Doctoral Degrees (University of the Free State: Business School)
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Item Open Access Sustainability of lower-grade construction based SMME's in the Free State Province(University of the Free State, 2022) Ramabitsa, Diao Leeu; Van Zyl, J.; Van Vuuren, P.; Crous, C.In the year 2010, the South African government, through its soccer body namely South African Football Association, hosted the first Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) soccer world cup in the African continent and invested heavily in infrastructures such as roads, rail networks, and sports facilities. This was seen as an opportunity to help eradicate poverty, reduce unemployment, and achieve high economic growth. However, the construction industry, despite its performance in global economic growth and job creation to skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled workforce, is still faced with the central quandary of a high failure rate in the early stages of operation due to contributing factors such as low barriers to entry, deficiency of skills, formal qualifications, relevant industry experience, and management and leadership skills. Moreover, the government has several initiatives, such as institutions providing financial assistance to Small Micro Medium Enterprises (SMMEs), but these have not resulted in a tangible improvement in upgrading to upper grades that address the congestion in the construction industry. Therefore, these challenges impede the growth, development, and sustainability of construction SMMEs, which mostly remain congested in the lower-grades. Thus, this research aimed to develop recommendations that will assist lower-grade construction-based SMMEs in the Free State province to become sustainable in their business. Following the literature study, the study adopted the quantitative research approach, and a self-administered questionnaire was designed based on information emanating from an extant literature review. District-based enumerators were appointed and inducted in all Free State province district municipalities to assist with the distribution and collection of questionnaires to construction SMMEs in possession of Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) grading one to four in both Civil Engineering and General Building classes of works. The probability stratified random sampling method was adopted for the study and the self-administered questionnaires were distributed to a sample of 485 participants, of which 431 were received back, representing an 89% response rate. Findings from the study indicated that corrupt activities within the construction industry and use of political connections to gain an unfair advantage on government contractor development programmes with few benefiting from the programme were major challenges. Along with these challenges are also the importance of effective and efficient use of cash flow to improve and sustain the business operations; the need for investing in right construction equipment to improve business success; recruiting and retaining qualified, competent and experienced personnel which is key in the improvement and the sustainability of the business. The study further revealed that the critical barriers to the sustainability of construction SMMEs in the Free State are; high competition and limited access to projects/work opportunities; higher entry due to lack of regulations; political influence in awarding contracts and lack of industry experience were the main critical factors hindering the sustainability of lower-grade construction based SMMEs in the Free State province. To attain this required objective based on these findings, the literature review and a quantitative research method recommends that, although many construction SMMEs are stagnant on lower-grades, the establishment of a panel of experienced, qualified and competent professional registered experts in all engineering fields to monitor progress and quality; national blacklisting of all stakeholders involved in corrupt activities within government and a minimum period of 10 years be imposed as well as instituting criminal charges against all responsible individuals; recruitment process for the interested contractors in Contractor Development Programmes(CDPs) be stringent, yet done in an objective, fair, and transparent manner; compulsory 30% subcontracting to local based SMMEs clause be included in every government tenders; for all work opportunities seeking CIDB grading of 1 or 2 within local government, only local SMMEs are allowed to bid to alleviate the congestion and improve their sustainability.Item Open Access A competitive strategy for smallholder women in the Agro-food industry in the Free State Province of the republic of South Africa(University of the Free State, 2022) Mosia, Diau Daniel; Mmbengwa, V.; Swanepoel, J.This study's aim involved the development of a framework for a competitive strategy that would empower smallholder women to own and nurture agro-food enterprises in South Africa's Free State Province. The main objective was to develop an empirical model that could be used to ensure that market access interventions would positively influence change for these enterprises. Accordingly, the study measures the effect of the transformation factors on women in agro-food enterprises of the Free State Province. The domain of women empowerment has been used worldwide in evaluating the extent of women's empowerment in the agricultural sector. Thus, this study aimed to analyse this domain to empower women's agro-food enterprises in the Free State Province. This study adopted the concurrent explanatory mixed method research design. In this design, the socio-economic data were collected using a closed-ended questionnaire, followed by focus group sessions. Stratified random sampling techniques were employed to obtain a sample size of 517, using the Raosoft sample size calculator. Finally, the data were analysed by using hierarchical multiple regression, binary multiple-regression, a stepwise multiple-regression model, and structural equation modelling (SEM). The results showed that market access is highly correlated (r = 0.482, p = 0.000) with business ownership and moderately correlated with management control. These results suggest that when business ownership, management control and representative are included in the model with market access, market access has a minor but positively significant (β=0.059, p = 0.05) role in influencing agro-food enterprise transformation for smallholder women. However, the effect of market access on change is seen to be the lowest, compared with the confounding variables. These results imply that market access is not the highest priority in effecting transformation in this farming system, but that business ownership, representation, and management control are. Further results reveal that all the responsive variables were significant in affecting agro-food enterprises. However, business ownership (beta = 0.334, p = 0.000) showed that it has a key effect on women's agro-food enterprises, relative to representativity (beta = 0.315, p = 0.000) and management control (beta = 0.087, p = 0.000). The study indicated that business ownership, representation of women, and management control in these enterprises are necessary to transform these enterprises. This study revealed that all the domains for empowerment positively influence the empowerment of these enterprises, except the leadership in the community (β = -0.516, p = 0.001). The findings show a positive relationship between production and empowerment success (β = 0.133, p < 0.000). Similarly, all subsequent hypotheses were also supported. These results imply a positive and significant relationship between transformation and empowerment (β = 0.151, p < 0.000), capacity building and empowerment (β = 0.313, p < 0.000), entrepreneurship and empowerment (β = 0.552, p < 0.007), and savings and competitiveness (β = 0463, p < 0.000). For the Free State province to modernize this type of farming system, it is recommended that the extension services be implemented to ensure that the women farmers have opportunities to acquire ownership of land, and representation in the value chain and in the management of the corporate entities dealing with market access. The study concluded that business ownership, representation of women, and management control in these enterprises are necessary to transform these enterprises. Therefore, it is recommended that the policy on women empowerment be amended to emphasize these three tenets of transformation. This study further recommends that gender empowerment policies be transformed to enforce gender parity in all facets of the community's leadership in order to support women's views. In conclusion, the current model should allay the concerns of the researchers and practitioners regarding the lack of competitiveness of the smallholder agro-food enterprises of women, even though the government supports them. Therefore, it recommends that savings and empowerment should be used to ensure the competitiveness of these enterprises.Item Open Access The enhancement of employee performance through leadership and individual level variables in three Metropolitan municipalities in South Africa(University of the Free State, 2022) Smit, Petronella Frederika; kotzé, M.; Nel, P.South African municipalities are known for poor service delivery, resulting from leaders failing to manage processes and performance. A lack of leadership competencies was cited as one of the reasons for poor employee performance in municipalities. Literature also showed that several individual factors (i.e. employee psychological empowerment, employee workplace spirituality, employee motivation, and employee citizenship behaviour) might play a role in employee performance. However, it is not clear how leadership competencies interact with these individual variables to subsequently influence employee performance. In response to the leadership competency gap and poor performance in the municipalities, the present study sought to address this by developing a leadership competency and employee performance model. In pursuit of this aim, specific objectives were set at the onset: to develop a conceptual leadership competency and employee performance model for municipalities in South Africa, to theoretically explain the relationships between variables in the proposed leadership competency and employee performance model using previous literature, and to determine the predictive validity of the proposed leadership competency and employee performance model in municipalities in South Africa. The Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods design was selected, applying both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and analysis. Municipal employees from the top three municipalities in South Africa (City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality and City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality) formed the main body of the population for this research study. A simple random sampling method was used, comprising of municipal employees. Technically, the researcher applied a two-stage sampling approach. Firstly, purposive sampling was used to select the top three municipalities. Secondly, simple random sampling was applied to select the participants from the top three municipalities. For the quantitative part of the study, data was collected from 789 participants that included all office-bound employees, as well as junior to middle management (levels 6 and 7). General workers, technical staff (working on roads, potholes, streetlights etc.) and senior management (levels 1 to 5) were not included. With regard to the quantitative component of the study, six standard questionnaires were used: The Leadership Assessment Questionnaire (LAQ) to assess leadership competencies; The Psychological Empowerment Questionnaire (PEQ) to assess employee psychological empowerment; The Spirituality at Work (SAW) questionnaire to measure employee workplace spirituatliy; The Motivation Measure (MM) questionnaire to measure employee motivation; The Organisational Citizenship Behaviour Scale (OCBS) to measure organizational citizenship behaviour and The Employee Performance Scale (EPS) to measure employee performance. The data was analysed emphasising both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics using SPSS and SmartPLS. The analysis emphasised correlations, stepwise multiple regression and structural equation modelling. For the qualitative component of the research, management holding a position not lower than assistant director (levels 1 to 5), were included. The researcher used purposive sampling to select 15 individuals to be interviewed. These leaders were highly skilled in the municipal field and their input was used as confirmation or to add further knowledge or input into the results of the quantitative findings. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, as the researcher aimed at obtaining specific information to gather more insights or explanations from leaders into quantitative findings. Thematic analysis as a qualitative data analysis technique was applied.Item Open Access The alignment between corporate and business level strategies in South African public entities(University of the Free State, 2018) Gasela, Moses Mongezi; Vermeulen, W.𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 The South African public entities play a significant role in the South African economy as they assist the government to achieve different service delivery mandates in key sectors of the economy. However, the public entities are experiencing service delivery and performance problems that affect the South African economy negatively. This study investigated the alignment between the corporate and business level strategies in South African public entities with the aim of providing recommendations that would improve the alignment of the aforesaid strategies resulting in improved organisational performance in the entities. The unit of analysis for the study is a public entity that is based in the Northern Cape Province. The study was located within the post-positivist as well as constructivist/interpretivist philosophical assumptions. The convergent mixed research design was used. For the qualitative part of the study, the multicase study design was used. A purposive sample of eleven executives, representing each of the eight public entities and three provincial departments that control the entities was selected for the study. Data was also collected from the official documents of corporate and business level strategies of the entities. For the data collected through the individual interviews and strategic documents, data analysis involved organising details about a case (in this study, the entity), categorising data and clustering it into meaningful groups; and identifying patterns, trends and themes. Then, the researcher synthesised and generalised, giving an overall portrait of the case, with a conclusion and an implication beyond the case. The researcher looked for convergence from a triangulated study. For the study‘s quantitative part, the survey design was adopted using the probability sampling techniques, and a questionnaire to collect the data. Thirty-eight self- administered structured questionnaires were distributed to the executives of the eight entities and the three controlling departments. The response rate was 78%. Descriptive data analysis as well as inferential data analysis involving the correlational analysis and regression analysis were done. The use of the mixed methods served as a triangulation which ensured validity and reliability of the study findings. Four key findings emerged from the study. Firstly, it was found that there are many challenges that the public entities have, including financial and human capital inadequacy or/and lack of human resources, poor organisational culture, leadership issues (including ineffective boards) and working in silos with no effective communication, to mention but a few, that bring about strategy misalignment. These challenges affect the alignment of the two-level strategies and organisational performance negatively because the entities cannot deliver on their mandate by achieving their strategic objectives. Secondly, it was found that the alignment between corporate-level and business- level strategies contributes to organisational performance in South African public entities. Thirdly, the study found that strategy implementation of the business strategies in the South African public entities is a big problem. This is because of the many challenges these entities are facing, which include a lack of resources, leadership inadequacy, inefficient boards, lack of a good organisational culture, lack of support from their parent departments and the flexibility they need to be able to respond fast enough to their business needs. This causes a misalignment of the two strategies practically on the ground. Eventually this results in poor strategy implementation and unsatisfactory organisational performance. Fourthly, it was found that corporate controls affect strategy implementation negatively due to the abovementioned challenges. Finally, recommendations were developed to minimise the alignment gaps between the corporate and business level strategies in South African public entities, and therefore increase organisational performance. ___________________________________________________________________Item Open Access A support framework for the survivalist entrepreneurs- Free State Province case study(University of the Free State, 2014-07) Ranyane, Kgantsho, Adeline; Van Zyl, JohanSouth Africa is faced with a challenge when it comes to the creation of jobs and the development of sustainable small businesses. The challenge is aggravated by the declining overall socio-economic profile and economic activities, which result in increasing unemployment rates. In an attempt to escape from these socio-economic conditions and/or to reduce their severity, individuals opt to start informal businesses which can be in the form of survivalist enterprises, that become a buffer, providing families with an alternative source of income. Survivalist entrepreneurs are forced into business for survival due to an inability to find a job and increasing poverty levels, while operating in the informal sector of the economy. In theory, the South African government does recognise the existence of survivalist entrepreneurs, who are categorised as part of the micro-entrepreneurs amongst the small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMMEs). However, in practice, there is no evidence of the theoretical support being given. The study was a qualitative and quantitative, exploratory multiple case study. The case study was conducted as a first phase, with 100 participants. The second phase of the study entailed a review of secondary documentation (policies and procedures) provided by finance development institutions (FDIs). The third phase of the study entailed interviews with the FDIs. The study unpacked obstacles experienced by the survivalist entrepreneurs and further investigated the means of assisting them to become viable in their business activities. A conceptual framework on the existence of the survivalist entrepreneur was formulated using both theoretical and empirical results from the study. Changing global economic conditions were the underlying causes which lead to factors that directly or indirectly lead to the development of survivalist enterprises. These included a shrinking formal economy, increasing poverty rates, which directly increased dependency on the government for support. Government policies have also contributed in pushing people into survivalist entrepreneurship. These factors are referred to as the immediate causes that pushed individuals into survivalist entrepreneurship. The study indicated the common motivational factors amongst survivalist entrepreneurs to be avoidance of poverty and unemployment. The need for independence and recognition of an vi opportunity were categorised as pull factors. Regulations and laws by the South African government was a common obstacle that inhibited the growth of the survivalist businesses into an opportunity-driven business. Lack of finance and inadequate training were also mentioned as obstacles that inhibited the evolvement of the survivalist businesses which participated in the study. However, lack of recognition and lack of support by the South African government were found to be of greater concern to survivalist entrepreneurs. The study also highlighted similarities and contrasts between literature and empirical findings in relation to the survivalist entrepreneurs, thus suggesting the evolvement of characteristics with the passing of time. In conclusion, a support framework to assist the survivalist entrepreneurs to become viable in their business activities by becoming opportunity-driven was created.