HPGSB-Harold Pupkewitz Graduate School of Business
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Item Introducing BYOD in an organisation: The risk and customer services viewpoints. Paper presented at the 1st Namibia Customer Service Awards & Conference, 2014.(NUST, 2014) Mitrovic, Zoran; Veljkovic, Ivan; Whyte, Grafton; Thompson, KevinWith the recent technology advances and the rapid adoption of tablet computers and smartphones, it has become increasingly common for employees to use their own personal devices to perform various tasks in their work-place. This phenomenon is better known as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). This new concept is seen as twofold: as not that simple to handle and, at the same time, many organisations are quickly adopting BYOD as it has been shown that it offers many positive effects such as increased job satisfaction, employee morale, better productivity and consumer services. However, permitting employees to utilise their own device of preference in the work-place also brings some risks often associated with the loss of control over organisational data. Hence, this study set to determine and assess the risk of introducing BYOD in an ICT organisation. The Case Study approach elicited that the secure use of the BYOD requires the introduction of mixed measures: technical (e.g. Mobile Device Management - MDM) and non-technical (e.g. ICT or BYOD security policies). This study also explored the customer services view related to the BYOD initiative and suggests that use of this initiative can leverage services. The contribution of this study, aimed at practitioners and academics, is seen as threefold as it can help organisations to successfully manage the introduction of BYOD for employees and customers satisfaction, create and implement appropriate policies and also assist the individuals to learn about the risks related to the use of BYOD in an organisation.Item Local and international students' perception on service quality: A case study on a South African University. Paper presented at the 1st Namibia Customer Service Awards & Conference, 2014.(NUST, 2014) Naidoo, Vannie; Mensah, SamuelThe quality question has now been thrust to the fore in the academic market because students and their sponsors more rigorously shop around for quality of programmes and of modes of delivery. Universities, especially those that thrive on intake of foreign students, must therefore accommodate this trend in their academic and support services. This paper conceptualises service quality within a university environment, teases out the economics of service quality, and determines if there are differences in the way local and international students at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal perceive quality of academic and support services, using the SERVQUAL model for data collection and the Mann-Whitney test. Data was collected from a sample of 380 students drawn from all five campuses of the University. The Mann-Whitney test results indicate that there is no statistically significant difference in the Gap scores between local and international students on service quality at the 95% level; that expectations of foreign students on services provided by the international office were not met; and that students ranked the University’s services as “poor”. The management of the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal should therefore seriously consider the strategies recommended here for improvements in quality of academic and support services and in the institution’s ranking inside and outside South Africa.Item Implementation of major organisational change process in NamPower for improved customer service. Paper presented at the 1st Namibia Customer Service Awards & Conference, 2014(NUST, 2014) Mulele, Mable Mwangala; Mensah, SamuelReliable and affordable energy is vital for economic growth and development and, therefore, for improvements in wellbeing for all; but also for poverty alleviation, especially for the rural majority in Namibia. In this country NamPower is charged with generating, transmitting and trading energy, and therefore is critical to achieving the socio-economic aspirations of the country as presented in Vision 2030. For NamPower to deliver on the expectations above, the management of the organisation must move with time – as both production technology and demand for energy change rapidly – which would make planning and implementing organisational change an important component of NamPower’s management style. This paper attempts to identify the factors that must be taken into consideration for the implementation of major organisational change at NamPower to be successful. The study adopted a mixed research design, using both qualitative and quantitative data. Survey questionnaire (with both closed- and open-ended questions) was used in interviews with three categories of staff members of NamPower. Kotter’s (1995) eight-step change model provided the basis for many of the questions in the questionnaire. The answers to the closed-ended questions were captured in a 5-point Likert scale, which ranged from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’. The main findings of the study were that though the management of NamPower established the need for change through discussion, persuasion, and encouragement, presented a clear vision of where NamPower would be after change, and developed strategies to guide workers towards change, individual risk-taking, which contributes to making change successful, was not encouraged and the benefits that will accrue to workers from change were neither discussed nor even communicated. Also, though the reward system sometimes recognised individual initiative, effort and achievement, it was not seen by the majority to be fair because it did not often recognise rank. These clogs in the wheels of change need to be removed for NamPower to be an excellent service provider.Item Enforcing ethical practices in the public procurement process in Namibia: Impact on socio-economic objectives. Paper presented at the 1st Namibia Customer Service Awards & Conference, 2014.(NUST, 2014) Hamutenya, Fransiska; Mensah, SamuelDiscussions around the public procurement system in the local media have been largely negative. Many articles have revealed mismanagement in the system. The emphasis of these articles has been on the need to uphold transparency and accountability in the way public procurement is conducted in Namibia. The Namibian experience is that the tendering process seems transparent on the surface, especially in connection with the sending out of tender invitations. However, the process becomes less transparent during the awarding process, which has in some instances necessitated recourse to the courts. As a result of these course cases, it could be said that the Namibian community has reached a point where the weaknesses in the current public procurement system can no longer be ignored. This study sought to address some of the flaws in the public procurement system, by interviewing people who have some knowledge of the system. Findings of the study confirm that there are weaknesses in the current system which needs to be addressed. The results further show that the control mechanisms that have been put in place are seriously ineffective. After reviewing the control mechanisms in place, suggestions are made to strengthen them. In terms of socio-economic development, the findings indicate that the public procurement system could contribute to job creation and poverty reduction. The study also reveals that there is no comprehensive code of ethical conduct for Board Members and staff in the public procurement establishment. The researcher suggests that further research be conducted on areas that were not touched on in this study, such as the practice of exemptions, to evaluate the impact of exemptions on the image of the Tender Board, on the Secretariat, and on the tender process – in the context and spirit of anti-corruption.Item Tentative transition to market communications: Early television advertising in Kazakhstan.(Scientific Journals International, 2012) Thomas, Amos OwenWhile there has been considerable growth of commercial media such as in local, national and regional television in Kazakhstan, the reality is still one of oligopolistic competition with much political intervention. Utilising personal interviews with and secondary data from ad agencies, market research firms and mediaowners, this paper maps the early history and development of television and advertising industries in this Central Asian state. This research suggests that the tentative practice of advertising in this transitional economy resembles that of developing countries rather than emulation of the developed models upheld. Yet its challenges with account handling, media buying and creative services in Kazakhstan might hold lessons for other newcomers to the capitalist production system in its region. The author argues further that its practitioners and policy-makers could learn from the historic experience of developing, emergent and transitional economies worldwide.Item Emerging trends of higher education in developing countries.(University "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" Iasi, 2010) Ravinder, RenaQuality in Higher Education has become a primary agenda of the countries worldwide. In the context marked by expansion of higher education and globalization of economic activities, education has become a national concern in developing countries with an international dimension. To cope with this changing context, developing countries have been pressurized to ensure and assure quality of higher education at a nationally comparable and internationally acceptable standard. It is generally acknowledged that globalization has created tremendous impacts on higher education in this first decade of twenty-first century. Externally, there have been unprecedented changes both at global and national context. The benefits of globalisation accrue to the countries with highly skilled human capital and it is a curse for the developing countries in frica, Asia, Latin America and Caribbean without such specialised human capital. This paper delves the recent trends of higher education in developing countries. It addresses the various challenges of higher education in the developing countries in the context of 21st century. Besides, the paper examines the response of higher education to globalization in developing countries and discusses the major challenges that the globalization brought to higher education.Item Leveraging the competitiveness of Eritrean agriculture: A case study.(IJRCM, 2010) Ravinder, RenaAgriculture is the backbone of Eritrean economy. It provides employment to over 70 percent of the working population in the country. In good years the country produces only about 60 per cent of its total food needs and in poor years, it produces no more than 25 per cent. Annual crop production mainly depends on rainfall that is variable and unevenly distributed from year to year. Agriculturalists, economists and experts from different fields of studies have raised alarm on food crisis. This paper delves the Eritrean agricultural production, land and people. It throws a light on the Elabered Estate,a reputed agricultural estate since the Italian period. It examines the strategies and methods used by the Estate to increase agricultural yields. It discusses varieties of grains with greater resistance to disease and pests, together with the use of improved farm management techniques and chemical inputs, such as improved pesticides and fertilizers. The paper highlights the success story of the Estate being an important player or a model in Eritrean agriculture sector. The paper deals with the concerted efforts made by the Estate to go with the Global Competition. It also highlights some of the challenges of Eritrean agriculture sector and provides implications.Item Dubious trade and corporate connections: Moral imperative versus academic silence.(2010) Thomas, Amos OwenAdvocacy against the dark side of trade comes to us via investigative journalism by the mainstream news media, rather than the business media. Formal research on these dubious trades is lacking and what little is done is primarily by non-government organisations {NGOs) and intergovernmental organisations (IGOs), not academic institutions. Within academia, research on the phenomenon is published primarily by researchers from the humanities and social sciences, even the physical sciences, rather than those in business and management disciplines, with the possible exception of economists who have done some amoral research on the arms trade. Utilising limited secondary data on the extent of the trade and its consequences, this paper aims to make the case for why corporations cannot ignore such matters of global socio-economic justice.Item Franchising culture for Kazakhstan television: Producers' ambivalence and audiences' indifference.(Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, 2010) Thomas, Amos OwenAfter decades of state-owned broadcasting as part of the Soviet Union, the arrival of commercial television in Kazakhstan meant expanded entertainment programming for the masses. Adaptation of program formats and genre from abroad provided a quick-and-dirty solution to increased channels and broadcast hours, but little has been written about the challenges to program producers or about viewer opinion. Despite Kazakhstan producers and consumers being initially curious and toleranttowards the new cultural offerings, I found neither seemed fully receptive to the commercialization of television programming but somewhat resigned to the imperative. Yet this response might only last while there is an older generation that remembers Soviet days and holds to some of its cultural values. I argue that creation and reception of such commercial television programs may provide yet another site of cultural contestation in the post-Soviet age between a globalized Western, regional Russified, and a nationalistic Kazakhstan one. Thus my paper explores the hybridization of quasi-national culture in search of audiences. I conclude from my research that Kazakhstan’s commercial television needs to reserve space for the authentic expression of the multi-cultural nature of this society.Item Review of the book Communicating politics: Political communications in the Nordic countries edited by Jesper Strömback, Mark Orsten and Toril Aalberg.(Media International Australia, 2011) Thomas, Amos Owen