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This paper investigated the challenges that researchers in a health sciences university can experience, and ways to counterbalance the negative effects of these challenges. Focus was on the extent to which gatekeepers on higher education institutions (HEIs) can restrict research, and the way natural sciences researchers often experience gatekeeper biasness on denying them access as compared to the way health sciences researchers are treated. The method compared experiences of researchers for Master of Science (MSc) degrees in selected science subjects, and the projects undertaken by health sciences students. All the studies were based on students on campus as research subjects. The MSc ones were for students who were already academics teaching on campus. All the proposals received clearance certificates from the same ethics committee. Upon requiring the HEI registrar to grant permission to use the student as study participants, the health sciences were granted permission and the names of the students. For the science academics, they were denied permission to the student numbers, which were needed to request individual students to make on decisions whether they wanted to participate in the studies or not. Gatekeeping weaknesses were explored, and lawful interventions were used to collect research data. It was observed that in the science academic divisions of HEIs that are dominated by the health sciences, gatekeeper unfairness and power could offset creativities and innovations initiated by researchers. Recommendations have been made to limit this power.

Microenterprises are crucial in sustaining the economy, especially in developing economies like Nigeria. Many of these microenterprises do not take cognizance of necessary determinants like organizational culture and its factors to ensure proper running of their day-to-day activities. The study aims to identify some demographic statistics of employers in technological microenterprises, investigate the factors influencing organizational culture and assess organizational culture's influence on business success among employers in selected technological microenterprises in southwest Nigeria. The study was carried out in three southwestern states in Nigeria with 213 business owners (employers) as respondents. Seventeen factors were explored, but eight were extracted to be considered in measuring the employers' organizational culture: climate, customer demand, technological changes, observed behaviour, norms, consistency, adaptability, and sense of mission. Linear regression analysis was also used to measure organizational culture's impact on technological microenterprises' business performance with SPSS as a statistical tool.   The study confirms a positive and significant relationship between organizational culture and business performance at 5% significance. This study concludes that the eight variables extracted are important factors to consider when measuring the organizational culture of employers in technological microenterprises in southwest Nigeria for better business production.

Functional foods are foods that improve mental and physical well-being. Consumption of functional food has attracted much interest globally based on its benefit in the prevention of life-threatening diseases such as obesity, stroke, heart attack, diabetes, and cancer. Notwithstanding the health importance of functional food consumption, research on the marketing of functional foods is sparse in the literature. The research seeks to evaluate consumers purchase behaviour toward functional foods. The research employed a quantitative method. A consumer survey was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire on a sample of 384 consumers at several grocery stores in the uMhlathuze region, South Africa. The findings demonstrate the significance of understanding consumer motivations and attitudes in enabling food producers to implement the best marketing strategy to increase sales as well as enabling dietitians and medical professionals to share information and create more awareness regarding the health benefits of consuming functional foods. Likewise, the findings showed a significant positive correlation between social factors and age. This indicated that as people increase in age, social factors have more impact on their purchase decisions toward functional foods.

The paper developed a multilevel model (MLM) of postgraduate (PG) supervision to improve the academic publication and PG completion rate. Crowdsourcing essentials were used in the development of the model. The crowds consisted of the MLM made of students from Honours to doctoral levels. Teamwork was also implored, where the teams were level mates and supervisory teams. The simplest form of the model has the potential to generate over 65 academic manuscripts for journals. Monitoring of the supervision process can provide maximized completion of the PG research studies. Research capacity building would be effected for the doctoral and master’s students making them able to supervise and co-supervise from Honours to doctoral levels upon completion of their studies. The study condemned the use of a single supervisor for several doctoral students. It recommended the implementation of the model (the MLM PG Supervision Framework). It further recommended that doctoral students should be assigned co-supervisors, preferably varied for different students, to enable diversity in the supervision experience.

The study investigated the shortages in a multimodal learning (MML) approach that was used in a science faculty of a selected higher education institution (HEI) in South Africa. The study population consisted of students of the science faculty. The sample consisted of students who willingly offered to participate after being informed of this study. A study questionnaire consisting of MML components was used to collect data. It was distributed by email as Google forms to students who had supplied their email addresses in acceptance of participating. Analysis of data consisted of graphs and measures in percentages to determine the level of how the students experienced the various MML components. The deficiency level was not too high, but the components that were missing were crucial to effect beneficial learning. The components missing in MML were found to be core components of a flipped classroom (FC). The paper recommended a move of MML closer to FC.

The COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa has negatively affected the lives of many individuals and families. Undocumented migrants were not an exception to this challenge. Despite encountering a number of challenges such as unemployment and being excluded from the welfare services of the country, undocumented migrants also battled with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which forced them to develop survival strategies. It is from this background that this, study sought to explore the survival strategies of undocumented migrants post-COVID-19 lockdown in South Africa. The study used a qualitative approach wherein Musina was used as a case study. Ten migrant youth were purposively and conveniently selected to participate in this study. Data was collected through face-to-face semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically through Thematic Content Analysis (TCA). Resilience theory was used to guide this study. Findings, conclusions and recommendations are provided in this paper.

The South African government attaches high priority on education hence a bigger share of the country’s budget is allocated to education. Literature presents a growing concern that South African public schools are not performing well with a number of contributing factors for learner poor performance. However, despite poor learner performance in some schools, there remain a number of schools who continuously produce pleasing results. It against this background that this paper sought to determine whether school culture has a contribution to Grade12 learners’ academic performance in selected secondary schools in the Eastern Cape Province. This paper used the Social Interactionist Theory (Mead, 1934) as it lenses, which seeks to understand events and circumstances around us and influence behaviour. This paper is located in the interpretivist paradigm and employed qualitative approach to gain experiences and opinions of participants on the influence of school culture 5 schools were sampled with 40 participants who responded through semi-structured interviews. Among the findings that emerged from the study was the critical participation of the stakeholders in school programmes, the vision and mission of the school to ensure learner success and maintenance of proud legacy of the school.  The paper therefore, recommends cascading focus to the lower grades to continuously sustain school culture that enhances good learner performance.

The objective of this article is to investigate obstacles that hinder the assessment of return on investment (ROI) for academic staff development initiatives in public universities in South Africa. The primary objective of this study is to address the following research inquiry: What are the obstacles hindering the assessment of return on investment (ROI) for training and development interventions offered to academics within the higher education landscape of South Africa? The study employed a qualitative research methodology, which was based on an interpretive philosophical standpoint. The researchers employed purposive sampling to carefully select a total of fourteen participants who were selected to represent a range of cases or institutions. These included six universities and government institutions, namely the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), and the Education, Training, and Development Practices Sector Education and Training Authority (ETDPSETA). The interview data was subjected to thematic analysis using ATLAS.ti. The factors that hinder the measurement of ROI include the intricacy of the process, insufficient capacity, time lag between training and improved performance, lack of motivation, financial limitations, absence of processes, fragmentation of training and development interventions, interventions producing non-financial advantages, and insufficient data. The study enhanced the existing information on human resource development and practice by identifying the obstacles to measuring return on investment (ROI). Additionally, it offered practical advice and suggestions for future research.

The study analyzes the development of business incubation literature in South Africa. The VOSviewer software was used to perform the bibliometric analysis of 44 articles on business incubation in South Africa conducted between 1996 and 2023 that were obtained from the Scopus database. The study has also revealed literature on business incubation started to appear in 1996 in South Africa. The study’s keyword co-occurrence analysis also revealed that the following words had the most occurrences and were clustered into the following: entrepreneurship and business incubation, business incubators and effectiveness, entrepreneurial education and informal Business, SMEs and start-up, business and sustainability, and business development and competitiveness. The study sorts the articles based on the following indicators: number of documents published in a year, eminent authors and keyword co-occurrence, which identified six categories of the most prominent research themes being covered by articles reviewed. The study only used articles that were written in English language only. Therefore, future research should consider articles written in other languages and expand the study to other regions, continents, and even global scale.

An investigation to balance the sustainability of insurance companies and successful claims on insurance policies is important towards the economy, as well as for assisting the insured during financial difficulty when their items are damaged or lost. This paper examines some rejected short-term insurances where a misunderstanding of the contract might have caused the insurer to lose out on the claim. Data were collected from cases of courts and insurers on rejected claims due to misunderstandings by the insured. The first text data set was a court case. The second was a graph on the root causes of claims rejections from the insurer. The third was a matrix data set presenting the languages of the insured. The insurers who had refused to pay insurer claims supplied the latter two. Despite the three contexts being widely different, their results show that rejections of claims by the insurers were due to the insured failing to understand the conditions of the contracts, and thus not being able to figure out what could have caused the rejection. Hence, the use of complicated and legal language in insurance contracts results in the insured not fully understanding the contract, which leads to claims being rejected. The paper recommends the use of simple language and pinpointing in layman's form, those aspects that could lead to rejections of claims.

The pricing of insurance premiums in the non-life insurance sector remains a challenging and complex task. It demands a delicate balance between accurately estimating risk exposure and ensuring profitability for insurers. Generalised Linear Regression Models (GLMs) have become the preferred methods for premium price modelling in the motor insurance sector. While the approach of using a single superior model on which predictions are based ignores the use of robust estimator models. This paper examines various methodologies and sheds light on superiority of twenty-two models compared to each other for pricing automobile insurance. These methods vary from traditional actuarial methods to the modern statistical models such as machine learning algorithms. By using archival technique, their inferiority and superiority are explored, considering the ever-changing landscape of risk factors and market dynamics. Furthermore, it highlights the potential benefits of leveraging these methods and the mechanism for pricing short-term insurance, particularly in motor vehicle insurance. It also develops a framework that can be used in pricing to cater to risk analysis constituents to mitigate uncertainties and provide good services to clients. Our findings show that ANN, NN, XGB, random forest (RF) are superior models, and we conclude that the modern statistical methods can accurately estimate the risk exposure as compared to traditional methods such as the GLMs.

The global shift from traditional face-to-face learning to e-learning, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, has significantly transformed higher education (HE) landscapes. Many institutions in developing countries, unprepared for this shift, now find e-learning integral to the educational process. This study explores challenges faced by academic staff at a South African University of Technology (UoT) post-COVID-19. Utilising a phenomenological qualitative research approach, insights were gathered from academic staff through semi-structured interviews. Key challenges identified include insufficient infrastructure, limited training, technological proficiency gaps, student engagement issues, and concerns about academic dishonesty. Practical recommendations encompass infrastructure enhancement, digital training, blended learning strategies, improved student engagement, and measures to ensure academic integrity. These adaptable suggestions provide insights for institutions seeking to enhance e-learning environments, contributing to improved teaching and learning (T&L) outcomes in an evolving educational landscape. It was further recommended that future studies can explore long-term intervention effects, conduct comparative institution studies, and delve into innovative pedagogical approaches.

Shift work has become a necessity in various professions, including law enforcement, to ensure the continuous operation of essential services. The implementation of 12-hour shifts has become common practice in police departments, aiming to meet the demands of public safety. However, the implications of such extended work periods on the personal lives of police officers are significant and warrant exploration. This study focuses on examining the effects of a 12-hour shift schedule on police officers within the South African Police Service (SAPS) stationed in the City of Tshwane, Gauteng province, South Africa. Through qualitative research methods, data was collected from eight police officers with a minimum of two years of experience through face-to-face interviews. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse the data systematically. Findings reveal that the 12-hour shift system presents challenges in maintaining a healthy work-life balance, impacting officers' social and familial responsibilities, participation in cultural and religious activities, and overall well-being. Officers expressed concerns about fatigue, limited time for family and leisure activities, and conflicts with personal commitments. Addressing these challenges is crucial for enhancing the health and effectiveness of police personnel and ensuring a positive work-life balance. This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by shedding light on the nuanced effects of the 12-hour shift system on police officers' personal lives, particularly in the South African context. Recommendations were also made to address the effects of the shift system on officer’s personal life.

The efficacy of organisational effectiveness during the Fourth Industrial Revolution may have been hindered by prevailing leadership styles and management practices. Hence, it has been proposed that other theories, models, or approaches to leadership will be necessary for organisations to maintain competitiveness and achieve long-term success in a business environment that deviates dramatically from the norm for leaders. This essay posits that the application of Leadership 4.0 and novel management practices may hold significance within this particular context. This study investigated the influence of leadership 4.0 and modern management on the success of organisations during the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Qualitative research methodologies were employed to conduct desk research and obtain the findings. There exists a positive association between Leadership 4.0, creative management methods, and organisational performance capabilities. Numerous scholarly and practical deliberations have substantiated the significance of leadership, specifically Leadership 4.0, in effectively navigating the complexities and challenges posed by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Furthermore, supplementary evidence was identified to substantiate theories pertaining to dependent leadership. The findings of this study have practical implications for companies as they validate the existing literature that highlights the crucial role of leadership in organisational performance, particularly for survival and long-term viability in the contemporary business landscape (4IR). The findings make a valuable contribution to the growing body of knowledge in the domains of Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), leadership, creative management techniques, and research on organisational performance.

Globally, there is welter of evidence demonstrating that cooperative government is likely achievable where the same political party in charge of the national government is also a power holder at sub-governments level. This has been the experience of the South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) which has been in charge of the national government and the majority of provinces for 30 years, except in few instances where opposition parties are in control. Since the ANC lost Western Cape (WC) province to the Democratic Alliance in 2004, cooperative government has been a difficult practice due in part to party ideological differences. The contradictions often play out at executive levels but the silence of legislation, in as far as ensuring that cooperative government is achievable for common goal, necessitates attention. This non-empirical article refers to numerous cases of intergovernmental tensions, with the intention being to debate the discursive issues under the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (hereafter referred to as 1996 Constitution). Following comprehensive reflection, the article concluded that the extent to which national government is showing inherent inertia to work with WC and other areas where the DA is governing has been perpetuated by the lacuna in the current legal framework, but most of the conflicts have much to do with party ideology and politics of the ‘left’ where parties just oppose executive decisions and programmes not on substance but because they are official opposition.   As a result, the continuation of these actions stands to bedevil the national and provincial executive relations in a decentralised South Africa.    

The undeniable impact of implementing school management systems on the efficiency of school administration in the Global South is evident. Nevertheless, the implementation of school management systems can provide significant challenges, particularly in educational settings with little resources, such as township schools. This qualitative study examined the impediments to the optimal efficiency of SA-SAMS in three township schools located in the Nkangala Education District, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. The study was based on the people, processes, and technology framework (PPTF). A deliberate sampling technique was employed to choose a sample of five administrative clerks and three principals. The results indicated that administrative clerks identified several obstacles: 1) unreliable internet connectivity; 2) issues related to the delayed release of the assessment patch and changes to its structure during the school term; 3) glitches in learner admissions, leading to the deletion of profiles of learners admitted to schools in the middle of the year, exacerbated by the system's inability to smoothly process admissions of foreign learners; 4) lack of onsite technicians to provide technical support, necessitating schools to allocate funds designated for academic and operational programmes to hire private technicians. Meanwhile, principals identified two main issues: 5) limited acceptance among teachers and 6) the inadequacy of provincial SA-SAMS helpdesk workers, whose skills frequently failed to offer necessary technical assistance when system issues developed. The study suggested ensuring dependable internet access for schools with limited resources, promptly releasing the patch, maintaining clear and timely communication regarding patch format changes, providing training to teachers on SA-SAMS, offering on-site technical support to schools, and employing competent SA-SAMS provincial helpdesk personnel.

Governments of Sub Saharan African (SSA) countries have struggled to successfully invest in capital intensive projects. As such, public private partnerships play a key role in redefining the role of Government in the context of infrastructure projects, by focusing on supervision and regulation and moving away from direct ownership and management. Sub Saharan African countries have seen such inclusive partnerships yielding some numerous benefits in different sectors. However, despite the salubrious benefits that PPPs have brought in different projects, PPPs in SSA countries are still dogged by a myriad of administrative, technical, financial and legal challenges. These corporate governance related challenges have made it difficult for these SSA governments to glean the full benefits of PPPs. The study is informed by the qualitative methodology with an extensive review of literature. Data was gathered from purposively selected written documents and these documents were analysed using thematic and content analysis techniques. The study established that there are some corporate governance deficiencies in most PPP projects in the SSA countries. Additionally, most of these public projects in the SSA lack adequate good corporate governance attention that is given to the PPP procedures and processes involved. The study therefore recommends that there is need for the full adoption of good corporate governance systems, practices, processes and procedures in the PPPs designing, financing, implementation and operationalisation in SSA.

Studies in behavioral finance have shown that human behavior often diverges from the rationality assumed by economists, as their decisions can occasionally be swayed by their emotional and psychological states. Given this concern, the study examines psychological factors influencing individual decision-making in the South African financial market. A structured questionnaire was used in collecting data from 414 participants who are individual investors actively involved in trading in the Johannesburg stock exchange market with the application of the random sampling method. The main objective of this study is to explore the psychological variables or biases that determine the investment decision-making of individual investors. Furthermore, this paper investigates psychological factors such as Anchoring, Herding, Overconfidence and Representative biases in investment decision-making. Findings revealed that all the variables, overconfidence, herding, anchoring and representative heuristics have a relationship with each other but the only variable that influences the individual investment decision is the representative heuristic while less consideration is given to another variable. The results of this study would help financial advisors understand the high importance of psychological factors and help them integrate behavioral insights into investment strategies. This will in turn help them provide better services to their clients. It will also help individual investors to acknowledge and understand the psychological factors influencing investment decisions and how to take note of them to make better decisions. Policymakers can consider the implications of psychological biases on market stability.

It cannot be nullified that the peer review process is characterized by reviewers who tend to destructively assume the role of researchers. In so doing, this behavior undermines the intellectual ability of researchers, especially novice researchers, who dedicate their time attempting to contribute to scholarly epistemology. Effectively, this concerning behavior of assuming the role of a researcher may denote that the reviewers downplay the reality that researchers certainly know something; no matter how little or greater it is. Thus, it cannot be fair-minded for reviewers to regard themselves as if they are gods of knowledge. With this in mind, this particular paper aims to explore and open a dialogue concerning the challenge of reviewers who destructively assume the role of an author or researcher, thereupon sabotaging the peer review process by imposing their personal scholarly interests. This is against the reality that such conduct may deter potential epistemologies that may potentially make a constructive social impact within and outside the arena of scholarship. In parallel, such behavior from the reviewers may lead to the rejection of scholarly contributions that can generate change in the academic community. By the same token, the rejection of papers, in large part, by the recommendations of destructive reviewers who assume researchers’ roles may demoralize novice researchers who have a strong determination to construct and assemble original, and innovative insights into the body of knowledge. In view of this fact, reviewers ought to appreciate the importance of recognizing the voices and narratives of the authors without imposing their personal interests that may compromise the quality and publication of valuable and well-deserving scholarly papers. On account of this, I conclude this scholarly dialogue by presenting some of the recommendations that may be considered to mitigate the problematized phenomenon.

This study explores the complex interplay of dispositional and situational factors in the context of workplace bullying among police officers in South Africa, with relevance to the broader understanding of bullying behavior. Both dispositional and situational factors have been recognized as significant contributors to workplace stress and demands, particularly evident during challenging times such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Even professions known for their demanding work environments, such as law enforcement, have not been immune to these pressures. The research conducted a quantitative analysis, surveying 208 employees of the South African Police Services. The study incorporated self-administered questionnaires, employing statistical methods like correlation, ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis. This multifaceted approach assessed the relationships between workplace bullying, situational factors, dispositional factors, and demographics (including gender, age, qualifications, and years of service). The study’s findings highlighted a substantial and positive link between dispositional characteristics and workplace bullying, similarly, noting a favorable association between situational conditions and bullying. Consequently, the research underscores the importance of considering both dispositional and situational factors in comprehending workplace bullying among police officers. This South African study offers valuable insights by bridging a significant knowledge gap on workplace bullying among law enforcement personnel. It emphasizes the relevance of examining the interplay between dispositional and situational factors in understanding and addressing workplace bullying in diverse contexts.