Inaugural Addresses (University of Stellenbosch Business School)

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    Decolonising knowledge : in what sense is an ‘African’ ethic possible?
    (2017-04) Naude, Piet
    AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING : In hierdie intreerede word die aandrang op ‘dekolonisasie van kennis’ bepreek aan die hand van pogings om ʼn inheemse, Afrika-etiek op die grondslag van ubuntu te konstrueer. Die gevolgtrekking is dat dekolonisasie ondersteun behoort te word in soverre dit die kontekstuele toepassing en uitbreiding van bestaande kennisinhoud behels. Op verskeie gronde word geargumenteer dat die skep van alternatiewe epistemologieë wat steeds as ‘wetenskaplike kennis’ sou kwalifiseer op hierdie stadium nog nie ʼn haalbare moontlikheid blyk te wees nie.
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    The dynamics of tacit learning in organisations : a system view
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2011-08) Powell, John
    A decade of scholarly and practitioner work in knowledge management has shown that the tacit dimension of knowing is critically important. It is important, firstly, because tacit knowledge demonstrably exists – ignoring it would create a fatal gap in the management of the resources of the organisation. Secondly, tacit knowledge possesses interesting and useful strategic properties; because it is less accessible to persons outside the organisation it is more difficult to detach the tacit knowledge from its owner(s). There are well-known frameworks for explaining the behaviour of tacit and explicit knowledge but they possess one major and one minor gap. The less significant lacuna is the general absence of consideration of that component of knowing which is not merely inexpressible (thus tacit), but is unknown, i.e. the knower is unaware of her/his knowing. More significantly, work deriving from intelligence systems stresses the importance of that knowing which is of a systemic nature, as opposed to knowing of a localised, or ‘point’, nature. An extensive body of work now exists which takes this system view of knowledge into account, but little exists in terms of frameworks for understanding how this systemic knowledge behaves dynamically. Some practical experiences are described in the form of mini-cases, which collectively give indications of the conditions under which tacit knowledge (of both forms) is likely to be co-created in the organisation. These are brought together in an informal structure for guiding managers in creating the conditions for that co-creation.
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    Some perspectives on planning for retirement
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013-04) Krige, J. D.
    This paper explores two themes related to the financial aspects of retirement – real-age adjusted life expectancy and the financial survival probability of living annuitants. The first theme focuses on the development of a model to determine an individual’s adjusted life expectancy based on his or her real age as opposed to his or her calendar age. The model incorporates aspects such as gender, residing province, income, HIV status, ethnic background, weight, exercise, family illness history, stress, substance abuse and diet. The finding was that the real-age adjusted life expectancy of individuals retiring at age 65 may be as much as twice the life expectancy based on the latest South African actuarial mortality tables. This has significant implications for retirement planning. The second theme focuses on the financial survival probability of pensioners who have selected living annuities as their preferred retirement investment option. It addresses the question of how long a given amount of capital will be able to fund a living annuitant if the following parameters are known: expected retirement duration (i.e. years between retirement date and expected date of death), investment returns, inflation, annual withdrawal amount and initial capital amount. A model was developed that shows how retirement duration and different withdrawal rates change the probability of having sufficient capital in retirement for different investment scenarios.