• Linux.com
• Linuxlinks
• Linux Distros

When I first started out with Linux in the late 90′s, I started with Mandriva.  But I remember wondering what is this distibutions-thingy; remember, coming from Windows, there is only….well,  Windows from Micrsoft.  So how can there be so many Linux OSs.  Maybe one can say, distros is like Win 95, SE, ME, Vista, XP, Win7…. or, maybe not.  Anyway, distributions are a flavor of Linux, developed by a person or a team to their own liking.  This is what is so cool about Linux – you can take the source code of a distribution and change it to, well, YOUR distro.

So which is the best?  One can actually not really say this or that distro is the best as they are different – like people.  Therefore, different people will like different distros for different reasons; and….. on different hardware.  But, if you would be forced to choose; no, if I would have to choose from those I have played around with; no, if I would have to choose from this list (Top10 Distros), my list would look like this:

1. Fedora:  I’ve played with Fedora from the first one as I was a Red Hat fan.  Fedora is basically, in laymen’s terms, the “free” version of the old Red Hat Linux (now Red Hat Enterprise Linux RHEL).  I like the look-and-feel; the ease of installation; the compatibility with older laptops, pc’s, wifi drivers etc.  And then of course the blue…
2. Ubuntu: OK, I’m a South African and is supposed to favor and loooove Ubuntu, but I have my reservations.  Why?  Well, the Ubuntu I’ve played with (and yes, it was way back which might have changed by now; apparently it did), did not install seamlessly, did not install all drivers seamlessly and certain drivers and issues could never be fixed (yes, I’m not a super-user, but that’s exactly the point isn’t it, it should be easy for the most newbie user ever).  I mean, if the idea is to linuxise Africa with F/LOSS software, it must be newbie-friendly!  Just an after thought – why the brownish theme? (But remember, you can change color schemes so don’t let that influence your decision).
3. CentOS: OK, I know this is not really a desktop OS and is more server-like, but still, its clean, easy and if you want to mimick RHEL, this one would do!
4. openSuSe
5. Mandriva
6. Mint: Not a happy time with mint, but worth to give it a try again.
7. PCLinux: Not a happy time with PCLinux either.  Many crashes, drivers not installed, killing processes etc.  However, PCLinux is the closest to Windows you can get (although many other distro’s are resembling the Windows GUI nowadays).

Lifehacker’s list of top 5 distros:

1. openSUSE
2. Ubuntu / Debian / LinuxMint
3. Fedora
4. Arch Linux
5. Gentoo

Notes:  I’ve installed Mint and was terribly disapointed with the many “crashes” – genrally I did not had a happy time with Mint.  I’ll give it a try again!
My first try with Gentoo was way back when you had to compile your everything; so as a newbie, I never could get my Gentoo installed and working.  Definitely I think for the Linux expert.

Another Top 10 list – good one as he distinguishes between desktops, laptops and server installations:

1. Ubuntu
2. openSUSE

Another top 10 list at MyBroadband.

OK, that’s my opinion….

Usefull Linux sites:

• Linux Questions
• Linux.com
• distrowatch.com

1. Introduction

A holistic approach to Knowledge Management (KM) is important as it helps organizations to utilize the best of both worlds regarding the two main approaches to KM – a personalisation approach and a technology-centric approach.

But before we discuss these two approaches and the benefits of a holistic approach, it is important to understand what knowledge is.  Nickols (2003) wrote an important article on explaining the different facets of knowledge and “conclude that there are two basic kinds of knowledge: (1) the kind that is reflected in a person’s internal state as well as in that same person’s capacity for action and (2) the kind that has been articulated and frequently recorded” (2003 : 3).  He then goes on by differentiating between explicit, implicit and tacit knowledge.  For our purposes, we will only focus on explicit and tacit knowledge. 

Explicit knowledge is knowledge that has been codified and is available in some sort of form (documents, video, faxes etc).  Tacit knowledge is knowledge that “cannot be articulated” (Nickols, 2003 : 3) and resides mostly in people’s minds.  Shariq & Vendelo defines tacit knowledge, based on Nonaka’s definition as “knowledge that has a personal quality, which makes it difficult to formalize and communicate” (2006 : 839).  For example, after years of experience, a person might know how to drive a manual gearbox car but have difficulty in describing or teaching someone else how to use the car’s gears efficiently.  The knowledge of driving a car is tacit knowledge.  This emphasizes a very important facet of knowledge – its “connection” to human beings, and therefore context.  Knowledge is in people’s minds and has value as it is applied by people in situations.  Kucza calls it “information in action” (2001: 15).

Knowing what we mean by knowledge, it is subsequently clear that knowledge plays an important part in organizations’ operations and specifically, in their strategic operations.  Many writers in the field of Knowledge and Knowledge Management agree that knowledge is an “asset” and cognisance of this fact is more and more necessary to maintain a competitive advantage.  Zack states that more and more organizations “view knowledge as their most valuable and strategic resource” (1999 : 125).  “Companies having superior knowledge, however, are able to coordinate and combine their traditional resources and capabilities in new and distinctive ways, providing more value for their customers than can their competitors” (Zack; 1999 : 128).  Zack goes on to say that “knowledge is the fundamental basis of competition (1999 : 142).  McDermot states that the ability to “leverage knowledge is key to its (British Petroleum) competitive strategy” (1999 : 103).  Snyman & Kruger conclude that knowledge becomes an enabler of business strategies (2004 : 7).  It is therefore clear that knowledge plays an integral part, not only in the strategising operations of an organization, but in organizations as a whole, and more so because of the technological era organizations work in.  Organizations need knowledge of their context, their people and their competition to strategise.  Organizations also need a strategy to be and grow as learning organizations and in so doing, expand its knowledge base.  Knowledge and strategy should be linked to assist organizations to create a sustainable competitive advantage over competitors.  “Business strategy and knowledge management strategy should thus feed upon each other and need to work interdependently…” (Snyman & Kruger; 2004 : 17).  It is an important asset, albeit an intangible asset which needs to be managed. (Bontis 2002 : 17).

2. Two approaches to Knowledge Management

If knowledge is such an important facet of organizations that needs to be managed, it needs to be clear what we mean by Knowledge Management (KM).  Cepeda-Carrión define knowledge management “as the formalized, integrated approach of managing an enterprise’s articulated and tacit knowledge assets” (2006 : 34).  Davenport & Marchand splits the KM tasks into 2 distinct tasks namely:

1. tasks that  “facilitate the creation of knowledge”  
2. and tasks that “manage the way people share and apply it” (1999 : 41).

We agree with Brown et. al. that KM is “strategies and processes of identifying, creating, capturing, organizing, transferring, and leveraging knowledge to help individuals and firms compete” (2009 : 252).  This definition involves all knowledge processes in the management of knowledge.  It also points out the interdependency between people, context or organizational culture and organizations’ competitiveness.

This leads us to briefly explain the two approaches in KM.  The 2 approaches are clearly seen in the way organisations approach the utilisation of knowledge.  Because knowledge is such an important asset in the modern era, and because electronic technology is freely available assisting organizations in codifying and sharing knowledge, organizations approach their knowledge either by focussing on the technology or by focussing on the people who holds the knowledge.  But exactly because of the advancements in technology, many users of knowledge are under the impression that by the mere fact of using technology, they are managing knowledge.  KM is much more than just having the technology to store, index and present information. (Davenport 1999 : 41; Alavi & Leidner 1999 : 25).

2.1 Codification

The codification approach see knowledge as something that can be codified and stored in databases, indexed and reused by using computer-based systems.  This is also called the computer-based approach (Hansen et.al.; 1999 : 107) with a higher investment in IT systems and applications (for example Electronic Document Management Systems).  The use IT systems are primarily to codify and represent knowledge to people.  Fink & Disterer refers to this approach as the “people-to-document” (2006 : 383) approach. The main advantages of this approach is the reusability and low cost of knowledge management and is a suitable approach for more explicit and standardized knowledge (Hansen et.al. 1999 : 109).  Knowledge becomes an asset. 

2.2 Personalization

The personalization or people-orientated approach “emphasize the tacit nature of knowledge, and tend to interpret it as a social, context-dependant process of understanding that requires human communication and cognition in order to emerge” (Saito et.al. 2007 : 99).  This approach is much more time consuming as it requires “people-to-people” (Fink & Disterer; 2006 : 107) communication, and therefore its the more expensive approach to KM.  This approach is suitable for organizations that needs innovative customized knowledge solutions and where the sources are more tacit in nature (Hansen et.al. 1999 : 109).  The knowledge is obtained not by consulting a repository by using technology, but by consulting people, experts, through “dialogue between individuals, not knowledge objects in a database” (Hansen et.al 1999 : 108).  Technology in this approach is used to enhance the person-to-person contact by creating people-networks.

3. Holistic Approach

Hansen et.al researched the 2 approaches as they were used in different organizations and came to a conclusion that organizations who tried to use the “best of two worlds” actually stand the chance of failing in both (1999 : 112).  According to them, the choice of which approach to follow will be determined by 

• The standard or customized nature of the products
•  The maturity or innovative nature of the products
•  The explicit or tacit nature of knowledge (1999 : 115)

Fink & Disterer, on the other hand, saw a more inclusive approach but points at that the 2 approaches “must be combined appropriately” (2006 : 383).  They see the use of technology as an important enabler of the sharing and codifying process of knowledge.  ICT provides the technology and resources to codify, store, index and retrieve knowledge (codification approach), but also provides the technology to “connect people and to mediate communication” (Fink & Disterer; 2006 : 383).

A holistic approach therefore will take cognisance of both the dangers that Hansen et.al. pointed out in trying to be both, but will also take cognisance of Fink & Disterer’s inclusive approach.  A holistic approach will even go further by also taking into account the context, as pointed our earlier, an important facet of knowledge.  Because knowledge cannot be described without the human mind, it will be abstract and difficult to contain.  In contrast, technology uses a set of algorithms and program code to solve complex problems and leave no room for human’s different reaction on the same input, reactions also determined by the context.

The context of an organization is determined by several factors, amongst others by organizational culture and behaviour.  “Culture forms the basis for how we process and use knowledge by providing belief frameworks for understanding and using the knowledge, context provides the framing for the knowledge explaining how it is created and meant to be used” (Jennex, 2008 : 7). Furthermore, if an organization is not a learning organization, an organization investing in means and ways for people to share their tacit knowledge, people will be reluctant to share their knowledge (Broadbent 1998 : 2).  Fink & Disterer also points out that “various cultural barriers need to be overcome to foster knowledge sharing” (2006 : 384) simply because it is still seen as an “unnatural behaviour” for people to share their knowledge (2006 : 384).  Knowledge is power and to share your knowledge, one is giving away your power position in an organization.  It is therefore necessary to implement “actions to foster knowledge sharing” (Fink & Disterer; 2006 : 385).  “People need incentives to participate in the knowledge sharing process (Hansen et.al; 1999 : 113). 

4. Conclusion

This paper showed the importance of a holistic approach in Knowledge Management.  It defined Knowledge and KM in order to understand the intricacies in knowledge as it is part of being human.  “Knowing is a human act” (McDermott, 1999 : 105) and a “residue of thinking” (McDermott 1999:106).  Because of this, knowledge also need to be understood in its context and how organisational behaviour and culture can foster or hinder the process of knowledge sharing.  Again McDermott makes a valid point in this regard by stating that “knowledge is always recreated in the present moment” (1999 : 106).  This paper then showed the important link KM has to strategy formulation of organizations.  Because knowledge is such an important part of any modern organization, many exponents on knowledge and knowledge management are not only seeing knowledge as an asset but also linking knowledge management to strategy (Snyman & Kruger, Bontis, Zack etc.). 

Therefore, this paper concluded that a holistic approach to KM is of utmost importance as it combines all related factors involved in knowledge and knowledge management.  A holistic approach takes into account the context, culture and the people in which knowledge is created and used.  “The willingness of individuals to share their knowledge in an organisation heavily depends on the organisational culture” (Kucza; 2001 : 22). Furthermore, knowledge is not an object existing outside of human activity and therefore, all human science related study fields will have an impact on knowledge, and subsequently to knowledge management.  On the other hand, a holistic approach will also utilise the technology available to enhance the creation, capturing, sharing, retrieving and using of knowledge (knowledge processes).

A holistic approach takes these factors into account by taking cognisance of the context, the present moment (McDermott 1999), organization culture, human factors hindering sharing etc.  “Knowledge management requires a holistic and multidisciplinary approach to management processes and an understanding of the dimensions of knowledge work” (Broadbent 1998).  A study done by the Enterprise Social Learning Architecture within the Australian Defence Organisation also concluded “that the interplay between human, social and organizational issues within an organization must be considered first, to effectively facilitate social learning and knowledge management” (Warne 2001 : 140).

It is therefore clear that a holistic approach does offer the “best of both worlds” – that of a personalization approach and a technology-centric approach. 

*************

 
References

Alavi, M & D.E. Leidner. (1999). Knowledge Management Systems: Issues, Challenges and Benefits. Communications of the Association for Information Systems.  Vol 1, Art 7.

Becerra-Fernandez, I & R. Sabherwal. (2006). ICT and Knowledge Management Systems. In: Schwartz, D.G. (ed). 2006. Encyclopaedia of Knowledge Management. London: Idea: 230 – 236.

Becerra-Fernandez, I. & R. Sabherwal. (2006). ICT and knowledge management systems. In: Schwartz, D.G. (ed). 2006. Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management. London: Idea:230-236.

Bontis, N. & C.W. Choo. (2002). Managing Organizational Knowledge by Diagnosing Intellectual Capital.  In The strategic Management of Intellectual Capital and Organizational Knowledge.  Oxford University Press; London.
Broadbent, M. (1999). The Phenomenon of Knowledge Management: What does it mean to the Information Profession.  [online].  Retrieved 20 June 2009 from http://www.sla.org/pubs/serial/io/1998/may98/broadben.html

Brown, C.V.  et.al. (2009).  Managing Information Technology. Pearson Eduction Inc.; New Jersey.

Cepeda-Carrión, G. (2006). Competitive Advantage of Knowledge Management. In: Schwartz, D.G. (ed). 2006. Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management. London: Idea: 34-43

Davenport T. & D. Marchand. (1999). Is KM just good Information Management? Financial Times: Mastering Information Management, March, Part 86.

Fink, D. & Disterer, G. (2006). Knowledge Management in Professional Service Firms. In: Schwartz, D. G. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management. Idea Group: Hershey, PA: 381-388.

Folkens, F. & M. Spiliopoulou. (2004) Towards an evaluation framework for knowledge management systems. [Online]: http://omen.cs.unimagdeburgde/itikmd/fileadmin/downloads/papers/Folkens_Spiliopoulou-Towards_Evaluation_FW-PAKM04.pdf [Cited: 18 March 2008].

Handzic, M. & A.Z. Zhou. (2005). Knowledge management: an integrative approach. Oxford: Chandos. 59-83.
Hansen, M.T., Nohria, N. & T. Tierney. (1999). What’s your Strategy for Managing Knowledge? Harvard Business Review, March-Apr 1999:107-116.

Jennex, M.E. (2006). Knowledge management system success factors. In: Schwartz, D.G. (ed). 2006. Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management. London: Idea:436-441.

Jennex, M.E. (2008). Current Issues in Knowledge Management. Hershey, New York.

Kucza, T. (2001). Knowledge Management Process Model.  Technical Research Centre of Finland, VTT Publications 455.

Mahadevan, V., Braun, R. & Z. Chaczko. (2007).  A Holistic Approach of Knowledge Management Initiative for a Telecollaboration of Business System.  [online].  Retrieved 20 June 2009 from http://www.ict.uts.edu.au/publications/papers/Holistic%20Approach.pdf

Maier, R. & T. Hädrich. (2006). Knowledge management systems. In: Schwartz, D.G. (ed). 2006. Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management. London: Idea:442-450

McDermott, R. (1999). Why Information Technology inspired but cannot deliver Knowledge Management. California Management Review, 41(4):103-117.

Mittelman, A. et.al. (undated).  Holistic Management.  [online].  Retrieved 20 June 2009 from http://lrci.com/pdf/KM_White_Paper%204_9-03.pdf

Nickols, F. (2003).  The Knowledge in Knowledge Management. 

Okkonen et.al. (2002).  The Finnish top 50’s outlooks and use of Knowledge Management in Human Resources Context . Frontiers of E-Business Research.  [online].  Retrieved 13 June 2009 from http://www.ebrc.info/kuvat/343-352.pdf

Perez, R. P. & M.D. Hynes. (1999). Assessing Knowledge Management Initiatives: Sowing the Seeds of Success. Knowledge Management Review, Issue 8 (May/June 1999):16-21.

Ribière, V.M. & J.A. Román. (2006). Knowledge Flow. In: Schwartz, D.G. (ed). 2006. Encyclopaedia of Knowledge Management. London: Idea: 336-343.

Robertson, S. (2005); What is Knowledge Management? [online].  Retrieved 3 April 2009 from http://www.library.nhs.uk/KnowledgeManagement/ViewResource.aspx?resID=88741&tabID=290&catID=10406

Saito, A., Umemoto, K. & M. Ikeda. (2007). A Strategy-based Ontology of Knowledge Management Technologies. Journal of Knowledge Management, 11(1):97-114.

Shariq, S.Z. & M.T. Vendelo. (2006). Knowledge Visualization. In: Schwartz, D.G. (ed). 2006. Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management. London: Idea: 833-839

Snyman, R. & C.J. Kruger. (2004). The Interdependence between Strategic Management and Strategic Knowledge Management. Journal of Knowledge Management, 8(1):5-19.

Warne, L. et.al. (2001). A Holstici Approach to Knowledge Management and Social Learning: Lessons learnt from Military Headquarters.  In AJIS Special Edition, December 2001.  [online].  Retrieved 20 June 2009 from http://dl.acs.org.au/index.php/ajis/article/view/220/193

Zack, M. H. (1999). Developing a Knowledge Strategy. California Management Review, 41(3):125-145.

by WP Pienaar (2009)

1. Introduction

Organizations became more and more aware of the value of intellectual assets sitting in their human capital.  In a time where organizational success is meticulously measured in balance scorecards, financial statements and good governance, little is said about the tacit knowledge of its human capital.  Knowledge Management focuses our attention on this asset to meet business objectives.  Knowledge Management is therefore the process whereby knowledge are created, captured, shared and applied for value-creation.  In a more defined sense, “KM is to define and support organizational structure, allocate personnel to tasks, and monitor knowledge engineering activities (Berztiss, A in Schwartz, DG; 2006: 24).

Experience has showed that people don’t necessarily share their knowledge easily, and similarly, the existence of Knowledge Management Systems does not automatically cause people to share their knowledge.  The tacit knowledge in an organization’s workforce still needs to be utilised and codified to be of value for an organization.  Knowledge management therefore needs “to establish an environment in which people are encouraged to create, learn, share, and use knowledge together for the benefit of the organisation, the people who work in it, and the organisation’s customers” (Robertson, S; 2005).  

In this paper, three knowledge management (KM) tools, techniques and applications will be briefly discussed and compared to find its benefits and limitations as a tool, technique or application.  

2. Knowledge Management Tools, Techniques and/or Applications

2.1 KM Tool: Content Management System (CMS)

A Knowledge Management tool is considered as something with which knowledge is managed.  If for example, a computer is needed to manage the knowledge, it is defined as a tool.  In this sense, a Content Management System (CMS), Intranet, wiki, Knowledge Maps and a blog would be examples of a KM tool as all these require the use of a computer to “manage” knowledge.

2.1.1 Definition of CMS

A content management system (CMS) is a software application or processes which manages and updates the content of a web site.  CMS became popular as more and more internet users started to have their own web sites without having to know HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), the language of writing a web site or html file.  On Plone’s web site, an Open Source CMS, they define themselves as a solution whereby “non-technical people create and maintain information using only a web browser” (http://plone.org/).  One can also think of a CMS as a template for writing content and submitting it to a web site.  This should not be confused with a blog.  Although a blog is also used to submit content to a web site, a blog is generally part of a CMS and not a CMS in itself.  Therefore, “Content Management System is a way of managing content and a Blog is a way of using a CMS” (Neto, M : 2009).  Similarly, a CMS is also not a portal or Intranet.  A CMS can be used as a portal or intranet, but is much more than only a portal or an intranet.

In terms of Knowledge Management, the definition of James Robertson also incorporates the knowledge management processes.  Robertson defines a CMS as a system that “supports the creation, management, distribution, publishing, and discovery of corporate information” (Robertson, J: 2003).

Different CMS’s are available on the Internet, like Plone, Joomla and Drupal.  These are all part of the Open Source Software movement.  There are however, many commercial CM Systems available, like CM3, OpenText, Documentum and Oracle’s Stellen Web CM.  These systems all have different features to cater for the needs of its users, but will generally offer indexing and searching facilities, authoring abilities and a repository facility.  

2.1.2 Benefits & limitations of CMS

The biggest benefit of a CMS is the ability for anybody in an organization to participate in creating and publishing content.  In the beginning of the internet, it was up to highly skilled HTML developers to create and publish content to a web site.  This was also the impetus for many software developers to develop tools and templates for non-technical users to start building their own web sites.  Today many of these software, commercial and Open Source, are available.  But it was still necessary to create a web site with its content.  There was still a level of technicality to it, albeit with a GUI (like Microsoft’s FrontPage).  The next generation was the establishment of CMS from where anybody can create and publish content through a web interface, no software installs, no technical or HTML developing skills necessary as a CMS separates the design (HTML) from the content.  

The ease of creating and publishing content ensured that knowledge can be created and shared by all.  In the past the developers only created the web site structure while other departments were responsible for the creating of content.  From own experience, the developers didn’t know how the content was to be published, while the information departments, didn’t know what was possible through the technology.  Another problem was the time delay in updating the content.  CMS provides the ability for anybody with content (tacit knowledge) to be able to create and publish that content to a web site, ready to be indexed and retrieved much quicker than in the past.  If an external company has built a web site or intranet, this feature of CMS also saves the cost of support and maintenance by eliminating the need for the developer to make small changes to a web site.

Another benefit of CMS is the ability to index, organize and share knowledge quicker and easier.   Because content is organized according to consistent metadata structures, the finding of content is improved.  “Basically, if the appropriate metadata is captured on all documents, then people can find the right content a lot more quickly” (McGovern, G. 2002).

Interestingly, the same benefit of ease of use of a CMS, is also one of its limitations as the design is often captured in HTML stylesheets (Cascading Style Sheets).  Although CSS can be changed, it requires the knowledge of HTML and CSS file formatting and structure and is therefore not easy to modify a CMS to one’s own formatting or colour schemes.  Many CMS’ does provide “themes” (a set of fonts, backgrounds and colour schemes assembled in a changeable CSS) to be able to establish a personal look-and-feel to a CMS, but even these themes are limited.

2.1.3 How does CMS contribute to Knowledge Management

From James Robertson’s definition, it is already clear that a CMS contributes to KM as it facilitates all of the KM processes, like creation, capturing, sharing, organizing and using or discovery of information.  A CMS helps the creation of information by providing the platform for creating content to be published to a web site.  A CMS stores information and also makes the retrieval thereof possible by indexing and searching facilities they offer.  A CMS contributes by transfer knowledge from tacit to explicit knowledge and consequently publish this acquired knowledge to be used by an organization (application).

CM3 claims that their product not only relates to knowledge management, but also to Digital Asset Management, Document Management and Content Management amongst others.  This proves that a CMS greatly contributes Knowledge Management. 

2.2 KM Technique: Storytelling

A Knowledge Management technique is a method of extracting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge. 

2.2.1 Definition of Storytelling

Storytelling is a way of sharing your “story” with someone.  It is an ancient method of education.  For thousands of years the biblical account of God’s involvement with man was transferred from generation to generation through storytelling.  Thomas Groome recalls that “remembering and representing the Story is an essential part of the Jewish and Christian process of knowing God” (1980:192).  In KM, storytelling became an important communication tool to share knowledge, experiences, ideas and even emotions and can be used effectively in an organization to gather knowledge.  Despite many different schools and definitions of storytelling, storytelling aims to keep “the story alive”, to convey a message in a narrative genre.  Storytelling is therefore “a method to illustrate a point, convince listeners, and effectively transfer knowledge by narrating management actions, employee interactions, or other relevant events within an organization” (Ribiere, V.M. & J.A. Roman; 2006:343).

2.2.2 Benefits & limitations of Storytelling

Storytelling as a technique has several benefits.  Because one is sharing “your story”, your experiences of a happening, it is not only truthful, but also shares deeper meanings.  Although Denning requires stories to be a representation of the truth, many others believe that truthfulness is arbitrary and is “secondary to its intended use” (Connel, N..A.D. 2006:722).  Stories form part of human existence and is used in everyday life because of its power – it is captivating, shares emotions, often gives deeper understanding of events, and is personal because listeners get involved in the stories.

Storytelling as a technique also helps in building relationships in an organization.  By re-telling shared experiences, people “connects” to each other and a sense of belonging is create, which in turn creates loyalty to each other and consequently to the organization.  The more one was part of a story of the organization, the more one feels compelled to be part of the solution, to work cooperatively with others because of common experiences with others.

  Its limitations are that it cannot be used for every situation.  Because storytelling has a personal character to it, it can be counter-productive if it is used without the personal touch, without the emotional side to it.  Although the personal character of storytelling is what makes storytelling so authentic, it can also be a limitation in situations where you need objectivity, or when reporting on routine situations (SDC Knowledge Management Toolkit).  The power of storytelling lies in the interpretation and application listeners make of it in their own situations.  “Stories can provide context to interpret otherwise difficult data” (Snowden, D; 2006:680).  If you as the storyteller try to make that interpretation for others, you are limiting the power of storytelling, even robbing it from its power.  In a sense, “you have to stand back and trust that the story will ignite the listener’s own creativity” (Denning, S. 2000).  With other words, storytelling will not work where someone is trying to impose their views, their solutions on others as it robs storytelling of its characteristic of identification to the story and finding solutions.  Storytelling also needs to be understandable.

2.2.3 How does Storytelling contribute to Knowledge Management?

Storytelling is a very useful tool for organizations to create, share and transfer knowledge and experiences.  The fact that storytelling is used for centuries proves that the narrative discourse appeals to people.  It gives us an imaginary visualization while the story is being told.

In the process of creation of Knowledge, storytelling can assist by creating a visual image of information.  Visualization is a powerful media for capturing people’s imagination.  This is clearly seen in the space the electronic media (TV) and computer games have taken in the lives of modern men. Storytelling also helps inspiring people to create their own stories and therefore valuable insights and knowledge.  This is why storytelling is also a valuable KM tool in simplifying complex issues.

Storytelling also contributes to KM in the process of storage of knowledge by storing information of the past, ways of the past for future reference.  

Storytelling is probably mostly associated with the transfer of knowledge.  A story can help organizations to revisit successes and failures to learn from the experience.  Storytelling is also useful in strategic planning where the vision, mission and strategy of an organization need to be transferred to its employees.  “You have to take the time to find a story of your vision in a way that connects—a story that people can see” (Simmons, A.).  Craig de Lange (2009) provides a list of organizational processes which has all to do with the transfer of knowledge, for example Strategy Articulation, Cultural Development, Change Management and gaining insight in Client Relations.  

Storytelling hugely contributes knowledge management because it speaks to the heart and therefore opens us up for the transfer of knowledge. 

2.3 KM Application: Blogging

Knowledge Management applications are Web 2.0 websites and web applications that are used to assist people in sharing their knowledge.  Web 2.0 was the next generation development of web and internet protocols that made sharing and collaboration much more accessible to everyone, thereby creating the opportunities for social networking, web-based communities, forums and blogs.

2.3.1 Definition of Blogging

Blog is a derivative of the word “web log”.  In essence a blog or web log is an “e-diary”, an electronic version of a personal diary.  It soon developed in more than just an e-diary and rapidly became a system where individuals can add items, share insight, write articles etc. to a web site.  Webopedia defines a blog as  “a Web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author”.  SearchWinDevelopment.com added another dimension to its definition by saying blogs is online journals of people “intended for public consumption” (2007).  This is important as it is the link to Knowledge Management.  Many might argue that personal e-diaries do not contribute much to Knowledge Management but if it is content “for public consumption” it becomes a valuable tool in Knowledge Management.

2.3.2 Benefits & limitations of Blogging

The biggest benefit of blogs is the ease with which everybody can write and publish content, available to others, thereby creating and sharing knowledge.  Blogs made publishing of personal content available to everybody at a fraction of the cost of publishing a book by implementing Web 2.0 technology.  Because it is free and available, it does not have to go through the rigorous evaluation by publishing houses before publishing content, thereby creating huge opportunities for knowledge to be created and shared with everyone.  It gives therefore the author an opportunity to express himself “without the interference of a third party, such as an editor” (Babak).

Because blogs do give readers the opportunity to react (comment), they are excellent in provoking feedback and discussions.  “Potentially, the blogosphere results in even more collaboration, as it is open to a wider audience than strictly the community.” (Vinson : 2007).  Blogging also opens up the channels of communication and discussions.  A lower level employee has an opportunity (even anonymously) to participate in a post from management in which that level of employee would not have access to without blogging.  Blogging also brings different commentators together, broadening a debate with more knowledgeable contributors.  Especially on the internet, posting a contentious article on an internet blog, will attract millions of commentators and adding much more objectivity to a discussion than the same discussion would attract in a small local group.

Exactly this benefit can also pose a limitation to blogs.  Comments and feedback opens up discussions on a topic, but it rarely causes the originator to modify its opinions.  The dynamic on a blog therefore is in favour of the original creator of a post, inhibiting true and honest discussions.  

Blogs can be totally anonymous which, in an organizational context, can be beneficial, but they can also be too personal and subjective which inhibits objectivity.

Because blogs are presented in a chronological order (newest on top), it is not easy to find older entries, in which case a wiki is of more use as content can be organized alphabetically rather than blogs’ chronological approach.

2.3.3 How does Blogs contribute to Knowledge Management

Blogs contribute in several of KM processes.  Blogs contribute in the process of creating knowledge.  Apart from the approximately 200,000 posts that WordPress.com are recording daily, an organization can use an organizational blog to let their employees create insights, shared experiences or failures on recent activities by creating blogs.  These blogs stimulate discussion and collaboration amongst other employees which facilitates not only sharing but re-creation of more knowledge as people interact with each other.  Organizations who have been implementing blogs, reported an improvement on internal communications, re-engineering of work processes and even replacing email as main method of communicating (Ward : 2005).

3. Conclusion

This paper gave an overview on 3 Knowledge Management (KM) tools, techniques and applications as a means to capture and share tacit knowledge.  More and more companies realise the value of their human capital and the knowledge they share.

Some KM tools, which help managing knowledge, are KM Systems, portals, intranet, Knowledge Maps and a Content Management Systems.  This paper discussed CMS as a KM tool which enables non-technical users to create and publish content to web sites without having the need to code the html pages.  An organization can use CMS effectively by allowing its employees to share their experiences, successes and failures to internal web sites.

KM techniques are methods of extracting tacit knowledge from people.  There are many KM techniques available for different situations like After Action Review, Swot Analysis , Brainstorming, Communities of Practice, Storytelling, Anecdote to mention a few.  This paper discussed Storytelling as a technique or method to extract valuable experiences from people.  An organization can use Storytelling effectively to assist in knowledge management.  Storytelling is an effective method in troubleshooting scenarios and to break down forms of resistance in a particular group.

KM applications are mostly Web 2.0 developments that are used to assist people in sharing their knowledge easily by using web technologies.  The best known KM application is email, which is becoming the primary tool of written communication between people and organizations.  Many applications are available to manage email, for example, Microsoft’s Outlook and Groupware.  Other KM applications are Skype, Social Networking, RSS and podcasting, to name a few.  This paper discussed blogging as a KM application.  Blogging is a useful application available to organizations to allow employees to share their knowledge and experiences on blogs.  It also allows for other to participate on a blog by writing comments and hereby fostering discussions and subscribing to a blog of interest with RSS (Real Simple Syndication).  A study reported that 53% of companies who responded on a survey, indicated that they implemented blogging (Ward : 2005).  Another study reported as much as 89% of companies implemented blogging or plan to implement (Guidewire Group : 2005).  Blogging is becoming a useful tool for organizations managing their knowledge.

The advances in Information Technology has had a huge impact on information and knowledge management by making available repositories of information and knowledge to people worldwide through the use of technologies.  “ICT allows the movement of information at increasing speeds and efficiencies, and thus facilitates sharing as well as accelerated growth of knowledge” (Becerra-Fernandez & Sabherwal. 2006:1). IT provided the technology, but the available knowledge now needs to be managed.  Knowledge Management aims to create, share and apply these vast quantities of information to become knowledge in the hands of the users.

4. References

Babak, D. Blogs and Freedom of Expression.  [online]. Retrieved 29 April 2009 

Becerra-Fernandez, I & R. Sabherwal. (2006). ICT and Knowledge Management Systems. In: Schwartz, D.G. (ed). 2006. Encyclopaedia of Knowledge Management. London: Idea: 230 – 236.

Bellingham, Daryll. (2001). The Art of Storytelling: The Power of Stories in the Corporate Environment. [online]. Retrieved 21 April 2009 

Berztiss, A.T. (2006). Capability Maturity. In: Schwartz, D.G. (ed). 2006. Encyclopaedia of Knowledge Management. London: Idea: 24-29.

Bontis, N. Managing Organizational Knowledge by Diagnosing Intellectual Capital. 

Callahan, S. How to use Storytelling to size up a situation. [online].  Retrieved 9 April 2009 

Caltan, S & V Ward. (2004). Story Guide: Building bridges using narrative techniques.  Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. [online]. Retrieved 18 April 2009  

Connell, N.A.D. (2006).  Organisational Storytelling.  In: Schwartz, D.G. (ed). 2006. Encyclopaedia of Knowledge Management. London: Idea: 721-727

De Lange, C. (2009). Storytelling Dissertation slides. [online] Retrieved 21 April 2009 

Denning, S. (2000).  The Springboard: How storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations. [online]. Retrieved on 19 April 2009 

Eppler, M.J. & R.A. Burkhard. (2006). Knowledge Visualization. In: Schwartz, D.G. (ed). 2006. Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management. London: Idea: 551-560

FX Programming. (2007). Limitations of a Content Management System. [online] Retrieved 28 April 2009 

Groome, T.H. (1980). Christian Religious Education. Harper Collins Publishers, New York.

Guidewire Group. (2005).  Blogging in the enterprise. Retrieved 29 April 2009 

KM Tools: Capturing and Codifying Knowledge [online]. Retrieved 9 April 2009

KM Tools: Collaboration Tools and Articles [online]. Retrieved 9 April 2009 

KM Tools: Creating Knowledge [online]. Retrieved 9 April 2009 

KM Tools: Sharing Knowledge [online]. Retrieved 9 April 2009 

Knowledge Management Strategy Team (2008). Knowledge Management: Tools and Techniques.  [online] Retrieved 14 April 2009 

Knowledge Sharing Toolkit. Blogs [online].  Retrieved 29 April 2009 . 

Knowledge Sharing Toolkit. Storytelling [online].  Retrieved 9 April 2009 . 

McGovern, Gerry. (2002). The benefits of a Content Management System. [online]. Retrieved 28 April 2009  

Meier, P. Storytelling. [online] Retrieved 8 April 2009

Neto, M. (2009). While we are at it … [online].  Retrieved 28 April 2009  .

Ramalingam, B (2006). Tools for Knowledge and Learning: A Guide for Development and Humanitarian Organisations. Retrieved 29 April 2009 

Ribière, V.M. & J.A. Román. (2006). Knowledge Flow. In: Schwartz, D.G. (ed). 2006. Encyclopaedia of Knowledge Management. London: Idea: 336-343.

Robertson, J. (2003). So, what is a CMS?  [online] Retrieved 28 April 2009 

Robertson, S. (2005); What is Knowledge Management? [online].  Retrieved 3 April 2009 

Schwartz, D.G. (ed). (2006).  Encyclopaedia of Knowledge Management. Idea Group Reference Inc., London. 

SearchWinDevelopment.com. (2007). Definitions – blog. [online]. Retrieved 29 April 2009   

Simmons, A. The Six Stories You Need to Know How to Tell. [online].   Retrieved 21 April 2009 

Sipiora, M.J. & F. Lehner. [online]. Retrieved 21 April 2009   

Snowden, D. (2006). Narrative. In: Schwartz, D.G. (ed). 2006. Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management. London: Idea: 678-682

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Storytelling. [online].  Retrieved 14 April 2009 

The International Development Research Centre.  [online]. Retrieved 19 April 2009 . 

Vinson, J. (2007). Blogs are Knowledge Management Tools.  [online]. Retrieved 29 April 2009 . 

Ward, T. (2005).  Study: Intranet Blogging on the rise. [online]. Retrieved 29 April 2009.

Web Design Discussion. (2007).  Content Management System Benefits. [online]. Retrieved 28 April 2009 

Webopedia. Blog. [online] Retrieved 29 April 2009  

WordPress.com. Posting Activity. [online]. Retrieved 28 April 2009 from .

1.  Introduction

The South African constitution is sometimes seen as the best constitution and offering the best rights to individuals.  History shows that this grew from the tragic history of the denial of many individual rights from the old regime.  The media was not allowed to express themselves and consequently individuals were denied the right to come to an own informed decision on the current state of affairs.  Information was not freely available as many publications, organizations and thus information in general were banned.  It was only after the Truth & Reconciliation Commission exposed many of the atrocities from the previous regime, that many of us realized the extent of the binding of the freedom of expression and the abuse of basic human rights.

It is against this historical background that the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and its emphasis on individual and human rights was adopted.  The adoption of our Constitution in 1996 can truly be seen as a “major turning point in the history of our country” (Ebrahim).  

However, experience also showed that all rights have responsibilities and that there is often two sides of a coin.  People will have competing and even sometimes conflicting rights.  Individuals have rights but often those rights are in contention with other rights, or sometimes with other individuals’ rights.  For example, person A has the right to smoke while person B has the right to inhale non-smoking clean air.  It is therefore necessary to understand how the individual rights balances out in practice. 

This paper will critically discuss the legal and ethical implications of our constitutional rights of “Freedom of Expression” and “Privacy and Data” by discussing the right and responsibilities, with special application to the use of technology.  It is clear that the development of Web 2.0 and especially social networking, which includes blogging and wiki, pathed the way for many people to “express” themselves and to publish their thoughts on blogs, wikis, forums and/or email, something which was hardly possible 20 years ago.

2. Freedom of Expression

The constitution of the Republic of South Africa guarantees Freedom of Expression in chapter 2 section 16:

Freedom of expression
1.  Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which includes-

•  
  • freedom of the press and other media;
  • freedom to receive or impart information or ideas;
  • freedom of artistic creativity; and
  • academic freedom and freedom of scientific research.

2.  The right in subsection (1) does not extend to-

•  
  • propaganda for war;
  • incitement of imminent violence; or
  • advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion, and that constitutes incitement to cause harm.

This right ensures that individuals have the right to express themselves.  Britz & Ackerman calls this right “the cornerstone of any democracy” (2006:59).  But as this paper indicated, this right does have responsibilities in that the freedom to express one self should not impede on the privacy and/or freedom or good name of any other individual.  There should therefore be a balance between “the right of freedom of expression on the one hand, against the right to privacy and dignity of individuals on the other” (De Vos 2009).  The constitution has therefore a few restrictions as indicated in section 16(2).  The restrictions are: 

• propaganda for war;
• incitement of imminent violence; or
• advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion, and that constitutes incitement to cause harm.

This paper will shortly examine this right in a concrete situation.  The media broke a “scoop” recently of a sporting icon (rugby player), husband of a prominent celebrity couple who was caught with a sex worker and sniffing, what was suggested to be, drugs.  The public was divided over the issue.  There were a few angry debates between bloggers (ekkedink & vandermerwe) whether this should be published.  On the one hand people felt that what he (or they) does, is a private affair and the media should not report on these issues, or even stronger, the public don’t want to see these “juicy” information in the media.   (ekkedink) .  On the other hand, a journalist replied and emphasized the “watchdog role” (corlivandermerwe) the media plays in society.  De Vos feel strongly about the freedom of expression of the media, saying “the right to freedom of the expression as exercised by the media is fundamental to the protection of the inherent human dignity of every South Africa(n) (sic)”.  He goes on to say “when powerful people attack the media they in effect attack the right of individuals to human dignity.” (De Vos 2009).

De Vos (2009) refers to a court case (Johncom Media Investment vs M, Case CCT 08/08), indicating the contradictory articles of the constitution (16) and article 12 of the Divorce Act 70 of 1979.  The Divorce act seeks to protect divorcing parties’ rights (and those of their children) to privacy and dignity by prohibiting publication of information that comes to light during a divorce action” (Johncom Media Investments v M).  A judge (Cassim) declared in another court case this article to be inconsistent with the Constitution (section 16(1)).   Judge Jafta agreed on the decision of Judge Cassim that the Divorce Act is inconsistent with the Constitution, but also prohibited the publication of details of any party or child in any divorce proceeding, thereby effectively agreeing on the validity of section 12 of the Divorce Act.  This example shows how difficult it sometimes is to balance conflicting rights.    

Zapiro in Zuma cartoon uproar

Another example is the cartoons of Zapiro, a cartoonist.  He published a cartoon of Mr Jacob Zuma which started a huge debate on whether the cartoon could not be classified under the restrictions of the Constitution on the grounds of incitement to cause harm (defamation or iniuria).  The ANC, SACP and ANCYL commented on the cartoon saying that the cartoon “borders on defamation of character and insults the integrity of the secretary general of the ANC, comrade Gwede Mantashe, and alliance leaders”. (Van Hoorn).  De Vos felt that it surely could constitute defamation of Mr Zuma, but that Mr Zuma would actually lose more in getting a judgement against Zapiro.  It will sometimes be difficult to strike a balance in the right of Freedom of Expression and the privacy and protection of others as defamation might be seen as a “method to silence the media” (Freedom of Expression Institute:1).

Having the Internet as another form of publication, imposes this responsibility even more on individuals.  The Internet opened up many opportunities for the right of “Freedom of Expression”.  This opportunity paved the way for bloggers and journalist from depressing countries to use this medium as a way to voice their concerns and to report on human right infringements.  Tragically, many of these bloggers and journalists are being silenced by non-democratic regimes (Dabhoiwala).  Nevertheless, even on this open platform of publication, the balance should still be the ruling principle; the balance between expressing oneself vs. the privacy of another.  The Internet is therefore “no more exempt than other media from reasonable laws against hate speech, libel, fraud, child pornography and pornography in general, and other offenses. Criminal behaviour in other contexts is criminal behaviour in cyberspace, and the civil authorities have a duty and a right to enforce such laws” (Foley : 2002).  It is however, in the public interest to expose human right infringements by non-democratic regimes.

The question is still a burning issue: how does one strike a balance?  It is therefore important to notice that, although we all should have the Freedom of Expression, it should be counter-balanced by acknowledgement of the privacy of others. 

 3.  Privacy & Data Protection

The digital world we’re all participating in, have a huge effect on the right to privacy and data protection.  To willingly give our personal data to another person for a specific use was necessary even before the digital era.  But the information was used for a purpose and the availability of personal data was not that freely available.  But with the digital media and possibilities, this changes completely.  Now, individuals’ personal data can be sent via email, or even as a signature in a document, to another person and can be digitally stored and unlawfully used for another purpose.  This implies that an individual to a certain extent lose “the tracing and by implication control” (Britz & Ackerman 2006 : 46) over their  personal data.  Personal data can be stored, indexed and accessed much easier as was possible in paper format, making it easy for organizations to retrieve this information and use it “without necessarily having confirmed their accuracy or perhaps without the knowledge of the individuals concerned” (SA Law Reform Commission 2005 : 2). This obviously brings another set of rights, and endless possibilities for infringement with major impact on individuals to the fore.

Britz & Ackerman (2006 : 46) defines privacy in this context as follows:

• “The right to be left alone.
• The right of control over private information
• Freedom from judgement

This paper will briefly discuss Privacy and Data Protection from a real-world example.  A user complained that his email was accessed by the company’s IT section without his knowledge.  This “invasion of privacy” caused him considerable harm as he was exposed regarding his sexual orientation.  On closer investigation it was found that the company’s IT policies and procedures did indicate that the resources and emails are the property of the company as they are tools to perform their job.  It was also stated that the IT section will be allowed to monitor these resources from time to time without prior notice.

Britz & Ackerman (2006:48) indicates that this right to privacy and data protection is not a basic human right as for example, the right of Freedom of Expression, and therefore it can be waived if the following conditions are met:

• If the invasion of privacy has a legal foundation (for example the above example through the company’s IT Policy)
• If the invasion was reasonable in relation to the purpose of invading an individuals privacy
• That the information obtained will not be used for any other purpose.

The South African Constitution (section 14) as well as Common Law does protect the privacy of individuals as a human right (SA Law Reform Commission, 2006) which is confirmed from the judgment of the case of O’Keeffe vs. Argus Printing and Publishing Co Ltd. 

Evaluating the validity of the above scenario, it must be said that the company did indicate their intention through the IT policies and the user did sign the acceptance thereof.  The individual however argued that, although he did accept these conditions, he still have the right to privacy.  But, “an individual’s expectation of privacy must be weighed against the conflicting rights of the community” (SA Law Reform Commission, 2006 : 19), a right which in this scenario, the organization had.  This “infringement” was not mala fide which seems to be one of the controlling factors in determining whether such an infringement was unlawful.

4.  Conclusion

This paper critically discussed the constitutional rights of “Freedom of Expression” and “Privacy & Data Protection”.  Regarding Freedom of Expression, this paper concludes that this right “must be defended against encroachment or assault from any quarter, public or private” (Scarone 2002 : 10).  The same can be said regarding the right to Privacy and Data Protection, especially reading this against the background of the South African history of infringement of individuals’ privacy.  However, the exclusions can be easier determined in relation to Privacy and Data Protection than Freedom of Expression as individuals willingly participate in the dissemination of their private information for specific, and often, trade purposes.

*************

References

Black Sash (2008).  Our History.  [online].  Retrieved 27 May 2009

Britz, H & M Ackerman. (2006).  Information, ethics and the law.  Van Schaik Publishers. Pretoria.

Constitutional Court of South Africa. (2009).  The History of the Constitution.  [online]. Retrieved 25 May 2009

Constitutional Court of South Africa. (2009). Johncom Media Investments vs M. [online]. Retrieved 25 May 2009

Dabhoiwala, M. (2008).  Legal systems used to silence bloggers, suppress freedom of expression.  [online].  Retrieved 24 May 2009

De Vos, P (2009). About Joost, that sex tape and the Divorce Act., on Constitutionally Speaking.  [online].  Retrieved 26 May 2009.

Ebrahim, H. (undated).  Turning Points in History Book 6.  [online].  Retrieved 27 May 2009

Ekkedink (2009).  Jock Joost., Blogs of ekkedink.  [online].  Retrieved 26 May 2009

Foley, JP. (2002).  Ethics in Internet., in Pontifical Council for Social Communications.  [online].  Retrieved 24 May 2009

Freedom of Expression Institute (2005).  Media and the Law Handbook.  [online].  Retrieved 24 May 2009.

SA Law Reform Commission. (2005).  Media Statement by the SA Law Reform Commission.  [online].  Retrieved 27 May 2009

SA Law Reform Commission. (2006).  Discussion Paper 109 (Project 124), cp 2.  [online].  Retrieved 27 May 2009

Scarone, M (2002).  The meaning of Journalist Ethics., in Professional Ethics, Media Legislation & Freedom of Expression in Lebanon.  [online].  Retrieved 24 May 2009

South African Government Information. (undated)  Chapter 2 Bill of Rights.  [online].  Retrieved 24 May 2009

Van der Merwe, C (2009).  Hou op kerm oor die media., Blogs of corlivandermwerwe.  [online].  Retrieved 26 May 2009

Van Hoorn, I. (2008).  Zapiro in Zuma cartoon uproar., in Mail & Guardian online.  [online].  Retrieved 27 May 2009

***

DIE NG KERK EN OPSPLITSING …

Ek reageer graag op die onlangse reeks, en dikwels negatiewe media blootstelling wat die NG Kerk gehad het. Ek noem ’n paar voorbeelde:

• Debat oor Homoseksualisme en negatiewe berigte daar rondom
• Ds Laurie Gaum
• Ontevrede leraars en studente oor die leer suiwerheid van Teologiese Opleiding
• Debatte oor “Oop Gesprek”
• Gemeenteverklarings vir en teen die belydenis van Belhar
• Skrif interpretasie en Skrifgesag

… om maar net ’n paar te noem.

In die lig hiervan is ek oortuig daarvan dat die NG Kerk, soos dit vandag struktureel (Algemene Sinode, Sinode, Ring) bestaan, uitgedien is. Kom laat ek dit duideliker stel. Ek glo nié die NG Kerk het geen plek meer in SA nie, ek glo wel dat die voortbestaan van die Algemene Sinode, Sinodes en Ringe se tyd uitgedien is. Ek sien dus in my geestesoog dat die NG Kerk as individuele gemeentes regoor ons land bly voortbestaan, maar dan inderdaad as indivudele gemeente, soewerein soos die gereformeerde beginsel in elk geval nog altyd was.

My motivering vir die wegdoening van die strukturele bande van die NG Kerk is as volg:

1. Toe die NG Kerke in 1962 bymekaar gekom het en die Algemene Sinode gevorm het, was dit die regte tyd daarvoor. Dit was ’n tyd van “saam sit wat bymekaar hoort”. Republiekwording was nog vars in die geheue. Dit was ook ’n tydperk waarin die samelewing op ’n modernistiese paradigma gefunksioneer het. Besluite is van bo geneem. Daar is geglo dat probleme en bediening beter gedoen kan word as almal saamwerk in een gemeenskaplike doelwit. So het dit gekom dat die Algemene Sinode riglyne neergelê het vir predikante salarisse; besluit het waar en hoe sending- en evangelisasie sal plaasvind en allerlei ander sake en besluite is geneem namens gemeentes. Predikante in Sinodale diens was ’n amp wat gefloreer het. Sinodale bydraes het die finansiering vir hierdie groot “modernistiese struktuur” gevorm. Hoewel die gereformeerde beginsel steeds gegeld het dat die plaaslike gemeemte soewerein is, was teenkanting teen die Algemene Sinodale besluite, asook teen Sinodale besluite nie regtig geduld nie.

Dis alom bekend dat ons hele samelewing nie meer vandag volgens die modernistiese paradigma funksioneer nie, maar eerder post-modernistiese. Hoewel talle mense ’n probleem daarmee het, is dit ’n gegewe feit en eintlik nie iets waaroor mense besluit nie, maar eerder ’n natuurlike ontwikkeling. Sleutelbegrippe in die Modernistiese paradigma is universaliteit, orde, fokus op die rasionele en rede, eenheid en kontrole. Binne hierdie paradigma het die Algemene Sinode perfek gepas, om orde in gemeentes te bring, enersdenkendes bymekaar te bring, kontrole oor die voortgang en arbeid van die kerk. Die stigting van die Algemene Sinode en al sy strukture het orde gebring. Teenoor dit staan die post-modernisme wat kritiek lewer teenoor die modernisme met sleutelbegrippe soos andersheid, meervoudigheid (teenoor eendersheid), die ineenstorting van hiërargiese strukture. Ons sien dit selfs in ons opvoedingsbeleid. In postmodernisme word die verkryging van kennis nie as ’n doel opsigself gesien nie, maar hoe daardie kennis gebruik kan word. (Klages, M. Ongedatteer. Postmodernisme. Aanlyn artikel. (14 Augustus 2005). en Kelly, U (1997). Schooling desire: Literacy, cultural ploitics, and pedagogy. Aanlyn artikel. 14 Augustus 2005).

En interessant genoeg, is modernisme een van die teelaardes vir fundamentalisme. “Religious fundamentalism is a strong, even extreme, reaction to modernity, and must be understood in the context of modernism.” En volgens hierdie onbekende skrywer bewys hy hoe fundamentalisme in alle godsdiensgroeperinge tans floreer. (Interreligious Dialogue. Aanlyn by hierdie webblad.)

In die post-modenristiese paradigma word besluite nie meer “van bo” (Algemene Sinode, Sinode, Ring) hiërargies geneem nie, maar eerder vanaf die breë instemming van “onder-af”. Ons sien dit in hoe gemeentes nie meer berus by die sending- en evangelisasiewerk wat vroeër deur Sinodes verrig is nie, maar eerder self betrokke raak deur sendelinge uit te stuur en te ondersteun wat aan hulle bekend is. Daarmee saam die groeiende ontevredenheid teen hoë Sinodale aanslae. Dit het ook teweeg gebring dat baie Sinode strukture verander het, juis om hierdie nuwe manier van doen te inkorporeer, soos byv die wegdoening van PSD’s vir elke dienswerk, die Sinodale Sentrums (wat terloops uitstekend inpas in ’n modernistiese paradigma), en meer stroombelyne Sinodale vergaderings. Ons sien dit ook in die manier hoe vergaderings deesdae gehou word; weg van die Sinodale Sentrum Sinodesaal waar daar met moderne tegnologie vir of teen gestem word, na ’n post-modernistiese styl van kleiner groep besprekings en konsensus. Die punt is, ons tyd en manier van doen het plek gemaak vir ’n struktuur soos die Algemene Sinode/Sinode/Ring.

2. My volgende motivering spreek juis die probleem aan waarmee die Sinodes en Algemene Sinode huidiglik sit, naamlik konsensus oor kontensiuese sake, soos byv homoseksualisme en die Belydenis van Belhar. Ongeag die meriete van elk van hierdie sake, indien elke gemeente “wegbreek” van die Algemene Sinode/Sinode/Ring struktuur, kan hulle die gereformeerde beginsel werklik uitleef naamlik soewereiniteit. Dit beteken dat elke gemeente self kan besluit oor Homoseksualisme, self kan besluit of hulle vir of teen die Belydenis van Belhar is ens. Dit sal vervolgens ook daarote lei dat, waar dit van pas is, gemeentes kan begin saamwerk o.g.v. belydenis en omgewing en nie hoef te wag vir die Algemene Sinde om so ’n wye besluit te neem wat almal tevrede sal stel nie, iets wat in ons pluralistiese samelewing eintlik nie meer moontlik is nie. Die bediening in ’n Wes Kaapse omgewing sien totaal anders daarna uit as ’n bediening in byv Polokwane. Dit is dus byna te veel gevra om ’n besluit te kry wat beide gemeentes se behoeftes aanspreek. Dieselfde geld vir bedieningstyle soos erediens inrigting en sang. Soewerein hoef geen gemeente te wag vir die Algemene Sinode nie en kan ’n besluit tot eenwording, samewerking of nie geneem word sonder om die “struktuur” te kompromiteer. Ons sien dit eintlik reeds in verklarings wat gemeentes maak oor die Belydenis van Belhar, Skrifgesag Homoseksualisme, waarmee hulle eintlik (modernisstiese gesproke), die Algemene Sinode se besluit vooruitloop.

Gemeentes kan dan kies om saam te werk met gemeentes en selfs ander kerke (wat ook almeer gebeur) in hul eie omgewing om probleme en behoeftes in hul omgewing aan te spreek, in plaas daarvan om “gedwing” te word om binne Ringsverband saam te werk.

3. So ’n “opbreek” van die “struktuur” sal ook daartoe lei dat gemeentes kan kies om hul belydenisgrondslag te verbreed. Indien gemeente A die Belydenis van Belhar wil aanvaar, staan dit hulle dan vry, so ook ander wat nie wil nie. Dieselfde geld vir die behoefte by sommige gemeentes om ’n meer beskrywende naam te kies. Samewerking sal dan geskied op ’n gekose doelwitte of belydenisgrondslag. Ook eenheid sal heel anders daarna uitsien. Vir jare was daar ’n inter-kerklike komissie wat eenheid probeer bewerkstellig het tussen die NH Kerke en die Geref Kerke. Omdat almal probeer om algehele eenstemmigheid in hulle onderskeie “Algemene Sinodes” te verkry, sal dit nooit ’n werklikheid word nie, maar in eie omgewing sou dit kon gebeur dat ’n dorp/gemeenskap kies om een te word.

Die ironie van alles is dat die beginsel eintlik nog altyd geld, naamlik die soewereiniteit van elke gemeente. Dat gemeentes so geredelik “instem” om gehoor te gee aan die Algemene Sinode/Sinode/Ring is eintlik wesenlik vreemd vir die Gereformeerde beweging, hoewel baie teoloë anders daaroor sal voel. WD Jonker was nog altyd ’n groot voorstaander vir institusionele eenheid en het voorts ook die kerk as instelling gelykgestel met die liggaam van Christus, terwyl iemand soos Abraham Kuyper die kerk as organisme as die liggaam van Christus beskou maar dit moeilik van die die kerk as instituut sou sê. Kuyper het so ’n eenheid as ’n bedreiging vir verskeidenheid gesien, iets wat inderdaad in ons post-moderne samelewing aan die gebeur is. Vir Kuyper was kerkverband ’n losse konfederasie van selfstandige kerke wat aangegaan word met die oog op bepaalde doeleindes (Theron, PF & Kinghorn, J (1989). Kerk en Kosmos: Huldigingsbundel ter ere van Prof WD Jonker. p. 95). Die grootste beswaar teen hierdie siening sou wees dat die belangrike strewe na eenheid (Joh 17) juis nie tot sy reg kom nie. Ek meen dat gemeentes, wie volledig kerk is (Heyns, JA. 1977. Die Kerk) steeds kan streef na eenheid, maar dan binne sy omgewing waar daar eenderse belange en probleme is. In so ’n eenheid sal belydenis en bediening die samewerking bepaal, en nie kleur, kultuur of taal nie, of selfs nie ’n groter institutêre eenheid nie.

Miskien was Abraham Kuyper inderdaad voor sy tyd.

Thabu Pienaar

Extract

Lee Kwam Yew, a former Prime Minister of Singapore, was quoted as stating: “I do not believe that democracy necessarily leads to development…” (as in Sachikonye, LM (2002).  What kind of regime has the ability to strategize for sustainable development?

This paper will first define the terms “democracy” and “sustainable development”.  There are many definitions of democracy, and many ways of implementing democracy.  The apartheid-South Africa claimed to be a democracy, while many people didn’t have the right to vote. Zimbabwe claims to be a democracy but many people might not dare to be against the ruling party, resulting in not much freedom of speech.  The World Bank adds a dimension of “Good Governance” to democracy.  And what is sustainable development? Is it meant to only define economical development or in a broader sense? 

Following the definitions, this paper will discuss the relationship between democracy and sustainable development.  Most authors agree that there is a close relationship between democracy and development. Unesco (Boutros-Ghali, B. 2002) argues that democracy needs development to stabilise itself, conversely development needs democracy to provide the necessary checks and balances and ownership to be implemented successfully. The question would therefore be how this relationship can be described.  It will close with a critique and factors promoting development.

In closing, this paper will conclude that it is too simplistic to equate democracy with development and vice versa, but  it is imperative that the right conditions should exist in order for development to thrive.

Contents

1.  Introduction
2.  Defining terms
   1.  Democracy
   2.  Sustainable Development
3.  The Relationship between Democracy & Development
   1.  Dependence between democracy and development
   2. No dependence between democracy and development – authoritarian regimes
   3. Critique
4.  Conclusion
   1. Factors promoting Development
5. References
6. Bibliography

1. INTRODUCTION

Lee Kwam Yew, a former Prime Minister of Singapore, was quoted as stating: “I do not believe that democracy necessarily leads to development…” (as in Sachikonye, LM (2002).

These remarks were made against the backdrop of the miraculous growth and development East and South-East Asia has experienced in the past (Bhagwati, J. 1996). To assess these remarks, one needs to clarify what is understood by democracy, sustainable development and the relationship between them.

Democracy is a political regime where every citizen has the opportunity in participating in the decision-making process of a country, whether it is by representation or by direct participation. An underlying principle in democracy is equality, justice and the protection of basic human rights. After the fall of communism, the general conclusion was that democracy is the only viable political regime that can stand the test of time. This led to increased pressure on authoritarian states to democratize. With this background, developmental initiatives were more and more conditioned by the measure of “good governance”, closely related to democracy. One can therefore not minimalise the role Globalisation played in pressure being applied on governments internationally. Globalisation ensured that market forces and investment of foreign companies played a bigger role in economies and therefore required democratic principles and threats where these principles have been violated.

Sustainable development is seen by many as a sustained economic growth rate with the result of increased wealth, but as we shall see, development is more that just economic growth. Development should benefit the well-being of human beings in all spheres of life, for generations to come.

What kind of regime has the ability to strategize for sustainable development? Different approaches have tried to establish the relationship between democracy and development, and it seems none with conclusive findings. “Rather, they merely suggest that the relationship is more complex than we have tended to portray it” (Colaresi, M. & Thompson, W.R. 2003:387). Different approaches will be assessed, but all that is clear is that both an authoritarian regime and a democracy will need to ensure that basic human values exist in society, values that have respect for life, human rights and the rule of law.

2. Defining Terms

2.1 Democracy

Democracy originated from around the 5th century B.C with the reforms introduced by Solon and Kleisthenes in Athens, and stems from the combination of 2 Greek words, demos (meaning people) and kratos (meaning power). Democracy generally refers to a government where the decision-making power is in the hands of the majority in a society. “Every citizen of Athens was equally entitled to attend, vote, and speak at meetings of the assembly, which decided all the great issues of state: …” (Dunn, J. 1993:241). This form of direct democracy, a democracy where the citizens are directly involved in the decision-making process is different than representative democracies which is seen in many modern democracies.

Although this is the original definition of democracy, it does not define all the intricacies of a democracy, or that Athenian democracy is the only early democracies available to study. Not only are there long traditions and different approaches to democracy, but there is also a recognition that democracy came a long way since these reforms. Conversely, democracy isn’t a “finished product”, as it is seen in modern times or the “end of history” (Hall, S. et al. 1992:20) as Francis Fukuyama (1989) argued. As a human activity it will always be history in the making.

Janda, Berry & Goldman (2002, pp. 34-39) defines 2 approaches namely a procedural approach and a substantive approach to democracy. The procedural or aggregative approach of democracy “emphasizes the procedures that enable the people to govern” (Janda, et al., 2002:34). The substantive approach emphasizes the principles of democratic policies ensuring basic human rights and freedom, and providing in the needs of the people. Procedures focuses on the way the government is structured to ensure that democracy prevails, while the substantive approach ensures that all policies adhere to democratic principles, for example a constitution or a Bill of Rights, ensuring basic human rights. Both of these approaches fall prey to problems undermining democracy. The procedural approach can produce policies that undermine minority rights while the substantive approach does not always provide democratic criteria on which it can be measured against.
Janda, et al., goes further to explain the difference between the majoritarian model of democracy and the pluralist democracy. Majoritarian democracy is strictly the will of the majority of the people. “The pluralist model of democracy interprets ‘government by the people’ to mean government by people operating through competing interest groups” (Janda, K. et al., 2002:42). The pluralistic model focuses on public participation and decentralized governance and is therefore better equipped to provide methods of protecting the rights of minority groups. It is also not dependant on an ancient critique to democracy (Dunn, J. 1993:260), an educated electorate, as is the case with majoritarian model of democracy.

Iris Young (2000) differentiate between the two approaches along the same lines with the definition of the Aggregative Model and the Deliberative model. While the aggregative model focuses on the will of the majority, irrespective of the rationality or the subjective personal preferences of individuals, the deliberative model focuses on public participation and discussion with the aim to arrive at the best agreed-upon decision. A choice is made for the substantive approach or the deliberative model (Young, I.M. 2000:26) because it corresponds the best to the ideals of democracy.

When democracy defines participation as the equal right of “the people”, one needs to differentiate between political equality and social equality. While “one man one vote” ensures political equality, it doesn’t ensure social equality. Unequal wealth and education can create a situation where some citizens are more able to participate in governance than others. “Thus, some analysts argue that equality in wealth, education and status – that is social equality – is necessary for true political equality” (Janda, K. et al., 2002:14).

The World Bank doesn’t define democracy as such but requires “good governance” as a measure of performance, and therefore, by implication, requires a democracy. The quest for good governance by the World Bank’s definition thereof is along the path of political accountability, financial transparency and accountable management, a sound judicial system and freedom of association, participation, expression and information. Although the World Bank concentrated on sustainable developmental issues, its conditions entered the realm of modern liberal democracy. As Goran Hyden states, this “is a call for liberalization and democratization” (Hyden, G. 1992:5). However, Leftwich (1993) points us to a requirement in the World Bank’s Articles of Agreement which prohibit the use of political criteria. In fact, “the World Bank has loaned to both democratic and non-democratic member governments, …” (Leftwich, A. 1993:606). Nevertheless, the World Bank’s condition of good governance in a sense does add to the definition of democracy. “In current usage there is no doubt that good governance means a democratic capitalist regime, …” (Leftwich, A. 1993:611).

Although probably everybody more or less know what is meant by democracy, there are many different forms and nuances, all classified as democracy. It is also true that many countries would technically be a democracy because of elections being held, technical freedom of speech and participation, but the reality might be very different. The apartheid-South Africa claimed to be a democracy, while many people didn’t have the right to vote. Zimbabwe claims to be a democracy but many people might not dare to be against the ruling party, resulting in not much freedom of speech. Przeworski (1991) argues that some authoritarian groups uses democracy as a stepping stone to conquering other authoritarian groups. Therefore, to be a democracy and to sustain as a democracy, it must be true institutionally as well as non-institutionally. Institutionally democracy needs an independent judicial system that can guarantee basic human rights and the citizens’ rights to freedom of speech, participation and the media and elections where citizens can participate in decision-making, albeit representative. Non-institutionally democracy needs “to be embodied in a culture, a state of mind that fosters tolerance and respect for other people, as well as pluralism, equilibrium and dialogue between forces that make up a society” (Boutros-Ghali, B. 2002:10). These are basic human values that need to exist in peoples.

2.2 Sustainable Development

The concept of sustainable development originated from a realisation of the depletion of the natural resources of the world. The United Nations incorporated the term in their quest for an answer on the development of the Third World. Since then, sustainable development was the force of many programmes and initiatives in and outside the United Nations. “We can say without fear of equivocation that in the Third World, over the past fifty years, no single idea has been as obsessive, in the thinking of African governments, as the goal of development” (Prah, K.K. 2005:8). More recently, The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), an African initiative to help Africa to develop is an initiative that grew from an OU mandate “to develop an integrated socio-economic development framework for Africa”. (Nepad in brief, 2001). Its main purpose is to address the escalating poverty and underdevelopment of Africa and to actively participate in the world economy.

Nepad’s aim is to achieve these goals by helping Africa to realise the abundance of resources available to Africa, but also help Africa to understand that these resources needs to be consolidated and utilised in partnerships with Africa and the international community. Nepad tries to let Africa take responsibility for their own development. “At its core, it is a deal in which African leaders will take responsibility for creating the right political conditions for development by ensuring good governance and ending regional conflict” (Wissink, H. & Melnyk, A. 2004:3).

Many international initiatives, primarily led by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have been criticized for being too conditionally and in many cases, only to serve their own interests. These initiatives often didn’t represent the cultural, socio-economic realities of the African continent. It is with this background that Nepad wishes to establish new partnerships to “solving Africa’s problems with African solutions” on a road to sustainable development.
The critique against Nepad and Nepad’s review initiative, African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is that it might just be another “puppet instrument of wealthy nations” (Mathoho, M. 2003:6), contradicting the whole aim of solving Africa’s problems with African solutions.

The question is: what is sustainable development? Is it meant to only define economical development or in a broader sense? The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (http://www.oecd.org/) defines sustainable development as a “development path along which the maximisation of human well-being for today’s generations does not lead to declines in future well-being” (OECD). Sachikonye (2002) uses the same definition when he refers to sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (2002:3). The International Institute for Sustainable Development (http://www.iisd.org/about) has the same scope, taken from the 1987 report of The World Commission on Environment and Development, “countless generations to come” (http://www.iisd.org/about/faq.asp). UNESCO defined sustainable development as the “whole range of economic, social and cultural progress to which people aspire” (Boutros-Ghali, B. 2002:11). In the context of Africa and this paper, the definition by Guy Mhone (2004) best describe the focus of government as a “conscious, strategic stance … to promote accelerated economic growth, structural transformation, social development and the repositioning of the economy in the international division of labour by constantly influencing the performance of the market” (Mhone, G 2004:38).

Sustainable development is therefore the interactions by government, citizenry and civil organisations to ensure that all structures and policies are aligned with the purpose of empowering people to meet their socio-economic human needs and to ensure that the same opportunities exists for the next generation through labour and market forces.

3. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEMOCRACY & DEVELOPMENT

In the context of this paper, and specifically the statement made by Lee Kwam Yew, one now needs to look at the relationship between democracy and development.

Most authors agree that there is a close relationship between democracy and development. Unesco (Boutros-Ghali, B. 2002) argues that democracy needs development to stabilise itself, conversely development needs democracy to provide the necessary checks and balances and ownership to be implemented successfully. The question would therefore be how this relationship can be described.

Sachikonye (2002) describes three different approaches in literature on the relationship between democracy and development.

3.1 Dependence between democracy and development

The first approach is a strong correlation between democracy and development. Many scholars would agree that democracy and development are synonymous to each other. From the monumental work of Adam Smith, the Wealth of the Nations, to Lipset’s article in 1959 in The American Political Science Review, to more recent authors like Huntington, Beetham, Friedman, UNESCO’s 1993 Vienna Declaration and others who all have argued that “democracy and economic development have a reciprocal effect on each other” (Gang, G. 1998). The general notion is that democratic principles of economic and individual freedom and equality provide the backdrop for economic growth which in turn will provide sustainable development.

Democracy then Development

The fall of Marxist/Communism and the democratization of many African countries during the last decade of the 1990’s supported the view that the world needs to democratize. Fukuyama (1989) went so far as to say that the triumph of the West marks the “end of history” and “Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government” (Held, D. 1992, p. 20). Democracy was seen as the only viable regime, more so for the developing world and the quest for sustainable development.

It is with this notion that the World Bank and other donor organizations entered the debate on the relationship between democracy and development. When the World Bank singled governance out as the major culprit in Africa’s poor economic performance, it indirectly calls for democracies to be established. The World Bank, in its 1989 report, set the following conditions for good governance (Landell-Mills, P. & Serageldin, I. 1991:15) :

1.  Political accountability
2.  Freedom of association and participation.
3.  A sound judicial system.
4.  Bureaucratic accountability.
5. Freedom of information and expression.
6. Capacity building.

These conditions clearly points in the direction of democracy. Therefore, this approach argues that for development to be sustainable, democracy or at least, democratic principles should prevail.

K.T. Liou (2001) explains the important role that governments play in development. Since the changes that swept through Eastern Europe and Africa, developing countries’ governments concentrated on measures to drive the market in a global environment. These measures often included the deregulation of economic policy, privatization and decentralization of administration.

This approach clearly argues that democratic governance should be installed for developmental approaches to work because the lack of these principles will compromise development and international confidence in the market, which development need to be sustained.

Development then Democracy

Another question arose from this relationship between democracy and development, and that is the question of: which is first? Democracy or Development?
Until now the argument was raised that democracy helps development to stay on track. Some scholars (Lipset, Leftwich, et al.) are of the opinion that development helps new young democracies to stay on track. “The durability of the new democracies will depend, however, not only on their institutional structure and the ideology of the major political forces, but to a large extent on their economic performance” (Przeworski, A. 1991:189). Boutros-Ghali (2003) came to similar conclusion in his Executive Summary of the Interaction between Democracy and Development summit held by Unesco. “It [he panel] maintained that genuine democracy, characterized by the rule of law, respect for human rights and recognition of the intrinsic dignity of all human beings, cannot be maintained unless people enjoy a minimum standard of living, which in turn requires a minimum level of development” (2003:5). Good democratic societies developed into such societies because of good economic development.

There is no doubt that there is a close link between democracy and development. Whether development is dependant on democracy is still debated by many authors, although there is a strong argument that development can be fostered in a non-democratic regime and should then, after stabilizing development, evolve in a democracy.

3.2 No dependence between democracy and development – authoritarian regimes

The second approach argues that development requires a strong and/or authoritarian regime. I stems from the notion that a strong regime has the power to implement the necessary policies and structural changes that is necessary for development. Because of the frailty of a newly democratized regime, this approach argues that efforts are being directed to stabilising the democracy therefore neglecting the necessary steps for development. It also argues that many Southeast Asian countries as well as South American and African countries have managed to grow into sustainable development economies while having authoritarian regimes.

3.3 Critique

This paper won’t deny that there is a strong relationship between democracy and development. What is however, not yet conclusively debated is which is first: democracy or development. Sachikonye’s main concern against the first approach of the necessity of democracy for development is the “leapfrog stages of economic and political development which took several centuries in Europe and Americas” (2002:11), which Africa apparently needs to make. Midlarsky (1997) who has researched democracy over centuries extensively concluded that this notion can not hold. It might even be that traditional hunting and gathering societies of Africa (!Kung) had a better democracy than the Athenian democracy on which most definitions of democracy relies. As Midlarsky put it:

“Thus, the world’s democratic heritage is far more geographically dispersed than the impression gained by relying only on Athens as a point of reference. Dictators sometimes justify their hold on power by describing democracy as a creation of the West that is inappropriate for their region of the world. H & G societies, though rapidly diminishing, have been present throughout the world, and as we have argued, these societies in general had high levels of democracy. So the suggestion that democracy of all forms is ‘foreign’ to certain regions is hard to defend.” (Midlarsky, 1997:34).

As we have seen from the earlier discussion from Janda et al., other factors also play a significant role in the success of democracy, like education, participation, environmental factors etc. Further resulting from Midlarsky’s research concludes clear that no conclusive argument could be proved for or against typical claims on conditions (education, civic participation, good governance, environmental factors) for democracy and subsequent development. As a result of this, Midlarsky concludes with the “paradox of democracy” (1997:320), showing that although all these conditions play an integral part in the success of democracy and development, they should not be seen as imperatives as democracy and development are multi-dimensional processes.

Guo Gang (1998) makes a similar conclusion that there is no direct correlation between democracy and economic development. Both democracies and non-democracies might fall prey to socio-economic hardships. He does however, prefer democracy to non-democracy “in that democracy is the only feasible form of government that ensures us basic freedom and equality…” (1998).

As we have seen, the World Bank and other International donor organizations and countries take a strong position in favour of democracy as a condition for development. The problem with the approach of the World Bank is that it is seen as a manipulative tool on Africa to become neo-liberal Western democracies without taking into account the history, cultural, socio-economic or health problems of Africa. There is little doubt that the HIV/AIDS pandemy, poverty and education will alter the implementation of developmental and regime initiatives considerably.

It is therefore true that there is a close relationship between development and any government system. “Crucially, then, it has not been regime type but the kind and character of the state and its politics that have been decisive in influencing developmental performance” (Leftwich, A. 1993:614). It is also true that the lack of many democratic principles, for example the lack of justice and the rule of law, may compromise development.

4. CONCLUSION

This paper assessed the remarks by the former president of Singapore, Lee Kwam Yew, that democracy doesn’t necessarily leads to development, as, to a certain extent, are required by the World donor society like the World Bank. In clarifying this relationship between democracy and development, this paper defined both democracy and sustainable development. It then assessed various approaches to the relationship between democracy and development. It will now assess possible solutions to this relationship in the context of Africa.

4.1 Factors promoting Development

In many instances development is seen as purely a market related economic activity. If governments and citizens participate freely in the market, the necessary growth rate would be achieved. UNESCO clearly is of the opinion that it is not. The definition of sustainable development encompasses much more than purely market orientated strategies and policies. Schoeman (1998) makes an important distinction in this regard, between growth and development. “Economic growth merely points to an increase in average wealth…”(Schoeman, M. 1998:304), while development results in “the whole or majority of the population experiences sustained improvement in their standard of living” (1998:304). This also indicates to factors more than just economic related activities.

What makes study in this field interesting is the fact that social sciences is not an exact science but involves humans who are influenced by their culture, background, education, socio-economic and political environment and the interaction with the many relationships they participate in. Therefore, “development is not just a matter of economics” (Boutros-Ghali, B. 2002:5) and one should therefore assess other factors necessary for development, factors not necessarily related to democracy.

Strong Government

One factor that should be assessed is, as Leftwich (1993) pointed out, the character of a regime that can foster the necessary policies and structures for sustainable development. Many countries which experienced growth over the past century had strong governments who had the will and the power to initiate and sustain developmental strategies. These strategies often require bold steps regarding job creation, land reform and economic empowerment, as we have seen in South Africa, whereas neo-liberalism promotes a minimal state, a state that is less rather than more directly involved in the market. “Policies and programmes aimed at addressing poverty reduction require a pivotal participation of the state” (Sachikonye, L.M. 2002:17).

Stability

Guo Gang (1998) also suggests that not a democratic or non-democratic regime is necessary for development, but “ownership stability, legal stability and social stability” (1998). These 3 conditions will create an environment where property can be owned, the rule of law be enforced and a stable society which attracts investments. Although simplistic, stability will create the necessary environment so needed for sustainable development. Instability will not provide the necessary confidence in the socio-economic and political environment for international investment and economic participation. Whatever regime is in power, it needs to have legitimacy in the international arena.

Civil Participation

Putnam (1992) researched the reasons for failure and success of democracy and development from the Italian institutional reforms of late and concludes that the difference between the North and the South of Italy in terms of democratic success and development lies in the social capital. “For political stability, for government effectiveness, and even for economic progress social capital may be even more important than physical or human capital” (1992:72). In regions where there were a vibrant social life as seen in community involvement, newspaper involvement and the participation in referendums, the stability factor were higher resulting in economic growth and stability. This research emphasizes the important role of public participation of the masses and decentralization of bureaucracies.

Socio-Economic

Definite constraints to development are the lack of education on the basic level as well as education on the political processes. To be able to participate in the decision-making process, the masses will have to be educated for effective fulfilment of their basic human rights.

All participants, government as well as civic live should strive to test and try every possible solution to eradicate poverty. Poverty strip people from their dignity and ultimately from their potential to participate effectively in democracy and their own development.

The same applies to the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS. “The HIV/AIDS pandemic has now become the greatest threat to Africa’s development.” (Annan, K 2002:1). These socio-economic factors can deem developmental strategies a failure.

Indigenous Culture

In seeking solutions, it is also tantamount to incorporate indigenous cultural life. Sustainable development is all about the maximisation of human well-being. Any programme with this aim, will have to understand that indigenous people’s lives will need to change for the better. This can only be done with understanding the indigenous culture and social systems prevalent at the time. “Indigenous knowledge systems are deeply rooted in the culture of people and form all aspects of their lives, and if there is going to be any change in their way of living, these indigenous knowledge systems must be used to make these changes” (Hesse, S. & Wissink, H. 2004:50). In this sense, communities play an important role in their self development and should be guided thereto, as was seen in the Italian experience.

Governmental Policies / Strategies

Government has to make sure that their meta and micro-policies are in line with this vision of empowering people. This involves also the education of people to give them all equal opportunities to meet their needs. It also means that government needs to steer labour and market forces to a position where growth, and therefore development can be sustained. Civil organisations have the responsibility to form the checks and balances for the government’s policies. The citizenry needs to take the opportunities that exist to make the best of it, to participate in social structures and cooperate towards the good of all.

This paper then concludes that it is too simplistic to equate democracy with development and vice versa. There are numerous research proving that both democracy and non-democratic regimes experienced development (Midlarsky, Leftwich). Similarly, both democratic and non-democratic regimes have failed to cultivate sustainable development. Guo Gang (1998) states “that previous studies of the relationship between democracy and economic development may have over-emphasized the distinction between democracy and non-democracy, and that economic development can and should justify neither democracy nor non-democracy” (Gang, G. 1998).

Having said that, doesn’t mean that the principles of democracy shouldn’t be sought after. Because of the imbalance of power in non-democratic states, the danger will always be that these powers can and will be misused, even under the disguise of development. History proofed that an over concentration of power lead to mismanagement and corruption. Consequently, basic human rights, freedom, justice and the rule of law will be compromised resulting in the “not so” well being of human-kind, also for generations to come, as the definition for sustainable development eloquently states. The weight in favour of democracy argues from the assumption that what is needed for development more likely will exist under a democratic regime.

Since the realisation of the limitation of our natural resources, sustainable development will always be an important principle to strive for, even for the developed first world. It is therefore imperative that the right conditions should exist in order for development to thrive. And as many scholars pointed out, many of these conditions can best be applied under a regime where basic human rights, freedom of speech and association, the rule of law and economic participation exits. “Perhaps the conclusion that can be made is that democracy does not impede development, and that it is preferred normatively that development be pursued democratically” (Mhone, G. 2003:41).

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***

Extract:

This paper aims in reporting on a change management intervention in an organization. 

This paper will first explore organisations and management theories and the development of these theories over the past decades. 

Following this exploration, the paper will explore managing change before it will report on the reasons, nature and consequences of change initiatives within this context.

This paper will conclude with the effects of the change strategy on the organisation.

1. Introduction
2. Defining Terms
   1. Organisations
   2. Development & Change
   3. Management
3. Organisational Theories
   1. Classical Approach
   2. Human Relations Approach
   3. Systems Theory
   4. Contingency Approach
   5. Institutional Approach
   6. Organisational Development (OD) Approach
4. Managing Change
   1. Contextualised
5. Conclusion
6. References
7. Bibliography

Notes

Defining Terms

Before commencing, this paper will briefly describe what is understood under the concepts which will be discussed throughout this paper.

Organisations

An organisation can be defined as an official convergence where individuals systematically participate to achieve a common goal.  It originates from the verb, to organize which means to bring order.  An organization is thus something that has been made into an ordered whole.  Inherent to the concept is the establishing of a structure, a way of systematically arrange things (management), a group of people who work together in a relationship towards a common purpose.  Therefore, an organisation is the “planned, coordinated and purposeful action of human beings to construct or compile a common tangible or intangible product or service” (Answers.com).

Development & Change

Development can be defined as actions to cause gradual evolutionary improvement and/or growth from one point to a next.  The importance is the clear movement from a previous stage to a next stage. 

Change can be defined as the movement from 1 point to another, to alter to make something different.  Change is therefore closely related to development.  The difference is that development expects that there is an inherent improvement from the previous to the next, while change doesn’t assume the same.  Change can result in a worse position as the previous.

Management

Management is the process of influencing people to achieve common goal.  Part of management will include the direction and controlling of people’s actions.  A manager affect and are affected by the process and therefore, personal growth and coping mechanisms is part of the task of management.  The key functions of management are planning, operationalization (operations to achieve objectives), leadership and control.

Organisational Theories

Classical Approach

The classical approach to Organisational Theories has its roots in modernism.  Modernism with its positivism, rationalism, efficiency, division of work and specialisation saw an organisation as a self-sufficient purposeful hierarchical organisation with a formal structure.  Management’s task is to improve the structure of the organisation and control the operations.  This is done by rational logic dissemination of scientific data. The critique against this approach was the de-humanising factor of it.  Jobs were overly specialised.  The realisation that organisations are more than just technically efficient organisms brought a new approach to organisational behaviour.  There are actually people with personalities and social needs working for organisations and therefore influencing organisational behaviour.

Human Relations Approach

This lead to the “human relations” theory of organisations.  This approach moved away from the machine-orientated, de-humanizing organisational structure by recognizing the social factors affecting organisational behaviour.  Improvement of relations and recognising values and attitudes and the well-being of employees became the new management strategy, and it was believed this approach will improve efficiency rather than the technocracy of the classical view.  Although this is a much improved theory, it didn’t recognise the environment and the socio-technical system in which an organisation functions.

Systems Theory

The systems theory integrates the human and classical theories about organisations, but adds the organisation’s external environment and its influence on organisations as an important variable.  This theory recognises that organisations are dynamic organism and that there is a reciprocal relationship between the structural and behavioural aspects of an organisation. 

The systems theory ^[1] is generally regarded as the brain child of the biologists^[2], Ludwig von Bertalanffy in reaction to physicists who studied organisms as closed entities, “as if the rest of the universe does not exist” (Heylighen, F. 1998)^[3].  Von Bertalanffy exerts that organism are open systems and are therefore continuously influenced by its environment.  In, for example the human body, organisms will simply die if it is extracted from its environment.  Another important fact of von Bertalanffy’s argument is that the environment consists of other systems also interacting with its environment as well.  Even individuals are a system (the body as the whole) which is part of a bigger system, society at large.  “…human beings are not just individual identities, but fulfil a social role: i.e., they are a function of a social system” (McKercher, P.M. 1993: Ch 4).

Applying this to organisational behaviour means that an organisation can only be understood by looking at it holistically, that is in conjunction with its inputs, outputs and environmental influences.  Interaction with the environment is therefore an intrinsic part of this theory.

Although this was a major shift in organisational behaviour, it didn’t solve all the questions of organisational behaviour.  One of the biggest concerns were the validity to use a physiological theory (body with its organisms) superimposed on social systems like organisations.  “Recognizing that the social organization is contrived again cautions us against making an exact analogy between it and physical or biological systems” (Kast, F.E. & Rosenzwieg, J.E. 1972: 456).  This brought about the contingency theory, adding the situation as another variable to take note of.

Contingency Approach

The contingent approach adds situational variables to the systems theory and can therefore be seen as an extension of the Systems theory.  “Basically, this approach seems to be leading to the development of a ‘contingency’ theory of organization with the appropriate internal states and processes of the organization contingent upon external requirements and member needs” (Lorsch, J.W. & Lawrence, P.W. 1970: 1).  This approach takes cognisance of the fact that every situation might impose different variables to be used and to act upon.  Therefore, management should use the appropriate technique for each unique situation.

Institutional Approach

Another interesting theory of change is the institutional approach with close links to post-modernism.  This approach acknowledges the use of different fields of study, for example culture, ecology etc.  This theory see change as a “process of homogenisation since organisations are perceived to be looking for legitimacy in their own particular fields” (Ngoma, W. undated: 4). The focus here is the environment which is also the critique against this approach as if the environment determine the change and not active participation and management form the organisation and its leaders.

Organisational Development (OD) Approach

 The Organizational Development (OD) approach has its roots in human relations and relies on external agents to facilitate change.  The critique against this approach is that the change agents or consultant is seen as a physician who comes in, diagnose and prescribe the correct “medicine”, often using a “toolbox” solution.   The critique against the OD approach is its over-reliance on a “toolbox”-solution, as if all organisational problems can be fixed by using simple step-by-step guides from a book.  Another critique is the involvement of external agents instead of the internal employees and/or managers of the organisation.  Although these are fair critique, the use of a practical guide proved to be helpful in our organization in providing direction and it did even ease the fear associated with change.  The same applies to the external agent.  The critique is also valid but the involvement of an external agent brought an unbiased critical view to the processes and especially to the relationships which were necessary to facilitate the change.  It seems therefore, that a combined approach (change agent and internal management) can be beneficial.  As Richard Seel (2002) pointed out, change agents can not change organisations, they can only help organisations and individuals to discover new goals.   As Seel (2000) so eloquently puts it, the changeagent becomes a virus to the organisation, causing the internal participants to become their own agents of change.

Nichols (2004) does add the importance of the different skill set^[4] of the consultant as a change agent.  Kegan & Lahey (2001) even adds another dimension to the skill set, that of a “psychologist”.  To help individuals overcome their “competing commitments” (Kegan, R. & Lahey, L.L. 2001: 38), they provide a set of questions to help the change agent uncovering the real reasons why people won’t change.  Although this is a useful guide for change agents to help individuals, and although the authors do admit that it’s a “challenging and painful” (2001: 54) process, this proved to be more difficult than was thought.  In our organization it was very difficult to establish the necessary trust relationship that was needed to “uncover” the competing commitments.  In some cases it wasn’t even possible to let people open up for such a process to start.  Another factor which is not yet fully researched is the implementation of this technique in different cultural scenarios.

Managing change

Managing change is closely related to the Organisational approach because OD is all about assisting clients to change by assessing the need, proposing the plan and helping them through the change (Answer.com : Managing-change).  To summarise, the factors that play a major role in changing organisations, are:

• Create a need for change.  Change in an organization can be induced by major external changes in the environment, in the market or in technology.  Some authors propose that such “crisis” or need for change should even be “orchestrated” by bad financial reports or a crisis in the organisation.
• Strong leadership and commitment of the leaders to a new vision (see also Kotter’s^[5] 8 steps).
• Get everybody involved. It shouldn’t only be a “management” objective.

French & Delahay’s (1996) introduced a new approach, the 4-phased model for changing individuals.  They challenge the assumptions of the old approach of the gap closure and gap connection which assumed that change is a linear and finite process and that individuals will resist change because it is seen as an external force upon them.  Their cyclical model moves from a position of security to anxiety to discovery to integration.  In a nut shell: security creates a sense of boredom, but individuals’ creativity moves them to the next stage; anxiety.  The loss of the familiar patterns created anxiety but a need to learn, which offer development moves individuals to the next stage; discovery.  Newly discovered information and skills, and creating new strategies leads individuals to make choices which leads them to the next stage; integration.  In this stage, individuals accept the new way of doing things and create a new form of security.  In a certain sense, this new stage of security caries the seeds of a new cycle.

Contextualised

The reasons for change initiatives in the congregation were the loss of identity resulting from major environmental changes that occurred in the South African society.  Because the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) was historically associated with the National Party and therefore the regime, it lost its critical relationship towards the state. 

The relationship between church and state is a theological debate since the early church.  Over the centuries the relationship has gone through many changes.  In the early church, the state persecuted the church.  Later, in the conception of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) it became the state.  Nazism and apartheid gave rise to 2 distinct views on the role of the church and the state.  On the one spectrum, the church is seen as the critique of the state; opposing the state because of the notion that the state doesn’t have any links to the Kingdom of God.  On the other spectrum there is such solidarity with the state that the state is equated with the Kingdom of God.  The, in my view, correct view is a critical-solidary (Heyns, J.A. 1977: 98) relationship between church and state.  This view holds that the church should be solidary with the state in that the same basic human principles are being sought after.  On the other hand, the church must never be so solidary that it can’t exert its critical function, calling upon the church to oppose the state when in conflict with the Kingdom of God.

This explains the reasons and nature of the change imposed on the DRC since 1994.  Traditionally the white, black, brown and Indian DR Churches were all separate churches, united in an association called the “Family of DR Churches”.  Since the late 1970’s and 1980’s the call for unity in the “Family” became stronger and stronger.  Now, in a new democratic society there is no fundamental ground for nót being one united church.  Not only is this a biblical postulate (John 17:20-21)^[6], it is also seen by some as proof of true commitment from the DRC to the democratic South Africa, in the light of its historical past.

Although the DRC condemned apartheid as a sin already in the late 1980’s, change was therefore provoked onto the church by the democratization of South Africa.  As the policies of the democratic South Africa were implemented, it affected the members of the church on every existential domain (employment, social life, church life, security etc).   It also affected the fundamental and Biblical truths the DRC believed in, regarding unity.  The separation of the DR Churches in the past was always seen as a stumbling block in the church’s mission to the world.  Many scriptures (John 17:20-22; Rom 10:12; 1 Cor 12:12-13; Gal 3:26-29; Col 3:11) refer to the importance of unity, being the hub of the biblical message to the world.  In Jesus’ prayer he prays for unity “so that the world will believe… (John 17:21 New American Bible). 

Progressively the church leaders had therefore the mission to change the church into a dynamic organisation that would be true to its own nature and the Word of God.  This change initiative didn’t come easily.  At first, different parties had different objectives for the change initiatives.  One major stumbling block for years was demands that were imposed on others.  It is only recently that there is a real move towards the same objectives and unity.  But in all the DR Churches, change initiatives were pivotal.  Each church had the mission to guide its members to this shared goal.  This assignment only reflects on the initiative in one of the DR Churches namely, the DRC. 

The process was to consult and accommodate as much as possible not to alienate any of its members.  Because of the size of the DRC, the organisation of the synods and the geographical structure, the consultation resulted in a lengthy process and caused much ignorance amongst church members.  And ignorance worsens the effects of change initiatives. 

The consequences of these change initiatives are, in my view, the following:

• Reluctance from many members and congregations to change.  Reflecting on this, a few “competing commitments” (Kegan, R. & Lahey, L.L. 2001: 38) is visible.  Over the years it became clear that people are willing to change in many aspects (cultural life, work environment, relocation etc) but the same people are often reluctant to accept change in the church.  Some will even say that the church is the one place where they cherish the stability and the “known”.  The church becomes the “comfort zone”.  People also fear that the change will result in having to worship in another language, or that the format of the worship will change, and that the church will be swamped by others, etc.
• Loss of identity.  Because the DRC tries to be everything for everyone, and because the DRC has already experienced a split in the 1980’s when apartheid was declared a sin by he DRC synod, the DRC is losing its distinctive own character.  As a result, many members leave the church for other congregations and others choose to continue to live their faith without the church.  But the consequence on the future of the DRC, as well as its relevance is in dire straits.  As Seel (2002) points out, a “strong and secure sense of organisational identity will enable change to be tested and accepted”.  Because there is currently a loss in identity, there is also a bigger reluctance to change.
• Loss of relevance.  Because the DRC tries to accommodate as much as possible and in the result, moves too slowly towards the sought after change, many members and outsiders feel that the DRC has lost it’s relevance in the South African society.  On the one side the DRC is criticised that its reluctance to change proof that the majority of church members didn’t break from apartheid and doesn’t want to accept the changes.  Furthermore, the church is criticised from inside and outside for being a flunkey to the state, not practising its critical-solidary role towards the state.
• Internal schism.  Inside the DRC, and even amongst the leaders, there is an imminent danger of a church split, which will affect the DRC’s relevance even more. 

The change initiative in the DRC isn’t finished yet and therefore a complete assessment of the success or failure is not yet possible.  However, it is already clear that many leaders doesn’t want to participate and are therefore not committed to the change initiatives.  This demonstrates the conclusion of Rainey (2003: 380) and J.P. Kotter (1995: 62) of the importance of good leadership in change management.  The problem in the church is that leadership is not accentuated as in other organisations because of the protestant reformation’s rejection of the papal leadership.  The current leaders managing this change are torn between leading, but not so “strong” that it is seen as papal authority over the congregations.

Another constraint in the current process is the “need for change”, or as Kotter (1995: 60) put it: “not establishing a great enough sense of urgency”.  It seems as if there is no urgency from the lower leadership towards change, and that is where the bulk of the members are informed and motivated for change.  This further results in a lack of participation, which is essential for successful change. 

The change from modernism to post-modernism affected the church as well, maybe even more than people want to believe.  Because the church and its dogmas were firmly rooted in modernism where objective scientific researched truths about the church determined its identity, this social change has an enormous impact on the church.  It can be seen in the fierceness of the debate in the daily press of theologians who started questioning the resurrection of Christ.  Managing these current change initiatives will have to take cognisance of the social change or paradigm shift in the church as well as the broader society.

Conclusion

This paper briefly discussed different organisational theories and change management in these organisations. 

It contextualised these theories with change initiatives in the DRC.  Although change is not a linear process, one can say that these change initiatives in the DRC is not yet finished.  The objectives of unity among the “Family of DRC churches” are not yet accomplished.  But change in the DRC will always be a never-ending process.  Not only because the growth and societal profile of its members, but also because change is inherent in the identity of the church and its mission towards the world.  “Juist als de kerk trouw wil blijven aan haar wezen mag zij niet eenvoudigweg haar eigen verlede conserveren, maar moet zij als een historische kerk veranderen: om haar wezenlijke zending in de wereld, die een steeds veranderende wereld is die steeds niet in het verlede maar in het heden leeft, te vervullen” (Kung, H. 1970: 24)^[7]. 

Lastly, some consequences of the change initiatives were discussed, showing that the change initiatives, although not yet completed, already has a critical impact on the DRC. 

Although the DRC might experience a loss of members, it is important to commit itself to the fundamental issues and align itself with Biblical norms.  Often it is necessary to accept these “losses” to gain much more in the long term.  But it is also critical for the church to establish a clear sense of identity, even if it results in a loss of membership.  Identity is not only necessary for change but also affects an organisations on all levels; mission, vision, operations, relevance etc.

The need for change, strong leadership and broad participation will help this initiative to be successful.

*******

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Notes

[2]    Patrick M. McKercher (1993) wrote a dissertation on Kenneth Bourke’s use of the Systems Theory.  Regarding the origin of Systems Thinking he says: “In some respects, systems thinking is nothing new, going back at least as far as Anaxagoras, but Ludwig von Bertalanffy is generally considered the founder of modern humanistic systems theory” (McKercher, P.M. 1993: Ch 2).

[3]   Heylighen (1997) drew a useful comparison between the analytic approach and the systems approach but warns that its only purpose is to provide a simple comparison. 

[4]   Nichols’ (2004) skill set: the change agent should have the following skills;

• political
• analytical
• people / inter-relational
• systems
• business

[5]   John P Kotter provides reasons why change often fails and conclude with these 8 steps to transforming an organisation (Kotter, J.P. 1995: 7):

1. Establish a sense of urgency
2. Form a powerful guiding coalition
3. Create a vision
4. Communicate the vision
5. Empower others to act on the vision
6. Plan for and create short-term wins
7. Consolidate improvements, producing more wins
8. Institutionalise new approaches

[6]       John 17:20–21 (NIV). “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

[7]   A paraphrase of Hans Küng’s (1970: 24) reference: “Because the church needs to be true to its reason for existence, the church can not merely exist in its historical origin, but she is compelled to change as a historically changing entity to fulfil her fundamental mission in the world; a changing world which doesn’t live in the past but in the present.”

 [8]  Translation of the original title by Hans Kung: Was ist Kirche? Freiburg DR:Herder Verlag.

Introduction

This article will provide an overview of the main contentions of the privatisation debate with specific reference to Labour, Business and the Public Sectors.

Definition of Privatisation

Privatisation is the sale of a state-owned company to the private sector in which shares can be bought by the public, including the transfer or responsibility. 

The main argument in favour of privatisation is efficiency.  It is believed that a private company will provide a more efficient service or good than a government because the private company is driven by market factors like profit and competition.  Consequently, competition will force prices down while quality and efficiency are improved.  By the same principle, privatization proponents feel that state-owned companies lend itself to be unprofitable and inefficient because it has no competition and a special concern for profit as it is sponsored by the state.  “Enterprises need to be efficient and competitive or they lose money, and the government cannot afford to subsidise such losses” (PED 2006). Private companies have no constraints in improving services or goods, while state-owned enterprises are driven by political sensitive issues and special interests. 

Proponents against privatization argue certain sectors or services lend itself better to government control than market forces due to the magnitude of the service (ex. defense, policing etc.).  Government’s role is to provide an equal affordable quality social service to society and can therefore not be measured by or impeded by market forces.  Anti-privatisation proponents will argue that state-owned companies are accountable to the electorate while private companies are only accountable to share holders who often don’t have a direct say in or knowledge of corruption or bad management. 

As already noted, private companies are driven by performance and profitability.  This affects also the labour force within a company because of urge to perform maximally, provide a quality product or service at the lowest cost.  Consequently the notion is that privatisation will result in restructuring and loss of jobs  (MacCuish, D 2003:7). 

Therefore, labour and trade unions are in general against privatisation because of the market-driven objectives of private companies (Kikeri, S. 1998).  The ANC’s privatisation policy is probably the biggest example of the disunity in the alliance between the ANC and COSATU.  “The history of the 1990s will go down as one in which Cosatu challenged the ANC government’s macroeconomic policy and privatisation and increasingly represented public-sector workers” (Vavi, Z. 2005).   Other countries have noted the same opposition with the introduction of privatization (Nepal, China, Benin, Guatamala, New Zealand etc.).  Therefore, “full, constructive involvement of trade unions in restructuring and privatization, from the very early stages, is a key element of success ; necessary to minimise the social and labour costs, as well as to smooth those processes and boost the performance of the reformed public utilities” (de Luca, L. 2000).

Business obviously rely on privatisation because business will always seize opportunity to make money.  “The privatization of state property has fabulously enriched some people and made others cruelly disappointed in liberal reforms” (Zakirov, Y & Ustyuzhanina, Y. 2006).  This is one of the reasons why many scholars argue for less involvement by governments in market failure, even in the existence of monopolies. 

Summary

As we have seen, market failures are the main reason why governments are actively involved in the free market, despite many proponents who argues for less involvement than more.  And one way of involvement by governments in the economy is through state-owned enterprises.  Due to macroeconomic policy changes or political reform, governments do choose to privatise their public enterprises.   In the developing world, privatisation is becoming more and more a condition for World Bank assistance (World Bank web site).  In contrast to the World Bank, it seems as if the International Monetary Fund (IMF) place less of an emphasis on privatisation as a condition for aid (MacCuish, D. 2003:8).  Nevertheless, MacCuish (2003:10) makes a strong point against the World Bank and the IMF’s emphasis on privatisation without proper analysis of the particular situation.

The South African government have committed itself to privatise state-owned enterprises, mainly because of international pressure, globalisation, but also as a way of earning valuable capital for the huge demand on our social responsibility.  In a statement by the ANC on the restructuring of State assets, this commitment was affirmed.  “Throughout the policy formulation processes and conferences, there has been a concerted degree of consistency in the ANC’s approach to the restructuring of the state, to add impetus to economic growth and development and execute the mandate of the ANC’s highest decision-making body, the national conference” (ANC, 2001).

This wasn’t met with the same enthusiasm as we have seen in reaction from COSATU and the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF), mainly because of the concern of unemployment.  In contrast, business sees privatisation as a major step to provide the necessary impetus in attracting foreign investment, consequently providing the growth rate we need.

As far as the assumptions of the proponents of privatisation are concerned, regarding the improvement of services, the reduction in costs due to market forces, studies have shown that in many cases these benefits never realised.  If privatisation is “speed(ily) embraced” (Mbeki, T. 2006) as Washington argues, and seen as a recipe for success, it does not render the advantageous of privatisation.  It is therefore fitting that the ANC government approach this cautiously.  The ANC has indicated that privatisation must be seen as part of a bigger picture and not as the end itself, as stated on the ANC’s 2001 conference:

“The ANC and the government have never advocated a wholesale privatisation of state owned enterprises.  We need to move away from the fixation with privatisation and understand the restructuring of state assets programme for what it is, the re-positioning of the role these enterprises play to maximise their contribution to the country’s economy, while creating space for competition and improved levels of service”.

***

References:

Africities 3. (2003). Policies of Cooperation institutions and Decentralisation in Africa.  In Africities 3 – Yaounde. 2 – 6 Decemer 2003.  Rerieved from 29 September 2006 from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/12/45/36048153.pdf.

ANC . (2001). Statement by the ANC on the restructuring of state assets. 24 August 2001.  Retrieved 4 October 2006 from http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/pr/2001/pr0824.html

Chen, F. (undated). Privatization and Its Discontents in Chinese Factories.  Abstract in China Study Group. Retrieved 9 October 2006 from http://www.chinastudygroup.org/index.php?action=front2&type=trans_full&id=46

De Luca, L. (2001). Labour and social dimensions of privatization and restructuring – Public utilities water, gas, electricity. Part 1. In International Labour Organization.  Retrieved 9 October 2006 from http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/ent/papers/travint1.htm.

De Villiers, S (Ed.) (2001). A People’s Government. The People’s Voice.  A Review of Public Participation in the law and Policy-Making Process in South Africa.  Cape Town, Parliamentary Support Programme.  Retrieved 9 October 2006 from http://www.parliament.gov.za/pls/portal30/docs/FOLDER/PARLIAMENTARY_INFORMATION/PUBLICATIONS/PEOPLE/index.html

Department of Local Government and Housing, Western Cape. (2005).  Public Participation Declaration. In Public Participation Conference 2005. Retrieved 4 October 2006 from http://www.capegateway.gov.za/Text/2005/7/public_participation_conference_2005_-_declaration.pdf

MacCuish, D. (2003). Water, Land and Labour: The impacts of forced privatization in vulnerable communities.  Halifax Initiative Coalition.  Retrieved 9 October 2006 from http://www.halifaxinitiative.org/updir/Water_Land_Labour.pdf.

Mbeki, T. (2006). ANC Today. Volume 6, No. 11. 24 —30 March 2006. Retrieved 4 October 2006 from http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2006/text/at11.txt.

Mnguni (2004).  Speech during a National Treasury Budget vote. No 8. Retrieved 4 October 2006 from http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/speeches/2004/sp0611d.html.

Paddon, M. (2001). Social and labour consequences of the decentralization and privatization of municipal services: The cases of Australia and New Zealand. Retrieved 9 October 2006 from www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/sector/papers/munserv/wp177.pdf.

Paralegal Advice Website.  Democracy and Public Participation.  Retrieved 10 October 2006 from http://www.paralegaladvice.org.za/

Planact. Retrieved 10 October 2006 from http://www.planact.org.za/.

Public Enterprises Department (PED), Government of Andhra Pradesh. (2006).  Retrieved 9 October 2006 from http://www.pedap.org/peRef/privatization.asp#Is%20private%20ownership%20better%20than%20government%20ownershipPutnam, R.D. (1992). Democracy, Development and the Civic Community: Evidence from an Italian Experiment.  World Bank Conference on Culture and Development.  Washington, D.C., 2-3 April, pp. 33-73.

Quintal, A. (2005). SA may cut number of provinces. In The Mercury. 15 December 2005, Ed 1. Retrieved 9 October 2006 from http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=282&fArticleId=3036183.

Republic of South Africa (RSA) (1996) Growth Employment and Redistribution: A Macroeconomic Strategy, Pretoria, Republic of South Africa. 14 June 1996.  Retrieved 30 September 2006 from http://www.treasury.gov.za/documents/gear/all.pdf

Skinner, M. (2006).  Target Practice: Canada Post and the Privatization of Guatemala’s Postal System. In Briarpatch Magazine. September.October 2006. Retrieved 9 October 2006 from http://briarpatchmagazine.com/news/?p=320.

Strydom, P (2000). The South African Economic Policy.  Retrieved 3 October 2006 from https://www.fnb.co.za/economics/econhtml/profpeetstrydom/SouthAfricanEconomicPolicy.htm.

Vavi, Z. (2005). Twenty years of heroic struggle for a better life for all.  COSATU 20^th Anniversary.   Umrabulo, No 24, December 2005. Retrieved 4 October 2006 from http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/pubs/umrabulo/umrabulo24/umrabulo.html.

Wikipedia. (2006).  Privatization. Retrieved 9 October 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatisation#The_Pro-Privatization_Argument_Synopsis.

Zakirov, Y & Ustyuzhanina, Y. 2006. Privatization viewed in a different light.  Retrieved 9 October 2006 from http://www.newtimes.ru/eng/detail.asp?art_id=249.

Introduction

This article will explain the rationale for and extent of decentralisation in the South African Government’s service delivery strategy.

The major world social changes that have taken place since 1989 with the end of structural communism not only brought democracy to the forefront in world politics, but also affected the public sector and the workings of the state.  So much so that Francis Fukuyama (1989) argued that these changes symbolizes the “end of history” (Hall, S. et al. 1992:20). 

Added to these major social changes regarding political systems, the World Donor Community increased their conditions on aid to the developing countries by requiring good governance.  The quest for good governance by the World Bank’s definition thereof is along the path of political accountability, financial transparency and accountable management, a sound judicial system and freedom of association, participation, expression and information.  Together with this inherent conditionality for developmental aid, dissatisfaction with bureaucracies and “red tape” made decentralisation a key focus in managing service delivery. 

Definition of Decentralisation

Decentralisation is often time and situation bound.  Therefore, to define decentralisation, might be dependant to the specific context.  However, decentralisation can be broadly defined as the transfer of authority to local authorities, taking government to the people. This transfer of authority can take different forms, but will often include legislative, regulation and monitoring functions:

• Deconcentration refers to the transfer of administrative functions to a local office without transferring the ultimate authority, which remains at the national level.
• Delegation refers to the transfer of administrative functions to a semi-autonomous body to free-up the resources of national level, although authority still remains at national level (ex. A pharmacy council).
• Devolution refers to the transfer of administrative functions as well as authority to a local office (ex. A municipality).  
• Privatisation refers to the transfer or administrative functions and authority to a private entity.

Although decentralisation has proved to be successful in many countries regarding service delivery and public participation, one need to take cognisance of the important factors that are needed for decentralisation to be successful.  Public participation is not only a reason for decentralisation but also a condition thereof.  If local communities do not participate, or their participation is mere window-dressing, it will not fulfil its objective.  In a research of the Italian institutional reform since 1970, Putnam (1992) made a clear case for the necessity of a network of local associations and active participation in local governance.  Another factor affecting the outcome of decentralisation is its local successes.  Decentralisation is not about structure but about function.  The mere existence of a decentralised local authority office will not provide the benefits to the local community if there are not real results in the functions of the local authorities.  Too many cases of decentralisations are more about politics than on the improvement of the human capital for which it is intended.  Lastly, capacity building must be a priority for government if decentralisation should succeed.  For effective delivery of services, “it is worthwhile to upgrade the skills and capacities of these sub-national institutions and their personnel” (Katsiaouni, O. 2003:21).

Rationale

The rationale of the South African government for decentralisation is closely connected to the democratisation of South Africa.   There is a strong link to the negotiations taken place to a peaceful transition to a post-apartheid democratic South Africa.  “Fiscal decentralisation to the provincial level was a political compromise between the main parties, part of the deal that allowed for a negotiated transition to democracy” (Momoniat, I.).  The South African constitution, as a negotiated constitution, place big emphasis on negotiations on local level, involving the masses to participate in the newly democracy.  Not only the negotiated transition influenced the emphasis for decentralisation in the South African politics, but the ANC has a strong history of including and using the masses during the apartheid era.  Therefore, democracy, improving service delivery and enabling public participation is the main rationale behind decentralisation.

Democracy implies the involvement of the masses in the political processes of a country.  As already noted, the ANC place a premise on the involvement of local communities.  The hierarchical structure of the ANC is build around this concept and much of the resistance came from active participation and mass-action at grass-roots level.  Also the international community include decentralisation when the concept of good governance is measured.  One of the recommendations of Africities 3, a pan-African summit of local governments is to “establish within the NEPAD framework a commitment to decentralisation through strengthening local governments, promoting local democracy and participation, preventing conflicts, and encouraging local development and regional integration” (Africities 3. 2003:82), showing the priority of decentralisation to the international donor society.    Inherently to democracy as a political regime where every citizen has the opportunity in participating in the decision-making process of a country, whether it is by representation or by direct participation, is decentralisation. 

The growing dissatisfaction from citizens regarding the level of service delivery necessitates the concern for effective delivery of services.  Many scholars argue that this can only be done through decentralisation because of several factors:

1. In a heterogeneous country like South Africa, the priority of the service might differ.  Only through decentralisation to local authorities can the priority and extent of services be determined which is applicable to the affected people.  It is also easier to mobilise local communities to participate in public hearings and policy making through decentralised authorities.  Local authorities “facilitate a better alignment of decision-making centers with local preferences and local sources of knowledge and information, … (Heller, P 2001:140).
    
2. A second reason for the provision of effective service delivery through decentralisation is that decentralisation “facilitates transparency in that the physical presence of governmental departments or public services in the region demystifies and makes them more approachable” (Katsiaouni, O. 2003:12).  Because the local authority is closer to the community, accountability levels of officials raise as the local community become a direct client to the local authority (Wittenburg, M. 2003:8).

Although effective service delivery is an important reason for decentralisation, it might also be its caveat in that a local authority might not have the financial or human resources to perform the desired services effectively.  It is therefore important that capacity building of local authorities is a priority in providing an effective service delivery.

Although the main focus is often to make governance more efficient, decentralisation also ensures accountability and participation.  Participation ensures that people is heard regarding procedures and legislation which will have a direct impact on them.  “Decentralisation contributes to democratic deepening if and when it expands the scope and depth of citizen participation in public decision making” (Heller, P. 2001:140).  The South African government increased its efforts to involve local people, especially rural people who finds it difficult to gain access to services, but also is often excluded from the policy-making processes.  Public participation is part and parcel of the constitution and is the driving force for local authorities (Department of Local Government and Housing, Western Cape. 2005).  Decentralisation also provides a framework for Civic Associations (like Planact) to pressurise government in providing the needed service and policies.  In South Africa, civic organisations play an important role and “actively participate in budgeting and fiscal policy processes” (Katsiaouni, O. 2003:13).  Decentralisation is therefore the vehicle through which participation is established.  Unfortunately it seems as if the vibrant civic movement, which was instrumental in the democratisation of South Africa, is fading away, leaving a huge gap in the success of decentralisation (Heller, P. 2001:).

Conclusion

Decentralisation is favoured by many scholars, activists and political analysts through out the world, albeit for different reasons.  Economists see in decentralisation a way of minimizing the state, thereby decreasing the involvement and expenditure of the state.  Political actors favour decentralisation because it advances their own political interests (Gasper, D. 1997).  The international donor community almost require decentralisation as a guarantee for good governance and transparency, and “it is seen to bring development closer to the people, promote participatory approaches, and consolidate democracy” (Galvin, M & Habib, A. p 1).  This generalization that democracy and consequently decentralisation, will render developmental objectives, was however, challenged by East Asia’s “miraculous” growth despite of non-democratic regimes.  Katsiaouni (2003) also refers to findings by Kumssa, Oyugi and Edralin that “there is no correlation between the quality of governance and administrative decentralisation or deconcentration, as well as political decentralisation or devolution.” (2003:18). 

Decentralisation has its advantageous in affecting better service delivery to citizens, involving the citizenry and making government more accountable for their governance (Wittenburg, M 2003:6).  But, decentralisation relies heavily on the capacity of the local authorities, not only to be able to do what is required, but also to align its policies with the national government’s policy framework.  If the local authorities don’t execute within the national government’s policy framework, these structures become a major concern as it increases the structural expenditure.  These “machinery expenditures” can only be justified if the local authorities do achieve the objectives of decentralisation.  Currently it seems as if there is a growing concern that the cost of the decentralised structure of the South African bureaucracy is outweighing the advantageous and that the objectives of the national policy frameworks are not met.

The rationale and extent of the South African government towards decentralisation is its commitment to democracy and development and the international favouritism of decentralisation and the consequent support.  Another key factor of the government’s rationale is the commitment to public participation stemming from the historical participation in the transition to a democracy.  However, it does seem as if the gap between the grass-roots level and the centralized organisation is widening rapidly.  There is more and more a tendency by the ANC leadership to centralize its operations (Quintal, A. 205; Wittenburg, M. 2003:50).  “The ANC’s drift toward centralized control and technocratic domination can only be explained by the demobilization of popular sectors and the state’s disengagement from civil society” (Heller, P. 2001:158).  From a macroeconomic perspective, there may be enough reason for the South African government to centralize rather than decentralize. 

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References:

ANC . (2001). Statement by the ANC on the restructuring of state assets. 24 August 2001.  Retrieved 4 October 2006 from http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/pr/2001/pr0824.html

 
Public Enterprises Department (PED), Government of Andhra Pradesh. (2006).  Retrieved 9 October 2006 from http://www.pedap.org/peRef/privatization.asp#Is%20private%20ownership%20better%20than%20government%20ownership

Introduction

This artilce will critically discuss government’s role in increasing employment in South Africa.  It will first define unemployment and then discuss the South African government’s role in increasing employment in South Africa.

Definition of Unemployment

Unemployment is a significant factor in any government’s macro-economic strategy, and can be defined as people who are willing to work but are at the time, not actively working.  The economic importance of unemployment is significant as it affects households, businesses and government.  Households experience the loss of income and therefore the loss of economic power and consumption.  Businesses experience the loss of income due to a loss of sales, the loss of production of services and goods and a loss of human capital.  Government experience the loss of tax income as well as the probable loss (cost) of social grants being paid to the unemployed and a reduction in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).  It even affects the efforts put into education as development of the human capital and often results in social and medical pathologies.  Clearly, unemployment is part of a vicious circle of poverty, creating an economic as well as a social cost to unemployment.

With this statistics, many believe that the unemployment have “got out of hand and that is has now reached a level where new innovative ideas and initiatives are vital to ensure future stability in this country” (ABSA, 2003).

South African Government’s Role

The South African government are more involved than many economists believe it should be, because of the pressing need for a growth rate of 5% needed to increase employment and eventually create sustainable development of the economy.  In a speech by the Minister of Finance the South African government committed itself to a budget fitting for a developmental state where the state plays a pivotal role in steering the economy to achieve development.  (Manuel, T. 2004)

The South African government has committed itself to a strategy to increase employment by raising the growth rate of the GDP, because if the GDP rises, the demand for labour grows.  “Macroeconomists have come to agree that when the economy has witnessed a growth from period to period, which is indicated in the GDP growth rate, unemployment levels tend to be low” (Heakal, R. 2002).  The government’s action plan for 2004 – 2009 has the following strategic objectives relating to increasing employment (Mdladlana, M.M.S. 2004):

• Strategic Objective 1: Contribution to employment creation.
• Strategic Objective 2: Enhancing skills development.

Since democratisation of South Africa, the labour demand has changed significantly.  Not only are there more people able and available to work, but the labour market has gone through changes as well.  The democratisation brought with it changes in job reservation, unionisation of labourers and an increased participation in the global market since the apartheid-era.   “In combination, legislative reform, growing labour organisation and globalisation have had a profound impact on the functioning of the labour market over the last ten years” (Umrabulo; 2005).   Although many changes since 1994 have increased the demand for labour, the supply of labour outnumbered the demand, raising the level of unemployment. 

Critique

The major policy framework of the South African government achieving sustainable economic growth and thereby increasing employment is the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) Policy, introduced in 1996 and effectively replacing the RDP programme.  Although GEAR’s forecast ended in 1999 and many objectives was set for 2000, it still acts as the backbone of many of the Government’s policies. 

The main objectives of GEAR were an economic growth rate of 6% and the consequent creation of jobs.  The programme through which GEAR’s objectives were to be reached, were a strategy of opening up the economy and actively participating in regional and global economic activity.  Great emphasis is placed on an extension of the public service aimed at building infrastructure, developing skills and providing the experience to the labour force, while new measures of productivity agreements linked to investment in employment was proposed by Cosatu (SANGOCO, 1998).  ABSA provided statistics showing that “public works programmes could make a significant contribution towards reducing the unemployment numbers in the formal sector” (ABSA, 2003). 

Too much emphasis was placed on “aggregate demand, neglecting the importance of supply side initiatives (especially the enhancing of a more flexible labour market environment)” (ABSA, 2003).

Another major reason for the failure of increasing employment is the failure of capacity building and skills development because the majority of the unemployed are unskilled rural people.  The South African Human Resources Developmental Strategy and the National Skills Developmental Strategy are both initiatives by the government to address the skills shortages in our labour force.  However, many scholars argue that many of the changes introduced by the Department of Labour in respect of job creation, is still favouring the skilled labour force.

Summary

In conclusion, the rate of unemployment is a significant indicator of the well-being of a country’s economy.  With the pressing need of sustainable development in the developing countries of the world, employment remains the biggest threat to the eradication of poverty.  GEAR, South Africa’s macroeconomic policy was successful in many of its objectives to a sustainable growing economy, except in maybe the most important one of job creation.  South Africa experienced an economic growth, but was “described as ‘jobless growth’” (Standard Bank, 2004).  Major initiatives are needed in “freeing up the economy” (ABSA, 2003), improving the skills level of the labour force, and dealing with crime to increase both a domestic and international investment environment.  “The real winners (in labour demand) will be those with completed secondary and individuals with tertiary education.” (Bhorat, H. 2000:8).

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References:

ABSA Bank. (2003). Unemployment, economic growth and social inequalities: How Government could make a difference. In Focus on key economic isues. No 53, October 2003.  Retrieved 29 September 2006 from http://www.be.up.co.za/focus53.pdf.

Vavi, Z. (2005). Twenty years of heroic struggle for a better life for all.  COSATU 20^th Anniversary.   Umrabulo, No 24, December 2005. Retrieved 4 October 2006 from http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/pubs/umrabulo/umrabulo24/umrabulo.html