https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/19912 2026-06-19T19:44:39Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/32592 An exploration study of voluntary human capital disclosure practices in South Africa Van Wyk, Melanie This study concerns the increasing importance of voluntary disclosures in South African annual reports in order to enable better investor decision-making. As intangible assets play an ever more important role in companies' value-creating process, it has become more important to communicate these "hiddenn assets to external stakeholders. As the traditional financial accounting standards are insufficient to capture and communicate the value of intangibles, companies are encouraged to use voluntary disclosure to incorporate transparency with regards to human capital. In this study companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) have been explored. The study is limited to human capital disclosure by examining what type of human capital information is presented in annual reports. The study has shown that voluntary disclosure practices in South Africa are very strongly driven by legislative requirements. Very little comparison exists among disclosures of companies in different sectors. This indicates the need for a standardised measure for the reporting of human capital. 2006-01-30T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/32588 Strategic management of change within the production department at the Rosslyn of Nissan South Africa Hunter, W. A. In the heart of the well-known industrial area, Rosslyn, just north of Pretoria, lies one of several formidable motor manufacturers. Nissan South Africa, (from here on known as NSA) is currently on the rise to become one of the global competitors in the global Japanese family of Nissan (Ghosn, 2005). Having excelled in the B0's, struggled in the 90's and after a global revival plan, under the direction of Carlos Ghosn, has continued through the last decade to surprise our local consumers with it's impressive line-up of luxury and sporty automobiles, receiving accolade after accolade in both manufacturing as well as after market service and support. (Ghosn, 2005). With a work force boasting 924 salaried employees, 300 temorary staff and 1590 hourly paid employees, NSA contributes around 55000 vehicles per annum combined to either the domestic market or West African export market. An unusual event took place recently at the Rosslyn plant, which was to change the face and attitude of the manufacturing team at NSA. The organisation was about to join it's competitors and roll out it's plan for a new, fully integrated ERP-system in the form of SAP. This project began in July 2003 and through some hard work and combined effort of the organisation's staff and it's IT partner, EDS (Electronic Data Services), was eventually rolled out to business on July 11th 2005. With SAP being the chosen tool, the eventual implementation and roll-out of the ERPsystem to NSA, particularly to the manufacturing division was not seen as a great success. The organisation found itself with tremendous inventory inaccuracies and as a result brought it's manufacturing facility to a grinding halt several days after the go-live date, triggering the need for emergency proposals and counter activities to take place. The resulting impact on NSA, it's marketing and sales division and ultimately it's dealer network and consumers was catastrophic. This put incredible pressure on not only NSA's executive and staff but had Japan and it's executive suddenly scrutinise their overseas market with intensive interest. This is the reason why the researcher has chosen the topic of attempting to understand the real issues that NSA were exposed to during this period of 2003-2005, and identify the root cause of the temporary cease of production within NSA's manufacturing facility. The findings were analysed from a set of data captured as a result of a survey that was presented to a sample group of employees and contractors associated specifically to the production activities and production supporting departments. Further data was captured as a result of structured interviews with a select group of individuals representing the senior executive within NSA that were particularly involved in the ERP-project as a whole. As a result of a survey which was conducted during late September 2006, areas such as resistance to change, the lack of participation, training issues and general "buy-in" from the employees within NSA during this period prior to the go-live stage of the ERP-project were explored. A review of supporting literature will be shared to determine some of the reasons why the organisation was faced with such a difficult task of implementing an ERP-solution for NSA, as well as establish typical norms within industry that contribute to failure in these areas. Furthermore, the researcher will, with the help of business models, attempt to understand some of the issues that could have been avoided, and of course focus on those areas which were seen as being unsuccessful and possible contributing factors to the lack of success of the ERP-project implementation. Areas such as lack of participation, lack of project awareness and general resistance to change were found to be significantly high during the survey conducted during September 2006, approximately 14 months after the actual go-live activity. The data will be reported and discussed within chapter 5, and made visual to the reader. The paradigm chosen for this research project is phenomenological due to the large impact on the human issues and requires both quantitative data types found in the questionnaire as well as qualitative data found during the structured interview sessions, where open ended questions were posed to the executive. Once the data was analysed and processed for understanding and presentation, a number of conclusions were then drawn to allow focus on particularly the vital few areas where the organisation can seriously understand, accept and through adapting their business can avoid a re-occurrence of this in the future. We will discuss the importance of models such as organisational learning, as well as the typical POCA-cycle, which will be explained later and with the introduction of supporting literature be able to provide the organisation with justified recommendations. These recommendations are aimed at returning to basics and are designed to be in line with Nissan's global strategic requirements and most importantly should be seen as realisticaly possible to implement. The proposed recommendations will also be a result of a number of structured interview sessions conducted with the NSA executive to determine the reality and sustainability of the management of change and transformation within NSA regarding future projects. The interview sessions will be a discussion with the executive regarding the results of the questionnaire, and their input regarding possible contributory factors to these results. Some of the recommendations include, a suggested return to basics, improved communication and a commitment from senior management to ensure that NSA follows the advice and way forward provided to us by our Japanese collegues in the form of "The Nissan way", Genba Kanri, Hoshin Kanri and Nissan's newly added V-Up methodology. Finally after recommendations to NSA's top executive, the researcher will reflect on the journey taken to get to the stage where all the models, the literature and the understanding have almost become a day to day activity of seeking continuous improvement both within it's own manufacturing boundaries as well as those of it's suppliers. This important reflection will hopefully provide guidance to future students and possibly offer areas that can be further investigated or researched. Text in English with abstract and no authors keywords 2006-11-20T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/32587 The chemical industry in South Africa: strategic change resulting from economic liberalisation in 1994 Forbes, Annelie The research study was carried out in order to detennine the influence of competitive shocks on developing countries and specifically on an industry of such a country. This study focussed on the South African chemical industry in order to detennine whether it changed as a result of the competitive shock which was brought about by the first democratically elected representative government in South Africa, in April 1994, and specifically how and why it changed in response to economic liberalisation which was brought about by the competitive shock. The responses of three of the main players in the South African chemical industry were researched over a period of fifteen years, firstly from 1984 to 1993 before the onset of economic liberalisation end then for the period 1994 to 1999, five years after the onset of economic liberalisation. A third objective of the study was to detennine the South African chemical industry role in a global chemical village and to develop a sense of future competitiveness. The research study comprises six chapters. Chapter 1 is an introduction to the study end provides a bac.kground to the study. It defines the problem statement and research objectives es well es the scope of the study, outlines the methodology used and sets out a framewont within which the study was done. In the second chapter, an overview of the theory on economic liberalisation end competitive shock is presented. Chapter 3 describes the methodology used for the research report and contains the design of the research study, the method of data collection and the method of data analysis that was used in the study. Chapter 4 contains an analysis of the South African chemical industry pre- and post economic liberalisation and uses strategic tools such as Porter's diamond, Porter's five forces and Ghemawat's predictive framewont for change in key elements of an industry structure. Chapter 5 is written in the fonn of a case study. The condusion drawn in the last chapter finds that three of the four detenninants of Porter's diamond, organisational strategy, struc:ture and rivalry; demand conditions and related and supporting industries indicate a negative influence on the South African competitive advantage. The exception was found to be fador conditions as a result of South Africa being well endowed with minerals, unskilled labour and agricultural resources and has a well developed basic infrastrudure. It was found that government's influence is significant, although mostly negative. In terms of competitiveness in the South African chemical industry it was found that changes in three of the five forces occurred during the period of the study. They were threat of new entrants, rivalry amongst competitors and baigaining pawer of suppliers. Wdh regard to threat of new entrants it was found that entry baniers were lower. Rivalry changed in terms of industry growth which has increased since economic liberalisation and is forecasted to grow into the new millennium, and in tenns of proclud differences which are evident from the strategies of players in the industry to move towards value edded dlemicals and nidle markets. Baigaining power changed since economic liberalisation as the number of suppliers increased as a result of the lifting of sanctions and the government is decreasing import tariffs in line with GATT. It has also been found that as a result of a change in strategy amongst the main South African chemical players to move towards value added products, the baigaining power of Sasol Ud, in particular, has inaeased as it is both a major player and supplier of raw materials to the market. It was found, with regard to Ghemawat's predictive framework for changes in six of the key elements of an industry, that changes had indeed occurred as a result of economic liberalisation. The six elements were entry rates, concentration levels, foreign presence and diversification in tenns of vertical, horizontal and geographical scope. It was found that entry rates have increased since economic liberalisation, in line with the predictive framework. Concentration levels also increased during the period since the onset of economic liberalisation and in this regard the C3 ratio increased fonn 56 % in 1991 to 80 % in 1996. Foreign presence also increased as predicted by Ghemawat's framework. Wdh regard to diversification it was expected in line with Ghemawat's framework that geographical scope and horizontal scope would reduce and that vertical scope would first increase and then decrease as the economy develops. It was found however, that geographical scope increased globally and reduced locally and that horizontal scope decreased in line with Ghemawet's predictive framework. However, it was also found that much of the reduction in horizontal scope resulted from a change in company strategy which happened in the earty nineties and therefore before the industry experienced the competitive shock. This was as result of a trend to focus on core competencies and which had already started during the late eighties. It also innuenced the South African chemical industry and as a result many of the main chemical players divested from non-core businesses which resulted in a reduction in horizontal scope. Lastly it was found that little change in vertical scope occurred, and that where it happened, in most cases it resulted in a decrease in vertical scope, once again often related to company strategy and not necessarily as a result of economic liberalisation. The study found that all three main players changed during the period of the study, as a result of economic liberalisation, but not solely as a result of economic liberalisation. The study also found that the South African chemical industry can successfully compete in the global chemical village, especially where players have an advantage regarding technology and local raw materials and can use this to compete globally. Lastly the study found that South African chemical players need to be pro-active in forming strong strategic alliances and joint ventures with international companies, as the wor1d chemical market is in a consolidation phase and it is viable for a multi-national company to enter the market through an acquisition of a South African chemical company, as was the case with Sentrachem being taken over by Dow Chemical Corporation. In conclusion, the South African chemical industry did indeed change as a result of a competitive shock which brought about economic liberalisation. However, it did not change solely as a result of economic liberalisation. Text in English with abstract and no author keywords 1999-11-01T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/32251 Assessing the level of innovation practices in built projects to create value for the market and to ensure sustainability and recovery of the construction industry within a recession: a case of JC van der Linde and Venter projects in the Tshwane region Niemand, Marjorie Iris Due to a weak economic climate, it has become increasingly difficult for construction companies to sustain their business and stay competitive by using innovation in their daily operations. Hence, the construction sector is lagging in innovation, it has become increasingly important to look at innovative strategies to stay competitive. The study examines the opinions of employees in JC van der Linde and Venter Projects, and their assessment of the significance of the use and relevance of innovation strategies in the construction sector. The data collected in respect of employees’ perceptions of innovation suggest the importance and relevance thereof. An explanatory research design was adopted where the primary instrument for data collection was a questionnaire. A sample of 75 employees were collected from a target of 236 employees in different construction project sites in Tshwane region. The study found respondents understood the importance of innovation, but lacks understanding of how innovation frameworks fit into the organisation as the organisation lacks a formal innovation framework linked to strategic priorities. The study is therefore in agreement that the industry is slow to innovate A synthesis of expertise is needed in different domains to grow and innovate the company. This is a major concern that must be addressed at a strategic level as innovation have to be initiated from a managerial with clear strategic innovation plans incorporated in the strategic plan of the company. The study recommends that construction firms must invest in research and development to exploit the potential of innovation for organisational growth and sustainability. The study concludes that innovation must form part of a strategic plan and driven by top management for it to be effective. Implementation of any innovation plan can only be instituted from the top, hence if innovation plans are not formalised it will not be effective without a formal framework. Therefore, it is recommended that the 70/20/10 rule of innovation must be incorporated into strategic objectives to make innovation part of a formal process, which can be measured in terms of Key Result Areas (KRAs) in the form of a Balanced Scorecard. 2024-01-07T00:00:00Z