Leadership influence on organisational performance at Eskom
- Authors: Xawuka, Asanda
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Leadership -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/42433 , vital:36655
- Description: The role and the impact of leadership in business and society is a topic of interest to many in business. This is evident by the increase in the number of studies on the topic of leadership. Organisational leaders are responsible to oversee the company’s operations including the allocation of resources, people management and to facilitate process integration to enable the organisation to achieve its stated objectives. State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) such as Eskom has a mandate to provide infrastructure services to improve the country’s economic conditions. In particular, Eskom is responsible for electricity generation, transmission and distribution in South Africa and other neighbouring counties. Infrastructure development is much needed in South Africa (SA) to enable the country to attract investors and to grow local businesses, as its economy was downgraded to one notch above‘junk status’ in June 2017 (Mutize & Gossel, 2017). Apart from social responsibility, SOEs are required to operate efficiently in line with good corporate governance and become self-sufficient to fund their own future growth plans. Hence, the importance of SOEs to improve their own performance and efficiencies. In the past few years, Eskom has underperformed in meeting its key deliverables as stipulated in the shareholder compact. These include the electrification of households, maintenance of the current infrastructure and the building of excess electricity capacity. The poor performance has negatively affected the country economy due to planned outages when trying to balance electricity demand and supply. It has further contributed to ongoing community service delivery protests, which costs the country millions of rands (Kekana, 2017; Nyembezi, 2015). In the same period, the company faced many leadership changes which partly contribute to its not fully implementing its strategic plans. The objective of this study was to contribute to a possible improvement in Eskom’s performance by examining the influence of leadership on organisational performance, using the independent variables of the leadership conduct (authenticity), work support and performance determinants (culture, communication, change management, strategy implementation and talent management) and further to add to the current literature in explaining how leadership influences performance. The research design was positivistic asthe relationship amongst the above-mentioned variables was statistically tested. The sample consisted of 111 managerial and non-managerial employees in Eskom, across the nine provinces in South Africa. The empirical results were reported and interpreted. The results revealed that the talent management process, work support, effective communication and strategy implementation have a positive influence on employee performance, which in turn has a positive influence on organisational performance. These results were discussed in terms of the implications they hold for the leadership at Eskom. The limitations are reported, thereby providing areas for possible future research.
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- Date Issued: 2019
The effects of three carbohydrate supplementation protocols on the blood glucose levels in type I diabetic subjects during a 60 minute bout on the treadmill
- Authors: Venter, Teneille
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Glucose tolerance tests , Diabetes
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/4157 , vital:20561
- Description: Diabetes associated complications make management during exercise complex (Brugnara, Vinaixa, Murillo, Samino, Rodriguez, Beltran, Lerin, Davison, Correig & Novials, 2012). Research on the prevention of such challenges is of paramount importance. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of three different carbohydrate supplementation protocols on blood glucose levels after every 10 minutes of a 60 minute exercise bout at 65 to 75 % HRR on the treadmill as well as every half hour during a two hour post exercise recovery period. The three protocols implemented after a standardized pre-exercise meal were: control protocol (no carbohydrate supplementation), protocol 1 (one carbohydrate supplementation of 15 grams given at 30 minutes) and protocol 2 (two carbohydrate supplementation of 15 grams given at 30 minutes and 45 minutes). A total of 32 participants took part in the study (Mean age: 32.84 ±12.12). All participants were submitted to all three protocols. Statistical and practical significant differences were found between blood glucose levels of protocol 0 and protocol 1 (MDIF = 2.62 ± 3.99 mmol.L--‐1) at 20 minutes of the exercise duration (p=.024;d=0.42). Statistical and practical significant differences in blood glucose levels with protocol 0 rendering the higher glucose values were also found between protocols 0 and 2 at 10 minutes (MDIF = 3.44 ± 5.54 mmol.L--‐1; p=.001;d=0.62), 20 minutes (MDIF = 3.32 ± 5.23 mmol.L--‐1; p=.001;d=0.63) and 30 minutes of exercise (MDIF = 2.81 ± 5.40 mmol.L--‐1; p=.006;d=0.52) as well as between the mean minimum (M0 = 9.49 ± 4.51 mmol.L--‐1 and M2 = 7.28 ± 4.07 mmol.L--‐1; p=.013;d=0.46), mean maximum (M0 = 12.73 ± 5.51 mmol.L--‐1 and M2 = 10.07 ± 4.63 mmol.L--‐1; p=.015;d=0.46) and overall mean (M0 = 9.07 ± 4.88 mmol.L--‐1 and M2 = 8.53 ± 4.25 mmol.L--‐1; p=.011;d=0.48) with protocol 0 rendering the higher glucose values in all these comparisons. It was concluded that carbohydrate supplementation during exercise affects blood glucose levels positively particularly considering the significant difference found between protocol 0 and 2. Whilst protocol 2 also resulted in less fluctuations in the blood glucose levels during exercise and minimum, overall mean and maximum blood glucose values were closer to “normal/safe” range, there was no conclusive evidence that protocol 2 was better than protocol 1.
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A contribution to the theory of prime modules
- Authors: Ssevviiri, David
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Modules (Algebra) , Radical theory , Rings (Algebra)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:10510 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1019923
- Description: This thesis is aimed at generalizing notions of rings to modules. In par-ticular, notions of completely prime ideals, s-prime ideals, 2-primal rings and nilpotency of elements of rings are respectively generalized to completely prime submodules and classical completely prime submodules, s-prime submodules, 2-primal modules and nilpotency of elements of modules. Properties and rad-icals that arise from each of these notions are studied.
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- Date Issued: 2013
An assessment of the relationship between organisational climate and organisational commitment within the IT department of a telecommunications company
- Authors: Saunders, John
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Corporate culture Organizational behavior Management -- Employee participation Employees -- Attitudes
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:729 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003849
- Description: The main objective of this study was to assess the relationship between organisational climate and organisational commitment within the Information Technology department of a South African Telecommunications company. Firstly, the research considered the organisational climate from a qualitative perspective. Research interviews that were based on organisational climate literature were performed with 4 members of the relevant department. Qualitative data analysis revealed several themes. The themes highlighted include: perceived ineffective structure and decision-making; lack of mistake tolerance; risk aversion by employees; recognition and reward systems perceived to be inadequate; performance management is perceived to be ineffective and inadequate; Employee Share Options Program (ESOP) perceived to have a negative influence on employee behaviours; the nature of the social environment perceived to be unfriendly; low level of knowledge and skills sharing; inadequate human resource management practices; These findings highlight the importance of certain aspects within the environment that influence employee perceptions. Organisational climate literature suggests that organisational climate has various behavioral influences and its consideration is essential in the effective functioning of the organisation. Secondly, the research considered the relationship between organisational climate and organisational commitment within the relevant department. The Patterson et al. (2005) Organisational Climate Measure (OCM®) and Meyer and Allen (1991) Organisational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) were used to assess the relationship between organisational climate and organisational commitment, respectively. Significant correlations were found between integration, pressure to produce, innovation, supervisory support, reflexivity, clarity, involvement, autonomy, welfare and tradition, and both affective and normative commitment, Training was only significantly correlated to affective commitment. No significant correlations were found with continuance commitment.
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- Date Issued: 2009