The South African business environment in which accountants function and the role of information technology in that environment

2006 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.L. Wessels
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Willie T. Chinyamurindi

Background: The South African construction industry is noted to be one of the most popular industries heavily dependent on projects. Calls exist for research that ascertains not just how entrepreneurs act as project managers but also the evaluation of project success and the role information management plays in all this.Objectives: The aim of this study was to understand the views and experiences of entrepreneurs in how: (1) project management success is conceptualised, and (2) the role that information management played to this within a South African construction industry space.Method: The study adopts a qualitative research approach using semi-structured interviews to generate narratives and themes around how: (1) project management success is conceptualised, and (2) the role that information management played to this. A sample of 15 entrepreneurs working within the construction industry was used for this study.Results: Based on the analysis of the narratives of the 15 entrepreneurs, project success was conceptualised mainly along three themes. Firstly, project success was about keeping the customer happy. Secondly, project success in the construction industry meant meeting the set targets, especially those of a financial nature. Finally, project success was about channelling internal synergies to realise external gains. Further, the 15 entrepreneurs espoused one main sub-theme around the role of information management to this conceptualisation of project success. This posits the role of information management to be a currency in effective decision-making.Conclusion: The study concluded by focusing on the implications and recommendations based on the identified themes.


Author(s):  
Caron Hall ◽  
Linda Fourie

The Information Technology (IT) industry is one that is characterised by rapid change and a heavy reliance on human skills. A study was conducted to qualitatively explore the role of the Human Resource (HR) function in the South African IT industry. Semi-structured individual and focus group interviews with professionals in this function highlighted many opportunities for HR to render a more strategic role in an environment where a skills shortage and many related problem areas exist. The implications of these findings are discussed and proposals for redefining the role of HR in the specific industry are offered.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-72
Author(s):  
Shatha Abbas Hassan ◽  
Noor Ali Aljorani

The increasing importance of the information revolution and terms such as ‘speed’, ‘disorientation’, and ‘changing the concept of distance’, has provided us with tools that had not been previously available. Technological developments are moving toward Fluidity, which was previously unknown and cannot be understood through modern tools. With acceleration of the rhythm in the age we live in and the clarity of the role of information technology in our lives, as also the ease of access to information, has helped us to overcome many difficulties. Technology in all its forms has had a clear impact on all areas of daily life, and it has a clear impact on human thought in general, and the architectural space in particular, where the architecture moves from narrow spaces and is limited to new spaces known as the ‘breadth’, and forms of unlimited and stability to spaces characterized with fluidity. The research problem (the lack of clarity of knowledge about the impact of vast information flow associated with the technology of the age in the occurrence of liquidity in contemporary architectural space) is presented here. The research aims at defining fluidity and clarifying the effect of information technology on the changing characteristics of architectural space from solidity to fluidity. The research follows the analytical approach in tracking the concept of fluidity in physics and sociology to define this concept and then to explain the effect of Information Technology (IT) to achieve the fluidity of contemporary architectural space, leading to an analysis of the Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) architectural model. The research concludes that information technology achieves fluidity through various tools (communication systems, computers, automation, and artificial intelligence). It has changed the characteristics of contemporary architectural space and made it behave like an organism, through using smart material.


2004 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
P.G.J. Meiring

The author who served on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), focuses on the Hindu experience in South Africa during the apartheid years. At a special TRC Hearing for Faith Communities (East London, 17-19 November 1997) two submissions by local Hindu leaders were tabled. Taking his cues from those submissions, the author discusses four issues: the way the Hindu community suffered during these years, the way in which some members of the Hindu community supported the system of apartheid, the role of Hindus in the struggle against apartheid, and finally the contribution of the Hindu community towards reconciliation in South Africa. In conclusion some notes on how Hindus and Christians may work together in th


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