5. ESTRATEGIAS DE MEJORA O CAMBIO
5.1. Planteamiento y presentación de las propuestas
EMPOWERMENT
BEE Status
Support
of BEE
In principle In application Unknown Known Degree of support External environment Internal environment PDI enterprises PDI Clients Degree of supportThe degree of implementation was further segmented into the external and internal environments of the enterprise. The external environment was segmented into the proportion of business conducted with PDI enterprises and the proportion of PDI clients that the business has. The internal environment consists of the human resource
component and the business operations section that support BEE.
In terms of human resources the researcher endeavored to determine the level of ownership by PDI’s as well as the management component that consists of black people. The PDI management question was segmented into the percentage of staff training devoted to black people as well as the percentage of black people employed in the business.
The questions relating to business operations were segmented into the levels of procurement from PDI’s as well as the percentage of turnover invested in local communities. Human resources Internal environment Procurement Operations PDI Management
PDI ownership Investment in
Local communities PDI
employment Staff training
Questions relating to the business profile were segmented into business characteristics and business operations. The business characteristics included questions on the form of business, years in operation, location and number of people employed. The segment on business operations included questions on type of operation, size of turnover and source countries of clients.
Apart from the three main levels of questions i.e., Entrepreneurship, Black Economic Empowerment and Business profile, the researcher endeavored to find solutions to the challenges that tour operators face. To this extent questions were asked on the human resource development requirements and included questions on key skills, training courses, the kind of training preferred as well as format of tuition.
The questionnaire was concluded by asking respondents to provide any general
comments and recommendations. They were also invited to provide their contact details if they wanted the researcher to be able to interact with them in the future. This was also important in terms of anonymity and the ability to clarify questions and responses, if required. BUSINESS PROFILE Form of business Business operations Business characteristics Number of staff Years of operation Provincial location Source countries Kind of operator Size of turnover
5.8 Data processing
The questionnaires were received via email, printed and coded for processing and filing purposes. The target audience was encouraged to complete the survey and contact details including emails, postal address and telephone numbers were supplied to clarify any issues that they might needed clarity on.
The researcher chose to use SPSS (Version 18), after consultation with the statistician of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology responsible for further studies. This programme (SPSS) is made available under license to the institution and students are encouraged to make use of this computer programme as it meets the required standards of the institution. The researcher used the PASW Statistics 18 version for the purposes of this study. The data extracted from the questionnaires were tabulated according to the questions asked and responses to open-ended questions were grouped according to their similarities.
Once the data was processed, the researched could extract figures and tables depicting the results of the research. These tables were utilized to depict the levels of support for BEE as well as the characteristics of the tour operating sub-sector in South Africa. Responses in terms of incentive programmes were tabulated and recommendations consolidated to assist government in designing suitable support packages for the industry to grow and expedite BEE.
The researcher opted for the hypothetico- deductive method to test the results of the null hypothesis for:
i) Support for BEE in principle ii) Support for BEE in application
iii) Correlation between size of the enterprise and BEE support (principle and application).
This method is used (Clark et al., 1998:10) to study a phenomenon and formulate ideas about its character and behavior. These ideas are then formulated into a hypothesis, which is a statement about the phenomenon, which is then tested. The aim of testing the hypothesis is to accept or reject the hypothesis by means of statistical tests that estimate the probability of sample outcomes if assumptions regarding the population are true (the null hypothesis). The null hypothesis is also known as the statement of “no difference” and assumes that the population, from which the sample was extracted, has characteristics with a certain value (Healey et al., 1999:198). The null hypothesis is the hypothesis a researcher tries to disprove and it normally represents the current view of an aspect in the world that the researcher wants to challenge (http://www.experiment- resources.com/research-methodology.html) [Accessed: 24 July 2010].
The statistical tests that was utilized to determine if the null hypothesis could be accepted or rejected was the Chi Square test.. This technique is used to determine if the observed values and the expected values are close or far from each other. If these values are close to each other, then the null hypothesis is accepted (Navidi, 2010: 240). The formula used is:
The results of these tests are depicted in chapter six and the acceptance or rejection of the null hypothesis explained.
5.9 Focus group session
During the Tourism Indaba in Durban, the researcher conducted a focus group meeting with the Chief Executive Officer of the Southern African Tourism Services Association (SATSA), Mr. Michael Tatalias as well as the President of SATSA, Ms. Heather Gutierrez. The reason why these two people were identified for the focus group discussion was their unbiased positions as CEO and President of the industry body SATSA. Al though other tour operators could have been selected for the focus group session at Indaba, the researcher decided against this practice as the selection would
not have been based on representation throughout South Africa and only represented those who attended Indaba. The questionnaire was discussed in an extensive meeting that analyzed the formulation of the questions, the answering options presented to the target audience, the methodology applied in conducting the survey. The members of the focus group were satisfied that the questionnaire was designed in an
understandable format comprising of suitable questions and terminology. They supported the methodology deployed and concurred with the researcher on the difficulties in estimating the size of the tour operating population.
The second part of the session was devoted to the discussion of the results of the survey. The main issues discussed were the nature of tour operating, the difficulties in applying transformation, and the lack of appropriate support as well as the lack of acknowledgement for the transformation achievements reached thus far. These issues are reported on in more detail in section 6.8 of this study. The focus group meeting was concluded by the members signing off on the study and its accompanying results
(Annexure 6). The focus group members expressed their sincere appreciation for this study as it provides much needed primary research information on the tour operating sub-sector and its progress in terms of transformation.