Exploring the leadership agility in industry 4.0 for company x in Gqeberha
- Authors: Cairncross, Merle Vera
- Date: 2023-12
- Subjects: Leadership -- South Africa , Industry 4.0 , Business intelligence
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/65577 , vital:74193
- Description: In today’s dynamic business landscape, more organisations are progressively attempting to become agile by implementing agile corporate structures, processes and leadership frameworks. By effectively incorporating leadership agility into their processes, leadership can be better prepared to improve its decision-making agility, further able to deploy strategies for improved detection and response to failure as well as improve communication in the organisation. This treatise explores the critical role of leadership agility in enabling organisations to navigate the challenges of a rapidly evolving environment such as Industry 4.0 and capitalise on emerging opportunities. For this study, qualitative data was collected from functional level management by means of semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. The interviews aimed to identify behaviours and beliefs that contribute to an agile organisation, examine barriers impeding agile decision-making and explore strategies to cultivate an agile decision-making culture. By understanding the key factors that enable leadership agility and promote agility within decision-making processes, this research aimed to provide valuable insights for organisations seeking to thrive in the dynamic landscape of Industry 4.0. Through literature analysis and interviews, the researcher concluded that agile leaders possess crucial competencies and behaviours that allow them to effectively navigate the challenges and opportunities of Industry 4.0. These include effective communication, openness to change, innovative thinking, flexibility, self-management, developing others and organisational awareness. Agile leaders strategize and prepare their organisations in Industry 4.0 by adopting an adaptive leadership style, cultivating an agile decision-making culture, encouraging continuous improvement, promoting creativity and innovation and responding swiftly to changes, thus gaining a competitive edge in Industry 4.0. Embracing leadership agility enables organisations to capitalise on Industry 4.0’s opportunities and navigate its challenges, ultimately fostering a competitive business environment. By organising and synthesising the knowledge obtained in this study, a framework is proposed for agile leadership, which consolidates , Thesis (MBA) -- Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences, Business School , 2023
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023-12
- Authors: Cairncross, Merle Vera
- Date: 2023-12
- Subjects: Leadership -- South Africa , Industry 4.0 , Business intelligence
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/65577 , vital:74193
- Description: In today’s dynamic business landscape, more organisations are progressively attempting to become agile by implementing agile corporate structures, processes and leadership frameworks. By effectively incorporating leadership agility into their processes, leadership can be better prepared to improve its decision-making agility, further able to deploy strategies for improved detection and response to failure as well as improve communication in the organisation. This treatise explores the critical role of leadership agility in enabling organisations to navigate the challenges of a rapidly evolving environment such as Industry 4.0 and capitalise on emerging opportunities. For this study, qualitative data was collected from functional level management by means of semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. The interviews aimed to identify behaviours and beliefs that contribute to an agile organisation, examine barriers impeding agile decision-making and explore strategies to cultivate an agile decision-making culture. By understanding the key factors that enable leadership agility and promote agility within decision-making processes, this research aimed to provide valuable insights for organisations seeking to thrive in the dynamic landscape of Industry 4.0. Through literature analysis and interviews, the researcher concluded that agile leaders possess crucial competencies and behaviours that allow them to effectively navigate the challenges and opportunities of Industry 4.0. These include effective communication, openness to change, innovative thinking, flexibility, self-management, developing others and organisational awareness. Agile leaders strategize and prepare their organisations in Industry 4.0 by adopting an adaptive leadership style, cultivating an agile decision-making culture, encouraging continuous improvement, promoting creativity and innovation and responding swiftly to changes, thus gaining a competitive edge in Industry 4.0. Embracing leadership agility enables organisations to capitalise on Industry 4.0’s opportunities and navigate its challenges, ultimately fostering a competitive business environment. By organising and synthesising the knowledge obtained in this study, a framework is proposed for agile leadership, which consolidates , Thesis (MBA) -- Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences, Business School , 2023
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023-12
Consumer perceptions of human digital twins as a marketing tool
- Botha, M
- Authors: Botha, M
- Date: 2023-04
- Subjects: Digital twins (Computer simulation) , Industry 4.0
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/61004 , vital:69685
- Description: A Digital Twin is a digital representation of a physical product or entity or a “set of virtual information constructs”. To effectively represent its physical counterpart, the digital representation needs to know about its properties, rules and behaviour. In order to enable this, there is a constant flow of data between physical objects and digital representations. The data contained in the digital representation allows simulations to be conducted and learnings from these simulations enable better decision making without affecting the physical realm. Human Digital Twins duplicate a person, rather than a physical product or artifact. As Human Digital Twins hold large amounts of data about a person and are able to utilise this data to predict a person’s possible behaviour and control a person’s choices Human Digital Twins hold economic value for organisations. Human Digital Twins can be effectively used in consumer choice modelling to determine a person’s preferences and assist organisations in marketing products and alternatives to customers. Location, purchasing behaviour and online activity can be used to predict potential future customer behaviour and choices. In previous studies proposing Human Digital Twins, limited emphasis has been placed on the opinion of the people who have been twinned. There are several ethical and moral implications in creating Human Digital Twins. The perceptions of the twinning process of people have not adequately been researched. Current technology allows Human Digital Twins to be created but challenges lie with the moral and ethical complications in a person’s Digital Twin acceptance. Various factors have been identified in previous research relating to Human Digital Twins. Knowledge, Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Trust and Technological Proficiency are factors that have an influence on a person’s Human Digital Twin acceptance. These factors were considered as independent factors of the conceptual model while user acceptance was considered the dependent factor of the proposed model. The questionnaire for this study was completed by a sample of 121 respondents, who were reached through convenience and snowball sampling. The questionnaire was primarily distributed to students at the Nelson Mandela Business School in Gqeberha, South Africa. The demographic data indicates that a high number of respondents v reside in the Eastern Cape and the majority of respondents achieved a post graduate degree. This is not necessarily an accurate description of the South African population and the sample used in future studies should be more representative of the South African population. The results indicate that the independent factors Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use and Technological Proficiency had significant positive effects on Human Digital Twin acceptance. Two of the original independent factors were split into two sub-factors as a result of the EFA. The independent factor Trust became Human Digital Twin Distrust and Trust in Companies using Human Digital Twins. The independent factor Knowledge became Knowledge about Human Digital Twins and Knowledge about the role of technology. This study based its conceptual model on the Technology Acceptance Model. The model relies on two major determinants, Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use, to determine a user’s intention to use and accept a technology. This study added new determinants of acceptance to the original TAM, two of which was found reliable. Knowledge of Human Digital Twins and Technological Proficiency were both found to have a significant positive influence on the acceptance of Human Digital Twins. This study was one of the first to suggest a relationship between Technological Proficiency and the acceptance of a new technology. The managerial recommendations set out to bridge the gap between this study and practice. It is not uncommon for researchers to suggest corrective actions and make strategic recommendations based on the results of a study. This study provided managerial recommendations to marketers who want to employ Human Digital Twins in their strategies. This will allow marketers to test campaigns and improve on existing campaigns much quicker than before and take new products to market with testing marketing strategies at a much quicker pace. Organisations need to be cognisant of the fact that legal issues such privacy, consent, discrimination and copyright will be very important when creating Human Digital Twins. Marketers will not only be able to use information gathered by Human Digital Twins in the real world but in virtual worlds as well. , Thesis (MA) -- FFaculty of business and economic sciences, 2023
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023-04
- Authors: Botha, M
- Date: 2023-04
- Subjects: Digital twins (Computer simulation) , Industry 4.0
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/61004 , vital:69685
- Description: A Digital Twin is a digital representation of a physical product or entity or a “set of virtual information constructs”. To effectively represent its physical counterpart, the digital representation needs to know about its properties, rules and behaviour. In order to enable this, there is a constant flow of data between physical objects and digital representations. The data contained in the digital representation allows simulations to be conducted and learnings from these simulations enable better decision making without affecting the physical realm. Human Digital Twins duplicate a person, rather than a physical product or artifact. As Human Digital Twins hold large amounts of data about a person and are able to utilise this data to predict a person’s possible behaviour and control a person’s choices Human Digital Twins hold economic value for organisations. Human Digital Twins can be effectively used in consumer choice modelling to determine a person’s preferences and assist organisations in marketing products and alternatives to customers. Location, purchasing behaviour and online activity can be used to predict potential future customer behaviour and choices. In previous studies proposing Human Digital Twins, limited emphasis has been placed on the opinion of the people who have been twinned. There are several ethical and moral implications in creating Human Digital Twins. The perceptions of the twinning process of people have not adequately been researched. Current technology allows Human Digital Twins to be created but challenges lie with the moral and ethical complications in a person’s Digital Twin acceptance. Various factors have been identified in previous research relating to Human Digital Twins. Knowledge, Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Trust and Technological Proficiency are factors that have an influence on a person’s Human Digital Twin acceptance. These factors were considered as independent factors of the conceptual model while user acceptance was considered the dependent factor of the proposed model. The questionnaire for this study was completed by a sample of 121 respondents, who were reached through convenience and snowball sampling. The questionnaire was primarily distributed to students at the Nelson Mandela Business School in Gqeberha, South Africa. The demographic data indicates that a high number of respondents v reside in the Eastern Cape and the majority of respondents achieved a post graduate degree. This is not necessarily an accurate description of the South African population and the sample used in future studies should be more representative of the South African population. The results indicate that the independent factors Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use and Technological Proficiency had significant positive effects on Human Digital Twin acceptance. Two of the original independent factors were split into two sub-factors as a result of the EFA. The independent factor Trust became Human Digital Twin Distrust and Trust in Companies using Human Digital Twins. The independent factor Knowledge became Knowledge about Human Digital Twins and Knowledge about the role of technology. This study based its conceptual model on the Technology Acceptance Model. The model relies on two major determinants, Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use, to determine a user’s intention to use and accept a technology. This study added new determinants of acceptance to the original TAM, two of which was found reliable. Knowledge of Human Digital Twins and Technological Proficiency were both found to have a significant positive influence on the acceptance of Human Digital Twins. This study was one of the first to suggest a relationship between Technological Proficiency and the acceptance of a new technology. The managerial recommendations set out to bridge the gap between this study and practice. It is not uncommon for researchers to suggest corrective actions and make strategic recommendations based on the results of a study. This study provided managerial recommendations to marketers who want to employ Human Digital Twins in their strategies. This will allow marketers to test campaigns and improve on existing campaigns much quicker than before and take new products to market with testing marketing strategies at a much quicker pace. Organisations need to be cognisant of the fact that legal issues such privacy, consent, discrimination and copyright will be very important when creating Human Digital Twins. Marketers will not only be able to use information gathered by Human Digital Twins in the real world but in virtual worlds as well. , Thesis (MA) -- FFaculty of business and economic sciences, 2023
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023-04
Factors constraining and enabling the adoption of a disruptive technology by African small, micro, and medium enterprises for the Fourth Industrial Revolution: The case of mobile money
- Authors: Tarr, Dillon
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Disruptive technologies , Mobile commerce , Industry 4.0 , Small business Africa, Sub-Saharan , Diffusion of innovations Africa, Sub-Saharan , Technological innovations Management
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/357709 , vital:64770
- Description: The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is set to disrupt existing economic and social structures through the use of cyber-physical systems that result from a fusion of the digital, biological, and physical spheres. The fifth and current long wave of innovation is going through such a digital revolution in the ongoing deployment period which is being driven by the generalpurpose technologies of Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things, among other cyberphysical systems. The impact of mobile money in the access of financial services has shown how disruptive incremental innovations in mobile and digital technologies can be. The transformational power of mobile money in financial access is due to its use as an accessible financial tool that utilizes mobile devices to send and/or receive money over great distances. With the 4IR looming, this thesis determines the factors that enable and constrain the adoption of a disruptive technology amongst Sub-Saharan African small, micro, and medium enterprises (SMMEs). Therefore, due to its impact on financial inclusion and the formalization of SMMEs, mobile money is used as an indicator for the adoption of 4IR disruptive digital technologies. The adoption of mobile money was evaluated using secondary data from a survey conducted by Research ICT Africa, which surveyed 4408 SMMEs in nine African countries. The Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) model and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model were used to identify the factors enabling and constraining the adoption of a disruptive technology, in this case mobile money. Factors included gender, vocational training, business skills training, tertiary education, services, performance expectancy, social media, location, and nine African countries (Kenya, Mozambique, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Senegal). The factors were grouped into owner characteristics, firm attributes and country attributes. SMME owners with business skills (49%) showed the highest level of adoption in terms of owner characteristics, Kenyan SMMEs (21%) had the highest adoption between the countries surveyed, and social media (62%) showed the highest adoption in terms of firm attributes followed by the formal variable (47%). In general, only 29% of SMMEs surveyed adopted mobile money. The study found that women SMME owners were more likely to be affected by business formality when adopting a disruptive technology compared to male owned SMMEs. This is because informality often exacerbates other barriers/challenges women face such as lower access to finance, lower ability to exercise property, business, and labour rights, and lower visibility. The results also demonstrate that vocational training is more important than general tertiary education for the ii adoption of a disruptive technology such as mobile money. Furthermore, when using social media as a tool for business advice SMME owners were more likely to adopt the disruptive technology. The study suggests that to encourage African SMMEs to adequately adopt disruptive technologies of the 4IR, more women owned SMMEs need to enter the formal economy, and vocational training targeted at business skills must be promoted amongst all SMME owners. Eastern African SMMEs were found to be more likely to adopt mobile money compared to other African regions. The finding demonstrates the need for more African countries (particularly outside of the Eastern African region) to encourage innovation by addressing the four enablers of mobile connectivity (i.e. infrastructure, affordability, consumer readiness, and mobile services) which will in effect lead to economic growth and development. The study shows that to address country/regional differences, in addition to building the required infrastructure in terms of mobile internet connectivity, countries should increase the local relevancy of disruptive technologies between SMMEs. To achieve this the study suggests increasing mobile social media penetration rates. This is because when social media is used as a tool for business advice SMME owners are more likely to adopt a disruptive technology (as is the case with mobile money) due to the social influence of social media. , Thesis (MCom) -- Faculty of Commerce, Economics and Economic History, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-10-14
- Authors: Tarr, Dillon
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Disruptive technologies , Mobile commerce , Industry 4.0 , Small business Africa, Sub-Saharan , Diffusion of innovations Africa, Sub-Saharan , Technological innovations Management
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/357709 , vital:64770
- Description: The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is set to disrupt existing economic and social structures through the use of cyber-physical systems that result from a fusion of the digital, biological, and physical spheres. The fifth and current long wave of innovation is going through such a digital revolution in the ongoing deployment period which is being driven by the generalpurpose technologies of Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things, among other cyberphysical systems. The impact of mobile money in the access of financial services has shown how disruptive incremental innovations in mobile and digital technologies can be. The transformational power of mobile money in financial access is due to its use as an accessible financial tool that utilizes mobile devices to send and/or receive money over great distances. With the 4IR looming, this thesis determines the factors that enable and constrain the adoption of a disruptive technology amongst Sub-Saharan African small, micro, and medium enterprises (SMMEs). Therefore, due to its impact on financial inclusion and the formalization of SMMEs, mobile money is used as an indicator for the adoption of 4IR disruptive digital technologies. The adoption of mobile money was evaluated using secondary data from a survey conducted by Research ICT Africa, which surveyed 4408 SMMEs in nine African countries. The Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) model and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model were used to identify the factors enabling and constraining the adoption of a disruptive technology, in this case mobile money. Factors included gender, vocational training, business skills training, tertiary education, services, performance expectancy, social media, location, and nine African countries (Kenya, Mozambique, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Senegal). The factors were grouped into owner characteristics, firm attributes and country attributes. SMME owners with business skills (49%) showed the highest level of adoption in terms of owner characteristics, Kenyan SMMEs (21%) had the highest adoption between the countries surveyed, and social media (62%) showed the highest adoption in terms of firm attributes followed by the formal variable (47%). In general, only 29% of SMMEs surveyed adopted mobile money. The study found that women SMME owners were more likely to be affected by business formality when adopting a disruptive technology compared to male owned SMMEs. This is because informality often exacerbates other barriers/challenges women face such as lower access to finance, lower ability to exercise property, business, and labour rights, and lower visibility. The results also demonstrate that vocational training is more important than general tertiary education for the ii adoption of a disruptive technology such as mobile money. Furthermore, when using social media as a tool for business advice SMME owners were more likely to adopt the disruptive technology. The study suggests that to encourage African SMMEs to adequately adopt disruptive technologies of the 4IR, more women owned SMMEs need to enter the formal economy, and vocational training targeted at business skills must be promoted amongst all SMME owners. Eastern African SMMEs were found to be more likely to adopt mobile money compared to other African regions. The finding demonstrates the need for more African countries (particularly outside of the Eastern African region) to encourage innovation by addressing the four enablers of mobile connectivity (i.e. infrastructure, affordability, consumer readiness, and mobile services) which will in effect lead to economic growth and development. The study shows that to address country/regional differences, in addition to building the required infrastructure in terms of mobile internet connectivity, countries should increase the local relevancy of disruptive technologies between SMMEs. To achieve this the study suggests increasing mobile social media penetration rates. This is because when social media is used as a tool for business advice SMME owners are more likely to adopt a disruptive technology (as is the case with mobile money) due to the social influence of social media. , Thesis (MCom) -- Faculty of Commerce, Economics and Economic History, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-10-14
The 2019 SASBO Bank Workers’ Strike in South Africa: unpacking labour responses to the Fourth Industrial Revolution
- Authors: Moyo, Wisdom Ntandoyenkosi
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Industry 4.0 , Fourth Industrial Revolution , Banks and banking South Africa , SASBO , Labor unions South Africa , Strikes and lockouts Bank employees South Africa , Working class South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/406774 , vital:70306
- Description: The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is a global phenomenon, affecting workers and trade unions worldwide with the increased automation, including digitisation, of work. Although the 4IR has often been presented as an impersonal technological force that society must just accept, it is in fact rooted in the evolution of capitalist society: it is the latest in a series of industrial revolutions and restructurings of the labour process. These are systemic occurrences, based in class struggles around the extension of management control of every part of work, and replacing workers with machinery; it must then be seen in the context of a history of Taylorism, Fordism and neo-Fordism, and their local expressions, such as racial Fordism in South Africa. The roll-out and the socio-economic effects of the 4IR are therefore shaped by inequality and power, and look to be dire for the working-class in a South Africa that already has record unemployment rates. In the local banking sector, the 4IR has been associated with a wave of retrenchments and branch closures. Faced with this situation, the South African Society of Bank Officials (SASBO), the biggest and oldest union in the finance sector, then with around 73 000 members, tried to hold a mass strike in late 2019. Blocked by the Labour Court, this would have been the union’s biggest strike in a century. It followed from a longer campaign by SASBO to halt job losses, ensure redeployment and reskilling for affected bank workers, and win an agreement for these aims with the banks. The union undertook research on the 4IR and sought to win support from banks, as well as government departments and other unions, for an alternative, worker-friendly roll-out of the 4IR. The decision to strike took place after extensive engagements with banks and stakeholders like government failed, the banks proceeding with retrenchments: the union faced an unprecedented challenge and was on the defensive. This dissertation maps SASBO’s campaign around the 4IR, using the Power Resources Approach (PRA), and assesses its approach. It also tries to show how an analysis of a moderate, older white-collar union like SASBO enriches South African labour studies. A qualitative methodology was used in this research to understand the issue at hand, using documents and semi-structured interviews with SASBO National Executive Committee members. The key findings are that the 4IR will not spare white-collar jobs and presents an unprecedented challenge to unions. There is an urgent need for union revitalisation, including new ways to organise effective responses to technological change. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Sociology, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-10-14
- Authors: Moyo, Wisdom Ntandoyenkosi
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Industry 4.0 , Fourth Industrial Revolution , Banks and banking South Africa , SASBO , Labor unions South Africa , Strikes and lockouts Bank employees South Africa , Working class South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/406774 , vital:70306
- Description: The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is a global phenomenon, affecting workers and trade unions worldwide with the increased automation, including digitisation, of work. Although the 4IR has often been presented as an impersonal technological force that society must just accept, it is in fact rooted in the evolution of capitalist society: it is the latest in a series of industrial revolutions and restructurings of the labour process. These are systemic occurrences, based in class struggles around the extension of management control of every part of work, and replacing workers with machinery; it must then be seen in the context of a history of Taylorism, Fordism and neo-Fordism, and their local expressions, such as racial Fordism in South Africa. The roll-out and the socio-economic effects of the 4IR are therefore shaped by inequality and power, and look to be dire for the working-class in a South Africa that already has record unemployment rates. In the local banking sector, the 4IR has been associated with a wave of retrenchments and branch closures. Faced with this situation, the South African Society of Bank Officials (SASBO), the biggest and oldest union in the finance sector, then with around 73 000 members, tried to hold a mass strike in late 2019. Blocked by the Labour Court, this would have been the union’s biggest strike in a century. It followed from a longer campaign by SASBO to halt job losses, ensure redeployment and reskilling for affected bank workers, and win an agreement for these aims with the banks. The union undertook research on the 4IR and sought to win support from banks, as well as government departments and other unions, for an alternative, worker-friendly roll-out of the 4IR. The decision to strike took place after extensive engagements with banks and stakeholders like government failed, the banks proceeding with retrenchments: the union faced an unprecedented challenge and was on the defensive. This dissertation maps SASBO’s campaign around the 4IR, using the Power Resources Approach (PRA), and assesses its approach. It also tries to show how an analysis of a moderate, older white-collar union like SASBO enriches South African labour studies. A qualitative methodology was used in this research to understand the issue at hand, using documents and semi-structured interviews with SASBO National Executive Committee members. The key findings are that the 4IR will not spare white-collar jobs and presents an unprecedented challenge to unions. There is an urgent need for union revitalisation, including new ways to organise effective responses to technological change. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Sociology, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-10-14
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