Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Since South Africa’s transition from a nationalistic state to a democracy in 1994, debates about the media’s role have intensified as the challenges and complexities of the South African society unfolded. In this debate, which mainly played out between the government and the media, the liberal theory and the developmental theory were used as the two main normative positions from which to contest the media’s role. As normative theories they describe the ideal role of the press within societal systems and thus fall within the functionalist paradigm. Historically, the liberal approach was seen as the accepted normative framework for the media within a democracy to protect that very democracy. The liberal consensus adopted by the post-apartheid media therefore came as no surprise. However, the optimism initially experienced regarding the independence of the new, liberal media, its professionalisation and economic restructuring, is gradually being challenged by the critical perspective. This perspective questions the extent of transformation in a public sphere where entrance is still restricted by class structures. The argument of this paper is that although the above changes to the media landscape are recognised as important, they do not account for issues of class and how the poor, the spaces they live in and the factors impacting on their lives, are framed by the media. This paper is presented as a normative undertaking and presents civic journalism as alternative normative framework. It moves from the premise that the representations afforded to the poor in die media are being hampered by the individualistic aims of the Western, liberal, journalistic tradition. The argument is further that the use of a community-driven approach should lead to broader representation of the poor in the media and the inclusion of this currently marginalised group in the public sphere. Reframing, one of the most important methods of civic journalism, is singled out to explore the possibility of applying civic journalism to the South African context. The motivation for this paper is the belief that the need exists for a greater plurality of voices and discourses. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Sedert Suid-Afrika in 1994 beweeg het van ’n nasionalistiese staat na ’n demokrasie, het die debat oor die rol van die media algaande verdiep namate die uitdagings en kompleksiteite van die Suid-Afrikaanse situasie ontvou het. In die debat tussen die postapartheid media en die regering was die twee normatiewe posisies van waar die media se rol by uitstek betwis is, die libertynse en ontwikkelingsteorie. As normatiewe teorieë wat die ideale rol van die pers binne samelewingsisteme verwoord, val dit binne die funksionalistiese paradigma. Histories word die liberale benadering gesien as die vanselfsprekende roete wat ’n media binne ’n demokrasie moet volg om daardie demokrasie te beskerm. Die liberale konsensus van die post-apartheid media was in die lig hiervan geen verrassing nie. Maar die optimisme wat aanvanklik ervaar is oor die onafhanklike, liberale media, sy professionalisering en ekonomiese herstrukturering, word algaande uitgedaag deur ’n kritiese perspektief. Hierdie perspektief bevraagteken die waarde van ’n getransformeerde media waar toelating tot die openbare sfeer steeds deur klasstrukture gereguleer word. Alhoewel die bogenoemde erken word as belangrike veranderinge, is die argument dat die liberale normatiewe paradigma nie genoeg was om kwessies van klas te verreken en hoe armes, die kwessies wat hulle lewens beïnvloed en die ruimtes waarin hulle ’n bestaan maak, deur die media beraam word nie. Hierdie werkstuk is ’n normatiewe onderneming wat burgerlike joernalistiek as normatiewe raamwerk wil voorstel. Die uitgangspunt is dat representasie van armes in die media deur die individualistiese doelstellings van die Westerse, liberale joernalistieke tradisie beperk word. Die argument is verder dat die toepassing van ’n gemeenskapsgerigte benadering behoort te lei tot ’n breër representasie van armes en die insluiting van dié tans gemarginaliseerde gemeenskappe by die openbare sfeer. Herberaming, een van die belangrikste metodes van burgerlike joernalistiek, word uitgesonder om die toepassingsmoontlikheid van burgerlike joernalistiek as alternatief te ondersoek. Die motivering vir die werkstuk is die oortuiging dat daar in die Suid-Afrikaanse mediakonteks ’n behoefte bestaan aan ’n groter diversiteit van stemme en diskoerse.

For the past thirty years, leadership theories have focused on the importance of the individual within the school organisation. The shared assumptions and beliefs of the individuals working in the same organisation shape the school’s organisational culture, and organisational culture is a salient factor which should be considered when understanding educational leadership. The focus of my study is to explore the relationship between organisational culture and leadership. In the same context, new approaches to the study of leadership have explored the issue of gender in leadership. Female leadership studies - the second focus of this study - seek not only to restore the place of the individual but also argue a place for women in educational leadership. Based in the interpretive paradigm, this is a case study of a Catholic all-girl secondary school called the Loreto Convent School of Pretoria. Historically, the Loreto schools have aimed at promoting and empowering girls’ education and female leadership. It was therefore an appropriate site in which to explore organisational culture and its relationship with leadership, particularly female leadership. I purposefully chose three of the school’s female leaders - the school’s principal, the High school Head of Department and the High school head girl - focusing on their perceptions and experiences of their leadership and the school’s culture. My research findings show that an understanding of the relationship between organisational culture and leadership cannot be complete without acknowledging the importance of the leader as an individual, with his/her personal background and values, taking into account gender as well as the multiple roles that the individual has in society. Furthermore, the ‘humane’ characteristic of educational leadership leads to an understanding that the leader is often confronted with conflicting situations where he/she is caught between personal/organisational values and the need to achieve the task. Finally, my findings show that contemporary leaders are now called upon to work and participate in the promotion of social justice in order to fight against society’s socio-economic inequality and improve the quality of education and life.

Knowledge about the antecedents to and the consequences of innovation is often studied in a fragmented way, resulting in an incomplete understanding of the dynamics that drive organisational performance. The purpose of this study is to develop a comprehensive model explaining the relationship between leadership style, organisational climate, innovation and organisational performance. The systematic literature review procedure was used to identify, analyse and critically evaluate studies that examined the relationship between leadership style, organisational climate, innovation and organisational performance. Given this information as background a cross-sectional survey design was used to test the relationship between the named variables. Firstly, a measurement model was tested with data collected from 3 180 respondents, representing 52 companies. Secondly, a structural path model was tested, with data collected from 231 employees representing 112 companies. The findings of the systematic literature review revealed that empirical studies that link the four variables are scarce; in the main, combinations of three variables are found. It also revealed that measures of innovation and performance vary vastly, inhibiting the incremental development of a comprehensive empirical body of knowledge. The results of the measurement model substantiated differentiation between leadership styles and the expected positive correlation between both transformational and transactional leadership and innovative behaviour. Furthermore, the results showed that not all components of leadership impacted positively on innovative behaviours. The structural path model showed that a transformational leadership style has a direct impact on the organisational climate, innovation and organisational performance. In contrast, a transactional leadership style had a direct impact on organisational performance, but no relationship was found between transactional leadership style and organisational climate and innovation. This study is important as it provides a unified model of innovation that focuses on both antecedents, as well as the outcomes of innovation, in a more comprehensive manner than any previous study. / Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL / DBL

Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.Com. (Bedryfsielkunde)

In this quantitative study, undertaken in a South African information and communications technology (ICT) company, dimensions of organisational culture (measured by the South African Culture Instrument) were correlated with the dimensions of work engagement (measured by the Utrecht Work Engagement Survey), to determine whether employees’ perceptions of organisational culture are related to their levels of work engagement. Structural equation modelling confirmed the factorial model of both measuring instruments, with most fit indices indicating the data to be a good or acceptable fit to the hypothesised model. Correlational analyses revealed a statistically significant positive relationship between each of the dimensions of organisational culture and work engagement respectively. Regression analyses showed that leadership, management processes, and goals and objectives make the strongest statistically unique contribution in predicting the dimensions of work engagement. Since work engagement has been shown to relate to several positive work outcomes, it makes sense for organisations to increase levels of work engagement by improving their organisational culture. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / MCom (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

This dissertation is an exploratory study aimed at empirically identifying and examining manifestations of communication barriers in the South African National Defence Force. A convergence model of communication is presented, describing the stages involved when individuals share the same information. The convergence model of communication delineates the relationship among the physical, psychological, and social aspects of communication. Two complementary theorems deduced by Kincaid (1988) from the convergence principle and the basic cybernetic process involved in information processing are applied in the analyses. The theorems specify the conditions under which intercultural communication will lead to convergence between members of different cultures involved. An empirically testable model was developed to collect information about possible communication barriers. The barriers are an indication of the restrictions on communication in the system and therefore indicate the possibility of restricting cultural convergence. / Communication / M.A. (Communication)

Thesis (Master of Education (Education)--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2008 / This research aims to establish the relationship between language acquisition for isiXhosa as an additional language and the use of e-learning as well as the effect that such an approach will have on the students of the target group. The researcher selected a group of students from those whom she taught, and used e-learning by means of the Blackboard platform in the teaching process. A B-Ed 3 group was identified as target group out of which six candidates were randomly selected as case studies in order to monitor the process of implementation and usage. In an attempt to obtain underlying and rich information, they each maintained a journal about the e-learning usage, completed two questionnaires and attended a focus group discussion. These sources of information supplied data which reflected the students’ true feelings about e-learning. The lecturer, who had no previous experience of e-learning, attended e-learning courses and also from her perspective, noted the process of implementation in a journal. E-learning tasks were used as support to subject content which were used in the classroom. The students were therefore expected to attend all classes and complete the e-learning tasks outside of class time. The research determined that e-learning has the potential to be applied successfully to additional language teaching. Both the lecturer and the students experienced the process positively.

Thesis (MTech (Quality))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2009. / Irrespective of the nature of organisations, they all face a certain amount of uncertainty and risk. In order to maintain resilience, competitiveness and performance, organisations must have a system in place to manage the risks associated to their organisations. The challenge is to determine how much risk and uncertainty is acceptable, and how to cost effectively manage the risk and uncertainty while meeting the organisation's strategic and operational objectives. For many large organisations, quality or so called 'customer perceived quality', has become an issue of survival. Furthermore, increased competitiveness is necessary in order to become the obvious choice for the customer. Corporations must have long term goals and Quality Management Systems serve as organised mechanisms to manage quality, effectiveness and competitiveness involving everyone at all levels of the organisation. An understanding of culture in organisations can thus offer insight into individual and group behaviour, and leadership. Furthermore, it can help to explain not just 'what' happens in an organisation, but 'why' it happens. Companies view culture as something to be influenced to achieve organisational goals of productivity and profitability. Attempts to change the culture of an organization, may meet with varied levels of success. The emphasis on quality building products, have been the focus of the construction industry in South Africa. As a supplier of extruded aluminium profiles to the building industry, Hulamin Extrusions is also faced with typical challenges representative of the industry and as a result, the following aspects would be subjected to research scrutiny: ~ Introduction of a Quality Management System. ~ The challenges of organisational culture. ~ The need for change management. ~ Facilitating the implementation of the system. ~ Continuous Improvement. The researcher anticipates finding ways to improve organisational culture, which in turn would facilitate quality improvement within the organisation.

Thesis (MTech (Design)--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016. / The research was motivated by my lived experience in the Olifants River community of Namaqualand. In this community there are many diverse ethnic and social groupings with considerable potential to contribute to indigenous knowledge and creative practices. These groupings are, however, fragmented, with no platform for their varied and rich cultural assets to be displayed and acknowledged. In addition, the research was motivated by the call for a platform for the arts in the region. It is argued that visual art practice is an instrumental tool in the advancement of both creativity and social cohesion in this community. The research commenced with a pilot study, comprising workshops, which were run by art practitioners from various sectors in the region. Primary literature that influenced the emerging research design was that of Solomon (2007) as well as the holistic cultural viewpoints of Schafer (2014). The organic process of qualitative research methods as described by Ellingson (2009) was a natural personal directive. Body mapping was used during a preparatory phase that led to the creative exploration of community members’ own identity. Storytelling and dance were included in the design methodology since they enabled a psychosocial process of validating art practice as an economic asset within the community as well as enhancing social cohesion in the community. Crystallisation methods implemented in the process-driven body map workshops were held for grassroots -, town – and township sectors in the Olifants River valley. Each of the workshops comprised ten participants who were invited to participate in a subsequent do-designed collaborative event.

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Management Sciences Business Administration, Durban University of Technology. Durban, South Africa, 2017. / The discipline of corporate finance has undergone numerous transformations over the past two-and-a-half decades. One such change has been in the area of corporate finance. Driven by certain behavioral biases, it has been observed that managers sometimes make subjective decisions that do not always follow the norms of traditional corporate finance. One such behavioral influence is overconfidence or optimism. There is a paucity of research on the impact that managerial overconfidence through corporate investments has on the general movement of a company’s share price. This study bridges that gap by investigating the effect of managerial overconfidence on the share price of 10 companies from the JSE/FTSE top 40 index. Its main objective was to inspect the relationship between managerial overconfidence and share price. The results show the presence of managerial overconfidence observed through the investment-cash flow sensitivity of firms. The fixed effects panel regression reveals that Tobin’s Q which is the proxy measure of the investment-cash flow sensitivity of a firm, does affect the share price. Holding every other explanatory variable constant, an increase in Tobin’s Q causes the share price to rise, which leads to the conclusion that managerial overconfidence does have an influences on the stock price. It is further observed that managerial overconfidence tends to increase with firm size. This is shown by the weak positive correlation between the Q ratio and LnTA, and Q ratio and sales. In order to avoid the possible loss in value of a firm caused by an overconfidence manager, it is recommended that shareholders or owners ensure that the manager clearly understands the company’s objectives and vision. Due to the resultant influence of managers’ on the value of a company’s stock, investors should not only look at a company’s past performance, as well as the price earnings ratio (PE ratio), dividend yield, DPS, or any other market value ratios. They should also consider the characteristics of the CEO before making their investment decisions. / M