Abstract
M.A.
The purpose of thi s study was to es tabl i sh the level of impor tance
at tached to compet i t i ve intel l igence (CI ) at a mas s impor t - retai l
organi zat ion in South Af r i ca. The rat ionale of CI i s to aler t an
organi zat ion about the cur rent s i tuat ion relat ing to i ts bus ines s
envi ronment , compet i tor s and how these aspect s af fect the compet i t ive
s i tuat ion. CI has thus been viewed as a core tool to ut i l i ze wi thin
organi zat ions in order to funct ion compet i t i vel y.
The value and s igni f i cance that CI present s to organi zat ions upon
implementat ion was di scus sed thoroughl y by focus ing upon the growth of
CI , the manner in whi ch CI is usual l y executed, the neces s i t y of
conduc t ing CI , var ious organi zat ional st ructure opt ions, establ ishing a
CI cul ture, measur ing the cos t of CI relat i ve to i ts benef i ts and ethical
i s sues per taining to CI operat ions.
The CI c ycle was examined in depth by paying at tent ion to four phases
of this c ycle. The f i rs t phase is planning, in whi ch di rec t ion and purpose
i s gained for CI ; col lect ion i s the second phase in which informat ion
f rom a var iet y of sour ces i s gathered; the thi rd phase i s anal ys is , in
whi ch raw informat ion is anal yzed and conver ted into intel l igence and
the last phase, dis seminat ion, refer s to dis t r ibut ing intel l igence to endusers
in the form of a CI product .
Af ter the above had been invest igated, the inf luence that CI has on
deci s ion-mak ing was determined. I t was found that there i s a pos i t ive
inf luence on decis ion-making since CI as s ist s in reducing the number of
uncer taint ies when mak ing dec is ions and bet ter dec i sions can thus be
made.
4
A sur vey was conducted at a mass impor t - retai l organi zat ion to come to
a conclus ion on the purpose of the s tudy. A total of 107 employees were
randoml y selec ted to complete a quest ionnai re and af ter the resul t s of
the sur vey were recei ved, f indings were reached. Based on the resul ts i t
was found that this organi zat ion pract ises CI , albei t in an informal
manner and i t was conc luded that a relat i vel y high level of impor tance i s
at tached to CI wi thin this organi zat ion; however , a few areas for
improvement were ident i f ied and a recommendat ion was made on
implement ing a formal CI funct ion wi thin the organi zat ion.