Loss of military equipment by the SADF at the Battle at Indungo during the Border War, 31 October 1987

This article takes the form of an investigation regarding the loss of military equipment by the South African Defence Force (SADF) at the Battle at Indungo, in an operation that was assigned the codename Operation Firewood, on 31 October 1987 during the Angolan Border War. The war was waged from 1966 to 1989 in Southern Africa. The case study of Operation Firewood illustrates some of the circumstances under which the SADF lost military equipment in Angola during the war. Operation Firewood was one of more than 300 SADF general operations201 that occurred in Angola. In the final stages of the war, the area north of Cuvelai provided the setting for the launching of Operation Firewood, some 285 kilometres north of the border with South West Africa/Namibia. The aim of this military operation was to eliminate an enemy base that housed elements of the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), the military wing of the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO)

The debtor-friendly fallacy in business rescue : agency theory moderation and quasi relationships

Tension often arises when Chapter 6 business rescue practitioners (BRPs) are appointed by directors to rescue their distressed businesses. Regulating by means of standard agency contracting becomes irrelevant in the resulting multiple relationships. Looking through the agency lens, using analytic autoethnography and compiling narratives, this paper explains the perceptions of what appear to be quasiagency relationships and obtains a better understanding of these. The findings suggest that the apparent principal-agent relationships suffer from asymmetries of goals, information access, informal power and diverging perceptions of moral hazard, transaction costs and adverse selection. As a solution, contracting has been shown to have limited value owing to outcome uncertainty and measurability. This is because the tasks of the BRP are non-programmable and term-dependent. The findings provide filing directors, shareholders, creditors, regulatory authorities and BRPs in this newly instituted regime, with enhanced understanding of how the relationships manifest in practice and overcome the non-contractibility of the newly formed relationships.http://www.sajems.org/am2016Business Managemen

An exploration of South African diversity dynamics

Diversity has, over the last few decades, become a burning issue on the agenda of most companies. Current diversity-related interventions are mainly based on behaviouristic and socio-cognitive approaches. In this research diversity was approached from the systems psychodynamic paradigm. The general aim was to gain an understanding of the diversity dynamics that manifests in an South African diversity experience. The literature review focussed on diversity in the workplace, on the group relations training model, and on the application of the group relations training model to diversity. Qualitative research was done by interviewing a sample of 15 delegates who attended the November 2000 Robben Island Diversity Experience. These unstructured interviews were used to obtain in-depth information about the participant's experience and the data was analysed hermeneutically. The emerging themes were `crossing the boundary, engage the new world, the ties that bind, being imprisoned, the struggle, the road to reconciliation, integration and healing, back to the future and the crucible'. It is recommended that South African organizations make more use of the systems psychodynamic approach to study the manifestations of diversity dynamics. The aim is not to replace the other approaches to diversity, but to add a perspective that can enhance awareness and sensitivity to the covert, unconscious and irrational forces that impact on diversity.Industrial and Organisational PsycologyM. A.(Industrial and Organisational Psycology

A framework for turnaround practitioners to assess reasonable prospect for ventures operating in the zone of insolvency

Turnaround practitioners (TPs) and business rescue practitioners (BRPs) are tasked with making the critical decision of whether a distressed business has reasonable prospect (RP) for reorganisation. Creditors often require the same determination because only businesses assessed to have a reasonable prospect can enter the rescue or reorganisation process. These determinations are difficult because they are made within a ‘zone of insolvency’ (ZoI). Going concerns operate on a solvent basis but may slide into the ZoI where conditions are ambiguous, unclear and uncertain. At the same, time, the specific conditions and contexts of distressed businesses vary widely despite some generic similarities that may exist. Therefore, the decision about reasonable prospect depends largely on how TP and BRPs perceive and make sense of the ambiguous conditions within the zone of insolvency. Finally, creditors and courts rarely agree with such RP determinations, but no generic tool exists to satisfy all stakeholders. Hence, the decision of whether (or not) a distressed business has a reasonable prospect to embark upon a reorganisation intervention involves both rational and subjective assessment to make sense of the conditions present in the ZoI. An affordance framework with guiding scores is proposed to determine reasonable prospect.http://www.journals.co.za/content/journal/busmanam2018Business Managemen

A competency framework for the business rescue practitioner profession

ORIENTATION: Business Rescue Practitioner (BRP) tasks are complex and involve a wide range of knowledge, tacit skills and experience not accessible to novices. RESEARCH PURPOSE: Competencies required by business rescue practitioners (BRPs) to navigate a distressed venture were investigated. What BRPs actually ‘do’ during a rescue guided the development of a competency framework to inform future qualification guidelines for BRP education and accreditation. MOTIVATION FOR THE STUDY: To investigate the research question: ‘What are the competencies that underlie the activities of a business rescue practitioner?’. RESEARCH DESIGN, APPROACH AND METHOD: A modified ‘interview to the double’ (ITTD) process was used to elicit instructions that a BRP would give to an imaginary ‘double’. These instructions were analysed and rated for importance, transferability, knowledge requirement and skills requirement; in conclusion, these instructions were ranked and subjected to a content analysis. MAIN FINDINGS: Based on the main activities that were derived from the practices and praxis, one assignment and four supra (higher-level) competencies were consequent to the analysis. A BRP able to successfully navigate a distressed venture towards normal operations should demonstrate a high level of competency in sense-making, decision making and integration, achieved through collaboration as the central competency. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Firstly, the study addresses educators’ need for a framework of competencies to guide education. Secondly, it paves the way for the Regulator to develop a qualifications framework for accreditation. CONTRIBUTION: The findings gave structure to the competencies underlying the activities of a BRP to navigate a rescue. Pre-business and financial acumen appears limited without these competencies containing insight, experience, intuition, heuristics, tacit knowledge, perceptivehttp://www.actacommercii.co.zaam201

The debtor-friendly fallacy in business rescue : agency theory moderation and quasi relationships

Tension often arises when Chapter 6 business rescue practitioners (BRPs) are appointed by directors to rescue their distressed businesses. Regulating by means of standard agency contracting becomes irrelevant in the resulting multiple relationships. Looking through the agency lens, using analytic autoethnography and compiling narratives, this paper explains the perceptions of what appear to be quasiagency relationships and obtains a better understanding of these. The findings suggest that the apparent principal-agent relationships suffer from asymmetries of goals, information access, informal power and diverging perceptions of moral hazard, transaction costs and adverse selection. As a solution, contracting has been shown to have limited value owing to outcome uncertainty and measurability. This is because the tasks of the BRP are non-programmable and term-dependent. The findings provide filing directors, shareholders, creditors, regulatory authorities and BRPs in this newly instituted regime, with enhanced understanding of how the relationships manifest in practice and overcome the non-contractibility of the newly formed relationships.http://www.sajems.org/am2016Business Managemen

Business rescue decision-making : post-mortem evaluation of an ‘orgy’

BACKGROUND : Sensemaking of the extreme vagaries and external considerations that influence decision-making and judgement during business rescue events (BREs) are currently sparse but details about evaluation criteria are desperately needed. AIM : Learning from and applying post-mortem analysis (PMA) is investigated to propose an evaluation framework. SETTING : Following the problems by and expectations of the Regulator to 'govern' the business rescue (BR) industry, a recent decision to decentralise the accreditation of business rescue practitioners (BRPs) changed the landscape significantly. METHODS : From literature and interviews, the study identified seven interactive evaluation criteria from PMA thinking to be included in a conceptual framework. RESULTS : Following the determination of the contextual difficulty evaluation, the measurement criteria included: taking management control, initial feasibility judgement, viability analysis, decision-making, BRP competencies, the rescue plan and compliance within the supreme task. One mediating factor, namely the BRP dominated. Secondly, the evaluation process can be costly to ensure validity of the data, collection and evaluators. Finally, BRE evaluators (executors/decision makers) require a high level understanding of contextual issues that may disproportionately influence an evaluation. Expert and master level competencies are required to inform the proper judgement of the evaluation criteria and variables. CONCLUSION : The study addresses educators' need for a framework for PMA to guide the teaching of BRP competencies, direct the regulatory authorities (and professional bodies) accreditation framework for licensing BRPs, inform banks as creditors to enhance their information systems, advise upcoming BRPs on outcomes while courts may consider the framework as useful for judging issues.http://www.sajems.orgam2018Business Managemen

Crooked strategy implementation : covert tactics fill the gaps

An ancient Chinese proverb states that: "If you stand straight, you don't have to fear a crooked shadow". In the world of business strategy this might translate into: "if you have a strategy, beware of its crooked implementation". Of course, we know it is disastrous if strategy is not executed (no shadow?). Poor or non-execution are one of the main reasons for strategy failure. Consultants often hold strategic planning workshops proposing the next best fad as "strategic" tool, but still, we know and see on a daily basis that often these fads, tools and strategies, and especially those associated with strategy implementation, falter more often than they succeed. It remains a consistent problem that their execution rarely achieves momentum. Our research originated in the non-execution (non-implementation) problem widely reported in theory and in practice where strategic management is pursued.http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0275-6668.htmhttp://www.emeraldinsight.com/loi/jbsBusiness Managemen

Tasks and activities of the business resue practitioner : a strategy as practice approach

A business rescue practitioner’s (BRP) tasks are complex, vaguely stated and involve a wide range of competencies not accessible to the average business person. Details about what exactly BRPs do during a rescue need to be determined in order to guide licensing and build a qualifi cations framework for the education of BRPs. Through an adapted ‘interview to the double’ (ITTD) process, information that 47 BRPs gave as instructions to a ‘double’ was elicited. All these instructions were framed as practices and praxis, then categorised into activities associated with the tasks as identifi ed by the practitioners. Fifteen activities were derived from the practices and praxis in support of fi ve tasks, namely: taking control, investigating the affairs, compiling a rescue plan, implementing the plan and complying with the statutory process. Five activities, namely: analyse feasibility, meet with stakeholders, analyse viability, prepare the rescue plan and follow statutory process, contributed 55% of what BRPs do, thus guiding the fi ndings to give structure and direction to establishing what the educational requirements for BRPs should be.http://reference.sabinet.co.za/sa_epublication/sabrhb201