommends that the South African Government must provide training for firm owners and easy funding access for SMEs in KZN to be able to confront competition from local and foreign competitors. Furthermore, this study suggests that staff development and training for public and private sector institutions as well as individual career management enhancement initiatives must be implemented. Collaboration with suppliers and other supply chain associates is strongly recommended, which should increase the chance to gain strengths, trust, knowledge creation, information sharing and technological proficiencies.
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    Influence of intellectual capital on organisational performance in one of the Big Four Banks in South Africa
    (2017-11) Venkatsamy, Daneshree; Chili, Nsizwazikhona Simon
    The purpose of this study is to investigate the critical components of Intellectual Capital (IC), such as customer, human and structural capital; and how to best integrate these elements to maximise optimisation of IC. This research seeks to understand how an organisation can capitalise on IC as a decision-making mechanism; and what strategies an organisation can employ to leverage IC as a value generating attribute towards organisational performance. Furthermore, this study aims to identify how a large part of decision making is derived from an organisation’s internal intellectual capital, and its critical components. The research is descriptive in nature, as it identifies the critical components. The findings provide an insight into the influence of intellectual capital on a bank’s performance. The research employed a quantitative methodology via the use of a questionnaire. A non-probability purposive sampling strategy based on an individual’s knowledge of intellectual capital activities that take place within the bank was employed to ensure data collected was reflective of the target population identified, more specifically, employees who are permanent at one of the big four banks in Johannesburg, and who are directly affected by influencing factors of intellectual capital. After determining that the questionnaire was reliable and valid as well as the sample size being sufficient, descriptive statistics in the form of frequencies and percentages were used to describe the data and compile the findings. Based on the results of the questionnaire, it was found that organic growth had the highest impact, and being first to market within new target had the lowest impact with regards to processes that measure and maximise the yield from IC. In addition, it was found that keeping customers informed of changes had the highest commitment, and having budget readily available for IC initiatives had the lowest level of commitment within the organisation. Finally, it was found that being innovative, customer-centric, sustainable and aware of market threats were all key factors that influenced the management and enhancement of intellectual capital within the organisation. The implications of this research for theory and practice are that; productivity and profitability measures are the most effective processes to maximise the yield from IC within this organisation. On the one hand, the commitment to IC within the organisation is reflected by respondents feeling that the organisation is highly committed to human capital processes involving customer communication, especially when they involve major changes. However, on the other hand, when it comes to investing in human capital processes, it was felt by respondents that budgets were not readily available to pursue any IC initiatives. This level of commitment is enhanced and managed through the perspective of all four key factors identified, with no one single factor identified to be the most important or least important; but all four factors being of equally high importance.