Improving organisational effectiveness through employee engagement: a proposed framework
- Authors: Mabasa, Jerry Mandla
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Organisational effectiveness -- South Africa -- Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality , Employee motivation Organizational behavior Work environment -- Employees
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/40657 , vital:36207
- Description: South African-based automotive industry firms have been largely characterised by fierce competition at the global level. In order to compete effectively, business leaders have to align business strategies and adopt the best practice approach to gain a competitive advantage among rivals. The majority of this practice requires a high level of employee buy-in to ensure effective, sustainable and successful implementation. Hence, employees become a key stakeholder for improving the organisational competitive advantage and the business leader must continuously find sustainable methods for engaging their employees in order to raise the effectiveness of the organisation. In view of these notions, this study was grounded in the social exchange theory. Against this background, the main objective of this study was to evaluate the levels of several Employee Engagement drivers, namely Positive Mood, Personal Vision, Compensation, Team and Co-worker Relationships, Organisational Support and Leadership and to investigate their influence on the levels of Employee Engagement and Organisational Effectiveness to businesses in the automotive industry in Nelson Mandela Bay, Eastern Cape. To evaluate the conceptual framework suggested by this study based on the literature review, an empirical assessment was performed amongst the employees of Nelson Mandela Bay‟s automotive sector manufacturers through the application of an electronically distributed questionnaire. The selection of the sample was performed using convenience sampling. A total of 135 usable questionnaires were returned with which to undertake the statistical analysis. The findings showed that the demographic variables investigated in this study had no influence on the way in which employees‟ perceived engagement in the workplace. In order to assess the validity of the dependent variables successfully, namely employee engagement and organisational effectiveness, inferential statistics were performed. Inferential statistics commenced by investigating the reliability of the empirical data. It was concluded that all variables returned Cronbach‟s alpha coefficients greater than 0.7, except for the Team and Co-Worker Relationships independent variable. Hence, sufficient evidence of reliability and validity for the items measuring the dependent and the independent variables was provided. The items intended to measure Team and Co-Worker Relationships did not load as expected and the variable was subsequently eliminated from further analysis, resulting in the revised conceptual framework. Correlation analysis revealed that none of the variables were strongly correlated. The subsequent multiple regression analyses revealed that only the Organisational Support variable investigated in this study had a significant positive influence on both the Employee Engagement and Organisational Effectiveness variables. On the other hand, Leadership only had a significant positive influence on Organisational Effectiveness, while positive emotions (measured by the Positive Mood and Personal Vision variables) had a significant positive influence on Employee Engagement. In addition, the results of this study showed that the Employee Engagement variable mediates the relationship between the Positive Mood, Personal Vision and Organisational Support and Organisational Effectiveness variables. However, it does not mediate the relationship between the Leadership and Organisational Effectiveness variables. Given the findings of this study, a number of recommendations are put forward to enhance the levels of Positive Mood, Personal Vision, Organisational Support and Leadership qualities among employees, and to ultimately enhance the levels of Employee engagement and Organisational Effectiveness.
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- Date Issued: 2019
An integrated business intelligence model for automotive component manufacturers in South Africa
- Authors: Du Plessis, Jacobus van Gend
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Business -- Models , Automobile supplies industry
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:8757 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1011667 , Business -- Models , Automobile supplies industry
- Description: Organisations face increasing economic pressures from local and global competitors because of changing and increasing customer demands. Demands include improved product quality, flexibility, increasing price competitiveness and attaining higher levels of customer satisfaction. Businesses must have strategic and operational plans in place to combat these pressures to remain competitive. The South African automotive component manufacturing industry is particularly susceptible to such factors. The nature of the industry further lends itself to attracting high levels of political and economic attention, as it is an important contributor to economic growth. Harsh economic conditions pose problems in supply, internal supply and distribution and force organisations to be resourceful to survive. Ninety percent of the world’s information was generated within the last two years, a figure that equates to 2.5 quintillion bytes per day. The proliferation of data sources and the fine level of granularity at which this data is collected, present organisations with new challenges to benefit from this information. Market volatility presents shorter windows of opportunity and demands an unprecedented level of agility from the organisation. Delays in decision making, which is becoming more complicated and complex, cannot be tolerated. Advances in Technology have made it possible and affordable to store vast volumes of data; data that can be manipulated and transformed by any number of technology tools. Business intelligence (BI) provides valuable information to management and decision makers by reducing the latency between business events and the ability to report and act on prior events. This treatise will investigate the business intelligence systems of an automotive component manufacturing company and propose a model to improve BI utilisation. The true name of the company that will be researched will not be disclosed for confidentiality reasons, instead it will be called My Company. Research consists of a preliminary study to identify the problems in the business intelligence system within My Company. Literature reviews of critical success factors for business intelligence systems, maturity models, and characteristics of integrated business intelligence systems, will lead to the development of a proposed integrated business intelligence systems model to improve the current situation at My Company. The major findings of this research are presented as deliverables within each chapter and contribute to the development of the integrated BI systems model for automotive component manufacturing organisations. The major findings are: a list of critical success factors of BI from literature; list identifying gaps between the literature reviewed and the problems identified from the preliminary study conducted; selection of the HP (2009) maturity model as a preferred tool to be incorporated into the proposed model; the evaluation of the proposed integrated BI systems model by means of a case study; and the updated integrated BI systems model.
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- Date Issued: 2013
A framework for mobile SOA using compression
- Authors: Saunders, Evan
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Service-oriented architecture (Computer science)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:10459 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1500 , Service-oriented architecture (Computer science)
- Description: The widely accepted standards of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) have changed the way many organisations conduct their everyday business. The significant popularity of mobile devices has seen a rapid increase in the rate of mobile technology enhancements, which have become widely used for communication, as well as conducting everyday tasks. An increased requirement in many businesses is for staff not to be tied down to the office. Consequently, mobile devices play an important role in achieving the mobility and information access that people desire. Due to the popularity and increasing use of SOA and mobile devices, Mobile Service-Oriented Architecture (Mobile SOA) has become a new industry catch-phrase. Many challenges, however, exist within the Mobile SOA environment. These issues include limitations on mobile devices, such as a reduced screen size, lack of processing power, insufficient processing memory, limited battery life, poor storage capacity, unreliable network connections, limited bandwidth available and high transfer costs. This research aimed to provide an elegant solution to the issues of a mobile device, which hinders the performance of Mobile SOA. The main objective of this research was to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of Mobile SOA. In order to achieve this goal, a framework was proposed, which supported intelligent compression of files used within a Web Service. The proposed framework provided a set of guidelines that facilitate the quick development of a system. A proof-of-concept prototype was developed, based on these guidelines and the framework design principles. The prototype provided practical evidence of the effectiveness of implementing a system based on the proposed framework. An analytical evaluation was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the prototype within the Mobile SOA environment. A performance evaluation was conducted to determine efficiency it provides. Additionally, the performance evaluation highlighted the decrease in file transfer time, as well as the significant reduction in transfer costs. The analytical and performance evaluations demonstrated that the prototype optimises the effectiveness and efficiency of Mobile SOA. The framework could, thus, be used to facilitate efficient file transfer between a Server and (Mobile) Client.
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- Date Issued: 2010
A model for information architecture of government web sites in Southern Africa
- Authors: Bernardo, Tomás
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: Information storage and retrieval systems , Web sites -- Design , Government information -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:10479 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/459 , Information storage and retrieval systems , Web sites -- Design , Government information -- South Africa
- Description: The main purpose of this research is to investigate the Information Architecture (IA) of government web sites in Southern Africa. The government web sites of Mozambique and South Africa were selected for the purpose of this research. A further aim of this research was to derive a model for the IA of government web sites. The model was based on IA components and guidelines as well as on web site components and E-government requirements. The IA guidelines in the model were derived from general design guidelines and guidelines for government web sites. The IA guidelines in the proposed model were used to conduct an analytical and empirical evaluation of the selected sites. The selection of the sites was based on similarities in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) strategies and policies, the annual Internet growth rates, the Internet user profiles and the Egovernment initiatives in both countries. Differences between the sites also contributed to their selection. Mozambique is one of the least developed countries in the world, while South Africa is one of the most developed countries in Africa. Heuristic evaluation was used for the analytical evaluation while questionnaires and user testing were used for the empirical evaluation. Some of the usability problems identified in the heuristic evaluation, such as incorrect organisation of information and navigation issues, were also identified in the empirical evaluation, confirming to the existence of these usability problems. The results of this research show that the IA of government web sites has an impact on user performance and satisfaction and that the proposed model can be used to design and evaluate the IA of government web sites in Southern Africa.
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- Date Issued: 2006