Ms Velaine Govender and Ms Merisha Harrilall have graduated with their Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees cum laude.
With a professional background in Human Resources (HR), Govender had aspirations of progressing to more senior and strategic roles in her field of expertise, but admits pursuing an MBA was not part of the plan.
“Pursuing an MBA was never originally part of my plan. I had always thought I would stop at a Postgraduate Diploma. If you had asked me then whether I would pursue an MBA, my answer would probably have been, ‘No, I don’t think I can do it’,” said Govender.
“I knew I would find the dissertation challenging, as research was not one of my strongest areas. However, I decided to take on the challenge and push myself both academically and professionally, knowing the MBA could broaden my career opportunities. I also thought about how proud my late father would be. Completing my MBA cum laude was something I never imagined, which makes the achievement even more meaningful.”
Supervised by Dr Nomfundo Kakaza, Govender’s study was titled: Exploring Employee Perceptions of a Workplace Wellness Programme: A Qualitative Case Study in a KwaZulu-Natal Automotive Firm. It explored the perceptions and experiences of operational employees within a high-pressure, shift-based automotive environment in relation to their workplace wellness programme.
“The most important thing my research highlighted was that simply having a workplace wellness programme does not necessarily mean employees will participate in it or experience its intended benefits. Factors such as communication, accessibility, shift patterns, workload, trust, confidentiality, and visible management support all played a role in shaping employees’ experiences of the programme. I wouldn’t say that completing a dissertation suddenly made me love research – and I think that would be dishonest – but it certainly gave me a new appreciation for what research can uncover, particularly when people are given the opportunity to share their experiences and tell their own stories.”
For Harrilall, the decision to pursue an MBA to strengthen her understanding of business from a strategic perspective seemed like the next logical step after many years of working and building a strong technical foundation in the internal audit, risk, and advisory sector.
“I felt ready to challenge myself in a different way and wanted the opportunity to step back, question what I knew, and explore business issues from a broader strategic perspective,” Harrilall said.
“Even after so many years in the workplace, I wanted to prove to myself that I could still stretch myself academically. So, for me, the MBA represented more than just another qualification; it was about growth – as a professional, as a leader, and most importantly, as a person.”
Supervised by Dr Doug Engelbrecht, Harrilall’s study was titled: ‘A Comparative Analysis of Pharmaceutical Industry Environmental, Social, and Governance Reporting in the European Union, United States, and South Africa’. The study questioned if environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance across companies and countries could be compared because they all use similar reporting frameworks.
“We are seeing much greater consistency in how companies report ESG information, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the information has the same meaning or importance across different markets. Two companies can report on exactly the same ESG issue, use similar terminology, but the reasons behind those disclosures and the priorities they are trying to communicate can differ,” she said.
“I think this is particularly important for investors and other stakeholders who rely on ESG information to understand and compare companies. Including South Africa in the research was also important to me. Much of the global ESG conversation tends to focus on developed markets, but South African businesses operate in a very different socio-economic environment,” she added.
Words: Thandiwe Jumo
Photograph: Sethu Dlamini