One of Monash South Africa’s first students awarded a PhD

15 February 2010

Dr Richard Zanner

One of the first students to enroll at Monash South Africa when it opened its doors in 2001, Richard Zanner, was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy at the Monash University Graduation Ceremony held at the Sandton Convention Centre on Saturday, 13 February 2010.

Dr Zanner graduated with a Bachelor of Business Systems degree in 2004 after attending the School of Information Technology at the Monash South Africa campus. He then completed a BSc (Hons) at the University of Cape Town before being awarded a scholarship to undertake his PhD at the Caulfield campus of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Dr Zanner’s thesis was in the field of knowledge management and was entitled:  “An analysis of knowledge in practice during organisational transformation. A task-based perspective of a post-acquisition integration case.”

The thesis investigates knowledge management during organisational transformation through the case of mergers and acquisitions in today’s competitive business landscape. It provides valuable insight into the way knowledge is managed to ensure its continuity in the transformed organisation and the limitations of technology in facilitating knowledge continuity.

Dr Zanner said he was most grateful for the outstanding assistance he received from his joint supervisors at the Monash Caulfield School of IT who were Associate Professor Frada Burstein, Dr Henry Linger, Senior Lecturer, and Associate supervisor, Dr Kerry Tanner, Senior Lecturer.

Dr Zanner who was born in Germany, grew up in South Africa and worked in business for 15 years before enrolling at Monash South Africa.

“One of the things that attracted me to Monash was the flexibility of being able to take elective subjects from other schools as part of my degree,” said Zanner. “Although I graduated with a Bachelor of Business Systems, I was able to include Economics as well as Geography and Environmental Science as electives. This enabled me to pursue a BSc (Honours) in Disaster Risk Management at the University of Cape Town where I focused on Africa’s creeping emergencies and in particular the problem of food insecurity. During my thesis I worked in collaboration with the Human Science Research Council.