https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/2814 Tue, 12 May 2026 21:17:13 GMT 2026-05-12T21:17:13Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/31186 The practical relevance of strategy education: Evidence from the lived experiences of business school alumni Ngwenya, Amkela; Davis, Annemarie; Ncube (PhD), Douglas This paper presents the findings from a study on the dynamic and nuanced relationship between strategy theory and strategy practice in a South African context. Grounded in a strategy-as-practice perspective and based on an abductive analysis of sixteen semi-structured interviews, the empirical findings deepen our conceptual understanding of how the relationship between strategy theory and strategy practice is constituted. The findings further reveal how practice environments influence the effective use of academic knowledge and skills by graduates in the workplace. Primarily, strategy theory is foundational to effective strategy practice. We theorise that strategy practitioners construct the relevance of strategy theory through adaptation and bricolage to suit complex and eclectic practice contexts. The study findings confirm that strategy theory plays a critical role in shaping and guiding strategy practitioners’ praxis. As the ontic sites of knowledge and skills application, practice contexts are important for testing and validating academic knowledge and skills. In this relationship, strategy practitioners are the primary actors who transpose knowledge and skills from academe to business. What they become after completing a qualification is critical. Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMT https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/31186 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/31185 Acting Strategically During Change: A Process and Dwelling World-view Approach de Metz, Nadine; Jansen van Rensburg, Mari; Davis, Annemarie ambiguity and uncertainty. Responding to these changes requires a dynamic approach with a wider set of skills and coping mechanisms. In this article, we argue for a broad focus on change that considers the tacit elements of strategising. We adopted a dwelling worldview as well as a strong process ontology combined with a practice perspective to capture the complexity and richness of a strategic change process with a focus on identity and legitimacy dynamics. This article reports on an emerging process model of how individuals in non-managerial positions respond to and make sense of planned strategic change. The study followed a longitudinal, processual approach using a South African business school as the research setting. The findings of the study contribute towards a deepened understanding of the dynamics that occur within strategic change processes, showing that strategising is a dynamic process involving instinct, adjustment and phronetic action. Understanding how individuals respond, adapt and cope during strategic change processes provides potentially helpful insight into how strategic change is enabled or constrained, which could have future implications on how change processes are designed or implemented. Thu, 27 Jul 2023 00:00:00 GMT https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/31185 2023-07-27T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/31184 Prof Davis, Annemarie Academic integrity is a fundamental aspect of education that is often framed in a negative context, while existing in a reality marked by inherent contradictions. This article reports on how academics perceive academic integrity based on a study that adopted a qualitative hermeneutic approach. The study employed listening posts to interrogate the perceptions of academic integrity amongst academics. The notes from these facilitated listening post sessions were thematically analysed. Findings highlight that the understanding of academic integrity is influenced by various contradictions stemming from academics, students, society, and trends in misconduct. The article argues that academic integrity, in the time of contradictions, can be reframed as an academic skill aligned to specific values. By imparting knowledge about the significance of academic integrity within a university context, academics, university managers and policy makers can play a vital role in driving change and preparing future academics, researchers, administrators and graduates to lead the universities of the future. Findings suggest diverse perspectives on academic integrity, and highlight the necessity of revising policies to promote academic integrity as a skill. Additionally, findings emphasise the adoption of a developmental approach that goes beyond merely preventing misconduct, fostering a comprehensive understanding of academic integrity. Thu, 30 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/31184 2023-11-30T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/30114 A checklist to guide the planning, designing, implementation, and evaluation of learning analytics dashboards Kaliisa, Rogers; Jivet, Ioana; Prinsloo, Paul Abstract Higher education institutions are moving to design and implement teacher-facing learning analytics (LA) dashboards with the hope that instructors can extract deep insights about student learning and make informed decisions to improve their teaching. While much attention has been paid to developing teacher-facing dashboards, less is known about how they are designed, implemented and evaluated. This paper presents a systematic literature review of existing studies reporting on teacher-facing LA dashboards. Out of the 1968 articles retrieved from several databases, 50 articles were included in the final analysis. Guided by several frameworks, articles were coded based on the following dimensions: purpose, theoretical grounding, stakeholder involvement, ethics and privacy, design, implementation, and evaluation criteria. The findings show that most dashboards are designed to increase teachers’ awareness but with limited actionable insights to allow intervention. Moreover, while teachers are involved in the design process, this is mainly at the exploratory/problem definition stage, with little input beyond this stage. Most dashboards were prescriptive, less customisable, and implicit about the theoretical constructs behind their designs. In addition, dashboards are deployed at prototype and pilot stages, and the evaluation is dominated by self-reports and users’ reactions with limited focus on changes to teaching and learning. Besides, only one study considered privacy as a design requirement. Based on the findings of the study and synthesis of existing literature, we propose a four-dimensional checklist for planning, designing, implementing and evaluating LA dashboards. Wed, 03 May 2023 00:00:00 GMT https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/30114 2023-05-03T00:00:00Z