Orientation: Supporting agencies and small and micro enterprises in South Africa could be endowed with an integrated model that outlines the characterisation and patterns of strategic decision-making in the small and micro service sector that will assist in understanding and improving decision-making to enhance business sustainability and competitiveness.Research purpose: To assess the strategic decision-making process in small and micro service enterprises in South Africa.Motivation for the study: This study was motivated by the factors affecting small and micro enterprise sustainability which included deficiencies in the strategic decision-making process.Research design, approach and method: This study adopted a qualitative approach that captured the social realities of the decision-making process. The data collection techniques include semi-structured interviews of ten (10) respondents, four focus groups with five (5) respondents per group and five (5) businesses chosen for observation. Content analysis was used to analyse the data with the aid of NVIVO data analysis software. The data analysis software was used to organise data and identify themes.Main findings: The process of strategic decision-making is pivoted on the intuitive decision-making tendencies of the business owners which reveal iterative and concurrent characteristics.Practical/managerial implications: The effect of strategic decision-making is identified as a major challenge among small and micro enterprises leading to business failure. The implications of this research relate to identifying the most practical ways in which such decisions are formulated and devising mechanisms to enhance the decision-making process.Contribution/value-add: The pattern of strategic decision-making exhibited a greater tendency towards intuitive decision formulation as opposed to procedural rationality and that those businesses that attempted some form of methodological environmental scan as an influencing factor in the decision-making process adopted more of an assimilated approach in the intuitive-rational decision-making continuum rather than a completely procedural rational mode.
The study examined how effective forms of communication are, or could be, impacting themore traditional forms of emergency and disaster management communication throughthe print and electronic media and how an integrated communication strategy involving allstakeholders could prove to be successful. This study was of an exploratory and descriptivenature, using a case study of the South Durban basin to demonstrate how media analysis,community discussions and internal and external evaluations of current practices in use bymajor industrial players in the basin has thus far failed to reach its full potential for effectivedisaster risk reduction. Strongly emerging from this study was the finding that, as a resultof these evaluations, new systems are now being planned to incorporate social media as anintegral part of an overall communication strategy, which could have far-reaching implicationsfor corporate communicators and strategic planners.
In this study, we will examine the way in which CSR is conceptualised by various scholars along with the realities of its implementation on the ground in specific African countries. The key objectives of this paper are therefore; to extend the discussion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by providing insight into the effect that the level of economic development may have on CSR and the impact this may have on the practice of CSR amongst leading companies in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper will focus on discovering the similarities and differences in policies, procedures and practices in the region as a whole. In order to help shed some light on these issues, this article explores how leading companies report on CSR in five Sub-Saharan countries (Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya, and South Africa). Our analysis of company information reveals that opportunities are widely appreciated and that most companies report on their economic and social impacts. However, CSR reporting is fairly generic, and the specific context seems to bear only a limited influence on the type of CSR activities undertaken
The South African Higher Education system in the post-apartheid period had to respond to the various discriminatory practices that existed during the apartheid era. This entailed responding to inequalities in the education system at various levels. With respect to Higher Education there was an imperative to serve society that was based on the principles of equality, equity and inclusivity. One such response was to merge higher education institutions such as ML Sultan Technikon and Technikon Natal to form the Durban Institute of Technology now referred to as the Durban University of Technology (DUT). This paper is concerned with the process of change in the Higher Education context and examines a South African case study. The study was conducted within a quantitative paradigm and the sample population was 400 administrative and academic staff from across the seven campuses. In order to satisfy the research objectives of the study, a self-administered location based survey was distributed and data was analyzed using SPSS. The study revealed that living and coping with change in the work environment is a fact of life for organisations and individuals. The success of any change programme depends on the organisation’s ability to communicate effectively with its employees; therefore internal communication plays a pivotal role in any change programme.
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