Strategiese benadering tot die bestuur van die diensverhouding

Text in AfrikaansSummaries in Afrikaans and English'n Sentrale tema van strategiese bestuur is dat ondememings voortdurend moet pas by hulle snelveranderende eksteme omgewings. Die eksteme omgewing van SuidAfrikaanse ondememings ondergaan tans verreikende veranderings. Die sukses van hierdie ondememings word nie alleen bemvloed deur die kompeterendheid van 'n toenemend gemtemasionaliseerde markomgewing nie, maar veral ook deur die eise wat gestel word deur die nuwe politieke bestel in Suid-Afrika. Die Regering van Nasionale Eenheid is verbind tot die daarstelling van 'n mensgesentreerde gemeenskap. Nuwe arbeidswetgewing wat vakbonde bemagtig word in 1996 van krag en belangrike bestuursuitdagings wat verband hou met die "menslik:e dimensie" van ondernemingsbestuur spruit voort uit hierdie veranderende omgewing. Ten einde Suid-Afrikaanse ondememings onder hierdie omstandighede strategies te bestuur, moet strategiese bestuursbesluite geneem word oor die diensverhouding. Dit impliseer die behoefte aan 'n strategiese be adering tot menslik:ehulpbron- en arbeidsverhoudingebestuur binne ondememingsverband. In hierdie ondersoek word aspekte van algemene en strategiese bestuur toegepas op die "menslik:e dimensie" van ondememingsbestuur. Die fokus is op langtermynbesluite en -aksies insake beplanning, organisering, leiding en beheeruitoefening ten opsigte van aspekte wat verband hou met die diensverhouding. Die noodsaaklik:heid van vertikale en horisontale integrasie by die bestuur van die diensverhouding word beklemtoon. Laasgenoemde dui op die noodsaaklik:heid om die individuele en kollektiewe dimensies van diensverhoudingebestuur, oftewel menslik:ehulpbronen arbeidsverhoudingebestuur, te integreer. Vertikale integrasie verwys na menslik: ehulpbron- en arbeidsverhoudingebestuur wat 'n integrale deel van algemene bestuur behoort te wees. Die resultate van 'n tweeledige empiriese ondersoek word gemtegreer met 'n literatuurstudie om 'n bestuurswetenskaplik:e raamwerk daar te stel wat die proses van strategiese diensverhoudingebestuur konseptualiseer. 'n Matriks word ook ontwerp wat bestuursbesluitneming oor die inhoud van diensverhoudingestrategie kan fasiliteer. Gevolgtrekkings en aanbevelings word ook gemaak oor die praktyk van strategiese diensverhoudingebestuur by Telkom SA Bpk en by groot Suid-Afrikaanse mynbouen vervaardigingsondememings, sowel as oor navorsing en ond~rrig ten opsigte van hierdie onderwerp van Sakebestuur ( oftewel Bedryfsekonomie, Ondernemingsbestuur of Bestuurswese ).A central theme of strategic management is that organisations should constantly match or fit their fast-changing external environments. The external environment of South African organisations is currently undergoing far-reaching changes. The success of these organisations is not only influenced by the competitiveness of an increasingly internationalised market environment, but especially by the demands resulting from the new political dispensation in the country. The Government of National Unity is committed to establish a people-centred society. New labour legislation which empowers trade unions will be in force in 1996. Important challenges regarding the "human dimension" of management stem from this changing environment. In order to manage South African organisations strategically under these circumstances it is necessary to make strategic management decisions regarding the employment relationship. This implies the need for a strategic approach to human resource and labour relations management within organisational context. In this investigation aspects of general and strategic management are applied to the "human dimension" of management. The focus is on long-term decisions and actions regarding the planning, organising, leading and control of aspects relating to the employment relationship. The importance of vertical and horizontal integration in the management of the employment relationship is emphasised. The latter refers to the necessity of integrating the individual and collective dimensions of employment relations management, in other words the integration of human resource and labour relations management. Vertical integration relates to human resource and labour relations management which ought to be an integral part of general management. The results of a dual empirical investigation are integrated with a literature survey to devise a managerial framework that conceptualises the process of strategic employment relations management. A matrix is also devised that can facilitate management decision making regarding the content of employment relations strategy. Conclusions and recommendations are also made regarding strategic employment relations management practice at Telkom SA Ltd and large South African mining and manufacturing organisations, as well as regarding research and tuition mrespect of this topic of Business Management (or Business Economics).Economic and Management SciencesD.Com

South African human resource management for the public sector

This report discusses important themes in the field of human resource management for the public sector, including managing employee relations, strategizing and planning human resources departments, and selecting employees within the equal employment opportunity guidelines. Current legislation of the field is discussed and new theories on local and international applied research are explored

Outbreak of Marburg hemorrhagic fever among miners in Kamwenge and Ibanda Districts, Uganda, 2007

Marburg hemorrhagic fever was detected among 4 miners in Ibanda District, Uganda, from June through September, 2007. Infection was likely acquired through exposure to bats or bat secretions in a mine in Kamwenge District, Uganda, and possibly human-to-human transmission between some patients. We describe the epidemiologic investigation and the health education response

Risk Factors for Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever, Democratic Republic of the Congo

We conducted two antibody surveys to assess risk factors for Marburg hemorrhagic fever in an area of confirmed Marburg virus transmission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Questionnaires were administered and serum samples tested for Marburg-specific antibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Fifteen (2%) of 912 participants in a general village cross-sectional antibody survey were positive for Marburg immunoglobulin G antibody. Thirteen (87%) of these 15 were men who worked in the local gold mines. Working as a miner (odds ratio [OR] 13.9, 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.1 to 62.1) and receiving injections (OR 7.4, 95% CI 1.6 to 33.2) were associated with a positive antibody result. All 103 participants in a targeted antibody survey of healthcare workers were antibody negative. Primary transmission of Marburg virus to humans likely occurred via exposure to a still unidentified reservoir in the local mines. Secondary transmission appears to be less common with Marburg virus than with Ebola virus, the other known filovirus

Yield gap analyses to estimate attainable bovine milk yields and evaluate options to increase production in Ethiopia and India

Livestock provides an important source of income and nourishment for around one billion rural households worldwide. Demand for livestock food products is increasing, especially in developing countries, and there are opportunities to increase production to meet local demand and increase farm incomes. Estimating the scale of livestock yield gaps and better understanding factors limiting current production will help to define the technological and investment needs in each livestock sector. The aim of this paper is to quantify livestock yield gaps and evaluate opportunities to increase dairy production in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, using case studies from Ethiopia and India. We combined three different methods in our approach. Benchmarking and a frontier analysis were used to estimate attainable milk yields based on survey data. Household modelling was then used to simulate the effects of various interventions on dairy production and income. We tested interventions based on improved livestock nutrition and genetics in the extensive lowland grazing zone and highland mixed crop-livestock zones of Ethiopia, and the intensive irrigated and rainfed zones of India. Our analyses indicate that there are considerable yield gaps for dairy production in both countries, and opportunities to increase production using the interventions tested. In some cases, combined interventions could increase production past currently attainable livestock yields

Ecological Thresholds in the Savanna Landscape: Developing a Protocol for Monitoring the Change in Composition and Utilisation of Large Trees

BACKGROUND: Acquiring greater understanding of the factors causing changes in vegetation structure -- particularly with the potential to cause regime shifts -- is important in adaptively managed conservation areas. Large trees (> or =5 m in height) play an important ecosystem function, and are associated with a stable ecological state in the African savanna. There is concern that large tree densities are declining in a number of protected areas, including the Kruger National Park, South Africa. In this paper the results of a field study designed to monitor change in a savanna system are presented and discussed. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Developing the first phase of a monitoring protocol to measure the change in tree species composition, density and size distribution, whilst also identifying factors driving change. A central issue is the discrete spatial distribution of large trees in the landscape, making point sampling approaches relatively ineffective. Accordingly, fourteen 10 m wide transects were aligned perpendicular to large rivers (3.0-6.6 km in length) and eight transects were located at fixed-point photographic locations (1.0-1.6 km in length). Using accumulation curves, we established that the majority of tree species were sampled within 3 km. Furthermore, the key ecological drivers (e.g. fire, herbivory, drought and disease) which influence large tree use and impact were also recorded within 3 km. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The technique presented provides an effective method for monitoring changes in large tree abundance, size distribution and use by the main ecological drivers across the savanna landscape. However, the monitoring of rare tree species would require individual marking approaches due to their low densities and specific habitat requirements. Repeat sampling intervals would vary depending on the factor of concern and proposed management mitigation. Once a monitoring protocol has been identified and evaluated, the next stage is to integrate that protocol into a decision-making system, which highlights potential leading indicators of change. Frequent monitoring would be required to establish the rate and direction of change. This approach may be useful in generating monitoring protocols for other dynamic systems

Evenness mediates the global relationship between forest productivity and richness

1. Biodiversity is an important component of natural ecosystems, with higher species richness often correlating with an increase in ecosystem productivity. Yet, this relationship varies substantially across environments, typically becoming less pronounced at high levels of species richness. However, species richness alone cannot reflect all important properties of a community, including community evenness, which may mediate the relationship between biodiversity and productivity. If the evenness of a community correlates negatively with richness across forests globally, then a greater number of species may not always increase overall diversity and productivity of the system. Theoretical work and local empirical studies have shown that the effect of evenness on ecosystem functioning may be especially strong at high richness levels, yet the consistency of this remains untested at a global scale. 2. Here, we used a dataset of forests from across the globe, which includes composition, biomass accumulation and net primary productivity, to explore whether productivity correlates with community evenness and richness in a way that evenness appears to buffer the effect of richness. Specifically, we evaluated whether low levels of evenness in speciose communities correlate with the attenuation of the richness–productivity relationship. 3. We found that tree species richness and evenness are negatively correlated across forests globally, with highly speciose forests typically comprising a few dominant and many rare species. Furthermore, we found that the correlation between diversity and productivity changes with evenness: at low richness, uneven communities are more productive, while at high richness, even communities are more productive. 4. Synthesis. Collectively, these results demonstrate that evenness is an integral component of the relationship between biodiversity and productivity, and that the attenuating effect of richness on forest productivity might be partly explained by low evenness in speciose communities. Productivity generally increases with species richness, until reduced evenness limits the overall increases in community diversity. Our research suggests that evenness is a fundamental component of biodiversity–ecosystem function relationships, and is of critical importance for guiding conservation and sustainable ecosystem management decisions

Native diversity buffers against severity of non-native tree invasions

Determining the drivers of non-native plant invasions is critical for managing native ecosystems and limiting the spread of invasive species$^{1,2}$. Tree invasions in particular have been relatively overlooked, even though they have the potential to transform ecosystems and economies$^{3,4}$. Here, leveraging global tree databases$^{5,6,7}$, we explore how the phylogenetic and functional diversity of native tree communities, human pressure and the environment influence the establishment of non-native tree species and the subsequent invasion severity. We find that anthropogenic factors are key to predicting whether a location is invaded, but that invasion severity is underpinned by native diversity, with higher diversity predicting lower invasion severity. Temperature and precipitation emerge as strong predictors of invasion strategy, with non-native species invading successfully when they are similar to the native community in cold or dry extremes. Yet, despite the influence of these ecological forces in determining invasion strategy, we find evidence that these patterns can be obscured by human activity, with lower ecological signal in areas with higher proximity to shipping ports. Our global perspective of non-native tree invasion highlights that human drivers influence non-native tree presence, and that native phylogenetic and functional diversity have a critical role in the establishment and spread of subsequent invasions

The global biogeography of tree leaf form and habit

Understanding what controls global leaf type variation in trees is crucial for comprehending their role in terrestrial ecosystems, including carbon, water and nutrient dynamics. Yet our understanding of the factors influencing forest leaf types remains incomplete, leaving us uncertain about the global proportions of needle-leaved, broadleaved, evergreen and deciduous trees. To address these gaps, we conducted a global, ground-sourced assessment of forest leaf-type variation by integrating forest inventory data with comprehensive leaf form (broadleaf vs needle-leaf) and habit (evergreen vs deciduous) records. We found that global variation in leaf habit is primarily driven by isothermality and soil characteristics, while leaf form is predominantly driven by temperature. Given these relationships, we estimate that 38% of global tree individuals are needle-leaved evergreen, 29% are broadleaved evergreen, 27% are broadleaved deciduous and 5% are needle-leaved deciduous. The aboveground biomass distribution among these tree types is approximately 21% (126.4 Gt), 54% (335.7 Gt), 22% (136.2 Gt) and 3% (18.7 Gt), respectively. We further project that, depending on future emissions pathways, 17-34% of forested areas will experience climate conditions by the end of the century that currently support a different forest type, highlighting the intensification of climatic stress on existing forests. By quantifying the distribution of tree leaf types and their corresponding biomass, and identifying regions where climate change will exert greatest pressure on current leaf types, our results can help improve predictions of future terrestrial ecosystem functioning and carbon cycling