Explore publications.

Training and development are globally acclaimed determinants of employee performance and organizational success, particularly for service sectors such as banking. Despite the prominence of T&D in the banking sector, empirical studies attempting to quantify the influence of  training and development on  service quality  have yielded mixed results .This research aims to reconcile these conflicting findings in the literature by redressing the existing knowledge gap and the limited body of literature by examining the effect of Training and Development programs on communication and service assurance as the specific service quality dimensions at Indo-Zambia Bank. The Quantitative study was grounded by a positivism paradigm with a descriptive research design. A cross-sectional survey was undertaken using a structured questionnaire administered to 100 Indo-Zambia Bank employees who were chosen using stratified random sampling. Descriptive and Pearson correlation coefficient using SPSS were conducted to establish the statistically significant relationship between T&D and communication and assurance. Results reflect a statistically significant relationship between the T&D and communication (p < .002) and assurance (p < .001). The most implemented T&D programmes included KYC Training, Induction/Onboarding, Ethics & Confidentiality, Customer Service Excellence, Service Recovery/Complaint Handling, Digital Systems & IT Training, Communication & Interpersonal Skills, and Leadership/Coaching. The study concluded that T&D improves communication (r=.279) and assurance (r=.271). The study concludes that T&D programs at Indo-Zambia Bank significantly and positively influence communication and service assurance. At a policy level, the findings inform regulatory emphasis on continuous professional development as a mechanism for sustaining competitive service standards in Zambia’s financial sector.

This paper aims to examine the effects of Internal Corporate Social Responsibility (iCSR) practices on employees' job satisfaction, with specific focus on work-life balance and safety and health within commercial banks in Lusaka. In this paper, it is also aimed to explore the relative role of these iCSR dimensions in shaping job satisfaction in a developing country context where empirical evidence remains limited. We employed a quantitative research design using structured questionnaires administered to employees across 15 commercial banks. A dataset of 205 employees was collected, of which 146 valid responses were analyzed. Data were analyzed using SPSS Version 29, applying descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression analysis. Main findings of the study demonstrate that (i) work–life balance has a strong and statistically significant positive effect on job satisfaction (r = 0.9268, p < 0.001), accounting for 85.9% of the variance and emerging as the most significant predictor; (ii) safety and health shows a positive correlation (r = 0.926), but is not a statistically significant predictor in multivariate analysis, suggesting it functions as a hygiene factor; and finally (iii) iCSR practices can be differentiated into motivational and baseline factors, contributing to theoretical understanding while providing a Sub-Saharan African perspective. The study offers practical implications, indicating that banks should prioritize work-life balance initiatives while maintaining safety and health standards. It also provides guiding knowledge for policymakers and managers seeking to enhance workplace satisfaction and improve iCSR implementation.

In an era when information is power, the ability to anticipate crime has become more critical than merely responding to it. Effective crime prevention increasingly depends on the strategic adoption of Intelligence-Led Policing (ILP). This study examines the role of ILP as a proactive crime prevention strategy, comparing South Africa with the more established models of the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia. Grounded in Routine Activity Theory (RAT), this qualitative desktop study draws on fifteen purposively selected academic and policy sources, identified through a documented search and screening process. The findings show that while ILP is well institutionalised in countries with mature policing systems, its implementation in South Africa remains fragmented, constrained by institutional fragmentation, limited analytical capacity, political interference, and resource shortages. Comparative analysis underscores the importance of inter-agency coordination, professionalisation of intelligence units, and context-specific adaptation of ILP principles rather than direct replication of foreign models. The study concludes that strengthening ILP in South Africa requires a unified intelligence framework that integrates community policing, builds institutional capacity, and embeds a culture of intelligence sharing and accountability, and it proposes a research agenda centred on evaluating pilot ILP interventions.

Social media has emerged as a transformative tool in contemporary policing, enabling both crime prevention and crime detection through enhanced community engagement and digital guardianship. This desk research study investigates the utilisation of social media within community police collaboration in South Africa, drawing on Routine Activity Theory and Community Policing Theory as an integrated theoretical framework. Through a systematic review of scholarly literature, policy documents, and official reports, the study examines how social media is conceptualised, identifies documented evidence of effective community police collaboration, and highlights associated opportunities, limitations, and ethical considerations. Findings indicate that social media facilitates the detection of criminal behaviour, deters potential offenders by increasing perceived risks, and strengthens cooperative engagement between citizens and law enforcement. However, unregulated use presents ethical, legal, and operational challenges, underscoring the need for policy-guided, transparent, and accountable practices. The study contributes theoretically by integrating two complementary frameworks to explain crime prevention through detection in digital environments, and practically by providing insights for policymakers and police institutions seeking to leverage social media responsibly.

Relational leadership is a key antecedent of employee attitudes and rewards perceptions. However, empirical evidence linking its specific dimensions to compensation outcomes within South Africa’s context remains limited. Drawing on social exchange and equity theories, this study examines how specific relational leadership dimensions influence compensation perceptions. Data was collected from (N = 122) permanently employed personnel at a South African organisation, using a quantitative, cross-sectional design and validated self-report measures. The data was analysed by using Pearson correlations and multiple regression to predict employee compensation through relational leadership. The ethical component emerged as the most consistent and dominant predictor of employee compensation across all models. The empowering component showed significance in one model, but the dimensions usually linked to RLP, including inclusive, caring, and visionary components, had no statistically significant impact on reward outcomes. These findings highlight a critical distinction between behaviours that foster a supportive climate and those that validate the structural legitimacy of reward systems. The study concluded that in socio-economically complex environments like South Africa, employees prioritise ethical governance and fairness over interpersonal warmth when evaluating compensation. Consequently, organisations should prioritise ethical decision-making and transparent accountability in LDPs to enhance satisfaction and perceived equity.

This study investigated the effects of internal Corporate Social Responsibility (iCSR) practices on employee job satisfaction among commercial banks in Lusaka, Zambia. The research examined two key dimensions of iCSR: education & training, and pay & benefits. The investigation was motivated by the need to understand how specific iCSR practices influence employee satisfaction in the Zambian banking context, where limited empirical research has been conducted despite the growing importance of human capital management in competitive banking environments. The study employed a descriptive research design utilizing a quantitative research approach. The study was grounded in the positivist research paradigm. Data was collected from 146 employees across 15 commercial banks operating in Lusaka through digital self-administered structured questionnaires, representing a 71.2% response rate from the target sample of 205 respondents. Stratified sampling technique was employed to ensure representative selection across management levels (senior, middle, and lower management). Data analysis was conducted using SPSS Version 29.0, employing descriptive statistics (frequencies, means, standard deviations), Pearson correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis. Statistical significance was determined at p < 0.05 level. The study revealed exceptionally strong positive relationships between pay & benefits and education & training iCSR dimensions and job satisfaction.  Pay and Benefits had a variance of (r = 0.9271, 85.96%. Education and Training demonstrated strong effects (r = 0.8935, 79.84% variance. A conceptual framework was developed that successfully integrated the two iCRS dimensions and their relationship with job satisfaction

As globalization continues to reshape the business landscape, the use of Business process outsourcing services and activities is gaining significant popularity among businesses. The exact services and activities that benefits and create a sustainable competitive advantage to organizations remain underexplored and few studies have been conducted in the Southern Africa developing countries including South African mobile operators. The main purpose of this study was to redress the existing knowledge gap by ascertaining the actual services and activities that the mobile telecom operators are outsourcing for sustainable competitive advantage. A structured closed-ended questionnaire was used to collect raw data from 210 employees. Overall, the results indicate that some of the key services and activities outsourced for sustainable competitive advantage included building and managing network infrastructure, network roll-out and management, manufacturing of mobile network equipment, monitoring the mobile network on capacity overload and breakdowns and assembly operations, maintenance of the base stations of mobile network, manufacturing of hard software components and resolving software problems and fleet management. The practical implications of the findings, assist organizational management in making informed and structured decisions through the identification of critical activities and services that contribute to the attainment of a sustainable competitive advantage and performance improvement of the mobile telecom operators.

The study assesses the benefits and challenges of inventory management practices and systems in the South African automotive industry. The study used a qualitative approach in which focus groups and semi-structured interviews were conducted on 18 supply chain professionals drawn from the automotive sector in four provinces in South Africa. ATLAS.ti software was used to analyse data. The study generated two themes: the benefits and challenges of inventory management practices and systems. This study concludes that inventory management practices play a critical role within companies in the South African automotive sector since managing inventory is an indispensable part of the more extensive supply chain management (SCM) practice. Regarding inventory management challenges, SCM professionals find it difficult to retain the resilience required to adapt and react to any disruptive circumstances due to inadequate support from the South African government. Also, it appeared difficult to deal with this challenge as some companies within the South African automotive sector have limited resources, making it extremely difficult to deal with uncertainties when they arise.

This study investigates the influence of board gender diversity on the shareholder value of South African-listed non-financial companies on the JSE from 2013 to 2022. The study used a quantitative quasi-experimental method to examine the influence of board gender diversity on shareholder value creation measures from a multi-theoretical perspective. The board gender diversity measures include the proportion of women directors on the board, the Blau index for board gender diversity, and dummy variables indicating the presence of one, two, three, or more women directors on the board, as well as skewed board, tilted board, and balanced board. Shareholder value creation is proxied using standardised market value added, market-to-book ratio, and Tobin’s Q. The study utilises fixed effects models based on linear and curvilinear models to test the hypotheses. According to linear models, all board gender diversity measures demonstrate a significant positive, negative, or no effect on shareholder value creation measures, aligning with the multi-theoretical perspective of corporate governance research. However, curvilinear quadratic models suggest that the Blau index for board gender diversity and the proportion of women directors on board positively and negatively affect shareholder value creation, highlighting an inverted U-shaped effect. The results recognise the "too much- of- a -good- thing” effect and a possible optimal(or worse) level of board gender diversity as crucial. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that the claim of the ‘‘one size fits all’’ board gender diversity mechanism in creating and maximising shareholder value, often implicitly stated by regulators and advisors, may be misleading.