Thami Nompula MBA Dissertation March 2007 - Rhodes eResearch ...

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undergoing a restructuring process that will result in the assets of Eskom and municipal distributors being housed into six financially independent Regional Electricity Distributors (REDs). NERSA is expected to play a leading role in supporting the restructuring process. NERSA is also expected to implement a regulatory regime compatible with attracting new investment in generation capacity; promoting competition in the generation and supply of electricity; achieving cost savings, economies of scale and improved levels of service in the new REDs; introducing cost reflective end user tariffs; and protecting the financial sustainability of the industry and the interests of over 8 million consumers (National Energy Regulator, 2006). There are relatively few players in the hydrocarbons industry (National Energy Regulator, 2006). The industries in question are piped-gas and petroleum pipelines. The gas industry consists almost entirely of Sasol Gas and the petroleum pipelines industry is dominated by Petronet (National Energy Regulator, 2006). In the case of the gas industry, the extent of regulatory intervention will be limited for up to 10 years by the Regulatory Agreement between Sasol and the Government. A number of private sector facilities include the offshore loading facility in Durban that are owned and operated jointly by BP, Shell, Engen and SASOL Oil. There are storage facilities in the Durban Harbour and the Saldanha Bay to Milnerton pipeline as well as pipelines along the Port of Cape Town (National Energy Regulator, 2006). The Gas Act and the Petroleum Pipelines Act provide the mandate to regulate and promote the orderly development of hydrocarbons industries. The nature of regulatory work is unique in that it is regarded as an extension of government work and therefore permeates all sectors of society. It is important to have employees with the requisite competences to deliver on the mandate that these agencies are given by the citizenry, especially in a competitive labour market where specialists and professionals from regulatory agencies are poached by utilities. To the extent that regulatory agencies rely on the expertise of these categories of employees, it is important that regulators such as NERSA are able to retain them in order to effectively contribute towards meeting the socio-economic objectives of government and the public in its entirety. For example, in the Caribbean, the poaching of knowledge workers by utilities and other private sector companies is high due to regulatory agencies’ limited resources (Downes and Husbands, 2003). In the TLDR’s experience, finding and keeping quality employees has been a challenge where most talented professionals are often courted by other regulators and utilities, thus contributing to relatively high staff turnover (TDLR, 2006). 4
1.5 The Importance of Knowledge Workers in Regulatory Institutions Changes in the international economic environment have resulted in utility or market liberalisation that in turn has seen markets becoming more competitive (Downes and Husbands, 2003). One outcome of utility liberalisation is the emergence of independent regulatory bodies, heavily used to oversee the delivery of energy, telecommunications, and financial services. Hundreds of these institutions have been set up in developed and developing countries in the past decade, mainly to protect investors from arbitrary political intervention; enforce competition rules in an objective manner; and to improve credibility, transparency, stability, and expertise (World Bank, 2004). To deal with this surge in economic activity and market liberalisation, governments have established regulatory agencies to ensure that the competitive process is fair and that consumer interests are protected (Downes and Husbands, 2003). Technological developments contributed to changes in this environment and it resulted in the unbundling of the production functions of utilities which led to an increase in the number of participants in the utilities market and greater competitiveness in various sub-markets. A number of regulatory institutions have been formed to enforce these regulations. In Britain, for example, the Office of the Gas and Electricity Markets (OFGEM) was formed in the 1980s and the rest of Western Europe followed suit through the establishment of similar bodies, such as the Commission for Electricity Regulation (CRE) in France and the Norwegian Water and Electricity Regulator (NVE), (World Bank, 2001). Similarly South America and South Africa in the 1990s started establishing a number of regulators in the utility markets (Downes and Husbands, 2003; World Bank, 2000; 2004). The new regulatory environment requires institutions to possess the ability to adequately and effectively discharge the tasks which they were mandated to carry out (Downes and Husbands, 2003). To be able to do this successfully, attracting, motivating and retaining the right quantity and quality of human resources is important. According to Domah, Pollit and Stern (2002) and Stern (2000), the effectiveness of modern regulatory agencies requires a substantial number of professionals with particular scarce specialist skills that are not readily available in the market, especially in developing countries. Regulatory agencies are usually staffed by economists, lawyers, accountants, financial analysts and engineers who not only require basic technical skills and knowledge but also special 5
Page 1 and 2: AN EXPLORATORY INVESTIGATION OF THE
Page 3 and 4: Declaration I, Thami Ignatius Nompu
Page 5 and 6: Acknowledgements A number of people
Page 7 and 8: 2.2.4 Definition of knowledge work
Page 9 and 10: 3.6.2 Factors that influenced the c
Page 11 and 12: CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMEND
Page 13 and 14: Table 4.21 Sense of achievement ana
Page 15 and 16: LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix A: The
Page 17 and 18: 1.1 Introduction CHAPTER 1: INTRODU
Page 19: 1.3 The National Energy Regulator T
Page 23 and 24: continuous success. South Africa, a
Page 25 and 26: 1.6.2 Cost of turnover and opportun
Page 27 and 28: 1.6.5 Staff Turnover at the Nationa
Page 29 and 30: 2.1 Introduction CHAPTER 2: LITERAT
Page 31 and 32: Knowledge-based organisations rely
Page 33 and 34: 2.2.5 Definition of a knowledge wor
Page 35 and 36: • Knowledge workers tend to work
Page 37 and 38: esent unnecessary supervision; they
Page 39 and 40: equipment, exist and are worth cult
Page 41 and 42: the organisation that cause or are
Page 43 and 44: Although knowledge workers may be a
Page 45 and 46: Guest’s (2001) findings. The Hay
Page 47 and 48: ecruiters. In the United States top
Page 49 and 50: sustainable objectives both for the
Page 51 and 52: 2.5 The Work Dimension According to
Page 53 and 54: environment is more conducive to hi
Page 55 and 56: improved productivity and a longer
Page 57 and 58: 2.7.1 Quality of leadership Quality
Page 59 and 60: leave an organisation because senio
Page 61 and 62: 2.8.3 Capacity Building In an attem
Page 63 and 64: for staff working for regulatory in
Page 65 and 66: 3.1 Introduction CHAPTER 3: RESEARC
Page 67 and 68: inefficiencies of management may le
Page 69 and 70: 2004). Furthermore, because the int
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According to Walonick (2004), one o
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contained section one of the questi
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Wisniewski (2002) describes reliabi
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Of the 34 respondents, there were m
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As indicated in Figure 3.4, of the
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3.8.7 Number of previous years work
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3.8.9 Divisional distribution This
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The Chi test was used to test furth
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generated and these are attached as
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to a leader who believes in their v
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Senge (1990) introduced the concept
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According to the literature once kn
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4.3.1 Job enrichment Seventy six pe
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4.3.3 Control over work assignments
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4.3.5 Challenging work For 70% of t
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and RERA are continental initiative
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Table 4.17: Exchange programmes wit
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either work for two years for NERSA
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4.5.1 Sense of achievement and numb
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and Armstrong and Murlis’ (2004)
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Table 4.25 Freedom to plan and exec
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The next chapter explores in greate
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need to create a favourable environ
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5.3.3 Focus on the individual and g
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5.4.1 Factors Analysis: factors tha
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workers’ need for individualism a
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Branham, L. (2005). Keeping the peo
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Dumas, J. and Redish, J. (1999). A
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Kaye, B. and Jordan-Evans, S. (1999
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National Energy Regulator, (2006).
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Sturgess, J. and Guest, D. (2001).
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November 2006 Dear Colleague APPEND
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SECTION 2: FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE Y
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APPENDIX B: SOURCES OF RETENTION VA
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38 Opportunities for feedback, self
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Table 3: Opportunity to achieve per
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Table 9: Information sharing 127 FR
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Table 14: Scope to balance work and
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Table 20: Scope to create desirable
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Table 26: Job enrichment Table 27:
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Table 31: Adequate remuneration, be
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Table 37: Management that values in
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Table 43: Reputation of the organis
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