- Title
- Reactor development and process optimisation for the bioremediation of phenolic wastewaters by trametes species
- Creator
- Ryan, Daniel Reginald
- Subject
- Uncatalogued
- Date Issued
- 2004-04
- Date
- 2004-04
- Type
- Doctoral theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/191487
- Identifier
- vital:45103
- Description
- In many service industries, the source of a company’s value has shifted from capital to knowledge and ideas, the quality of which is dependent on its employees (Wooldridge, 2006). In fact, human resources can be considered part of factor conditions which can positively impact on a firm’s competitive context. This impact can ultimately translate into improved financial results (Porter and Kramer, 2002). There is therefore a growing interest in ways to attract and retain talent. According to the managers of many big companies, well communicated corporate responsibility practices can improve staff attraction as well as retention rates by improving morale (CSRwire, 2002). To explore this, a small, creative company in Johannesburg which engages in charity work was selected as a case study, with the goal being to understand whether their culture of good deeds has a positive impact on staff wellbeing. While the owner of the company actively attempts to make the company an enjoyable place to work at, he appears to have initiated the philanthropic activities in a true spirit of giving, rather than with the motive of engaging staff in order to make more money. Nevertheless, the researcher’s investigative stance is that of an enlightened egoist, and the study focuses on the business case of giving being beneficial to the giver (ultimately the company) in the long term, as well as to the recipient. While the danger of suggesting that philanthropy could be instrumentalised is acknowledged (Morton, 2004), the investigation explores the possibility because such evidence could persuade other companies to become more socially concerned. Through a qualitative approach involving interviews, observation and analysis of video footage, it becomes apparent that there is clearly value for the staff in the charity work they do. Unfortunately the multiple initiatives undertaken to keep staff morale high at the company make it impossible to establish a clear link between the philanthropy and overall wellbeing, but as the study was conducted in the phenomenological paradigm the main concern was with understanding the experience of participants. However, an unexpected finding was that the employees derive great satisfaction from using their professional skills for charity work rather than just donating money to the charity. They feel that their skills uniquely position them to make significant changes to the lives of others, which gives them a sense of pride and achievement that they don’t necessarily experience in their ordinary activities at work. On the basis of this, it is recommended that companies look to involve staff with projects that require their specific expertise when evaluating philanthropic initiatives.
- Description
- Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry, Microbiology and Biotechnology, 2004
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (157 pages)
- Format
- Publisher
- Rhodes University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry, Microbiology and Biotechnology
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Ryan, Daniel Reginald
- Rights
- Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- Rights
- Open Access
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Collections
RU Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Biotechnology (end of 2014)
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | RYAN-PHD-TR04-130.pdf | 4 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |