Different value systems are a major source of diversity between people and culture groups. A better understanding of these differences can be a valuable tool when a diverse work force, as found in South Africa, has to be managed. Values can act as a unifying theory for the field of human motivation, as a way of organising the different needs, motives and goals proposed in other theories. The values theory describes aspects of the human psychological structure that are fundamental, aspects presumably common to all humankind. The objective of this study was to investigate the construct equivalence of the values as measured by the Work and Organizational Values Scale for new applicants from different language groups in the South African Police Service (SAPS), and to investigate the relationship between the value patterns of the different language and gender groups. A cross-sectional survey design was used. The study population consisted of two groups who applied for jobs in the South African Police Services (SAPS). The first group consisted of civilians (N=3 400), while the second group consisted of police applicants (N=1 800). The Work and Organizational Values Scale was administered. Descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analyses, and multivariate analysis of variance were used to analyse the results. Principal component analysis with a direct oblimin rotation resulted in two factors. The first factor was interpreted as self-enhancement (power, materialism and prestige) versus conservation (conformity and security). The second factor was interpreted as collectivism (social commitment, relations, and environment) versus individualism (goal-orientedness. stimulation and self-direction). These factors were found to be equivalent for four language groups. Statistically significant differences were found between the value priorities of different language groups as well as genders. However, larger practically significant differences were found between males and females than between different language groups. Recommendations for future research were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

Personality tests are widely used in South Africa. The application of personality assessment techniques for clinical and personnel decisions has been a major activity for psychologists. All main personality models have ken developed in a Western context: the question therefore arises whether these models are adequate and sufficient for South Africa. There is a need to develop personality tests that are based on South African cultures. In South Africa the continuous use of Western-based personality tests raise a challenge. The challenge also lies with the current legislation with regard to the use of psychological tests. The challenge is to construct an inventory suited to the local needs while retaining the standards of validity and reliability expected of established assessment instruments. Our socially diverse society and its wide implications for the cultural dynamics of personality evaluations that we find in South Africa warrant further research. A qualitative research design was used in this study, including interviewing as a data gathering method. A total of 120 Tshivenda speaking people from the Thohoyandou district in Limpopo province and Pretoria in Gauteng province were interviewed. A total of 4 722 personality descriptors with a view to Tshivenda speaking people were obtained from the participants, and then translated into English. Content analysis was used to analyse, interpret and reduce these descriptors to a total of 150 personality characteristics which are the most important perspectives of personality for the Tshivenda speaking individuals. The personality characteristics were divided into eight categories, namely interpersonal relatedness, sociability, conscientiousness, emotionality, meanness, intellect, dominance and a category for other traits. The interpersonal relatedness factor in the Vhavenda personality characteristics could be regarded as a cultural factor. The Tshivenda speaking people are also sociable with a preference for companionship, social skills and numerous friendships. They also have a strong sense of purpose and high inspiration levels. The Tshivenda speaking people also experience emotions and feelings related to situations that they face. Intellect characteristics could also be extrapolated from the personality characteristics of the Vhavenda people. The findings of this study were compared to the five factor model, and evidence was found for extraversion and conscientiousness in particular. Very few characteristics of openness on the five factor model correspond to that of the Tshivenda speaking people, except in the cases of a few personality characteristics that were labelled under the category of intellect. Recommendations for future research are made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

The application of personality assessment measures for clinical and personnel decisions has long been a major activity for psychologists all over the world. In South Africa personality assessment tools are often used to aid decisions relating to selection, placement, determination of job satisfaction and development. Psychological testing in South Africa was originally initiated with white test-takers in mind, and currently none of the personality questionnaires available have been found to provide a reliable and valid picture of personality for all cultural (and language) groups living in South Africa. The promulgation of the new South African constitution in 1996 and, more specifically, the Employment Equity Act of 1998 have resulted in a stronger demand for the cultural appropriateness of psychological tests. In this study, the implicit perspectives of personality of Afrikaans-speaking South Africans were determined to further the goal of developing a personality assessment tool that can be applied fairly to all South African cultural (language) groupings. A qualitative research design was applied with an interview as data-gathering instrument. Afrikaans-speaking fieldworkers were recruited to interview a purposive stratified sample of 120 Afrikaans-speaking South Africans. From the 7 184 responses obtained through this process, personality-relevant adjectives, nouns and metaphors were identified. Content analysis was subsequently used to analyse, interpret and reduce the descriptors to a total of 378 personality characteristics, which imply the most important perspectives of personality for Afrikaans-speaking individuals. The personality characteristics were divided into 12 categories, namely Altruism/ Agreeability, Extraversion, Integrity, Conscientiousness, Emotionality, Intellect, Dynamism, Forcefulness, Humility, Moralism, Conventionality, and Autonomy. While Afrikaans- speaking persons do not hesitate to pronounce themselves and others as stubborn, impatient and short-tempered, they also generally refer to their agreeable nature by describing themselves and familiar others as friendly, helpful, loving and generous. Valuing the virtues associated with conscientiousness, Afrikaans-speaking respondents also made noteworthy reference to religiousness, a sense of humour and aspects of honesty and integrity. Limitations in the research have been identified and recommendations for future research have been presented. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

I report on the findings of an inductive, interpretive multiple-case study of organizational cross-cultural adaptation and answer the question of how foreign companies can overcome the challenges of fitting into their host environment. Based on in-depth interview data from nine Chinese firms operating in the United States, I explore the content and drivers of firm-level cross-cultural adaptation. The emergent framework demonstrates a dynamic and comprehensive process at the firm level, involving a multilevel and multidimensional adaptation to fit through social networking. The identified patterns of adaptors reveal the link between cross-cultural adaptation and functional fitness of firms in a foreign environment. The study also identifies the boundary conditions of the cross-cultural adaptation of foreign firms. In addition, the study highlights the previously underserved aspect of functional fitness in a foreign environment and its essential role in influencing a firm’s overseas performance.

This study investigated certain aspects of the cross-cultural adaptation process of Afghan returnees who have repatriated from Iran to Afghanistan. The study’s particular focus is the issue of cross-cultural adaptation in the current context of Afghanistan; that is, what challenges face Afghans returning from Iran to their country of origin following years of exile in Iran. Afghan immigration to Iran has a long history. Using Young Yun Kim’s cross-cultural adaptation theory as the leading theoretical framework, the researcher investigated the cultural adaptation of those who have lived in Iran for more than 10 years and have repatriated voluntarily to Afghanistan at least three years before the data for this thesis were gathered. Semi-structured interviews were conducted for collecting primary data from participants for the thesis. Twelve young returnees from Kabul City, aged 18 to 40, volunteered to take part in the interviews. Results revealed that language barriers, cultural knowledge and environmental challenges were some of the dominant difficulties that returnees experienced after their repatriation. Furthermore, the findings showed that the three main strategies used by the young returnees to adapt to their unfamiliar, new environment of Kabul City included social interaction, using mass media, and keeping an open mind on current issues. The findings of the interviews revealed the ongoing changing nature of identity formation of the returnees after their repatriation to Afghanistan and, also the majority of participants (9 out of 12) voiced a strong sense of belonging and attachment to Afghanistan.

The application of personality assessment measures for clinical and personnel decisions has long been a major activity for psychologists all over the world. In South Africa personality assessment tools are often used to aid decisions relating to selection, placement, determination of job satisfaction and development. Psychological testing in South Africa was originally initiated with white test-takers in mind, and currently none of the personality questionnaires available have been found to provide a reliable and valid picture of personality for all cultural (and language) groups living in South Africa. The promulgation of the new South African constitution in 1996 and, more specifically, the Employment Equity Act of 1998 have resulted in a stronger demand for the cultural appropriateness of psychological tests. In this study, the implicit perspectives of personality of Afrikaans-speaking South Africans were determined to further the goal of developing a personality assessment tool that can be applied fairly to all South African cultural (language) groupings. A qualitative research design was applied with an interview as data-gathering instrument. Afrikaans-speaking fieldworkers were recruited to interview a purposive stratified sample of 120 Afrikaans-speaking South Africans. From the 7 184 responses obtained through this process, personality-relevant adjectives, nouns and metaphors were identified. Content analysis was subsequently used to analyse, interpret and reduce the descriptors to a total of 378 personality characteristics, which imply the most important perspectives of personality for Afrikaans-speaking individuals. The personality characteristics were divided into 12 categories, namely Altruism/ Agreeability, Extraversion, Integrity, Conscientiousness, Emotionality, Intellect, Dynamism, Forcefulness, Humility, Moralism, Conventionality, and Autonomy. While Afrikaans- speaking persons do not hesitate to pronounce themselves and others as stubborn, impatient and short-tempered, they also generally refer to their agreeable nature by describing themselves and familiar others as friendly, helpful, loving and generous. Valuing the virtues associated with conscientiousness, Afrikaans-speaking respondents also made noteworthy reference to religiousness, a sense of humour and aspects of honesty and integrity. Limitations in the research have been identified and recommendations for future research have been presented. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

The present study evaluated the relations among positive parenting practices, cognitive emotion regulation strategies, and positive and negative psychological adjustment among Chinese and Canadian emerging adults. Emotion regulation was hypothesized to mediate the relations between positive parenting and psychological adjustment. Participants included 75 international Chinese students and 120 Canadian students between the ages of 18 to 25 enrolled at the University of Victoria. Participants completed multiple-choice questionnaires assessing perceptions of their mothers’ and fathers’ positive parenting practices (i.e., warmth, volitional autonomy support and parent as teacher), their use of positive and negative cognitive emotion regulation strategies, and their levels of positive psychological adjustment (i.e., happiness, life satisfaction and academic satisfaction) and negative psychological adjustment (i.e., depression, anxiety and loneliness). Emotion regulation partially mediated the relations between perceptions of fathers’ parenting and positive and negative psychological adjustment for Chinese and Canadian students, and for Canadian students’ perceptions of mothers’ parenting. Few group differences emerged in the relations among parenting, emotion regulation and adjustment; greater positive parenting was associated with students’ use of more positive emotion regulation strategies and fewer negative strategies, and with higher levels of positive adjustment and lower levels of negative adjustment. In contrast to the overall similarity observed in terms of relations among the constructs, an exception to this pattern was the lack of relations between parenting and emotion regulation for Chinese students. Mean differences between Chinese and Canadian students in emotion regulation and psychological adjustment were found. Chinese students used all of the assessed emotion regulation strategies more often than Canadian students, and had higher levels of negative adjustment and lower levels of positive adjustment as compared with Canadian students. Clinical implications in terms of how parents, mental health professionals and post-secondary institutions can help bolster the positive adjustment of emerging adults cross-culturally are discussed, along with the strengths and limitations of the current study and directions for future research. / Graduate / 0622 / 0620

Over the last decade the use of mobile phones has increased dramatically everywhere by people from different cultural backgrounds. However, while such technological adoption move on at an ever increasing pace all over the world, the key problem for designers and developers of mobile phones is how to develop mobile phone services that effectively support the dynamic and flexible communication needs of such diverse groups of users. To counter this problem, this thesis focused on establishing how people from different cultural backgrounds use mobile phones to achieve their communicative, social and informational goals. Questionnaires and interviews were undertaken and analysed to achieve this. The findings from the analysis led to the development of two prototypes missed call services; the icon-based missed call service (IBMCS) and the personalised icon-based missed call service. Several key findings emerged from this research. For example, mobile phone users in the Sudan and the UK differed in the way they used their mobile phones especially in the public places. British participants were more comfortable using their mobile phones in public sphere. British and Sudanese stated that they would like to use an IBMCS to support their communication needs. However, Sudanese users were more keen than the British participants on personalising the developed missed call service to aid the management of their communication needs and to better coordinate their activities. The evaluation of the personalised IBMCS highlighted an important redesign implication, such as allowing the receiver to manipulate the receipt of missed calls in public settings.

No description available.

From 1998- 2009, mainland China has been the number one source of immigrants in Canada (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 2011). For newcomer families, adjusting to the local school is a major concern, since their children’s education is a crucial factor in families’ immigration decision. In my research, I examined Chinese immigrant parents’ experience with Canadian schooling. The study focuses on four families living in the Greater Toronto area, who have immigrated from mainland China. I employed narrative inquiry to tell the stories of the lived experience of the four families in my study. The data for these stories are mainly drawn from field notes of each of my home visits and my interviews with the family members over a six month period. I found that the challenges and difficulties the immigrant parents face are deeply rooted in the differences between Chinese and Canadian cultures and social systems. The discussion on the features of Chinese culture in its comparison with Western culture provides a reference point for understanding the Chinese immigrant parents’ values and opinions on such matters as schooling, moral education, and parenting practice. Parental involvement in schools is different between China and Canada, and the parents, and school teachers and administrators have different understanding on this issue. What’s more, the language barrier impeded the parents’ involvement in their children’s school life. The acculturation gap between the parents and their children is another major reason for miscommunication over such issues as extracurricular activities, choice of university major, and future career. The less heard voice of immigrant parents will open new venues for the understanding of cross-cultural experiences of immigrant students. I find that instead of mainly using the traditional Chinese practice and Chinese educational values in approaching their children’s education, it is important for Chinese immigrant parents to make efforts to familiarize themselves with the ideas and values that their children are exposed to in the new environment.