The research project investigated critical success factors for communities of practice in the Anglo American Corporation. It was found that critical success factors for communities of practice can be identified in the context of the Anglo American Corporation. In addition, it was found that the critical success factors vary with the type and life cycle stage of the community. The research project comprised a qualitative literature review component which led to the design of a quantitative survey component. The survey was conducted in the Anglo American Corporation, with the respondents being members of communities of practice within the organisation. The respondent data set was analysed to produce results for discussion. The concluding chapter of the report outlines the critical success factors identified, and the recommendations made for establishing the support infrastructure for these factors. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Caccolithopliorids are important members of phytoplankton communities in most parts of the world's oceans. The formation, release and flux of the calcite scales (coccoliths) of these organisms over millions of years, has led to sedimentary deposits of great geological significance. The reporting of immense blooms of coccolithophorids by satellite photography and their passible involvement in atmospheric sulphur emissions has emphasised the necessity for further information on their distribution and ecology. During an extensive sampling programme in the N.E. Atlantic, water samples were collected throughout the photic zone at 30 stations. Scanning electron microscopy of filtered water samples enabled coccolithophorid family and species distributions to be compiled. It was found that certain species assemblages could be assigned to distinct biogeographic zones and that these zones closely conformed to the movements of the N. Atlantic surface currents. However, at the Azores Front it was shown that a transitional region existed between the cold and warm water masses, where the flora of each zone could be found. Detailed studies of coccolithophorid vertical distribution has shown that most species can be assigned to discrete depth bands within the euphotic zone. Furthermore, it was noticed that in two species which have no depth preference, the degree of calcification increased with depth. One of these species, E. huxleyi, displayed two ecomorphotypic variants differing in their calcification, size and morphology. During two east to west transects it was noticed that the halocaccolitiiophorid numbers increased towards the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. A number of new species are described and current taxonomic problems reviewed.

The objective of this thesis is to explore the procedural and substantive changes that are required to create communities that are sustainable in ecological and social terms, both on a global and local level. Current environmental problems such as global warming, ozone depletion, acid rain and deforestation indicate that human activity is changing the biosphere at an unprecedented rate. While the western world celebrates the apparent triumph of the capitalist industrial free market system, the by-products of industrialization, including the deteriorating health of the biosphere and the increasing demands of developing nations, appear to pose serious threats to the long term sustainability of biological communities including human communities. A community is defined geographically by its physical structure, socially by its shared values, and politically by its capacity for self-determination. Creating a sustainable community requires that fundamental change occurs physically, to minimize a community's impact on ecological systems; socially, to establish a consensus on ecological and social values for the community; and, politically, to improve the capability of communities to implement appropriate locally-based solutions to environmental and social problems. The fact that western society has allowed life-threatening global environmental and social problems to emerge indicates that there may be a serious flaw in the way the dominant society perceives reality and humanity's place in the world. Consequently, this thesis begins with an analysis of the flaws in the dominant world view and the potential for an emerging ecological world view to form the basis for defining a sustainable community and establishing principles for ecological and social sustainability to guide community development. A sustainable community is defined as a community that is responsible, caring, empowered, healthy, and most importantly, in balance with nature. While there are numerous approaches to creating sustainable communities, the choices that a community should make are clearer if the community has a set of values or principles to define the goals they are trying to achieve. The principles for ecological sustainability presented in this thesis are based on current ecological theories and reflect the need for communities to preserve biological diversity, maintain the productive capacity of ecosystems, integrate human activity with nutrient cycles, minimize resource and energy consumption, and establish a dynamic equilibrium between human and natural systems. The principles for social sustainability are based on current literature and emphasize the need for communities to change societal values, meet basic needs, achieve equity, promote self-determination, and create a sustainable economy. This thesis proposes that creating a sustainable community involves both designing procedural mechanisms to support social transformation, and implementing substantive changes to ensure the long-term sustainability of the community. A process for change must include mechanisms to build community consensus on the need and direction of change, and to co-ordinate actions both within the community and with other levels of government. Specific examples of necessary substantive changes are provided based on the application of the principles for ecological and social sustainability to many aspects of community activity including land use planning, economic development, waste management, resource use, and transportation. A short examination of various models of sustainable community initiatives are provided to illustrate a variety of experiments in new institutions, processes and policy proposals currently being undertaken in North America that can be drawn upon by communities trying to implement local solutions to environmental and social problems. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Four plant communities of southwestern British Columbia were studied in an attempt to answer the following related questions: (1) do communities of harsh physical environments exhibit any characteristic phytosociological features? (2) are there any correlations between environmental harshness and certain synecological properties of such communities ? (3) are species of such communities selected for reproductive specializations that tend to reduce their genetic variability? The four communities (representing three types of herbaceous or semi-shrubby vegetation) were a salt marsh, two coastal sphagnum bogs, and a subalpine meadow. In answer to the first two questions, the findings of this investigation indicate that: (a) species population structure becomes more aggregated as environmental heterogeneity and physical stress increase, and less aggregated as succession proceeds and interspecific competition increases. (b) interspecific association and correlation, both negative and positive, increase as environmental heterogeneity and competition increase. (c) levels of polyploidy within communities appear to be correlated with environmental rigor (broadly defined). (d) the most abundant species within a community are the most variable and presumably have the largest niches ; niche size and population variability decrease as interspecific competition increases. (e) within a community, ecological distinctiveness reduces interspecific competition; communities under the least stress (especially seasonal stress) have the most ecologically dissimilar1 species. (f) dominance decreases as species diversity increases, and species diversity is roughly correlated with overall environmental severity. In answer to the last question: (a) all four communities are dominated by predominantly outcrossing species; there is no major shift to self-pollination or apomixis in any of the communities. (b) an index of potential recombination was devised, embodying a number of aspects of reproductive biology, according to which there is no significant difference in potential recombination, on the average, between species of the four different communities. Plant communities and their constituent species both respond to evolutionary forces, but more or less independently, at different rates, and often in different or even opposite ways. Environmental stress has a powerful effect on the structure and function of plant communities, but in an evolutionary sense there is little difference between normal (mesic, zonal) environments and extreme or azonal environments to an individual species. Different selection pressures have been operating in salt marshes, sphagnum bogs, and subalpine meadows, but the present study indicates that, on the average, the resultant evolutionary strategies of the species of these communities are equivalent. / Science, Faculty of / Botany, Department of / Graduate

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This dissertation focuses on a private residential estate, known as Grotto Bay, situated on the West Coast of the Western Cape province of South Africa. It examines the motivations of its participants to move to a non-metropolitan gated community and focuses on the participants' experiences of life in gated nature. In analysing the participants' subjective experiences, this work aims to understand how such experiences contribute to the development of place attachment, against the backdrop of the understanding of whiteness in the post-apartheid landscape. This qualitative, ethnographic research uses semi-structured interviews and participant observation to collect data. To analyse the data collected, this research uses thematic content analysis of texts and observations to identify motivations and link them to the body of literature on gated communities and lifestyle migration in South Africa. Drawing on the Person, Place and Process Framework, this work further probes into an understanding of the processes of place attachment to Grotto Bay, by speaking back to insights from the literature on place attachment, landscape and identity, within the post-apartheid South African context. The findings show that through gating and a migration back to the rural land, the participants of this research have enlisted the natural landscape to root themselves to place and to find a sense of continuity in self and in their identity, by linking the reconstruction of their past with the present and future. The results further indicate that discourses of withdrawal and attachment to place, read through a lens of white privilege, drive the making and re-making of boundaries in the post-apartheid context of South Africa. This work shows that through the privatisation of the rural landscape, Grotto Bay facilitates notions of power and control through the respondents' romantic and nostalgic idealisation of their new social imaginary. The respondents' subjective experiences exemplify the ways in which estates such as Grotto Bay may stand to perpetuate white hegemony and environmental injustice in the post-colonial and post-apartheid contexts.

La thèse s’inscrit dans une visée psycho-ergonomique et s’intéresse au bien-être des individus au travail. L’étude s’intéresse aux échanges entre professionnels en difficulté sur les forums et cherche à comprendre ce qu’ils peuvent apporter aux participants. La thèse principale défendue est que ces échanges ont à la fois une fonction de soutien psychologique et d’acquisition de connaissances. Trois études ont été réalisées sur deux forums pour professionnels de l’éducation. La première étude met en évidence, à l’aide d’une enquête en ligne, huit types de motivations à s’engager sur un forum de professionnels. La deuxième étude vise à identifier la nature des interactions et la dynamique des échanges. Treize discussions ont été finement analysées. Les résultats mettent en évidence des caractéristiques propres aux messages des initiateurs et des réactants. L’étude de l’évolution des échanges révèle trois dynamiques : l’élaboration de sens, de recherche de solutions concrètes et de soutien émotionnel. La troisième étude cherche à explorer le vécu subjectif des participants au moment des échanges sur le forum. Des entretiens d’auto-confrontations avec relances d’entretien d’explicitation ont été menés avec neuf participants aux discussions analysées précédemment, à partir des traces écrites des discussions. On peut observer des décalages entre ce que les participants partagent dans leurs messages et ce qu’ils expriment avoir vécu (en entretien) notamment au niveau des émotions, des attentes et des évaluations du soutien. De plus, les participants craignent que leur anonymat soit levé et censurent certaines informations afin d’éviter d’éventuelles répercussions. / The study focuses on interactions on online forums involving professionals faced with issues in their work, and aims to understand what it is that forums may provide to their participants. The thesis we defend here is that these interactions aim both to provide psychological support to professionals, and to help these professionals acquire knowledge. Three studies were carried out on two discussion forums intended for professionals in the field of education.The first study highlights eight types of motivation for getting involved in a forum for professionals with an online survey. The second study aimed to identify the nature of interactions and the dynamics of interactions. We analysed thirteen discussions. The results highlight the specific characteristics of messages initiators and reactants. The study of the evolution of the interactions highlights three key dynamics: making sense of the situation, searching for concrete solutions, and providing emotional support. The third study aims to explore the subjective experience of participants during exchanges on the forum. We carried out auto-confrontation interviews followed by elicitation interviews with nine participants from the discussions we had analysed previously, based on written traces of these discussions. We observed discrepancies between what the participants share in their messages and the experiences expressed in interviews especially the emotional states, the request for emotional support and the perception of support. Finally, the participants are concerned with their anonymity and censor some information in order to avoid potential repercussions.

This thesis reflects my interest in the role that non-local ideologies play in Third World progressive organizations, as well as my interest in the role of religion in popular political movements. I examine these issues by focusing on a nationally organized Basic Christian Communities program in the Philippines. In this program, which is inspired by Vatican II and liberation theology, reinterpreted Catholic symbols, narratives and practices form the medium for ideological transferal to target populations. The thesis is organized according to the social levels at which the BCC-CO program is represented. At the national level I examine historical, political and cultural influences that shape BCC-CO program formation, and at the diocesan (town) and village levels I focus on processes that promote either change or orthodoxy as the program is put into practice. These include: the interaction of BCC-CO activists with local knowledge, practices, and goals of elites and peasants; the role of program mediators; and, degrees of indigenization and resistance at the local levels. Finally, I evaluate the potential of the BCC-CO program to promote local level social and political change. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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