The importance and effectiveness of corporate governance at a higher tertiary institution, UKZN.

Master of Business Administration. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville 2015.The main aims of this descriptive research study to establish whether the institution is properly governed and controlled. The study adopted a quantitative approach conducted among 100 support staff employees at various levels of management, this was done using a self-administered questionnaires to achieve the following objectives: i. To assess the effectiveness and efficiency of corporate governance structures are at the university. ii. To ascertain whether the university has adequate policies and procedures to address issues relating to enterprise risk (that is, strategic; financial; operational; compliance and reputational). iii. To establish whether various levels of management have different preferences regarding effective and efficient corporate governance at the university. The study results discovered that 70% of support staff members at various levels of management confirmed that there is effective and efficient functioning of corporate governance at UKZN. The study discovered that 72% of support staff members at various levels of management agreed that the university has adequate policies and procedures to address issues relating to enterprise risk. The study revealed that the majority of respondents agreed (100%) with all statements which verified their general knowledge of corporate governance as well confirming that UKZN has been knowledgeable in the area of corporate governance compliance. In conclusion, a positive way in which participants welcomed the study made it easy to achieve the study objectives which were in itself able to address the study problem. The high outcomes on the fact that UKZN has effective and efficient corporate governance was able to provide the study with the opportunity to propose the model and the corporate governance structure that will assist the university in sustaining the current status of corporate governance. Shortfall and weaknesses provided by the study enabled the researcher to recommend actions for implementation by management. The study achieved its objectives.Appendices 2, 3 and 4 are only found in the digital version of thesis

Semantic technologies for the production and publication of open data in ACI - Automobile club d’Italia

Semantic technologies combine knowledge representation techniques with artificial intelligence in order to achieve a more effective management of enterprise knowledge bases, thanks to the separation of the conceptual level of the applications from the logical and physical ones, and to the automatic reasoning services they deploy for data access and control. In this context, Ontology-based Data Management (OBDM) [3] has consolidated itself as a paradigm for data integration and governance, based on a three-tier architecture: the ontology, the data sources, and the mappings, which declaratively link the ontology predicates to the data in the sources. In this talk1 we present a joint project by Sapienza University of Rome, the Automobile Club d’Italia (ACI), and OKKAM S.r.l.2, a spinoff of the University of Trento. The objectives of the project were the definition of an ontology of ACI’s Public Vehicle Register (PRA) and car tax domains, the development of an OBDM system to access the data through such ontology, and the creation of a web portal for the publication of ACI’s car parc data in Linked Open format

Building leadership and management capacity for Deans in South Africa higher education

A thesis submitted to the School of Education of the Faculty of Humanities in fulfilment for the degree Doctor of PhilosophyThe contemporary university is a postmodern, neo-liberal, competitive, boundary-less knowledge conglomerate, a far cry from its historical traditional classical and collegial roots. Although remaining true to its primary mission of research, teaching and community engagement, its organisational form has changed significantly, with concomitant implications for governance, leadership and management. Simply put, the traditional methods of governance, leadership and management as practised in universities nowadays have been surpassed by more corporate-like approaches, characterised by performativity requirements and measures, intent on a more efficient and effective generation and provision of knowledge, in a very challenging internal and external environment. As witnessed elsewhere, the emergence of the entrepreneurial university locally illustrates a shift to a more business-like management and operational model with its focus on increased market share, fierce competition and multiple income streams. Deanship in the contemporary university is complex and challenging. It is even more so in South African universities where balancing global and perhaps unique local environmental drivers are key. It appears that deans in local universities take up their positions without appropriate training, adequate prior executive experience or a clear understanding of the ambiguity and complexity of their roles, and that they are not coping. The evidence presented in this thesis points to inadequate preparation and inappropriate levels of support for deans in the universities participating in this study. It identifies the need for a more strategic, integrated approach to leadership development as a means of achieving success in their critical roles and enabling effective performance. This thesis advances an approach to leadership development for deans, grounded in their contextual realities, cognisant of individual capabilities and the provision of relevant opportunities for reflection and learning on the job. To this end it demonstrates that: (i) the global and local context of higher education has changed dramatically with its concomitant added levels of complexity; (ii) this environment has implications for the conception and practice of leadership and management in universities; (iii) institutional contexts determine leadership and management behaviour in South African universities; and (iv) this setting provides the backdrop for leadership development for deans in South Africa

WoundsWest: delivering comprehensive strategies to improve wound management in Western Australian Health Services

It is well known that prudent, supported, early discharge of patients back to their home environment facilitates recuperation, rehabilitation or palliation. Patients with wounds are no exception to this.The provision of effective ambulatory wound care is gaining increasing attention and importance worldwide as health services seek to provide efficient and effective services to growing numbers of patients with wounds, often under burgeoning fiscal constraints. The lack of, or poor utilisation of, evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and protocols for wound care and inequities in terms of access to resources, whether wound dressings or education, are causal factors leading to inconsistencies in the clinical management of wounds that contribute to less than optimal outcomes for patients with wounds.Health services and health managers' ability to strategically plan and rationalise wound management services is often further hindered by a lack of data on the epidemiology and potential burden of acute or chronic wounds within and on local or state health services. Furthermore, where there is an absence of clinical governance in relation to wounds, these wounds are not subject to the same scrutiny as other medical conditions and, therefore, opportunities to improve service delivery in relation to wound management are missed.This article describes a tripartite and multidimensional approach to providing West Australian public health services and employees with a sustainable system for the prediction, prevention and management of wounds. WoundsWest (WW), a partnership between WA Department of Health (WA Health), Silver Chain Nursing Association (Silver Chain) and Curtin University of Technology (Curtin University) is a novel, 6-year project and a first for Australia. WW aims to facilitate clinical governance of wounds within health services, enhance clinicians? knowledge, skill and competence in wound management, improve clinical outcomes for patients with wounds and increase health services' ability to decrease the burden of wounds in Western Australian public hospitals.In order to achieve these aims, WW established a number of subprojects to ascertain the prevalence of wounds within WA public hospitals, improve access to educational resources for wounds, improve access to expertise in wound management and provide a repository for wound-related data for the purpose of ongoing research

Trust, confidence, and equity affect the legitimacy of natural resource governance

ArticleSocial-ecological systems are often highly complex, making effective governance a considerable challenge. In large, heterogeneous systems, hierarchical institutional regimes may be efficient, but effective management outcomes are dependent on stakeholder support. This support is shaped by perceptions of legitimacy, which risks being undermined where resource users are not engaged in decision-making. Although legitimacy is demonstrably critical for effective governance, less is known about the factors contributing to stakeholders’ perceptions of legitimacy or how these perceptions are socially differentiated. We quantitatively assessed stakeholder perceptions of legitimacy (indicated by support for rules) and their contributory factors among 307 commercial fishers and tourism operators in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Legitimacy was most strongly associated with trust in information from governing bodies, followed by confidence in institutional performance and the equity of management outcomes. Legitimacy differed both within and among resource user groups, which emphasizes the heterogeneous nature of commonly defined stakeholder groups. Overall, tourism operators perceived higher legitimacy than did commercial fishers, which was associated with higher trust in information from management agencies. For fishers, higher levels of trust were associated with: (1) engagement in fisheries that had high subsector cohesion and positive previous experiences of interactions with governing bodies; (2) location in areas with greater proximity to sources of knowledge, resources, and decision-making; and (3) engagement in a Reef Guardian program. These findings highlight the necessity of strategies and processes to build trust among all user groups in large social-ecological systems such as the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Furthermore, the social differentiation of perceptions that were observed within user groups underscores the importance of targeted strategies to engage groups that may not be heard through traditional governance channels.The Social and Ecological Long Term Monitoring Program (SELTMP) for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park was established in 2011 with funding provided by the Australian Government under the National Environment Research Program (NERP). We thank the SELTMP team for their support and collaboration. We also sincerely thank the commercial fishers and tourism operators that were part of this research and the interviewers that were involved. The arguments presented here are the sole responsibility of the authors. This paper was developed in a workshop funded by the Julius Career Award, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), and the Environment and Sustainability theme of the University of Exeter’s Humanities and Social Science Strategy. The authors acknowledge additional support from the University of Exeter’s Outward Mobility Fund (R. T.), the Australian Research Council (T. M., A. A., B. J. B.), CSIRO (J. A.), and AusAID (A. A.)

Improving Social Resilience in Response to Climate Change in Far North Queensland and Torres Strait

Currently, most approaches to decision-making in response to climate change have been based on biophysical knowledge, even though climate change is an inherently social dilemma. Social resilience involves communities’ ability to mitigate and prepare for the effects of climate change and recover to an improved state. Professor Allan Dale and his colleagues at the Cairns Institute at James Cook University developed a framework for social resilience based on four attributes: (1) Economic Viability, (2) Community Knowledge, Aspirations, and Capacity, (3) Community Vitality, and (4) Governance. They are using this framework to evaluate and monitor Far North Queensland and Torres Strait (FNQ&TS). Regional decision-makers use the profiles created for each subregion to prioritise and develop strategies to improve each attribute. The first goal of my research was to update and refine the most recent social resilience profile for the Northern Gulf, a subregion of FNQ&TS. I created a table with new evidence, conclusions, and suggested changes in assigned ratings for each sub-attribute of the framework. I analyzed available literature, reports, and media and conducted three interviews. I found a slight decrease in all attributes except Governance, which has improved due to increased connectivity between regional institutions and organizations. I then identified strategies and adaptations to improve social resilience, such as educational and skill-building opportunities, research into potential sustainable farming and pastoral practices, adoption of the precautionary principle, increased service accessibility, and collaborative governance arrangements. My findings support the prioritization of improved natural disaster management in FNQ&S as a whole. Current funding arrangements over-invest in recovery and under-invest in mitigation. The Productivity Commission recently released a draft report on Australia’s natural disaster funding arrangements. The second goal of my project was to write a policy paper that will be used in negotiations regarding natural disaster funding arrangements. I conducted content analysis of relevant documents and three interviews. The common concerns with the current arrangements and the Commission’s recommendations include inefficient processes, lack of financial support and underinvestment in mitigation. Common goals include community engagement and awareness, support for local business, and effective governance. I used this information to outline a policy agenda of social, economic, and environmental adaptations. However, it is vital that there is an effective system of trilateral governance to support these strategies and adaptations, which will necessarily improve the social resilience of FNQ&TS

Effective risk governance for environmental policy making: a knowledge management perspective

Effective risk management within environmental policy making requires knowledge on natural, economic and social systems to be integrated; knowledge characterised by complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity. We describe a case study in a (UK) central government department exploring how risk governance supports and hinders this challenging integration of knowledge. Forty-five semi-structured interviews were completed over a two year period. We found that lateral knowledge transfer between teams working on different policy areas was widely viewed as a key source of knowledge. However, the process of lateral knowledge transfer was predominantly informal and unsupported by risk governance structures. We argue this made decision quality vulnerable to a loss of knowledge through staff turnover, and time and resource pressures. Our conclusion is that the predominant form of risk governance framework, with its focus on centralised decision-making and vertical knowledge transfer is insufficient to support risk-based, environmental policy making. We discuss how risk governance can better support environmental policy makers through systematic knowledge management practices

Khemah mangsa banjir patuh syariah

Kebelakangan ini semakin kerap bencana banjir yang melanda negara Malaysia. Bencana banjir yang berlaku ini, sama ada daripada tindakan manusia yang tidak bertanggungjawab mahupun faktor iklim, kedua-duanya membawa kepada akibat yang besar kepada sesebuah masyarakat. Keadaan semakin buruk dengan fenomena La Nina yang menyebabkan hujan lebat selain musim tengkujuh yang sering berlaku di bahagian pantai timur negara [1]. Penduduk yang berada di negeri-negeri yang mengalami banjir mengalami masalah yang sama. Tinggal di dalam khemah mangsa banjir sudah menjadi lumrah bagi mereka di sesetangah kawasan yang mengalami banjir yang teruk. Projek ini bertujuan membina sebuah khemah khususnya bagi penempatan mangsa banjir yang melanda negara. Projek yang dijalankan ini merujuk kepada segala permasalahan yang wujud di kalangan mangsa–manga banjir sendiri. Kumpulan sasaran adalah mangsa banjir yang berada di negeri yang sering mengalami banjir seperti di Kelantan, Terengganu, Johor dan Pahang. Objektif projek Khemah patuh Syariah ini adalah untuk membantu para mangsa dalam memberi satu keselesaan khususnya bagi mereka yang berkeluarga dan para wanita. Keselesaan yang dimaksudkan adalah fleksibiliti untuk menunaikan solat, mengambil wudhuk dan menukar pakaian. Projek ini diinovasi daripada khemah IM4U (1Malaysia For Youth) milik kerajaan yang telah digunakan bagi penempatan sementara mangsa banjir di Malaysia. Data-data dianalisis dan dipersembahkan dalam bentuk jadual. Melalui borang kajian yang diedarkan serta selepas dikaji secara teliti didapati bahawa masih ada kekurangan yang perlu dititikberatkan demi memberi keselesaan yang sepatutnya kepada mangsa banjir ini

Design Matters : CBNRM and Democratic Innovation

Community-based natural resource management (CBRNM) aims to realize sustainable management of resources and improvements in livelihood. A central focus is the empowerment of indigenous and local communities through customary or devolved rights to common pool resources. Less attention is given to the extent to which inclusive forms of governance are realized in CBNRM. Democratic innovations are institutions designed explicitly to increase and deepen citizen participation in political decision-making. A number of exemplary cases around the world provide evidence that it is possible to empower citizens in ways that are inclusive and achieve desirable outcomes such as redistribution, recognition of marginalized groups, and improved livelihoods. By clarifying elements of the design of democratic innovations - in particular goods, tasks, mechanisms, and co-design - it is possible to understand how effective forms of participatory governance can be crafted. With careful attention to the endogenous practices of indigenous and local communities and the governance structures imposed by public authorities, CBNRM practitioners can draw on these elements of democratic design to craft forms of inclusive participatory governance that promote sustainable management of resources and improve livelihoods. A program of collaboration between CBNRM and democratic innovations practitioners will contribute to improvements amongst both communities of practice and the communities they serve

Gender Justice and Climate Justice: Community-based strategies to increase women’s political agency in watershed management in times of climate change

Socially vulnerable people, and women in particular, are disproportionately affected by global climate change because of their gendered socioeconomic roles and often their geographic location; yet they are least equipped to deal with those impacts due to their disadvantaged economic and political position. Women, however, have special contributions to make towards climate change adaptation because of gendered differences in positional knowledge of ecological and water-related conditions. To date, women have been largely underrepresented, and in the majority of cases, excluded from formal decision-making processes related to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Including women in these processes and building their capacity and resilience is required for the development of effective and gender-sensitive climate change adaptation policy. Also, preparing women for the short and long-term impacts of climate change is crucial for addressing some of the social aspects of this phenomenon and for preventing further aggravation of existing gender inequalities. This paper discusses South-North initiatives and models for community-based environmental and climate change education which are using the democratic opening provided by watershed-based governance structures to broaden grassroots participation, especially of women, in political processes. We outline the activities and results of two international projects, the Sister Watersheds project, with Brazilian and Canadian partners (2002-2008), and a Climate Change Adaptation in Africa project with partners in Canada, Kenya, Mozambique, and South Africa (2010-2013)