Browsing by Author "April, Kurt"

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    A Conceptualisation of the self-perceptions of black professionals in relation to business leadership in South Africa
    (2021) Myeza, Angel; April, Kurt
    The research aimed to gain an understanding of the self-perceptions of black South African professionals (and leaders) in relation to business leadership and how these self-perceptions influenced their behaviours, aspirations and self-perceived abilities in leadership positions. The leadership behaviour of black leaders was found to be influenced by their upbringing, educational background, workplace experiences and the country's historical context. Leadership behaviours exhibited by black leaders included Ubuntu, difficulty with owning authority, deliberate bias in management behaviour across colour and a profound sense of shared responsibility toward other black professionals and black communities. Black professionals demonstrated signs of deep-rooted pain, fear, anger, isolation, pride, empathy and general emotional fatigue stemming from workplace, socio-economic and political triggers that evoked generational trauma and an overall negative black lived experience. The negative lived experience could have led to racial identity dissonance and in extreme cases, complete racial identity disassociation. On occasion, black professionals leveraged white relationships to propel their careers forward, however, this practice reportedly resulted in feelings of self-doubt. Self-doubt was shown to eventually lead to self-deselection, negatively impacting the aspirations and career advancement prospects of black professionals in organisational leadership. Career progression of black professionals was additionally impacted by 'multiple shades of black', which determined if the black professional could be 'authorised' as a leader. These 'shades' included aspects such as the 'twang', complexion, and for black women, even hair. Black professionals that were perceived to better resemble 'whiteness', achieved faster career progression. The research found that black leaders perceived that their blackness, specifically, its unique texture of experiences and history in South Africa, provided them with superior empathetic leadership capability towards black employees, although it severely diminished empathy towards white employees. Furthermore, black professionals considered their blackness to detract from their leadership capability, by reducing the odds of being authorised as a natural leader, enforcing a skewed self-perception of their leadership capabilities.
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    A framework for discretionary effort based on performance expectancies in integrated work environment
    (2011) Katoma, Victor; April, Kurt
    In an age of immense business competition, and far-reaching leadership requirements, Discretionary Effort is required as part of a value creation and enhanced performance strategy. Discretionary Effort is the unsolicited effort, which employees expend when certain work expectations are met. Traditionally, Expectancy, Valence and Instrumentality (VIE) have been the leading variables of this construct. Research has however, revealed that self-affirmation (A) adds another important dimension to the Discretionary Effort Framework (VIEA) (April & Katoma, 2008). This research investigated Discretionary Effort (the full VIEA) in an integrated work environment, using professional networks, consisting primarily of 1548 managers and specialists, who were either co-located or virtually located in different sectors. The survey instrument was divided into four parts, with the first and second parts measuring expectancies at individual and work level respectively. The third and fourth parts measured the degree of discretionary behavior of employees, and the extent to which organizations considered these relevant. The data were collected through faxes, emails, and online survey tools from employees attending leadership courses at the Business School. Results revealed that Discretionary Effort was not significantly different in clusters at the micro level of units of employees, but significantly different at the macro (sector) level - with service-oriented sectors, such as retail, scoring higher Discretionary Effort compared to product-oriented industries, such as engineering. Within the clusters or units, process-oriented influencer variables, such as experience, showed significant effects on the aforementioned Discretionary variables. Employees were also more generally concerned with higher levels of needs (social needs), as specified in Maslow's hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1968), partly due to interpersonal interrelations and knowledge-dependent professional networks. The most significant hypotheses included individual network learning, team sustainability, effort learning all at p<.001, while interpersonal performance and mutual reciprocity were at p<.10. Construct validity, using covariates, revealed an acceptable Discretionary Effort model fit of VIEA: χ = 102, df = 17, RMSEA = .0584, NFI = .95, CFI = .95 and GFI = .983.
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    A tale of two countries: adapting Chinese leadership styles to a South African context
    (2020) Zhou, Ying; April, Kurt
    The status of multinational organisations continues to expand, as global opportunities increase. In particular, Chinese manufacturing companies continue to grow and expand overseas. Given the fact that Chinese Paternalistic Leadership performed by Chinese managers is rooted in Chinese culture, that is different from that practised in other countries of the world. Cross-cultural acumen plays a vital role in leadership success or failure in globalizing organizations. Without cultural adaptation, Chinese managers would be less effective and efficient, when dealing with employees from other cultural backgrounds. Thus, there appears to be a need for the adaptation of Chinese leadership, in order to optimize the outcomes of leadership in the organization in various multicultural settings. This study posits a new research context for Chinese Paternalistic Leadership; and it attempts to explore the question of the leadership-adaptation challenges of Chinese managers, working in a South African Zulu cultural context. The study has used a mixed-methods research approach to collect the data, and for the analysis thereof. Quantitative data were collected by means of surveys from Chinese workers and South African Zulu workers, who were working in Chinese clothing factories – in order to compare their cultural values and perceptions of Chinese leadership behaviours. Qualitative data were collected by semistructured, in-depth interviews with Chinese managers, who were the leaders of Zulu subordinates, in order to investigate their cross-cultural experiences and perspectives. The results from the cultural-values survey data confirmed the distinct differences of cultural dimensions: Power Distance (PDI), Individualism (IDV), Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI), Masculinity (MAS) and Long-Term versus ShortTerm Orientation (LTO) between Chinese and Zulu people. Additionally, no significant difference between the two groups was found on Indulgence versus Restraint (IVR). When compared with Chinese people, the Zulu people hold the characteristics of being low in power distance, collectivism, feminism, high in uncertainty avoidance, short-term orientation, and restraint. On the perceived leadership behaviours scale, the differences between Chinese and Zulu people were shown in all the three dimensions of Chinese leadership behaviours. Compared with Chinese employees, Zulu employees perceived Chinese leadership behaviours as being high on authoritarian leadership behaviour, but low on benevolent and moral leadership behaviour. In addition, it was proved that culture caused different perceptions of authoritarian leadership behaviour in relation to power distance. In interviews, Chinese managers overwhelmingly indicated that the characteristics of Zulu employees were very different from those of Chinese employees. Meanwhile, the Chinese managers confessed that they were confronted with difficulties and challenges in South Africa, including communication barriers, legal constraints, and differences in collective relationships and work ethic. However, they recognised that they were in a different culture, and have identified the need to adjust their leadership behaviours. The participants suggested that they have made progress in establishing relationships, and in improving communication with the Zulu employees. Overall, this study concluded with a discussion of the various strategies for the adaptation of Chinese leadership styles concerning authority/decision-making, relationships and communication in authoritarian leadership styles, benevolent leadership styles, and moral leadership styles respectively. The outcomes of this study are expected to contribute to the theories of Chinese leadership, as well as to Chinese-management practices in South Africa. Nevertheless, future research is recommended, in order to validate the current results, and also to further explore various issues that are beyond the scope of this study.
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    An adaptive agent architecture for exogenous data sales forecasting
    (2006) Jedeikin, Jonathan; Potgieter, Anet; April, Kurt
    In a world of unpredictability and complexity, sales forecasting is becoming recognised as essential to operations planning in business and industry. With increased globalisation and higher competition, more products are being developed at more locations, but with shorter product lifecycles. As technology improves, more sophisticated sales forecasting systems are developed which require increasing complexity. We tum to adaptive agent architectures to consider an alternative approach for modelling complex sales forecasting systems. This research proposes modelling a sales forecasting system using an adaptive agent architecture. It additionally investigates the suitability of Bayesian networks as a sales forecasting technique. This is achieved through BaBe, an adaptive agent architecture which employs Bayesian networks as internal models. We develop a sales forecasting system for a meat wholesale company whose sales are largely affected by exogenous factors. The company's current sales forecasting approach is solely qualitative, and the nature of their sales is such that they would benefit from a reliable exogenous data sales forecasting system. We implement the system using BaBe, and incorporate a Bayesian network representing the causal relationships affecting sales. We introduce a learning adjustment component to adjust the estimated sales towards closer approximations. This is required as BaBe is currently unable to use continuous data, resulting in a loss of accuracy during discretisation. The learning adjustment additionally provides a feedback aspect, often found in adaptive agent architectures. The adjustment algorithm is based on the mean error calculation, commonly used as sales forecasting performance measures, but is extended to incorporate a number of exogenous variables. We test the system using the holdout procedure, with a 5-fold cross validation data-splitting approach, and contrast the accuracy of the estimated sales, provided by the system, with sales estimated using a regression approach. We additionally investigate the effectiveness of the learning adjustment component.
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    African workplace spirituality in South African mines
    (2009) Makgoba, Thabo Cecil; April, Kurt
    This research explores the role of spirituality in an African mining context with specific reference to spinal cord-injured mine workers. In this study, spinal cord-injured, black male South African workers were interviewed using a specifically constructed questionnaire. Their responses were analysed in conjunction with the perspectives of the mine managers, medical team members, indigenous healers, pastoral care workers and mine-managing directors (MDs) or owners. These perspectives were gathered by way of face-to-face interviews using specifically constructed questionnaires. However, some managing directors and medical specialists completed the questionnaire and sent it by post or fax. Many researchers have investigated the role of “workplace spirituality” with the aim of generating research data that would firmly entrench this construct as vital in the workplace. There are however, only a few that has investigated spirituality in the mining workplace. None has looked at the workplace spirituality of pastoral care workers. In this study, both are investigated, and a framework of workplace spirituality (WPS) is proposed, wherein the variables that may constitute workplace spirituality in this context are investigated. This framework (WPS) was used as a foundation to develop structured and semi-structured questionnaires, with which interviews were conducted with miners, mine managers, medical team members, indigenous healers, pastoral care workers and mine managing directors (MDs) or owners in various settings. In total, 224 miners were interviewed over a period of three years, and 45 pastoral care workers, 10 indigenous healers, 20 mine managers, 20 medical and allied professionals, and 12 mining CEOs/directors/owners were additionally interviewed. The variables that the researcher proposed to constitute the WPS framework were the following: * Spirituality at the workplace as connected with personal identity (CPI) * Spirituality at the workplace as connected with safety and well-being (WS) * Spirituality at the workplace as connected with physical well-being (CPW) * Spirituality at the workplace as connected with relationship to community- Ubuntu (CC) * Spirituality at the workplace as connected with God (religion) (CG) * Spirituality at the workplace as connected with meaning (locality and salience) (CM) Using the SPSS statistical package, and the qualitative analysis software tool Atlas ti, the research data was analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative results suggested that there is a positive relationship between the dependent variable, workplace spirituality, in relation to the following independent variables: workplace safety (weak but positive relationship, God (strong and positive relationship), salience (strong and positive relationship, community (strong and positive relationship), personal identity (moderate and positive relationship), meaning (weak and positive relationship), and physical well-being (strong and positive relationship). These results were further supported by the qualitative analysis.
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    An exploration of the impact of development intervention programmes on poverty: a case study
    (2004) Matemba, Lawrence; April, Kurt
    [page 139,140,166 are missing] Challenges that development intervention programmes face do not only pertain to poor programme design, implementation, management and evaluation, but more importantly the underlying mindset assumptions that inform them lack the necessary alignment with the local contextual mindset and worldview in which programmes themselves are undertaken. Put differently, development is not a purely economic, technological or political problem. Its success is frequently dependent on an understanding of the society in which it is to take place, knowledge of the social and cultural factors that condition the community's responsiveness to developmental change, and the ability to obtain willing cooperation of the beneficiaries involved (Amon, 1991). While existing development intervention programme designs and evaluation approaches have proved extremely powerful in explicating: (a) how programmes work (Asian Development Bank, 1998), (b) what impact they have (Barker, 2000), and (c) why they work as they do (Kruse, Kyllonen, Ojanpera, Riddell, and Vielajus, 1997), they are beginning to reveal the limits of their applicability, especially in rural and semi-rural settings. Less effort has been focused on the worldview and mindset assumptions that underlie the design and implementation of these programmes, especially their alignment with those of the community in which they are implemented. The aim of this dissertation was to explore and develop insights relating to development intervention programmes from a traditional and Western mindset, when directly transposed in a developing world context - thereby highlighting the gaps and inefficiencies of a non-contextualised approach. In particular, the underlying traditional mindset assumptions under consideration are analysed in their developmental and historical setting, problems are pointed out and opportunities are identified. In addition, high level goals are then identified and refined to address such problems and meet the opportunities. Requirements are then elaborated upon to meet these goals. While conducting this research, oral sources were an invaluable source of information. Conducting the interviews was both intellectually stimulating and academically challenging. The practical aspect of the interviews was fascinating and the relationship I developed with my interviewees during this period, most of whom I had known while doing pastoral work at St. Vincent's Catholic Parish between 1992 and 1993, and in 1996 will be cherished forever.
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    Bayesian participatory-based decision analysis : an evolutionary, adaptive formalism for integrated analysis of complex challenges to social-ecological system sustainability
    (2010) Peter, Camaren; April, Kurt; Potgieter, Anet
    This dissertation responds to the need for integration between researchers and decision-makers who are dealing with complex social-ecological system sustainability and decision-making challenges. To this end, we propose a new approach, called Bayesian Participatory-based Decision Analysis (BPDA), which makes use of graphical causal maps and Bayesian networks to facilitate integration at the appropriate scales and levels of descriptions. The BPDA approach is not a predictive approach, but rather, caters for a wide range of future scenarios in anticipation of the need to adapt to unforeseeable changes as they occur. We argue that the graphical causal models and Bayesian networks constitute an evolutionary, adaptive formalism for integrating research and decision-making for sustainable development. The approach was implemented in a number of different interdisciplinary case studies that were concerned with social-ecological system scale challenges and problems, culminating in a study where the approach was implemented with decision-makers in Government. This dissertation introduces the BPDA approach, and shows how the approach helps identify critical cross-scale and cross-sector linkages and sensitivities, and addresses critical requirements for understanding system resilience and adaptive capacity.
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    Compassion in organizations: sensemaking and embodied experience in emergent relational capability. A phenomenological study in South African human service organizations
    (2015) Train, Katherine Judith; April, Kurt
    Compassion in organizations is researched as a three-stage process of collective noticing another's pain, empathic concern or feeling another's pain and taking action to ease their suffering, and is ascribed to the orchestration of spontaneous individual acts of compassion in accordance with specific organizational architecture. Situations with limited resources leading to resource exhaustion require further studies to address the risks and liabilities of compassion organizing (Dutton, Worline, Frost, & Lilius, 2006). South African human service organizations face resource limitations within a challenged socio-economic environment. Given these limitations, agents may experience personal distress limiting the capacity for compassion. This study examines agent capacities required for compassion capability in South African human service organizations. The research applies the ontological lens of enaction, an interpretive design, and the descriptive phenomenological method in psychology (Giorgi, 2009), adapted for human science in organizations. Data was collected, with semi-structured interviews, as concrete descriptions of experiences, from thirty-three participants, from five organizations. Eleven participants underwent multiple interviews. Intensity sampling was applied to gain understanding of information-rich cases that were intense but not extreme, maximum variation sampling to access primary themes across a range of service providers. Texts, as transcriptions of audio recordings, were analyzed applying the phenomenological reduction to search for invariant organizational behavioural meanings. Texts were read for a sense of the whole; broken down to meaning units; and transformed to phenomenological expressions of meaning. Descriptions of experiences were categorized according to empathic concern or personal distress, like experiences were grouped by organization as units of description. Units of description were compared between the organizations. The key findings were that compassion in organizations characterized by resource limitation requires special attention, particularly when agent and client share common experiences of adversity, initiating experiences of personal distress. The overcoming of personal distress requires agent capacities of individual and participatory sensemaking: identifying reaction, identifying non-verbal cues in self and other; engaging capacities of emoting, intending and urging. Sustainable practice of compassion is characterized by the intention to facilitate new sensemaking of the experience of the suffering, witnessing the suffering as well as the alleviation of suffering.
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    Context-relevant strategic decision-making by leaders under crisis conditions
    (2025) Toefy, Rashid; April, Kurt
    In recent years, the field of crisis leadership has garnered increased scholarly attention due to the unparalleled challenges faced by leaders globally. The study investigated how leaders navigated crises such as natural disasters, pandemics, and geopolitical conflicts, and how their diverse contexts influenced their decision-making amidst uncertainty and change. The primary research question explored was: How do different contexts influence the strategic decision-making behaviours of leaders under crises conditions? The participants in this study, 16 female and 16 male senior leaders from 18 different countries around the world, were either the CEO or the executive head of a division within an organisation, both public and private sector, from a range of industries, who had led organisations during a crisis. Using an inductive, qualitative research approach, with data collected using semi-structures interviews, the research explored the lived experiences and personal journeys of the research participants, using Rational Choice Theory and Stakeholder Theory as its theoretical framework. The study aimed to expand upon four primary strands of existing literature: the nature of leadership in times of crisis; the strategic decision-making process and its context-dependency; the critical leadership behaviours that form the foundation of strategic decisions during crises and an analysis of the role of gender and diversity when leaders are faced with crisis conditions. The research transcended any single crisis event, instead examining the broader impact of various contexts on the strategic decision-making of leaders and did not restrict itself to the challenges faced by a single organisation, but rather explored larger-scale events that affected entire cities, countries, regions, or had global ramifications. This study contributes to the extant literature by exploring the nuances of leadership in crisis conditions, the importance of context, and the need for inclusive leadership, emphasising how times of crisis necessitate a balance of swift intuitive action and evidence-based decision-making, incorporating diverse perspectives. The thesis proposes a Crisis Decision-Making Framework, recognising the collective strength of sensemaking, intuitive decision-making, and context diversity in making robust strategic decisions in crisis conditions
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    High resolution techniques for the measurement of component and device performance
    (1996) April, Kurt; Bell, J F W
    This aim of this thesis was to conduct an investigation into the performance of components and devices, whilst focusing on specific parameters and characteristics, by making use of high precision measurement techniques and incorporating a PC-based data acquisition system. An accurate and versatile measurement-card, employing a 12-bit analogue-to-digital converter, was designed and developed. The card, which plugs directly into the I/O bus of any computer, has an accuracy of one least significant bit (approximately 0.02), which is remarkably better than most A/D cards available on the market at present. Executable software was written in Pascal and Turbo Vision to facilitate the proper operation of the card, and to provide a platform for the user to define certain parameters during experimentation. The measurement-card has been used, with success, during all of the investigative experiments conducted for this thesis. An experiment using a computer, the measurement-card, and a pressure/temperature unit, employing a MPXIOOAP pressure sensor and LM35 temperature sensor, was set up to act as a ''weather station" over short periods (minutes, hours) and long periods (days, weeks). Analogue device, viz., a barometer and thermometer, were used as control instruments in order to verify the readings taken.
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    Innovation team members: emotive outlook and profiles comparisons
    (2016) Swart, Christina; April, Kurt
    Continuous innovation provides competitive advantage to organisations. Teams are considered as a vehicle for achieving innovative objectives, provided that they implement projects successfully. Several studies reported requirements on what constitute the most suitable team composition to ensure innovation success. The question remained unanswered as to what could be considered to increase the possibility and probability of innovation implementation team success. It was evident from the literature review that solutions could be provided should such challenges be viewed from a multi-disciplinary perspective. The emphasis and impact of team members' emotions were emphasised as an additional insight into optimising success for implementing innovation projects. The theoretical framework guiding this study was the Emotional Style Theory of Davidson and Begley (2012). This affective neuro scientific theory was approached from an industrial psychologist point of view. This research introduced the concept of emotive outlook depicting six constructs namely: mental acuity, self/reality orientation, emotional fitness/change agility, emotional management(self), social sensitivity and sensitivity to context. The study's main contribution was examining and comparing the emotive outlook profiles and patterns of successful and unsuccessful innovation project implementation teams, within the financial services industry. Data was collected from an International Case (providing data from a multi-national company's operations in nine African countries) and a National Case (providing data from three Namibian Institutions). The total sample size was 169 participants. In this mixed methods convergent parallel design study, the quantitative results of certain assessments and the qualitative findings utilising semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were merged, at the interpretation stage. The purposes of complementarity, completeness, diversity and compensation were achieved when the results were merged. The major contributions of this study were the findings that successful innovation implementation teams were characterized by intra-psychological strengths and cognitive abilities. The research findings concluded a weak focus on interpersonal aspects and team dynamics. The strengths of teams were found to be a reflection of the individual team members' strengths (mental acuity, emotional self-management, self-awareness and emotional intelligence). This led to postulations regarding team dynamics for innovation implementation teams and the importance of separating these teams from, for example, the creative teams in the innovation process. The context which could contribute to the success of these teams was highlighted by the qualitative strand of this research. The knowledge contribution of this study was the prioritising of the emotive outlook constructs presented as a formula. From a scholarly point of view mixed methods research was presented as an exciting methodological choice addressing business challenges. Practice implications were presented on team as well as Innovation Sponsors/ Champions selection criteria and Generation Y. Importantly, interesting areas for possible future research considerations were opened by this study.
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    An inquiry into the nature of effective dialogue and discourse and peacebuilding through leadership
    (2016) Mwagiru, Nyambura; April, Kurt
    The research study and findings presented in this work underscore the necessity to design and develop effective strategies for inter-paradigm dialogue and discourse for peacebuilding. The study argues that adoption and application of appropriate dialogue strategies impact and engender the nurturing and emergence of a culture of leadership that can foster sustainable peace. Dialogue and discourse processes are considered as being intricately connected to processes of conflict transformation and resolution, and linkages of dialogue, peacebuilding and leadership are mirrored in macro- and micro- spaces of engagement, namely, much contested cultural, political and economic spaces in which myriad and diverse perspectives reside. The potential for peace, it is argued, substantially lies in the formulation and design of contextually-relevant frameworks for equitable and sustainable socio-economic development, and macro-micro intersections play themselves out in the dialogue field within which societies and individuals can seek and strive to anticipate, accommodate, attain and enact their life wisdoms into peaceful systems of co-existence. This view also speaks to the issue of how consensual and sustainable global and regional collaborative enterprise requires the parallel accompaniment of well-configured partnerships in support of cultural responsiveness and social cohesion. Through discussion of appropriate methodologies of dialogue and discourse, the identification and statement of objectives for this study, as well as the design, elaboration and configuration of its research framework, aimed to contribute towards furthering debate surrounding the integration of prevailing theoretical approaches, in order to gain a better understanding of the linkages and dynamics between peacebuilding initiatives, conflict resolution processes, and effective and sustainable leadership. Dialogue is adopted as the key component in the design of an effective model and architecture for peace building. The enquiry underscores emerging gaps that require addressing, and which may then highlight zones of ambiguity, or dialectics between action and practice, and between researcher and practitioner.
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    Intersectionality in corporate South Africa: the experiences of African black female leaders
    (2025) Mbatha, Siphiwe Wendy; April, Kurt
    Research on gender inequality focuses on the two main biases against women: (1) agentic deficiency (perceptions that women have minimal leadership potential); and (2) agentic penalty (a backlash against counter-stereotypical behaviour from certain women). There has generally been an assumption that the stereotypes upon which these biases are based are comparable for women across racial groups. South Africa, despite having significant racial and ethnic diversity, suffers from a lack of research that targets respondents by race and gender. This naïve gender-biased approach does not fully consider the critical intersectional differences that exist for women. In studies specific to South Africa, the lenses of both race and gender are often used to examine the perceptions of women as leaders. These views, which are limited to only gender and race, do not completely represent Black women, however, because gender intersections introduce simultaneous processes for identity and interdependent systems of disadvantage. These theories also do not elaborate on the lived experiences of South African Black women in corporate leadership roles. The researcher conducted a qualitative research study and interviewed 25 Black females who held various senior leadership positions in different industries in South Africa. The researcher applied a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to uncover the lived experiences of the group of respondents. The aim was to document their lived experiences and establish how those experiences related to constructs from existing literature on the leadership dynamics of race, gender, class, and intersectionality. The research findings capture the essence of the lived experiences of professional Black females and provide context as to why there continues to be a gap in the representation of this group in senior leadership positions, despite the efforts of affirmative action policies from the government. The findings highlight and demonstrate how this group is challenged and sometimes held back by the dynamics of intersectionality, class, race, gender, and other processes of identity. The research goes on to describe further research opportunities on how identity and interdependent systems of disadvantage impact Black female leadership performance over time. There is an opportunity to further explore how human resource policies and educational frameworks can contribute towards harnessing and developing this group, to increase their capacity and greater participation in senior- and executive-level roles.
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    Investigating the Impact of Formative Years in Developing Social Change Leaders: A Study Using Hermeneutic Phenomenology
    (2022) Ogutu, Moses Onyango; April, Kurt; Dharani, Babar
    Social change leaders address systemic inequities, aiming to create a just society through transformation. The existence of social change leaders has resulted in studies or models exploring social change leadership, including motivators or values that characterize leaders, such as common citizenship and concern for humanity. This study investigates the impact of formative years in developing social change leaders and the area of interest of social change leaders. Using hermeneutic phenomenology and qualitative interviews with social change leaders, the study found that formative years contribute to the development of social change leaders in two ways. First, one of the critical dimensions of formative years, socio-economic background growing up grounds social change leaders' understanding of their community, gradually changes their perception of and approach to leadership and teaches the principles of social change leadership (interconnection between individual values, group values, and societal values). Second, formative years influence the area of interest, or the social challenge addressed. The study also found that social change leaders address challenges they have faced, feel a sense of responsibility, and have a deep interest in the challenges they address. The findings suggest that: to understand social change leaders and their interest in social change work, we need to understand the existence of the challenges they are working to address and their lived experience with such challenges. Equally, to solve the systemic, endemic, and emerging social challenges, focus should be on developing leadership qualities in young adults or working with individuals and communities to address challenges facing them.
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    An investigation into the relationship between diversity, inclusion and performance : an empirical study in a corporate South African organisation
    (2010) Daya, Preeya; April, Kurt
    A combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies was used to answer the following three questions: 1) What is the effect of demographic variables on diversity and inclusion? 2) Is there a relationship between diversity, inclusion and performance in corporate workplaces? 3) What are the components that drive diversity and inclusion in a corporate workplace in South Africa? The research was conducted in a division of a multinational corporation in South Africa. The quantitative analysis was run using the InclusionIndex(R) survey to get a measurement of diversity and inclusion in the organisation. The qualitative methodology included semi-structured interviews and focus groups. Questions one and two were tested empirically using a combination of analysis of variance and structured equation modelling. Question three was answered using the consolidated findings of the quantitative and qualitative components of the InclusionIndex survey, the semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and insights from related literature.
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    Knowledge management and adding value through leadership development
    (2002) Bijura, Respicius Muberwa; April, Kurt
    Knowledge management (KM) is the subject of much literature, discussion, planning and some action. Effectively implementing a sound KM strategy and becoming a knowledge-based organisation are seen as mandatory conditions that want to be successful in the knowledge economy. Organizational leaders play critical roles in boosting the spirit of their followers in the world marked by rapid change. Leaders need to understand that rigorous knowledge management will determine the organisational survival of their organisations and they are therefore required to play positive roles in leading with knowledge.
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    Link prediction and link detection in sequences of large social networks using temporal and local metrics
    (2006) Cooke, Richard Jeremy Edwin; Potgieter, Anet; April, Kurt
    This dissertation builds upon the ideas introduced by Liben-Nowell and Kleinberg in The Link Prediction Problem for Social Networks [42]. Link prediction is the problem of predicting between which unconnected nodes in a graph a link will form next, based on the current structure of the graph.
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    Organizational lifecycle and happiness at work: investigating best-fit for employees based on their locus of control expectancy
    (2019) Dharani, Babar; April, Kurt
    Happiness at work is an umbrella concept including the constructs of: job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment and engagement. A major contributor to happiness at work is personorganization fit. Distinct organizational characteristics are identified in studies of organizational development, and concludes that organizations follow a set path of development ˗˗ the organization’s lifecycle. Regarding new departments to be like new organizations; the research investigated the position of the department in the organizational life cycle and level of happiness at work of the employees, conducted in 35 departments in one of the largest 10 accounting firms, in South Africa. Firstly, a questionnaire to assess the position of the department in the business life cycle was completed by the partners of the firm for each department. Following this, an abbreviated questionnaire to test locus of control, and constructs contributing to happiness at work, namely: job in general scale, Meyer’s affective organizational commitment, and abbreviated Utrecht work engagement scale of job engagement was completed by the employees in the departments. Data analysis entailed testing correlations of each construct using Spearman Rank Order Correlation and revealed a negative, statistically significant relationship between stage of development of the department and affective job commitment and job satisfaction at 5% level, and at 1% level significance for job engagement. Nonetheless, β values revealed a weak relationship. Investigating the relationship using hierarchical regression for locus of control as a moderator revealed enhanced predictability of the model concluding locus of control as a moderator to the relationship, but did not enhance the relationship β values to a strong level. Investigating the relationship further, the participants were split into 0-4 for internals, 4-7 for bi-locals, and 7-11 for externals. This revealed strengthened relationship for internals to a moderate level, at 5% significance, for job satisfaction and job engagement (driven by vigor), and to a strong level at 1% significance level between all constructs of happiness at work for externals. No relationship existed for any construct or components of happiness at work for those with a balanced locus of control. The above is explained by the fact that externals with their belief that their happiness is dependent on factors outside their personal control, either with: powerful others, chance or luck, fate, or attributed to complexity of the world, sensitive to the departmental characteristics to their happiness at work, such as proximity to leaders. The preference towards earlier stages in the organizational life cycle persists for internals, but is explained due to the fact that departments in early stages of development possibly allow them the chance for taking control, and provide reinforcements to their own actions. The resilience of a balanced locus of control is evident that showed no correlation between the position of the department in the organizational life cycle and happiness at work. This is supported by this research that subjective well-being measured through satisfaction with life scale is highest for those with a balanced locus of control expectancy, highlighting their ability to leverage strengths of both polar opposite expectancies to ensure happiness at work. 3 Exploring themes emerging using the open-ended enquiry in the survey from the respondents revealed antecedents for happiness at work which align well with current research on the enablers of job satisfaction. Separating the themes based on employees’ locus of control expectanciesreveal positive attitude of workload by internals, and higher importance of leadership for externals and internals than for those with a balanced locus of control expectancy. This is possibly explained by the fact that externals’ dependency on powerful others; thus, allowing their level of happiness to also be dictated by leaders. On the contrary, internals attributed to harness leadership qualities, also ranked leadership to great importance to their happiness at work, but expressed demands from the leaders. It appears that a balance of the two expectancies allows for a limitation to dependence on the leadership, and also a limit towards the demands from them, making it less important an enabler to their level of happiness at work. Similarly, the in respect of training and learning from the job, internals with lack of trust leading to an inability to benefit from others’ strengths, and difficulties working in groups and with other people due to possible narcissistic behaviour express their frustration of lack of training of others, while externals and bilocals draw a clear link between self-learning and their own happiness at work. In reference to career, the concerns raised relate to being placed in a department which does not fulfil the individual’s future aspirations. Due to the lack of proactivity associated with externals, the comments are only observed from employees with an internal or a balanced locus of control expectancy. Concerns about pay arose from internals and externals, but not from those with a balanced locus of control expectancy (Staw and Ross 1985). Once again, analysis of the responses reveals a difference in the nature of the concern by the two poles of the expectancy. The importance of pay as a response to the work is demanded by internals, while importance of pay to externals is for fulfilling their needs as demanded from a powerful other. Similar to pay, the attribution of happiness at work to one’s own personality is only noted from internals and externals. There are mild hints that internals allude towards higher self-esteem leading to a belief that higher pay is deserved, while externals appear to present it as learnt behaviour rather than a fundamental core belief or personality trait. The inductive study highlights that while the relationship between position of the department in the organizational life cycle and happiness at work is negatively correlated for both internals and externals, the reasonings for the preference towards departments in early stages of development differ greatly. In respect of the resilience of balanced locus of control expectancy, how this generalized expectancy exists (as a sum of situation specific expectancies) is challenged, along with linearity assumption of this core self-evaluation personality trait. This presents a challenge to existing understanding of the balanced locus of control expectancy requiring further research.
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    Relatability: the hidden force behind Black African youth employment disadvantage
    (2025) Mthembu, Sifiso Wiseman; April, Kurt
    South Africa has very high levels of youth unemployment by global standards. In addition, its youth labour market is characterised by high levels of racial inequalities which lead to marked disparities in employment access and outcomes based on race. Studies have revealed that Black African youth in South Africa are as much as five times more likely to be unemployed than their peers from other race groups, even after differences in observable human capital characteristics have been accounted for. This inductive qualitative study sought to engage with employers from corporates in the formal sector, employer federation representatives, youth work-readiness intermediary representatives and finally, unemployed Black African graduates and matriculants, with the aim of uncovering employer preferences, behaviours and decision-making processes that might account for the vast differences in the labour market prospects of youth to the detriment of Black Africans. Drawing from multi-disciplinary theoretical perspectives such as the race and ethnicity theory, institutional racism theory, labour market segmentation theory and a blend of perspectives focusing on social processes that underpin labour market inequalities, this study found that the Black African youth labour market disadvantage is an outcome of an interplay of macro-contextual structural factors, exclusionary economic and labour market design, intra-organisational processes and a racialised corporate power structure. From an employment decision-making perspective, the key finding of the study is that Relatability is the bedrock upon which Black African youth labour market exclusion rests. It is manifested through five key processes of Self-Presentation, Confidence, Bias, Choice and Affinity, which are underpinned by Unconscious Incompetence, Contextual Apathy, Limited Social Imaginary, Short-termism and Homophily. Structurally, it rests on and is enabled by White Intra-Organisational Power Dominance, a Culture of Selective Affirmation, and Unfettered Managerial Discretion.
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    A resource-based view of the firm : a path dependency investigation into the sources of sustainable competitive advantage : an empirical study of the University of Rhodesia, 1945-1980
    (2011) Mutowo, Maurice K; April, Kurt
    This study examined the development of the University of Rhodesia (UR) and identified a pattern that developed in a path dependent way. Path dependency captures the notion that choices, that are made when an institution is being formed, tend to have a continuing and lasting influence on the institution far into the future. It is the tendency for a step in one direction to encourage the next step to be in a similar direction, thus keeping the development of an organisation in the same path. Studies have criticised the resource-based view of the firm (RBV) and path dependency concepts as being under-theorised and under-served empirically. This study examined and clarified factors that were crucial in the emergence of UR, and helped to perpetuate its dominance over time.