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The decision to outsource a part of an organisation’s activities is often the result of an initiative to realise potential production cost efficiencies. In order to avoid the use of such narrow decision criteria this paper considers the use of a wider array of inputs. Following a review of the literature, a composite outsourcing decision framework is presented. This framework consists of three main components. The first seeks to utilise the unique contextual factors associated with each decision; the second considers the strategic implications of deciding to outsource and the third investigates the traditional cost aspects. The framework is then applied to a case study concerning an engineering organisation which had to decide whether to outsource part of its production facilities. The outcomes suggest that the framework was a useful instrument in assisting management in making this decision, although further work in this area is required.

This paper reports on an investigation into the possibility of implementing activity‐based costing and activity‐based management in the Fuel Purchases Department of Eskom. This Department purchases coal from various mines on behalf of ten power stations. The problem is that power stations are charged by the Fuel Purchases Department in accordance with the quantity of coal that is purchased on their behalf and in not accordance with the quantity of work done. Activity‐based costing resolves this problem by using seven cost pools and seven cost drivers to allocate the cost of the Fuel Purchases Department to the power stations. This leads to a more accurate cost allocation and cross‐subsidising between power stations is also eliminated. Activity‐based costing also provides information on activities in the Department. This clears the way for activity‐based management.

This study aims to propose a new research agenda for the theories of “organizational learning” and the “learning organization” in relation to the public sector. The research agenda can be used by researchers to make explicit accounts of how and where the results from their studies advance the current state-of-the-art in the intersection between public sector and organizational learning and/or the learning organization.

A combined systematic and bibliometric review methodology is applied based on the research that has been published in the past three decades.

Through an analysis of 238 journal publications obtained from the Scopus database, the authors determine the leading authors, countries, highly cited papers and take the stock of current literature. Similarly, by analyzing papers published between 2010 and 2020, the authors identify current tendencies and emerging themes of organizational learning and learning organization in the public sector and offer avenues for future research.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is potentially the first, fully refereed study published reporting on a bibliometric and a systematic review of organizational learning and learning organization in the public sector.

Presents the findings of a study conducted to examine the efficiency of the combined anaerobic‐aerobic reactors for the treatment of three different tannery industrial wastewaters, focusing on the fate of chromium and other associated metals. Examines elimination rates of such metals with respect to each successive treatment process. Discusses the correlation between the chemical characteristics of the wastewater influent and effluent along with the level of heavy metals in such wastewater and the produced sludge. Confirms that the use of such sludge in agriculture should be restricted and recommends the recovery of Cr from the tanning sludge.

In this study tannery industrial wastewater was supplied from a leather industry plant in the south of Germany. An anaerobic pilot plant was erected for the treatment of this wastewater. Discusses the effect of such an anaerobic process with special reference to the fate of chronium and the other associated heavy metals throughout the process. The studied metals were Cr, Cd, Pb, Ni, Cu, Fe and Zn. The elimination rate of these metals throughout the anaerobic processes from the wastewater and the increasing rate of metal correlations in the sludge were studied extensively. Levels of Cr, Cu, Fe, Cd, Ni, Pb and Zn in the raw wastewater after acidification were 33.72, 0.13, 1.82, 0.06, 0.19, 0.21 and 1.07 mg/l respectively. In the sludge the levels were 6,296, 16, 141, 31, 12.4, 23 and 94 mg/kg dry weight respectively. The levels of these metals were decreased by stabilization. The overall results revealed that a remarkable decrease has been achieved in the reduction level of metals in the final wastewater. The elimination of such metals reached 98 per cent for Cr, 53.8 per cent for Cu, 81.3 per cent for Fe, 16.7 per cent for Cd, 21.1 per cent for Ni, 72.9 per cent for Zn. On the other hand, such metals were concentrated in the sludge, on the dry weight basis, up to the levels of 13,193 mg Cr/kg, 27.7 mg Cu/kg, 348 mg Fe/kg, 3.2 mg Cd/kg, 13.7 mg Ni/kg, 28 mg Pb/kg and 110 mg Zn/kg. Meanwhile, the studied anaerobic process exhibited significant improvement in the quality of the tannery wastewater to meet the guideline characteristics. However, the partial high level of Cr (III) and the other associated metals in the produced sludge strongly militate against the use of such tannery sludges as manure in agriculture.