The contribution made by coaching to MBA leadership development at a South African business school

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Johannesburg, 2015The purpose of this study was to explore and identify the contribution that leadership coaching, facilitated by MBA alumni, could make to MBA students’ leadership development. The research study employed a mixed method sequential exploratory design with data collected from over 350 MBA students and more than 90 MBA alumni coaches. The outcomes of the study indicated that the MBA leadership coaching sessions had provided the MBA students with a new personalised learning experience that had increased their self-awareness, strengthened their self-development skills, and built a foundation for their future leadership development. The research study made a theoretical contribution to the fields of leadership development and coaching, by showing the contribution that a person-centred coaching approach, focused on individual facilitation and development, can make to MBA leadership development. The main contribution to practice was that the study established that using MBA alumni to facilitate MBA students’ leadership coaching could be a highly beneficial and financially viable alternative to using professional coaches for this purpose. A methodological contribution was made by demonstrating how a three-phased mixed method sequential exploratory design could yield a multi-faceted and fully integrated understanding of the outcomes of a study of this nature. Recommendations are made for future research, including exploring whether similar outcomes of MBA leadership coaching can be observed at other business schools in South Africa or elsewhere, as well as the desirability of conducting a follow-up study on the MBA students that participated in this study. This could establish what impact the coaching sessions have had on the MBA students’ leadership development over time.MB201

Eco-hydrological process simulations within an integrated surface water-groundwater model

There are several key modelling challenges in addressing the complementary requirements of the Water Framework Directive and the Groundwater Directive. The first is to consider groundwater, surface water, water quality and ecosystems as an integrated system and develop modelling tools capable of representing these interactions. For example, the restoration of wetlands often requires an understanding of the interaction of surface water and groundwater quantity and quality. Secondly while static indicator-based or statistical approaches are widely used for overall management, the actual ecosystem is highly dynamic and both the actual response to different threats and impact of measures will also be dynamic. To address these challenges a new integrated eco-hydrological modelling tool has been developed that allows hydrologists and ecologists to represent the complex and dynamic interactions occurring including surface water groundwater interactions within a catchment. This is achieved by integrating a general ecological modelling tool into an integrated catchment hydrological modelling framework, MIKE SHE. The capabilities of this new tool are evaluated using analytical solutions and laboratory experiments. Finally we demonstrate the practical application of this tool to two case studies where the interaction of surface water and ground water are important for the ecosystem. The importance of the surface water groundwater dynamics for a riparian wetland on the Odense stream in Denmark is examined and simulations compared to field observations in the wetland. The Silver Creek ecosystem is controlled large-scale interactions of surface water and groundwater systems in the Lower Wood River Valley, USA. We examine ecological impacts related to the flows and temperatures in the Silver Creek ecosystem which are important for the fish population. We show that different water management scenarios can have significant impacts on the ecosystem

Using response surfaces to estimate impacts of climate change on flood peaks: assessment of uncertainty

The potential impacts of climate change are an increasing focus of research and ever-larger climate projection ensembles are available, making standard impact assessments more onerous. An alternative way of estimating impacts involves response surfaces, which present the change in a given indicator for a large number of plausible climatic changes defined on a regular sensitivity domain. Sets of climate change projections can then be overlaid on the response surface and impacts estimated from the nearest corresponding points of the sensitivity domain, providing a powerful method for fast impact estimation for multiple projections and locations. However, the effect of assumptions necessary for initial response surface development must be assessed. This paper assesses the uncertainty introduced by use of a sensitivity framework for estimating changes in 20-year return period flood peaks in Britain. This sensitivity domain involves mean annual and seasonal precipitation changes, and a number of simplifications were necessary for consistency and to reduce dimensionality. The effect of these is investigated for nine catchments across Britain, representing nine typical response surfaces (response types), using three sets of climate projections. The results show that catchments can have different causes of uncertainty, and some catchments have an overall higher level of uncertainty than others. These differences are compatible with the underlying climatological and hydrological differences between the response types, giving confidence in generalisation of the results. This enables the development of uncertainty allowances by response type, to be used alongside the response surfaces to provide more robust impact estimates

The impact of the variability and periodicity of rainfall on surface water supply systems in Scotland

This paper analyses the impact of the variability and periodicity of rainfall on the reliability of water supply systems in Scotland. A conceptual rainfall-runoff model was used to simulate catchment runoff, and the reliability of 29 notional and six actual reservoirs was calculated using a simple storage model. The relationship between water supply reliability and the variability of rainfall was then investigated using different measures of variability. A strong correlation was found between reservoir reliability and measures representing the distribution of rainfall between the winter and summer seasons, as well as the cumulative sum (CUSUM) of annual precipitation, quantifying the variability of rainfall between years. In contrast, mainly the intra-annual CUSUM range and the variance of monthly precipitation influenced the reliability of river-intake schemes. The presence of periodic patterns in rainfall anomalies was found to be more prevalent in West Scotland, where reservoir reliability is on average lower than in the East. In addition, a sensitivity analysis revealed the small influence of evapotranspiration on reservoir reliability in comparison to rainfall variability. This study reveals the measures of variability most affecting the reliability of surface water supplies in Scotland, and could therefore help with their management in the context of future climate change

Testing the resilience of water supply systems to long droughts

Public water supply systems are designed to maintain water supply through extended periods of dry weather without excessive cost or environmental damage. During a drought, water suppliers can take further measures to enhance supplies or reduce demand. The introduction of drought measures is usually formalised in a drought plan, but there is often little evidence that the plan will prove successful during a range of feasible droughts. As the climate changes, recent hydrological data may be a poor guide to future drought, and planned actions may prove insufficient to maintain adequate water supplies. This paper describes a method for testing the resilience of water company drought plans to droughts that are outside recent hydrological experience. Long severe droughts of the nineteenth century provide an opportunity to test water supply system behaviour in a range of realistic droughts. The method developed combines system modelling with an interactive approach that asks water system managers to work through the actions that they would take at different stages of the drought, without knowledge of subsequent drought development. The approach was tested for two contrasting English water resource systems. In both cases, the existing water supply and drought planning measures succeeded in maintaining water supply, but significant demand restrictions and engineering measures had to be introduced. Wider use of the method by water supply planners should allow the refinement of drought and water supply plans, and will also create increased awareness of the actions necessary to manage a range of droughts