Orientation: The research addressed the issue of leadership response to xenophobia in South Africa that has a unique characteristic of being ‘black on black’.Research purpose: The research purpose was to assess the dynamics informing xenophobia in South Africa, leadership responses and systemic lessons thereon.Motivation for the study: The first black president, the late Nelson Mandela, put in place a Constitution that has an intent to protect all stakeholders in a non-racist, non-sexist and without discrimination based on colour or creed. This pleasantness and warm welcome attracted a large influx of immigrants from across the continent and South Asia who come as international students, skilled professionals and economic refugees. This migratory pattern has led to protracted conflict between immigrants from Africa and indigenous black South Africans.Research design, approach and method: A qualitative, exploratory research that drew data from the semi-structured interviews was carried out. Seven participants were purposefully sampled based on their involvement with the xenophobic affairs in their line of work. Content analysis augmented the primary data.Main findings: The findings of this research showed that xenophobia is a consequence of the socio-economic environment in South Africa and that the leadership response shaped the public opinion on the phenomenon.Practical/managerial implications: The research informed all South Africans, policy-makers and leadership in government on the consequences of xenophobia on the growth and image of the country.Contribution/value-add: This article contributed to the current efforts by leadership in both government and civil society towards addressing the socio-economic issues that fuel xenophobia.
Background: Despite the prevalence of business incubators as platforms through which new ventures can be technically and financially supported, there is controversy on the extent to which a one-size-fits-all approach to business incubator support can be applied to all emerging or existing small and medium enterprises (SMEs).Aim: To explore the value addition and role of business incubators to assist entrepreneurs to grow their businesses to enable them to become entrepreneurial leaders.Setting: State of SMEs; Business incubators; the development of entrepreneurs in South Africa.Method: A literature survey regarding the nature of business incubators was conducted, making use of a convenience sample comprising a pre-published list of 58 business incubators.Results: Business incubators see themselves in a position of strength and are not in a true partnership with the incubatee. Most business incubators only support Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment candidates, ignoring the needs and value-add of a diverse SME population. Findings highlighted the conflicting information about the state of SMEs in South Africa, thereby calling for policies to clearly and uniformly report reliable statistics on the status of SMEs to enable more focussed support for SMEs.Conclusions: Business incubators must clearly conceptualise their own business operating model and articulate their value-add to prospective emerging entrepreneurs. Post COVID-19 it is essential to fast tract the sustainability of SMEs and role clarification and differentiating are two important factors that need to be taken into consideration by both business incubators and entrepreneurs to ensure focussed support and allocation of public and private funding.
Orientation: While there is considerable literature on the definition and impact of authentic leadership (AL), there is a research gap regarding the effectiveness of AL programmes.Research purpose: The focus of this article is on the proximal programme effect of an AL development programme on executive leaders within a period of 3 months.Motivation for the study: AL has been identified not only as the root construct of positive forms of leadership but also equates to the highest level of leadership effectiveness. Leadership authenticity can take a life time to develop, and organisations need positive and ethical leadership now. An appropriate AL programme could considerably shorten the development period of a such leadershipResearch design, approach and method: A longitudinal qualitative programme evaluation approach was used. The participants comprised a primary group of a 10-member executive leadership team who were the AL programme participants and their respective secondary (senior, peer and subordinate) participants who provided pre- and post-programme data on the leadership authenticity of the primary participants.Main findings: The outline of the AL programme is presented with an indication of how it adhered to specific guidelines offered for development of such programmes. Findings indicate that the programme had a proximal effect of increasing AL; starting with the development of personal followed by interpersonal and professional leadership.Practical/managerial implications: An appropriate and effective AL programme could thus considerably shorten the development period of such leadership.
Background: Current pressures for globalisation force organisations to explore, create and implement new ideas in order to remain competitive. This necessitates the need to utilise innovation to diversify products and services, introduce new technology, establish new managerial and administrative practices, and initiate transformation in other areas of the organisation.Objectives: This article explored the relationship between the latent variables, namely, rewards, resources, leadership vision and innovation, as postulated by De Jong and Den Hartog's leadership model for stimulating innovation. Method:The research approach chosen to investigate the research questions was an ex post facto, cross-sectional field survey. Secondary data from a reputable financial institution with extensive business in three African countries (Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia) were used as the data were collected by the institution and made available to the researcher for further analysis. A complete sample size of N = 584 was obtained across the three countries. Confirmatory factor analysis was initially used to provide a confirmatory test of the measurement theory followed by structural equation modelling which allowed to test for regression amongst the latent variables (rewards, resources, leadership vision and innovation).Results: Structural equation modelling revealed that only leadership vision and resources were found to be statistically significant; rewards showed a negative relationship (r = −0.02) with innovation. Resources made the greater contribution (r = 0.75) to innovation, compared to leadership vision (r = 0.28). Conclusion:The study empirically validate and support the assertion of De Jong and Den Hartog (2007) that the latent variables resources and leadership vision positively correlate with innovation in the context of the financial services industry.
This paper acknowledges that Generation Y (Gen-Yers), who have grown up in a world of convenience and easy access to information, are more complex to lead and to understand than generations before them. Gen-Yers have entered the labour market at a time when the current labour force is aging in the world and in South Africa. Gen-Yers are working with forty to sixty-year-olds and in some cases supervising employees old enough to be their parents. If unhappy with work circumstances Gen-Yers change careers fast, thus creating frustration for employers struggling to retain and recruit talented high-performers. According to the report for the Future of Small Business Management (2007) issued by the Institute for the Future (IFTF) based in California which has forecasted emerging trends affecting the global marketplace for 40 years, Gen-Yers, will emerge as the most entrepreneurial generation ever in the next decade. These highly independent individuals will rather be small business owners or freelancers and will choose not to work for large corporations. What are the leadership challenges facing South African companies when they engage with Gen-Yers? Firstly, this paper explores the concept Gen-Yers, as discussed in the theory. Secondly the paper further explores possible conflicting areas between current leadership practices and Gen-Yers. The paper concludes by supporting the value that Gen-Yers can bring to companies and suggests some practices that can be adopted by leadership to engage and motivate them and at the same time ensure that their companies stay ahead of competitors by keeping Gen-Yers motivated to stay in their employment. A theoretical model is suggested for testing Gen-Yers tenure of employment relationship.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.