OpenUCT is the open access institutional repository of the University of Cape Town (UCT). It preserves and makes UCT scholarly outputs digitally and freely available, including theses and dissertations, journal articles, book chapters, technical and research reports, as well as open educational resources.
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Are Pro-Social Organisations at an Advantage When Seeking Talent? An Exploration of Future Graduates' Attraction Toward Living Wage Employers
(2026) Baron, Hunter; Meyer, Ines
The benefits of Living Wages, which is pay for work which is high enough to make it possible for its recipient and their family to live a humble but decent life, have been well documented in literature for those who receive them. The possible reputational benefits arising from organisations offering a wage floor at or above LW level have received less attention. This study sought to contribute empirical insights into one such potential benefit, namely a living wage employer's greater attractiveness among soon-to-be graduates. The research addressed to what extent graduate job applicants prefer to work for employers paying a LW by locating LWs as an aspect of Internal Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). To investigate this, choicebased methods were employed. In an online survey a sample of N = 125 university students indicated which of two organisations described in writing they would prefer to work for. In total, each participant received eight sets of organisational pairs based on a 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 attribute design matrix, thus providing eight choices. Alongside this, participants completed an equity sensitivity scale. The organisations differed in the degree to which they engaged in environmental and financial social responsibility (high or low engagement), whether they were a living wage employer or not, and in the salary they offered for the role (at living wage level or slightly higher). Conditional logit regressions were used to identify whether differing attributes and attribute levels significantly influenced organisational attraction. Drawing on CSR theory, signalling theory, and a perceptive organisational justice framework, it was hypothesised that potential future graduates would prefer to work for organisations known to engage in pro-social behaviours, and that individual difference factors such as preference for pay, equity sensitivity, and subject of study as a proxy of social domination orientation may affect this relationship. Results indicated that organisations offering living wages were significantly more attractive to prospective graduates than those that did not. Environmental CSR also positively influenced attractiveness, whereas economic CSR showed no significant effect. Organisations engaging in a broader range of CSR practices were perceived as more attractive overall, and the effect of living wage provision on attractiveness exceeded that of other CSR attributes. While base pay level significantly influenced organisational choice it did not attenuate the attraction effect of an organisational living wage policy. Neither differences in equity sensitivity, or academic discipline had a significant effect on participants choices. The results of the study suggest that the provision of an organisational living wage, may provide a significant improvement to organisational attractiveness for soon-to-be graduates in the South African context.
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Open Access
Preferential concept analysis: Extensions to formal concept analysis based on preferential reasoning
(2026) Carr, Lucas; Meyer, Thomas
Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) is a mathematical framework for representing and reasoning about data. Central to FCA is the construction of formal concepts, each consisting of a set of objects—the extension—and a set of attributes—the intension. These concepts are ordered by a natural sub-super concept relation, forming a lattice known as the concept lattice. A second key aspect of FCA is the discovery of attribute implications, which are statements of the form 𝑋 → 𝑌, expressing that all objects possessing the attributes 𝑋 necessarily possess the attributes 𝑌. However, attribute implications are strict, and cannot tolerate the existence of exceptions. In real-world data, such dependencies between attributes rarely hold universally, and instead tend to hold typically, admitting occasional counterexamples. The KLM framework, introduced by Kraus, Lehmann, and Magidor, provides an approach to defeasible reasoning in propositional logic, supporting the expression of defeasible conditional statements such as ‘typically, 𝑋 → 𝑌’. In this dissertation, we investigate how the ideas from the KLM framework may be reconstituted into the setting of FCA. We show that their faithful translation is indeed possible, and explore the questions that emerge from this new setting in particular, how defeasible reasoning within a context differs from its propositional counterpart. We also contribute a defeasible basis, which compresses the defeasible information of a context into a minimal, non-redundant set of rules from which all other defeasible rules may be derived. Finally, we explore how the introduction of defeasible reasoning gives rise to a notion of prototypicality for concepts in FCA. We define rational concepts as an initial formalisation of this prototypicality, and discuss how the definition leads to a breakdown of the natural conceptual hierarchy.
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Open Access
Repositioning the institutional Repository for the Advancement of Digital Scholarship at the University of Lagos, Nigeria
(2026) Ilonze, Theresa; Shongwe, Mzwandile
This study investigated the role of the repositioning of institutional repositories for the advancement of digital scholarship at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. This study aimed to critically examine the contribution of IRs to the visibility of digital content and assess their potential influence on researchers' and institutions' visibility at the University of Lagos (UNILAG). The theoretical and conceptual framework was used to explain and connect the terms. The study used a multiple-methods approach, including interviews and a questionnaire. A purposive sample was used to select library staff, and a random sample was drawn from 2048 postgraduate and academic students. From a population size of 2048, 608 was the minimum sample size recommended by the Raosoft sample size calculator for a 5% margin of error and 95% confidence level. For quantitative analysis, an online questionnaire was administered using Google Forms. Two questionnaires were formulated to obtain answers to the study objectives. Google Form (online) was used together with the face-to face questionnaire distribution were used and presented in tables while interviews from the library staff were recorded and data from interviews was transcribed into Microsoft Word. The findings from the questionnaires (PhDs, post-doctorates, and academics) revealed few significant insights into the extent of IR use, its perceived benefits, and its limitations within the academic community. The library staff who responded to the interview showed significantly positive insights. Overall, the findings suggest that UNILAG's IR has the potential to advance digital scholarship, improve research output, foster collaboration, and enhance institutional reputation; however, the realisation of these benefits requires targeted strategies to increase researcher engagement, awareness, and appreciation The study recommendations are based on the analysed data. One of the recommendations was to improve research visibility and global outreach, promote the IR as a strategic research tool, and enhance awareness and training among users
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Open Access
Student recruitment and relationship marketing - convergence or contortion
(2011) Beneke, J
This article investigates the intersection of student recruitment and relationship marketing in the public high education sector. They key objectives of this analysis are to understand if a strategic fit exists and whether South African institutions are indeed embracing the principles of relationship marketing in order to optimise their student recruitment programmes. Whilst the merits of building and developing student relationships over an extended timeframe are well documented in scholarly literature, the situation on the ground suggests that local institutions remain somewhat conservative in this respect. Despite success stories from a select number of private colleges, local institutions have tended to persist with tried-and-trusted recruitment techniques due to the logistical and financial resources in implementing a relationship-oriented strategy. In this respect, mass marketing and direct marketing techniques remain the order of the day, although relationship marketing is seen as a future platform should intensified competition necessitate a fundamental change in approach.
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Open Access
'Proper' attitudes without proper jobs? Popular support for welfare in Mogoditshane, Botswana, with comparative insights from Kamanga (Zambia) and Site C (South Africa)
(2026) Arthur, Winnifred; Seekings, JF
This dissertation offers a new account of welfare attitudes among the urban poor by examining how institutional context shapes popular support for redistribution. Using Mogoditshane, Botswana, as my primary case study, I draw comparative evidence from two secondary sites–Kamanga, Zambia, and Site C, South Africa—and ask: under what conditions do individuals support welfare, and how do different policy regimes shape these preferences? Theoretically, this study challenges the dominant focus on individual-level self-interest. I show that in high-unemployment settings, the household, and not just the individual, serves as a key site of interest formation. My study also advances a context-sensitive view of deservingness, demonstrating how institutional arrangements mediate which social units matter most in shaping welfare attitudes. Methodologically, I combine an original survey (N=817) with embedded experiments and qualitative fieldwork. Using systematic door-to-door sampling, I surveyed 427 respondents in Mogoditshane, 200 in Kamanga, and 190 in Site C. I construct a continuous index of welfare support and also classify respondents into three attitudinal profiles: consistently pro-welfare, consistently hostile, and ambivalent. The survey includes a deservingness vignette in all three sites, and, in Mogoditshane alone, a forced-choice conjoint experiment that varies the design features of a basic income grant (generosity, conditionality, and funding). These quantitative data are complemented by small-group discussions with participants in Botswana's workfare and public employment programs. My findings are twofold. First, consistent with comparative welfare state theory, support for redistribution is higher in more generous and institutionalized welfare regimes, and is strongly associated with subjective evaluations of poverty and income adequacy. Second, and more novel, is the role of household-level exposure. My findings show that co-residence with grant recipients produces a distinctive ambivalence toward welfare. Individuals who live in grant-receiving households (but do not receive grants themselves) are significantly more likely to express ambivalent (rather than supportive) attitudes than nonrecipients. This pattern emerges in the Mogoditshane sample and gains further support in the pooled comparative analysis, which strengthens its robustness across diverse institutional contexts. This finding suggests that household-level exposure to welfare programs creates a unique set of cross-pressures that shape political attitudes. Experimental and qualitative evidence corroborates this mechanism, highlighting how perceptions of deservingness interact with household formation patterns, kin obligations, and welfare regime type. Specifically, individuals support welfare under conditions of greater regime generosity and institutionalization. Different policy regimes influence preferences by activating different social units—the individual in some contexts, the household in others. The study concludes therefore that understanding welfare attitudes in contexts of high unemployment and uneven provision requires a multi-level view of self-interest. It moves beyond the narrow focus on the individual and shows how the household functions as a crucial site for interest formation. Comparative, multi-method approaches are thus essential to uncovering how institutional arrangements shape the contours of welfare legitimacy from below. My findings underscore the importance of adopting comparative frameworks that capture how contexts activate different social units, from the individual to the household, as drivers of public opinion.