National Research Database of Zimbabwe
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Effectiveness of employee compensation strategies on improving employee performance in the minerals marketing sector in Zimbabwe: a case of Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ)
No full textThe study sought to find out the effectiveness of employee compensation strategies on employee performance. A case of Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe was used. The main objectives of the research were to determine the impact of a basic pay on employee commitment, to assess the influence of commission based reward on employee productivity in the minerals marketing sector and to measure the effectiveness of fringe benefits on worker absenteeism. The study reviewed that compensating employees using fringe benefits will help in increasing employee motivation and this will lead to reduced employee absenteeism. In addition, it was also argues that a commission based pay influences the productivity of employees. Employees who are motivated by money to produce more are the ones that are largely influenced by commission based pay. Furthermore it was reviewed that a basic pay offered to employees leads to employee commitment. Relevant literature for the research was obtained from textbooks as well as online journals. A sample size of 33 was drawn from Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe in Harare and Gweru. Judgmental sampling and convenience sampling techniques were used for both the management and employee and descriptive and exploratory research designs were used in utilizing quantitative and qualitative data which was gathered to address the stated objectives through questionnaires, interviews and observation. The findings also revealed that Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe has a few and inadequate compensation packages that are currently being used. It also revealed that fringe benefits will increase motivation of the employees thus reducing worker absenteeism. It was observed through the findings that a commission based pay is very influential in increasing the productivity of employees. Moreover, the findings revealed that a basic salary that is competitive will increase employee commitment. The researcher recommended that management is challenged to continuously provide compensation packages that motivate different employees at different levels at a way that will help them increase productivity and commitment at the corporate. Various types of fringe benefits should be provided by the cooperation to ensure that there are high levels of motivation amongst employees. The researcher suggests that further research should be done on the evaluation of non-financial motivational strategies on sales revenue
An analysis of challenges of judicial management as a tool for resuscitating distressed companies: a case of Harare district
No full textThe effects of recession has seen many companies in Zimbabwe going through financial distress. Having seen that the company is now under financial distress, the stakeholders seek methods of resuscitating their operations. The methods sought are either judicial management, bailout or scheme of arrangement. The main objective of this research was to analyze the challenges of judicial management as a resuscitation tool for distressed companies in Harare District. Literature in the field of judicial management was reviewed so as to examine the existing knowledge in this arena. Judicial management involves a lot of processes, which include looking for investors, downsizing human capital, selling major assets and negotiating with the debtors to defer payments. Judicial management is done by a judicial manager appointed by the court replacing the directors of the distressed company. Questionnaires and interviews were used to come up with primary data for the research. Convenience sampling was used in the selection of respondents. The research findings revealed that distressed organizations prefer judicial management to other resuscitation tools like bailout and scheme of arrangement. It was also found during the research that judicial management has some challenges like high judicial management fees. However, successful judicial management is possible when changes are made to the current Zimbabwe Companies Act (Chapter 24.03) thereby creating a strong base to judicial management processes
Dispassionate reporting? the construction of the Zimbabwe men’s cricket team in the Herald and Dailynews.
No full textThe study seeks to assess how the Zimbabwe men’s cricket team is constructed by the two mainstream newspapers, The Herald and DailyNews. Making of or construction of reality is within the daily interactions of human in society. Society helps in shaping people’s view of the world. Construction means making-up or “creating realityâ€. The Herald and DailyNews articles between January 2016 and November 2016 constructed the Zimbabwe men’s cricket team as failures and how it makes headlines in the print media specifically in The Herald and DailyNews. The researcher sought to find the effectiveness of The Herald and DailyNews in constructing the cricket team and players, and why they make headlines in the newspapers. The study was informed by the following theoretical framework namely framing theory and political economy of the media. In addition, the research made use of qualitative research methods, critical discourse analysis and content analysis. Since the study has to be understood under its contextual meanings to find out how and why the two newspapers constructed the Zimbabwe men’s cricket team as the worst team in the game of cricket, and however a little bit of quantitative research methods were used. The findings of the study revealed that the political, economic and community identity issues traverse ion the management and production of sports news in The Herald and DailyNews bringing out a parasitism relationship between the two disciplines, sport and the mass media
Assessing the impact of the predictors of organisational citizenship behaviour in the hospitality industry in Zimbabwe
No full textThe importance of Oganisational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) is widely acknowledged by many practitioners and academicians in Zimbabwe and the world over. However, there is generally limited literature on OCB in Zimbabwe as there are few studies that were carried out especially on the Zimbabwean hospitality industry. To address this dearth of published studies, the current study attempts to examine the factors that influence OCB. The conceptualised model and four hypotheses are empirically validated using a sample of 200 non-managerial hospitality industry employees who were randomly selected from three identified categories of hotels which were stratified according to the hotel star rating (3, 4, and 5 star hotels categories). The data were analysed using descriptive, correlation and regression analyses. The results indicate that the individual, organizational and leadership characteristics are significant predictors of OCB. However, task characteristics emerged as an insignificant factor to OCB. The findings have implications to hospitality management in Zimbabwe who are advised to make efforts of ensuring proper individual, organizational and leadership characteristics among employees and management so as to enforce OCB
Assessment of levels of naturally occuring radionuclides at iron mining and processing sites in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe.
No full textMining and mineral operations have been associated with exposures of Naturally occurring radioactive materials. A study was carried out to assess the activity concentration of naturally occurring radionuclides in iron mining, processing and waste materials by means of high resolution gamma ray spectrometry using a 109 HPGe detector. A total of 12 sampling points were sampled for the Buchwa’s Ripple creek Mine, Buchwa Limestone mine and ZISCO Steelworks damp site. The samples were measured in the laboratory with respect to their gamma radioactivity for a counting time of 60000 seconds each. From the obtained spectra, activity concentrations were determined. The mean activity concentrations of 238U, 232Th, 226Ra, 210Pb and 40K in the soil samples were, 220.95, 32.99, 181.60, 112.99 and 276.24 Bq/kg respectively. The study also highlighted the potential hazards of alpha, beta and gamma emissions on human body and their mechanisms for inhalation and ingestion. The total effective dose was 0.4275 mSv per annum. The results in this study compared well with the average worldwide average values. The results indicate an insignificant exposure of public to technologically enhanced NORM
The Impacts of Tourism Development at Domboshava National Monument in Zimbabwe
No full textTourism development is regarded as an important means to benefit local communities. The success
of tourism in developed countries has inspired Zimbabwe to give recognition to the industry as the main driver
in national economic development. This study examines the impacts of tourism development in Zimbabwe using
Domboshava National Monument as an exemplar. Fifty questionnaires were distributed to local stakeholders
that include monument sites managers, tour guides, tourism developers and community leaders. Descriptive
statistics were used to determine the impacts of tourism development. Two key issues were identified in this
study and discussed, that is, the benefits of tourism development and the costs of tourism development. Results
show that, despite the limitation and development issues at Domboshava National Monument, the positive
impacts of tourism development at Domboshava National Monument outweigh the costs accrued by the local
communit
Exploring mechanisms to restore fertility of degraded lixisols for enhanced crop productivity under Smallholder Farmer Management Systems
No full textCroplands in smallholder farming areas of Southern Africa are in a degraded state, with most cereal and legume crops yielding less than 1 t ha-1 of grain. Restoring productivity of these degraded croplands is therefore key to intensifying crop production to meet household food and nutritional security needs. The objective of this study was to evaluate sequences of integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) technology components for rehabilitation of degraded sandy soils and intensification of maize (Zea mays L.)-based cropping systems in Hwedza and Makoni smallholder farming areas in Eastern Zimbabwe. Farmer participatory research approaches, laboratory characterization, remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems were first employed to formulate criteria for assessing degradation of croplands. Second, field experiments were conducted to evaluate alternate sequences of ISFM options based on nitrogen (N)-fixing green manure and grain legumes, low quality organic resources and mineral N and phosphorus (P) fertilizers for rehabilitating the degraded croplands. Third, biophysical data generated from field experimentation were combined with simulation modelling to best-fit the ISFM sequences to different resource categories of farmers. Farmers delineated croplands as productive, moderately productive, degraded and severely degraded based on common indicator weeds, crop performance and soil physical attributes. Overall, laboratory-based soil chemical and biological properties, and most of the weed species closely matched farmer categorization. Spatially, forty percent of the arable land was classified as degraded to severely degraded. Over a 3-year period, rehabilitation of the degraded sandy soils was positively influenced by high quality organic resource application and P fertilization. Indigenous legumes and sunnhemp (Crotalaria juncea L.) planted on otherwise degraded soils, with addition of mineral P fertilizer, led to higher biomass C and N production than under natural fallow. A combination of biomass generated under indigenous legume fallow (indifallow) and sunnhemp fallow, and cattle manure increased soil basal respiration and microbial biomass. Maize grain yields averaged 2.5 t ha-1 under the legume-based sequences compared with 1 t ha-1 under continuous fertilized maize and natural fallow-based options. Over a 4-year period, ISFM sequences based on cattle manure/woodland litter-, NP fertilizer- and legume-based rotations accumulated the highest maize and soyabean grain yields. This was largely explained by a significant accumulation of soil P. These sequences were more productive than farmers’ designated most-and least-productive fields. Cattle manure-based sequences gave the highest cumulative crop yields, while sunnhemp-based sequences attained the highest increase in soil P. Based on costs of seed, fertilizers and labour, the ISFM sequences gave better financial returns than the farmers’ most-and least-productive fields. When assessed over a 49-year period (1962-2011) using Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) under agronomic management of different resource categories of farmers, simulated maize yields of the ISFM sequencing options averaged 3.8, 2.4 and 1.8 t ha-1 for resource-endowed, resource-intermediate and resource-constrained households, respectively. The major conclusions from this study were as follows: (i) ethnopedological approaches could aid assessment of soil degradation on smallholder farms to inform decision-making, (ii) degraded croplands are not beyond remedy, and ISFM sequences based on herbaceous legumes are potential entry points to rehabilitate them and (iii) ISFM sequences are a suitable option for intensifying smallholder cropping systems in Southern Africa through increasing crop yields to meet energy and protein requirements of households, and allowing for systematic allocation of the often limited and variable nutrient, seed and labour resources in space and time.,1. The European Union through the African Conservation Tillage Network (ACT) under the Agroecology-based Aggradation–Conservation Agriculture: Tailoring innovations to combat food insecurity in semiarid Africa (ABACO) project to SOFECSA.
2. Rockefeller Foundation
3. Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD
The determinants of the compliance to public procurement policy requirements among public enterprises in Zimbabwe
No full textMany public entities in Zimbabwe are operating in a very volatile environment
characterised by public procurement systems open to abuse. Zimbabwe is one of the first countries in
Africa to have a Procurement Act however non-compliance issues are still a challenge. Public
procurement scandals have been a hot topic with the media and also with the Report of the Auditor
General for the financial year ended December 31, 2014 having picked on a lot of issues relating to
non-compliance with procurement regulations in a number of public enterprises. The purpose of the
study was to assess the influence selected factors (enforcement, professionalism, political
interference, familiarity with Procurement Act regulations and ethics) on compliance to procurement
regulations within the public entities. A quantitative survey research approach was used to collect
data from 144 public procurement professionals in public entities in Harare, Zimbabwe. SPSS
software version 21 was used to process the data that were later analysed through correlation and
regression analyses. Familiarity with procurement regulations, enforcement and political interference
were found to be statistically significant predictors of compliance. The managerial implications and
direction for future research are provided
Interrogating marriage as an organizing framework in land based businesses: A Case Study of women horticulture farmers in Ward 25, Nyadire District, Mutoko, Zimbabwe
No full textThis study explores married women’s rights and entitlements in horticulture businesses located in irrigation schemes in Ward 25 in Nyadire District, Mutoko, Zimbabwe. The study is primarily directed at understanding the role and impact of laws and policies on marriage and business and the differential effect of these laws on the lives of women as compared to men. Central to the argument presented in this study is the need to transcend the historical male dominated notion of marriage in family business arrangements and look at it as a partnership relationship that defines the responsibilities between the parties to each other beyond the marriage relationship. In family business relationships, marriage should not be central and treated as it has traditionally been, that is, as the dominant framework, but, rather, the business relationship should define individual contributions to the marriage.
In this study, I am arguing that the under-valuation and chronic under-recognition of women’s contribution to family economies lie in the dominance of marriage as the organizing model for farming business activities in both communal and small scale resettlement land. The study focused on not just the contribution of women to horticultural production through their labour input into the plot and household, but also on the relationship between production and reproduction in a family business that came into being as a result of marriage. The findings show that women are given minimal recognition in the business as they are not involved in the major business decisions, most importantly decisions on how the income generated from the business is used. The business models discussed in this study are the family and co-operative models. These models are layered in a way that adversely affects women’s capacity to engage with them. The findings show that the family model dominates despite the overarching old co-operative model. Whilst the operation of the irrigation schemes is regulated by state law, in reality, operation is guided by a set of norms that are more applicable and seen as being more acceptable than state enforced laws. The study concluded that regardless of whether marriage is formalised under statute or custom, women in the irrigation schemes do not enjoy anything more than the mere rights to use the land. Married women rarely enjoy equal rights to control proceeds of the horticulture businesses.
This study, therefore, seeks to profile women horticulture farmers as serious contributors and to see them not only as wives but also as partners in the business. To achieve this, the first step is to recognize the economic value of women’s work in the home and in the horticulture plots. Valuing women’s work will show the extent of women’s contribution to the horticulture business. A platform for this has been created by the 2013 Zimbabwe Constitution through the provision of an unqualified equality clause in section 56. The national objective on marriage in section 26 also provides for equality of rights and obligations of spouses during marriage and at its dissolution; and that in the event of dissolution of a marriage, whether through death or divorce, provision should be made for the necessary protection of any children and spouses. This has been put into effect through the new Agricultural Land Settlement (Permit Terms and Conditions) Regulations of 2014 (SI 53/2014) which is discussed in this study.,Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affair
A critical analysis of women participation in the law reform process: A case of the Law Commission in Malawi
No full textThe writer, a law reformer, uses her eight years’ experience in conducting law reform to interrogate the law reform process with regard to women participation in the process. This dissertation explores the extent to which women have participated in the law reform process in Malawi compared to their male counterparts in view of the right to equality and non-discrimination as well as the right to dignity which recognizes the inherent dignity and worth of each human being enshrined under sections 19 and 20 of the Constitution and other international human rights instruments.
The writer briefly discusses the establishment of the Commission, its mandate and functions, the law reform process to contextualize the study and contemporary debates on law reform give insights into what law reform is about and ought to be. Using methodologies such as the Grounded theory and the dung beetle within the Grounded theory, the Women’s Law Approach, sex and gender analysis, actors and structures and the human rights approach the study reveals the interplay of gender in the law reform process. Data collection methods including FGD, key informants, in-depth interviews, participant observations and desk research were used. She shows law reforms’ failure to tap from women’s lived realities and experience in order to adequately address women’s issues and concerns throughout the law reform process.
The study finds that more men than women participate in the law reform process. Participation in the law reform process is gendered since the majority of law reform programmes are dominated by men while only six of them are dominated by women. Also, finds that there are inadequate guidelines to ensure gender equality. Further, that gender neutral laws discriminates against women as it uses the male norm to which women must conform to, for them to benefit from the laws. It reveals dichotomies in participation in the law reform process. It unearths hidden, visible and invisible powers that have an effect on women’s participation as well as identify barriers to women participation in the law reform process.,Malawi Law Commission and Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD