Abiodun Alao

Tandi Edda Lwoga

Wallace Chigona

Telecentres Use in Rural Communities and Women Empowerment: Case of Western Cape

Keywords: Telecentres, women empowerment, gender, rural communities, ICT use, Western Cape

Women are still facing exclusion in the use of telecentres, largely because of cultural perceptions that they are responsible for the home; telecentres are also widely perceived appropriate for men to find employment. This paper presents an analysis of the benefits women derive from using telecentres. This study explores how telecentres empower women in the rural communities by analysing three telecentres in the rural setting of Western Cape, South Africa. A qualitative approach involving semi-structured interviews was used to gather indepth details on individual empowerment of the rural women. The results obtained show that some rural women used the telecentres to enhance economic standards, which resulted in individual empowerment in social, psychological, information and economic dimensions. This study highlights the potential of telecentres in empowering women and proposes that the government and NGOs consider the telecentre as a means of addressing gender digital divide issues.

Introduction

The purpose of the study was to assess the contribution of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for women empowerment and human development in South Africa. In particular, the study seeks to establish the current status of the ICT sector development in selected rural areas; secondly, to determine the pattern of ICTs use and impact of ICT use on women empowerment and development; and, thirdly, to identify factors affecting effective utilisation of ICTs. Access to ICT continues to be unequally distributed and, in most cases, segregated along income, education, age, gender and geographical location [START_REF] Hilbert | Digital gender divide or technologically empowered women in developing countries? A typical case of lies, damned lies, and statistics[END_REF]. Although South Africa has made substantial efforts to make ICT infrastructures available in rural areas by providing access to the internet and other ICT facilities through telecentres, the problem of internet access persists. Women are faced with the problem of ICT access due to a host of socioeconomic factors [START_REF] Hilbert | Digital gender divide or technologically empowered women in developing countries? A typical case of lies, damned lies, and statistics[END_REF]. Nevertheless, most telecentres do not focus on gender and how women can be empowered by the use of the telecentre [START_REF] Hilbert | Digital gender divide or technologically empowered women in developing countries? A typical case of lies, damned lies, and statistics[END_REF]. Empowerment is the process of gaining substantial, new capability to perform some specific action [START_REF] Dasuki | An Evaluation of Information Systems Students Internship Programs in Developing Countries: A Capability Perspective[END_REF]. The process of empowerment enables the transformation of individual lives to achieve goals and reach targets, which they had thought impossible [START_REF] Wilson | Empowerment: Community economic development from the inside out[END_REF]. This study investi-gates the impact of telecentres on woman empowerment in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Previous literature shows the telecentres as a valuable ICT initiative that can be used to empower women in rural South Africa through the receiving and disseminating of information [START_REF] Ngumbuke | Gender Impact and Mobile Phone Solutions in Rural Development: A Case Study in Rural Iringa, Tanzania[END_REF].

More studies demonstrate the personal characteristics of respondents in the rural areas; the extent of their effect on the diffusion and adoption of telecentres; and challenges women encounter in the use [START_REF] Mbatha | Pushing the agenda of the information society ICT diffusion in selected multipurpose community telecentres in South Africa[END_REF], [START_REF] Chigona | Framing telecentres: Accounts of women in rural communities in South Africa and Tanzania[END_REF]. The gap in research illustrates that enhancing people's informational capabilities is the most critical factor that determines the impact of ICTs on women's well-being. Although a number of studies have looked at the effects of the use of telecentres on the well-being of communities in South Africa [START_REF] Attwood | Telecentre functionality in South Africa: Re-enabling the community ICT access environment[END_REF] insights on the benefits derived from the telecentre and how they are expected to empower women are still lacking [START_REF] Uys | Government Public Access Centres (PACs): A beacon of hope for marginalised communities[END_REF]. While most telecentre research addresses the benefits women derive from using telecentres, gender implications for the use of telecentres are not being addressed [START_REF] Gigler | Informational Capabilities: The missing link for understanding the impact of ICT on development[END_REF] Women, especially those in rural communities, carry a huge responsibility of looking after their families. Women are saddled with the responsibility of managing their homes, while the men work and engage in other economic activities [START_REF] Ngumbuke | Gender Impact and Mobile Phone Solutions in Rural Development: A Case Study in Rural Iringa, Tanzania[END_REF]. In addition, it is assumed that in rural communities men are better positioned to benefit from ICTs than women and this contributes to gender inequality and digital divide [START_REF] Hilbert | Digital gender divide or technologically empowered women in developing countries? A typical case of lies, damned lies, and statistics[END_REF]. Furthermore, ICTs can play an important role in this process of enhancing informational capabilities to achieve individual empowerment [START_REF] Gigler | Informational Capabilities: The missing link for understanding the impact of ICT on development[END_REF]. The failure to address the specific ICT needs of women in rural areas continues to contribute to the barriers women face in accessing ICTs. Therefore, this study was guided by the research question: How are telecentres empowering women in rural communities? Specific focus is on the Western Cape Province of South Africa. An investigation into the dimension of empowerment, the socio-cultural perception of the gender (male) computer culture, and how these reflects on women in rural communities was carried out. This paper adopted the empowerment framework as a theoretical foundation. The framework was considered appropriate because it explains the different dimension of empowerment in relation to individual capabilities and issues of gender (male) bias of computer culture are addressed.

2

Literature review

Telecentres: An overview

Telecentres are non-profit centres that offer access to computers. Furthermore, telecentres are established to solve the problem of digital divide, i.e., the gap between the 'information haves and have-nots'. Telecentres can be private enterprise, governmentsupported, and public-private partnership [START_REF] Gomez | When you do not have a computer: Public-access computing in developing countries[END_REF]. Private-owned telecentres such as the internet cybercafés are mainly for profit and are usually more financially sustainable. Moreover, telecentres are sometimes non-government organisations (NGOs) and government-owned and exist in almost every country [START_REF] Bell | Village Computing: A State of the Field. Reflections on the Village Computing Consultation[END_REF]. Although they sometimes go by different name such as e-centre, computer centre, kiosk, e-chopper, information centre, cyber-café or public internet access points (PIAP) [START_REF] Maitrayee | Telecentres in rural India: Emergence and a typology[END_REF]. Access to telecentres is perceived as part of a process that can provide support to individuals for personal needs and goals [START_REF] Aji | A conceptual model for psychological empowerment of telecentre users[END_REF].

ICT for Development

Over the years, a proponent of ICTs for development agenda claims technology creates opportunities for social and economic development of poor communities in developing nations [START_REF] Mukerji | Introduction[END_REF]. [START_REF] Hudson | Access to the digital economy: issues in rural and developing regions[END_REF] claims that, if information is critical to development, then ICTs, as a means of sharing information, are not simply a connection between people, but a link in the chain of the development process itself. ICT is perceived to not reach the underprivileged but, rather, the privileged in the society, which widens the socioeconomic gap within developing countries [START_REF] Heeks | Where next for ICTs and international development[END_REF]. ICTs enhance inequalities and potentially lead to social exclusion [START_REF] Adera | ICT pathways to poverty reduction: empirical evidence from East and Southern Africa[END_REF]. Scholars like [18] suggest that women are likely to select actions that are approved by their families and friends, as opposed to following rules or principles that are separated from their relationships. This indicates that women are somewhat reluctant to being introduced to technology or its utilisation in their everyday life. Technological empowerment is achieved by supporting the individual use of technology for personal needs and goals [START_REF] Aji | A conceptual model for psychological empowerment of telecentre users[END_REF].

Individuals who have the opportunity to be empowered using technology usually have the confidence; high self-esteem; feelings of self-efficacy; control over their life; increased critical awareness; and increased civic participation [19]. According to [START_REF] Röger | Differences in individual empowerment outcomes of socially disadvantaged women: effects of mode of participation and structural changes in a physical activity promotion program[END_REF], technologies contribute to the multiplier effects across income levels and innovative capacity. Modern technologies can support the empowerment of individuals and contribute to community development. However, lack of ICT skills in remote areas is one of the reasons telecentres are established in rural communities [START_REF] Hettiarachchi | Role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in human development in South Asia[END_REF]. ICT skills development has been integrated as part of the service of telecentres to overcome the challenges of learning computer skills. Thus, the aim was to support the community to access ICT facilities and information via the internet or computer training skills offered at the telecentre to improve the livelihood and self-development of users [START_REF] Aji | A conceptual model for psychological empowerment of telecentre users[END_REF]. Access to ICT initiatives, such as telecentres in themselves, cannot be a solution to poverty but can be adopted as a tool in poverty reduction initiatives. [START_REF] Brown | Highlighting the duality of the ICT and development research agenda[END_REF] claim "ICT for development" agenda examines the link between ICT and development, and empowerment of marginalised communities is under-researched whilst the "ICT in developing countries" agenda, comprising of cultural implications and local adaptation, is over-researched. Scholars such as [START_REF] Bailey | Community mediation and violence prevention through telecentre usage: ICTs mediating the 'Border Line[END_REF] also questioned the potential of telecentres in empowering individuals and communities.

Rural Communities in South Africa

A rural community can be defined as a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities, with a generally not large population [START_REF] Munyua | Application of ICTs in Africa's agricultural sector: A gender perspective[END_REF]. There are 1.4 billion people living on less than US$1. 25 a day and at least 70% of them live in rural areas [START_REF] Hafkin | Gender, information technology, and developing countries: An analytic study[END_REF].

The South African poor mainly live in rural communities, and a large number of South Africans live in poverty [START_REF] Carter | Poverty, livelihood and class in rural South Africa[END_REF]. Statistics show that 52% of the South African population are women and 47% of these women live in rural communities [START_REF] Bobo | Challenges of rural women[END_REF]. A rural location is described as residents in settlements above or below a certain size where agriculture is presumed to be the principal activity of its populations [START_REF] Tacoli | Rural-urban interactions: a guide to the literature[END_REF]. A large number of rural South Africans live in poverty [START_REF] Bobo | Challenges of rural women[END_REF]. The make-up of the rural communities of South Africa consists of Blacks and the Coloured race who live in settlements in diverse locations outside of the cities in different provinces of the country.

Telecentre Implementation for Gender Empowerment

Telecentres are established to transform rural communities into a computer-skilled labour force which can support innovation [START_REF] Sey | Public access to ICTs: A review of the literature[END_REF]. Although telecentres are created in rural communities, the gender aspects are not put into consideration in the designplanning phase [START_REF] Sey | There When You Need It: The Multiple Dimensions of Public Access ICT Uses and Impacts[END_REF]. Furthermore, the approach to universal services and ICT policies in general neglect gender issues which may affect women's socio-economic and social conditions when the policies are implemented [START_REF] Nath | Empowerment and governance through information and communication technologies: women's perspective[END_REF]. This is demonstrated in some government-sponsored telecentres in South Africa, where gender issues are not considered [START_REF] Jorge | Engendering ICT Policy and Regulation: Prioritising Universal Access for Women's Empowerment[END_REF]. There is need to understand the actual use of telecentres in rural communities, how gender equality can be promoted and can also avoid exclusion of women [START_REF] Asiedu | Information communication technologies for gender and development in Africa: The case for radio and technological blending[END_REF]. This is because there are often limited resources available in the rural communities; men have the prospect to be exposed to possible job opportunities outside their environment, while women are expected to take up the responsibility of managing their homes [START_REF] Ngumbuke | Gender Impact and Mobile Phone Solutions in Rural Development: A Case Study in Rural Iringa, Tanzania[END_REF]. There are also issues beyond access that need to be taken into account when implementing telecentres in rural communities; for example, skills development, local content, social capital and cultural issues [START_REF] Mbatha | Pushing the agenda of the information society ICT diffusion in selected multipurpose community telecentres in South Africa[END_REF], [START_REF] Hettiarachchi | Role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in human development in South Asia[END_REF].

Impact of Telecentres on Women

The objective of the study is to understand how rural women can use the telecentres to improve their economic standard. The purpose of implementing telecentres in poor communities is to provide access to ICTs; inform; train; and provide economic opportunities to rural people on computer skills. The establishment of telecentres in rural communities has not really focused on how it can be used to benefit women in the rural areas. Therefore, the failure to address the challenges women encounter in using telecentres continues to contribute to the factors women face in accessing ICTs [START_REF] Potnis | Beyond access to information: Understanding the use of information by poor female mobile users in rural India[END_REF].

The use of telecentre services may support women in the process of self-reflection and problem solving to deal with their day to-day life challenges. These may assist women to strengthen their human capital in areas of knowledge, skills and ability to work and attain good health from the information obtained from using the telecentre. Women may benefit from the use of telecentre services if countries with existing telecentres create gender awareness programmes on the actual benefits from using telecentre facilities, and provide an encouraging environment for women's participation. This is most important in poor communities where women have limited access to information and minimum access to computer-training opportunities.

Conceptual Framework: Empowerment

This paper adopts the empowerment framework as a theoretical lens. The framework illustrates the different dimension of individual empowerment. Also how this relates to women empowerment [START_REF] Gigler | Informational Capabilities: The missing link for understanding the impact of ICT on development[END_REF]. The choice of this framework was to present the perception of women respondents. [START_REF] Moser | Gender Planning and Development: Theorv[END_REF] views empowerment in the context of addressing women's "strategic gender needs", that is to say transforming structures, institutions and beliefs that embody "women's subordinate position to men in the society". She argues that meeting these needs helps women to achieve greater equality. Strategic gender needs include broader social, political and economic issues such as gender division of labour, legal rights, domestic violence, etc. which would be discussed in the dimension of empowerment. Past scholars such as [START_REF] Knight | Increasing internet connectivity in sub-Saharan Africa: issues, options, and World Bank Group Role[END_REF] claims, if African women do not take the opportunity offered by ICTs initiatives such as telecentres to "catch up" technologically, they will find themselves further marginalised. Technologies including ICTs are not gender-neutral; rather, the use of ICTs and other technologies by women and men reflects to a large extent the wider socio-cultural and economic context within which the technologies are produced or used. Furthermore, there have been studies based on the analysis of women and their relationship with ICTs that say women consider the word "technology" to have male connotations, even though "information" seems more feminine. It is assumed that some women even believed that working with ICTs would drive women mad. These examples indicate a high level of women's discomfort with information technologies [START_REF] Obayelu | Analysis of the uses of information communication technology (ICT) for gender empowerment and sustainable poverty alleviation in Nigeria[END_REF]. Women empowerment refers to women having a right to develop their potential and improve on their self-development. The paper is focused on the individual empowerment of women through the use of the telecentre. Individual empowerment refers to the transformation of individuals' lives in achieving goals and reaching targets which they had previously thought impossible (i.e., to gain authority, skills, status, self-belief and image, progressing to greater things and increasing rewards) [START_REF] Barnard | Learning to use new technologies by older adults: Perceived difficulties, experimentation behaviour and usability[END_REF], [START_REF] Wilson | Empowerment: Community economic development from the inside out[END_REF]. Individual empowerment is also referred to as psychological empowerment because it involves an individual's participation in shared actions and has a greater control over his or her livelihood, a phenomenon referred to as "human agency" [START_REF] Aji | A conceptual model for psychological empowerment of telecentre users[END_REF], [START_REF] Gigler | Informational Capabilities: The missing link for understanding the impact of ICT on development[END_REF]. Empowerment can be classified into different dimensions: Information, Economic, Social, Political and Cultural empowerment. Table 1 summarises the different dimension of individual empowerment [START_REF] Gigler | Informational Capabilities: The missing link for understanding the impact of ICT on development[END_REF].

Social empowerment refers to all members of the society being treated fairly and equally [START_REF] Ahmad | The social reality of the Malaysian blogosphere[END_REF]. It is a multi-dimensional social process that helps people gain control over their own lives. Individuals can have the ability to enhance their technology and ICT literacy skills, enhance leadership skills and improve programme management skills through the services provided in the telecentre. This process fosters power (that is, the capacity to implement) in people, for use in their own lives, their communities and society, by being able to act on issues that they define as important [START_REF] Donald | Enabling voices, making choices: explorations of gender, power and technologically enabled learning cultures[END_REF]. Women using the telecentre can access social media platforms to communicate with friends and family and access information that addresses their personal needs.

Economic empowerment ensures that people have the appropriate skills, capabilities, resources and access to secure and sustain incomes and livelihoods, through the use of the telecentre, to seek for employment and other opportunities [START_REF] Suresh | Impact of Information and Communication Technologies on Women Empowerment in India[END_REF]. Through telecentre use, women can be empowered to gain computer skills that can equip them to be employable and improve on their economic standards. Political empowerment is when individuals acquire the capacity to analyse, organise and mobilise in their respective communities. It can also be recognised as individuals having a say in how things are organised and how decisions are made in their environments [START_REF] Geetha | Women, income generation, and political capital in the silk industry in Karnataka[END_REF]. Women living in poor communities are usually not involved in decision-making and political activities in their communities, because of the sociocultural perception of only being expected to manage their homes [START_REF] Hilbert | Digital gender divide or technologically empowered women in developing countries? A typical case of lies, damned lies, and statistics[END_REF].

Cultural empowerment is individuals having the freedom from socio-cultural norms to use the computer. Many feminist critics have argued that computer culture and the internet were inherently gendered; predominantly androcentric; therefore reproduced existing power structures and gender differences of the offline world in virtual reality [START_REF] Bruestle | Doing e-learning/doing gender? Examining the relationship between students' gender concepts and e-learning technology[END_REF]. According to this argument, many women non-users of the telecentre were not using the telecentre due to lack of computer skills and the gender (male) bias of computer culture. Women are usually limited by their cultural belief's, which sometimes hinders empowerment. Some cultures do not allow women to expose themselves to opportunities that can empower them, but rather they are expected to be committed to the management of their homes and families.

Methodology

A qualitative research design method was used for this study. The aim of the study was to gain more insights into how telecentres empower women in rural communities. We selected a qualitative research due to its ability to provide insights into the inter-actions within a particular context [START_REF] Merriam | Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education. Revised and Expanded from" Case Study Research in Education[END_REF]. To understand the potential benefits rural women derive from using the telecentre, the study was rooted in the interpretive paradigm [START_REF] Walsham | The emergence of interpretivism in IS research[END_REF]. An explanatory study was employed in the study to add a description and explain why certain outcomes occurred.

Case Description

The settlements used for this study were situated in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The study selected three (3) telecentres from three (3) different districts in the province. The communities used for the study were mainly rural communities.

The criteria for selecting the telecentres were: (1) to be situated in the rural communities;

(2) to have been in operation for more than one year and (3) to offer a variety of services such as the internet, information services, computer-training and free services to the community. Cape Access. The participants for this study were drawn from the three (3) selected telecentres with a view to ensure that the study was homogeneous. The telecentres were selected from the Cape Access project which is an ICT initiative of the Western Cape Government. This project provides ICT infrastructure such as e-centres (telecentre) for community development in rural communities. There are fifty-four (54) telecentres established in six ( 6) districts of the Western Cape Province. ICT facilities such as computers, printers, fax machines and internet facilities are made available in the e-centres for community members to access at no charge. The telecentres provide forty-five (45) minutes' free internet access to respective community users who have signed up to use the services provided at the e-centre/telecentre daily. Training sessions are offered on the International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL) and elearning and basic computer training are offered to community members at no charge, while certificates are issued to successful participants who have completed the training services. To operate and manage the Cape Access e-centres (telecentres), telecentre managers, assistant managers and development managers are employed for the project.

Locations

Elim Community. Bredasdorp/Elim region is a small rural community situated in the Southern Overberg of the Western Cape Province of South Africa. It is a community with farming as the main source of livelihood and has a high rate of unemployment. It consists of 2,500 people who are mainly Afrikaans-speaking and Coloured [START_REF] Schoeman | Local history teaching in the Overberg region of the Western Cape: The case of the Elim Primary School[END_REF]. Elim community consists of 91.6% Coloureds, 7.4% Black Africans and 1.0% Whites.

Klawer Community. Klawer Community is a rural town lying in the emerald green, tranquil Olifants River Valley just off the road to Namibia. There is a high rate of unemployment and the main source of livelihood in Klawer community is agriculture. The community is mostly occupied by an unemployed Afrikaans-speaking Coloured population. Klawer community is situated amongst the Matzikamma Mountains and on the Olifants River; the town is mainly into grape farming for wine production [START_REF] Plessis | The role of knowledge management in innovation[END_REF]. The community is 281 km from Cape Town; 24 km west-south-west of Vanrhynsdorp and 283 km north of Cape Town [START_REF]community data profile[END_REF]. Klawer community is a small town, which consist of 6,234 inhabitants, of whom 9.42% are Black Africans, 75.25% are Coloureds, 0.98% are Indian/ Asian, 0.72% are other and 13.62% are Whites [START_REF] Ladley | A Guide to Legal Aid-Some Issues Arising from the Refusal of Legal Aid in the Mbekweni Community Council Case[END_REF].

Mbekweni Community. Mbekweni is an urban black township near Paarl in the Western Cape Province [START_REF] Schoeman | Local history teaching in the Overberg region of the Western Cape: The case of the Elim Primary School[END_REF]. It is a community occupied by Afrikaans and Xhosaspeaking people who had migrated from the Eastern Cape Province in search of job opportunities. Mbekweni is situated in the Drakenstein Municipality (the municipality located within the Cape Winelands District Municipality), and is situated between the towns of Paarl and Wellington in the Berg River Valley region of the Western Cape. Mbekweni has a growing population estimated to be 50,000 [START_REF] Municipality | Annual Report 2011/2012[END_REF]The wine and fruit industries are the main source of informal job creation in the Paarl/Wellington area, having 80% of vines in the country located in the Wellington region [START_REF] Municipality | Annual Report 2011/2012[END_REF]. Though the wine and grape industries situated in the community serve as the backbone of the agricultural industry in the region, there is still a high rate of unemployment in the community because very few workers can be employed. The town population consist of 124, 878 residents [START_REF]community data profile[END_REF].

Population and Sample

Three communities were used as study sites of the research. Elim, Klawer and Mbekweni are relatively small towns in the Western Cape. The women were categorised into users (women who used or accessed the telecentre) and non-users (women who did not use or access the telecentre). The non-users were used as a control sample for the study; these non-users were selected from women living in the surrounding environment of the telecentre. Twenty-eight [START_REF] Tacoli | Rural-urban interactions: a guide to the literature[END_REF] women within the age of fifteen [START_REF] Hudson | Access to the digital economy: issues in rural and developing regions[END_REF] and above participated in the interview session from the communities. We studied the perceptions of a sample of women who are users and non-users of the telecentre. We investigated the reasoning structures of twenty-eight (28) rural women. Purposive sampling was used for selecting the respondents. The users were identified with the assistance of the telecentre managers. Women living within the surrounding environment of the telecentre were selected; women who were present during the time of the interview sessions were selected; and telecentre managers were also interviewed.

Sampling. The sampling strategy used to select the target population and provide the information used in the study was purposive sampling. Purposive sampling is used when the population is too small for a random sample [START_REF] Tran | Challenges to using neem (Azadirachtaindica var. sianensisValenton) in Thailand[END_REF]. The purposive sampling technique is used when the researcher selects samples because they have particular features and characteristics to enable detailed exploration and understanding of central themes and puzzles which the researcher wishes to study [START_REF] Chigona | Should communal computing facilities cohabit with public facilities[END_REF]. The sample used a qualitative research that allows interviewing until the redundancy of concepts; this is a situation where no new concepts are any longer emerging [START_REF] Trotter | Qualitative research sample design and sample size: Resolving and unresolved issues and inferential imperatives[END_REF]. The samples used in the study were the telecentre managers, assistant managers, women users (women who use the telecentre), and non-users (women who do not use the telecentre) who were interviewed in different selected communities. Furthermore, focus group discussions were held with women telecentre users.

Data Collection

The data collected for this study was obtained from twenty eight (28) semi-structured in-depth interviews from women users across three villages. The factors considered in the purposive sampling included usage, gender and age, thereby allowing the researcher to gain a more robust insight into the data by purposely selecting a sample from which most can be learned [START_REF] Merriam | Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education. Revised and Expanded from" Case Study Research in Education[END_REF]. Interviews lasted between eighteen (18) and sixty (60) minutes each and were audio-recorded. The interviews were conducted in the languages of English, Afrikaans and IsiXhosa, with the assistance of IsiXhosa and Afrikaans research translators. The study limitation identified was the limited number of women non-users available for the interview sessions. We explained and studied the cognitive representations that these individual women made. Due to ethical reasons, the identities of the participants have not been disclosed.

Data Analysis

Data was analysed using statistical techniques such as descriptive statistics to analyse the data, while content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data. Thematic analysis from field notes was performed to analyse the data. A descriptive analysis of all study variables and demographic variables examined in the survey interviews was carried out. Data collected from the interviews was recorded, transcribed and translated. Data was collected using a Dictaphone to record the interviews. The data was transcribed word for word into a textual format and digital copies of the data were retained for future reference. In addition, pictures were taken on the study site and used to further give a visual explanation of the activities of the study. Furthermore, data was analysed using statistical techniques. A descriptive analysis of all study variables and demographic variables examined in the survey interviews was conducted. We used codes to represent the identities of the respondents. For example codes K, E and M represent Klawer, Elim and Mbekweni locations respectively. Therefore, codes K2 and E1 were used to identify the participant 2 of Klawer and participant 1 of Elim. Table 2 below shows the profile of the participants.

Result

The significant contribution of the research to existing literature is that ICTs are believed to be key drivers for rural development; therefore telecentres are established in rural areas. However, women are usually not specifically considered to be main beneficiaries of the telecentre but rather there has been significant male dominance of the telecentres. Thus there is limited literature on women empowerment and telecentres; therefore there is need for more literature to be provided. Findings show that the use of the telecentre by rural women has been actualised. Some women benefited from using the telecentre despite the socio-cultural perception and gender (male) bias of computer culture.

Uses

The purpose of the creation of the telecentre is to provide services to communities at a subsidised rate and to empower various communities where they are situated. Government-sponsored telecentres constitute a common non-profit mode of delivery that provides free services to the different communities. The computers in the telecentre have been used to create CVs for job-seeking applicants. Some women also had success stories of getting employment after using CVs created at the telecentre to apply for work. Furthermore, some women entrepreneurs used the computers at the telecentre to source and apply for grants for their personal businesses via the internet. Additionally, the telecentre offered free computer-training to users who signed up to be trained. Other free services such as faxing, scanning, printing, email and internet browsing were also used by women-users. Finally, this study shows the different outcomes from the use of the telecentre in relation to the empowerment dimension. Information Empowerment. The outcomes from women's use of the telecentre to information empowerment were ICT literacy, access to information and public services amongst some women. Most women-users only visited the telecentre to access social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, and to play games and browse other websites. Very few women visited the telecentre to access their emails and to research. However, women who made use of the telecentre were empowered as a result of having better access to information and knowing what was happening within their communities. Some of the women-users claim women non-users of the telecentre were missing out and not informationally empowered. Women non-users of the telecentre were assumed to have been deprived of the benefits of using computers. Therefore, it is suggested that women should utilise the telecentre to access information that may assist them to deal with issues in their life. A respondent claims: "I think the telecentre adds value to the people of Elim because they can learn more. You can read there, visit other sites and you can even buy stuff and shop online" (User-E2).

Psychological Empowerment. Women users were able to use the services provided at the telecentre to overcome difficult social situations through self-reflection. Furthermore, the women non-users did not visit the telecentre due to their insecurities and lack of confidence. One of the challenges also confronting these women was the lack of self-esteem to use computers. The assumption was that telecentres are mainly for those with previous computer or personal experience and people who can relate to the use of computers effectively. Most women non-users believed they would be mocked if they visited the telecentre without having the knowledge of using a computer. In addition, some participants lack basic education and do not have the confidence to use the ICT facilities at the telecentre, as in this claim: "Women's lack education and some are afraid to come and sit here to learn from the training. They lack confidence and they don't want to come here" (Non-User-E1).

Social Empowerment. Due to socio-cultural perception, some women did not perceive the telecentre as a public space that could improve their economic standards. Some claim, however, that the telecentre empowered them to strengthen their social relations, knowledge sharing and computer skills. Some women users also claim to use the telecentre to communicate with friends and family via social media platforms such as Facebook, despite having internet-enabled smart phones, as the following participant claims: "I think the women use the e-centre for social networking because you don't see a lot of men using the internet for social media but for only if it is business related. I think it is the women that use it mostly for social media not men (lol!)" (User-M1).

Economic Empowerment.

Results from this study show that the aim of the telecentre for improving the economic standard was actualised. One of the reasons women used the telecentre was due to the free services provided. This allowed these women to save money to buy other things such as food. However, some women rarely use the telecentre because of the responsibility of managing their families and because of the perception that telecentres were mainly used by men to look for employment opportunities. Services in the telecentre include ICT skills development, support with job seeking and other assistance such as typing of CVs and application letters, job advertisements thatare posted at the telecentres and free printing services. The free training courses offered at the telecentres supported the women in using the ICT services with confidence and improving their employability. Furthermore, some women users claim to have success stories from the frequent use of the telecentre. Finally, women were using the telecentre to obtain information on how to apply for funds and loans. The women were able to get a job and increase their income using the telecentre services, resulting in improved economic empowerment. A telecentre manager says women were able to get employment after completing the computer skills training programs as in this claim: "Yes, there is this woman whom we helped at the e-centre to get a job, she is a chef and we helped with her CV and she got a job at the children school'' (Telecentre manager-K5).

Political Empowerment. There was limited political participation by women in the communities. Despite this, some women use the telecentre to communicate with the authorities through the assistance of the telecentre managers. The telecentre managers attested to the fact that they constituted a link to the government by assisting women to get their complaints across to the government sub-departments such as the parliament, through emails. However, some women users claim they were facing challenges such as unemployment and gender issues, which required support from the government. In addition, women in the rural communities did not know the procedure to initiate contacts with higher authorities. The telecentre managers supported the women to contact NGOs working in the communities to address women's challenges that were beyond the services of the telecentre, as in this claim: "The telecentre helps the community to plug in with other community-based organisations and non-governmental organisations" (User-E5).

Cultural Empowerment. The socio-cultural reason that non-users were not using the telecentre was due to their cultural beliefs about the role women play in the responsibility of caring for their family, as in this claim: "Yes it can because we are poor people and we don't have computers for our services and many of the women were stranded and many of them have men and because of culture the men would say no to the women and these are not be able to come to the e-centre because she must respect the man"(User-K4).

6

Discussion and Conclusion

Benefits Women Derive From the Telecentre

The study analysed how the telecentre empowered women in rural communities.

Based on empirical evidence from rural communities' uses of ICTs in the Western Cape Province, the study concludes that enhancing women's information capabilities is the most critical factor in determining the impact of ICTs on their well-being [START_REF] Gigler | Informational Capabilities: The missing link for understanding the impact of ICT on development[END_REF]. Findings derived from the psychological and information empowerment show few women utilised the telecentre to search for information for improving their economic standards. Furthermore, it was shown that, economically, most of the women were unemployed because they were not frequent users of the telecentre and did not partake in the computer skills training programme. In addition, politically, the telecentre added limited value to women. Results further show some women benefited socially from the use of the telecentre through interaction with friends and family. Some women benefit from the services provided in the telecentres. These include ICT skills development, improved communication, access to information, employment opportunities, access to government information and strengthening of social capital. The findings from the study were consistent with similar studies on telecentres in other rural communities [START_REF] Mbatha | Pushing the agenda of the information society ICT diffusion in selected multipurpose community telecentres in South Africa[END_REF]. However, this study did not differentiate the usage of telecentres in terms of gender. This study joins the past debate about the benefits of using the telecentres not being the same between men and women users [START_REF] Hilbert | Digital gender divide or technologically empowered women in developing countries? A typical case of lies, damned lies, and statistics[END_REF]. However, it is indicat-ed that gender-(male-) biased computer culture did influence the behaviour of some women in the communities who were considering using the telecentres. Subsequently, not all women benefited from the use of the telecentre.

Recommendation

The study recommends for future research that telecentres should be used to accommodate programs that can enhance women's capabilities. Moreover, telecentres should also be consciously created as a space that can embrace the information needs of women, thereby empowering women. The limitation of the study was caused by insufficient funds, which was a major limitation in carrying out this research. An additional limitation of the study was the language barrier, which was due to some women lack of spoken English. In addition, some of the respondents had difficulty in reading the interview questions, which was written in English. Based on the analysis of the study, for policy, telecentre design, or future research, the study would suggest to government and NGOs using the telecentre as an intervention mechanism for empowering women in the rural communities of South Africa. This study suggests recommendations to policy makers and NGOs to consider the difference in ICT access and socio-cultural issues that may affect the implementation of the telecentres in empowering rural women. In addition, this study informs the national policy makers on the contribution of the telecentres for women empowerment, rural livelihoods and poverty reduction. The study will also make practical contributions and allow the South African Government and NGOs to use telecentres for socio-economic development. Finally, Cape Access should focus more on the creation of campaigns and awareness programmes for promoting the telecentre in the rural areas to increase women's output of the telecentre.

Table 1 .

 1 Dimensions of individual empowerment[START_REF] Gigler | Informational Capabilities: The missing link for understanding the impact of ICT on development[END_REF]

	Dimension	Output indicator
		• Improved capital to use different forms of ICT
		• Enhanced information literacy
	Information	• Enhanced capacity to produce and publish local content
		• Improved ability to communicate with family members and friends outside
		immediate location
		• Stronger self-esteem
	Psychological	• Improved ability to analyse one's own situation and solve problems • Stronger ability to influence strategic life choices
		• Sense of inclusion in the digital world
		• Enhanced ICT literacy and technology skills
	Social	• Enhanced leadership skills
		• Improved programme management skills
		• Improved access to markets
		• Enhanced entrepreneurial skills
		• Alternative sources of income
	Economic	• Stronger productive sources
		• Improved employment opportunities

• Improved income through (a) lower transaction costs, (b) reduced transport need, (c) improved timeliness Political • Increased access to information or services • Improved capabilities to interact with local government and party politics Cultural • Improved social-cultural context that prevents gender (male) bias of computer culture and expectations

Table 2 .

 2 Profile of participants (N=28)

	Users	Non-users	Total


Thandi C Mlangeni

Ephias Ruhode
email: ruhodee@cput.ac.za

Data Governance: A challenge for merged and collaborating institutions in developing countries

Keywords: Data Governance, Data Quality Management, Higher Education, Higher Education Institution, ICT, CapePeninsula

Organisations now invest in ICT solutions to drive business activities and to provide the agility sought within changing environments. Owing to many reasons including inadequate financial resources, organisations in developing countries are characterised by mergers of two or more institutions. It means therefore that disparate systems with different data management schemes are merged or made to collaborate making access to quality data almost impossible.

. Analysis of data through the two models led to the development of a data governance framework applicable to the case under study and deemed to apply to any organisation in the same context. Challenges related to data principles, data access, data quality, data integration, metadata, data lifecycle, and design parameters emerged as the main findings from the study. Since the institution under study was established through a merger of independent technikons, the findings were deemed to be applicable to many other institutions where mergers and collaborations characterise their environment.

Introduction

Organisations, both private and public, are attempting to construct a paradigm for data quality management in the backdrop of ubiquity of information and data. Godfrey at al. (1997) portray information as an asset with economic value. This infers that looking after data has the potential to bring efficiency in the running of the organisation. To this effect, many studies have identified data governance as a discipline that can address data quality issues [START_REF] Korhonen | Designing Data Governance Structure: An Organisational Perspective[END_REF]. The pervasive use of IT in organisations mandates IT governance as a corporate imperative (IoD, 2009:14). IT governance, under which data governance falls, is defined by Van Grembergen (2004:1) as:

"… an integral part of corporate governance and consists of the leadership, organisational structures and processes that ensure that the organisation's IT sustains and extends the organisation's strategy and objectives"

This paper recognises that organisations in many sectors in developing countries face challenges in implementing data governance principles. An organisation in South Africa is examined to empirically identify the data governance challenges from a merger environment. Owing to many reasons including inadequate financial resources, organisations, especially public institutions in developing countries are characterised by mergers of two or three institutions. Merging of organisations, as has been witnessed in the South African higher education landscape since 2003, results in data governance challenges. Just like business organisations, universities are concerned about brand perceptions, business processes and human presence in the IT ecosystems (people, process and technology). Data repeatedly used across various business processes in universities mostly originate from these entities: students, classes, faculty, campus, facilities, location and employees. This data is often dispersed among units, departments or divisions (Drucker, 2005:102) and, therefore, a level of inefficiency finds its way with potential to generate inaccurate, missing, misinterpreted and poorly defined information (Redman, 2005:1).

This paper seeks to investigate the challenging obstacles faced by merged and collaborating institutions in obtaining clean, reliable, relevant data from their IT systems and how such electronic systems can be managed. These challenges are framed within the broader data governance paradigm. Under this background, the two critical questions which then emerge are:

What are the data governance challenges faced by organisations as a result of mergers and collaborations? Which data governance framework can be adopted for merged and collaborating institutions?

The paper is organised as follows: the next section presents the literature review followed by the methodology adopted in the study. Data collection and analysis methods are explained in the methodology which is followed by a section on presentation of findings and implications to policy and practice before the paper ends with a summary and conclusion.

2

Literature Review

The literature review section presents the data governance concept followed by a presentation of the theories which underpinned the study.

Data governance concept

Organisations seek to break down the silos of data that result in poor quality of information which, in turn, lead to organisational costs, risks and wrong decisions (Korhonen et al., 2013:11). Most of them realise that their strategic initiatives depend on the quality of data and their ability to manage fast-growing volume of information. [START_REF] Bryant | Data governance simplified. Point B management consultants[END_REF] asserts that this can be achieved through data governance. Data governance can be defined as an organisational approach to data management that formalises a set of policies and procedures to encompass the full life cycle of data (Korhonen et. al., 2013:11). It transforms an organisation's data, its management technology, who owns it and how it should be used (Russom, 2008:4). According to [START_REF] Russom | Seven reasons why master data management needs data governance[END_REF], a well-designed data governance programme should consist of both business and IT people. They must ensure information strategy and business strategy are aligned with the organisation's overall mission and strategy (Korhonen et al., 2013:14).

Most organisations deal with data quality problems emerging from both systematic and structural perspective. In seeking for solutions they develop new systems to replace old ones and, as a result, neglect to address the issue inherited from the old systems [START_REF] Lee | Journey to data quality[END_REF]. Some authors agree that if organisations have poor data quality that is inappropriately integrated, business operations will continue to be afflicted with data deficiencies that will make it hard to use data [START_REF] Fisher | The data asset: How smart companies govern their data for business success[END_REF][START_REF] Lee | Journey to data quality[END_REF]. According to [START_REF] Olson | Data quality: The accuracy dimension[END_REF], poor data management is said to cost many organisations some billions of dollars each year and a large portion of that cost is due to data quality inaccuracies. Redman (2001:45) suggests that 10% of organisations revenue is impacted by poor data quality. Both authors recognise the impact data quality can have on the organisation's profit. According to [START_REF] Redman | Data Driven: Profiting from Your Most Important Business Asset[END_REF], data quality issues experienced by most organisations include the following:

 People cannot find the data they need  Incorrect data  Poor data definition  Data privacy/data security  Data inconsistency across sources  Too much data and  Organisational confusion.

It is the contention of researchers in this study, that data quality issues that are experienced by organisations in developing countries are at a far wider scale than organisations in developed countries. Reasons for this lie in limited resources that range from financial to skills. An empirical case in a developing country was therefore selected to identify the data governance challenges.

Theoretical lens

Two models have been identified and considered relevant in this study, namely the contingency model [START_REF] Wende | A Contingency Approach to Data Governance[END_REF] and the data governance decision domain model by [START_REF] Khatri | Designing data governance[END_REF]. Firstly, the relevance of the contingency theory [START_REF] Wende | A Contingency Approach to Data Governance[END_REF] lies in its design parameters which form the basis of a data governance framework. The two design parameters are organisational placement of decision-making authority and coordination of decision-making style. According to ibid, these two design parameters affect the configuration of data governance model as their value influences the assignment of responsibilities. Secondly, [START_REF] Khatri | Designing data governance[END_REF] used data governance decision domains to structure their data governance decision domains. They identified the following data governance components:

• Data Principlesestablish the linkage with the business, by describing the business uses of data and ensuring data is treated as an enterprise wide asset.

•

Data Qualityinvolves ensuring accuracy and integrity data that is always available for an enterprise.

•

Metadatadescribes what the data is about and provides a mechanism for a concise and consistent description of the representation of data.

• Data Access/Data authorisationinvolves data security and explaining variety of ways in which a dataset can be accessed.

•

Data life cycleinvolves understanding how data is used, and how long it must be retained to minimise the total cost of storing over its life cycle The data governance domain model was coalesced with the design parameters of the contingency model and used as one framework to guide data collection from the empirical case. These components from the data governance decision domains model need to be assigned to roles that will be accountable for them (from the design parameters of the contingency model), also referred as locus of accountability.

Methodology

The study was conducted at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa. Considering the case rationale provided in the case description section, the researchers contend that findings from CPUT will be applicable to all other organisations which exist as a result of mergers and collaborations in developing countries. In the next section, the empirical case is presented, as well as the context of mergers within which the case is located.

Case description

In South Africa, the first decade of the 21 st century was characterised by a massive transformation of the higher education landscape. Technikons were collapsed and merged with each other and in some cases with already existing universities. This transformation of higher education occurred "within the context of a formidable overall challenge of pursuing economic development (including restructuring economic relations to address inequitable historical patterns of ownership, wealth and income distribution), social equity and the extension and deepening of democracy simultane-ously" [START_REF] Moses | The strategic role of the Chief Information Officer during post-merger at institutions of higher learning: A CASE STUDY[END_REF]. Post-1994 (the democratic dispensation), the new South African government sought to redress a myriad of economic and social challenges which had been created by the apartheid government. The South African society under apartheid government had been characterised by social, political and economic discrimination and inequalities of class, race, gender, institutional and spatial nature [START_REF] Badat | The challenges of transformation in higher education and training institutions in South Africa[END_REF]. Like all other sectors of the economy, the higher education landscape underwent a major restructuring and reconfiguration in the first decade of the 21st century. Merging of institutions of higher learning became a common phenomenon. After the new dispensation that saw mergers of institutions in higher education in South Africa, universities are divided into three broad categories, namely:

• Universities of Technology that focus on vocationally-oriented education; • Comprehensive universities that offer a combination of academic and vocational diplomas and degrees; • Traditional universities offering theoretically oriented university degrees. The development of UoTs was regarded as the core in mergers between two or multiple technikons where one institution was always being historically disadvantaged and the other historically advantaged (UoT, 2008).

Within the above landscape, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) was selected as a case under study. CPUT was formed on the 1st of January 2005 with the merger of the previously Peninsula and Cape Technikons and started operating as a new merged institution on the 1st of February 2006. The university is currently located in six campuses in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The campuses are dispersed within Western Cape of which the farthest is around seventy kilometres from the central campus. Both former institutions had their own institutionalised systems which through the merger, were compelled to integrate and bring together both their IT departments and systems. As in all other mergers in the country, the integration process has been very slow such that Bellville campus, previously the main campus of the Peninsula Technikon, and the Cape Town campus, previously the main campus of the Cape Technikon, are still regarded as two different infrastructures. The computing services of the university are divided into three domains -Computer and Telecommunications Services (CTS), Management Information Systems (MIS) and E-learning. The CTS department is responsible for IT infrastructure, network, facilities, desktop support, printing and helpdesk support. MIS is responsible for institutional data which uses the Integrated Tertiary Software (ITS) integrator to capture both staff and student data. E-learning manages the university's learning management system (LMS).

The rationale for selecting CPUT as a case in this study is two-fold. Firstly, CPUT is one of the biggest merger universities with over 33,000 thousand students. Secondly, many merger related challenges are still experienced by CPUT. The challenges are both social and technological. Social challenges which are evident at CPUT relate to cultural and racial diversity as the two merged institutions had been defined by race. Technological challenges, which are the focus of this study range from difficulties to retrieve, manipulate and analyse aggregate data for metrics and planning, difficulties to manage unstructured data, and general data integration challenges. These data management challenges arise from institutions not thoroughly dealing with data con-tent, records management, quality, stewardship, governance and research data management (Albrecht & Pirani, 2009:3).

Data Collection

This study followed a deductive approach, which is theory-driven, using both the contingency theory's design parameters [START_REF] Wende | A Contingency Approach to Data Governance[END_REF] and the data governance decision domains [START_REF] Khatri | Designing data governance[END_REF]. Both models were used as guideline to test empirical data with the aim of analysing the impact of data governance at CPUT. A questionnaire and interviews were used to collect data. The questionnaire was structured using the data governance decision domains (Khatri & Brown, 2010) and interviews followed the contingency theory's design parameters [START_REF] Wende | A Contingency Approach to Data Governance[END_REF]. Data collected from the questionnaire allowed the researcher to determine and understand the impact of data governance in higher institutions of higher learning, in this case, CPUT as an institution. The interviews allowed the participants to express their opinions on experiences and challenges related to data, and their understanding of the issues related to data responsibilities and decision making by the business users.

This research employed purposive non-probability sampling to select the sample mainly from business users and IT technical personnel. Business people in this context included executive-level board members (for example, Vice Chancellors, Deputy Vice Chancellors and others). The following explain selected participants or unit of analysis for this study. Participants chosen to represent executive-level members included:

 Deputy Vice Chancellor of knowledge and information services: this individual was selected because he oversee the whole ICT function in the entire institution.  Registrar: this individual was selected because he is liable for student data and he is a custodian for the institution policies.

Participants chosen to represent ICT technical personnel included:  IT manager: this individual is responsible for the integration of systems,  IT Risk and Compliance officer: is responsible for the development and compliant of policies in the IT department, and lastly and  IT coordinator: this individual focus more on IT projects involving student data. These are the participants that were used as unit of analysis.

Data Analysis

Thematic analysis is used to analyse both questionnaire and interviews data. It is used to analyse classifications and present themes that are related to data and further illustrates data in great detail, while dealing with diverse subjects via interpretations [START_REF] Alhojailan | Thematic Analysis: A critical review of its process and evaluation[END_REF][START_REF] Boyatzis | Transforming qualitative information: thematic analysis and code development[END_REF]. It also provides description and understanding of answers through discovering patterns and developing themes. Themes come from both data itself (an inductive approach) and from the investigator's prior theoretical understanding of the phenomenon under study [START_REF] Ruhode | E-Government for Development: A Thematic Analysis of Zimbabwe's Information and Communication Technology Policy Documents[END_REF]. In this case, themes from the questionnaire emerged from the components within the Data governance decision domains [START_REF] Khatri | Designing data governance[END_REF]. Burnard, Gill, Stewart, Treasure and Chadwick (2008) highlight that in deductive thematic analysis, a predetermined framework is used to analyse data. (ibid) contend that this approach is useful when one has specific research questions that already identify the main themes. Interview themes emerged from the data itself and the actual data was used to derive the structure of analysis.

Findings

As presented in the data analysis section, themes were derived from the data governance decision domains [START_REF] Khatri | Designing data governance[END_REF]). An important phenomenon which evolved from the data is the emergence of one more themedata integration. The findings per theme and related data challenges are discussed in the subsections which follow.

Data Principles. The responses from the questionnaire revealed that the institution recognises data as an asset and it is considered to have value at both strategic and operational levels in relation to analytics which, in turn, can help the institution with decision-making. The results also reveal that even though there is process in place, most business users do not take ownership of their data because they think IT people are responsible for it. From the interviews, it was identified that this challenge is exacerbated by poor communication among data users and technical people, a problem which mainly results from social aspects of merging culturally diverse groups.

Data Quality. Khatri and Brown (2010:150) state that Data Quality involves ensuring accuracy and integrity of data that is always available for an enterprise. While the data quality committee has been established, the existence of too many systems whose origin is the different technikons makes it difficult for the team to work coherently. The university has, since the merger, been producing erroneous student examination results and this has cost the university huge amounts of money.

Metadata. Metadata describes what the data is about and provides a mechanism for a concise and consistent description of the representation of data (Khatri & Brown, 2010:150). The findings suggest that there are mechanisms that provide clear description of data representation and authorised users have access to it. The findings also indicate that data is documented and passed on to new employees through documentation. However, the interface between the ITS and the LMS is not as effective as anticipated. The schematic structure of data varies in these two systems and this has posed challenges in data integration. Data Access. According to Khatri and Brown (2010:151), Data Access involves data security and specifying access requirements of data. The findings reveal that the institution does recognise the importance of data security and access. CPUT has established an IT risk and compliance office that is responsible for data security and developing policies that guard data security and data access. The challenge to data access lies in users who rarely adhere to policies that focus on data security.

Data Lifecycle. Data Lifecycle involves understanding how data is used and how long it must be retained to minimise the total cost of storing over its life cycle (Khatri & Brown, 2010:151). The findings reveal that electronic data is stored for longer than required and there are no policies that focus on how long data can be used, retained and archived. The findings also show that the lifecycle of paper-based data is actively and properly managed in the institution by an established Records and Archive department, which determines the use of data, how long it should be retained and its archival value.

Data Integration. The MIS is not properly integrated with the sub-systems, which leads to data flow challenges that cause unsynchronised data which, in turn, affects data quality. Managing data that come in different forms is quite problematic and incorrect data capturing and the way data is received in the institution is an issue that contributes to data integration challenges. The institution is not entirely aware that data integration challenges caused by the lack of properly integrating the main system with sub-systems or the merger of the previous institutions are the reasons it is currently experiencing data quality and data management challenges.

Design Parameters. The study analysed data using the contingency theoretical framework and a theme was also generated from the framework. It was found that the institution is using both centralised and decentralised models for decision-making, meaning some decisions are made by the IT department in terms of the infrastructure and other decisions related to data are made by business. The findings also show that the decision-making structure incorporates both hierarchical and cooperative models, which mean there are instances where people coordinate and work together to ensure that the university is sustainable and cases where direct control is used where subordinates report to their superiors.

5

The emergent model for data governance in organisations

The contingency theory's design parameters [START_REF] Wende | A Contingency Approach to Data Governance[END_REF] and the Data governance decision domains model [START_REF] Khatri | Designing data governance[END_REF] were coalesced to construct the emergent model for data governance (Figure 3). The concept and constructs of the emergent model for data governance were discussed in the preceding section on findings. This new model forms a baseline for institutions to developing their own data governance strategies.

Figure 3: Emergent Data Governance model

The Emergent Data Governance model places attention on design parameters and model configuration. Decision-making authority in CPUT uses a hybrid approach where some decisions are made by individual departments and others by the IT department. Any organisation which adopts the Emergent Data Governance model can however employ centralised, decentralised or hybrid. The same observation can be made on the coordination of decision-making authority which could be a hierarchical or cooperative approach. It is in this context that the Emergent Data Governance model is proposed to be used as a framework by organisations which intend to implement a data governance strategy.

Implications for Theory and Practice

While there is limited scholarly research on data governance, the concept is gaining traction in both public and private entities as data increasingly get recognition as an organisational asset. We contribute to data governance research by proposing an emergent data governance model for merged and collaborating institutions. The model has been constructed after a thematic analysis of data collected from one of the leading universities of technology through coalesced models. The use of thematic analysis as a theoretical foundation and a methodological approach for analysing data contributed to a better understanding of the institution's data. The main finding reported in this study is that access to quality data is not possible without an elaborate approach to data management.

Figure 1 :

 1 Figure 1: Contingency model for Data Governance (Source: Wende and Otto, 2007)

Figure 2 :

 2 Figure 2: Data governance decision domains (Source: Khatri & Brown, 2010)

Summary and conclusion

This study identified data-related challenges in the institution that are the results of poor data management. Challenges were categorised in themes: data principles, data access, data quality, data integration, metadata, data lifecycle, and design parameters. The emergent data government framework was developed and its constructs are the themes that emerged from the two models which guided data collection and analysis. Since the institution under study was established through a merger of independent technikons, the findings were deemed to be applicable to many other institutions within a merger or a collaborating environment.