A review of the literature reveals that organisational commitment is an outcome of organisational culture, when reviewing the definitions, theoretical development and models of these two concepts. The integration of organisational commitment with organisational culture indicates that there is a need for a scientific study to determine the relationship between these two variables. The empirical study involved the participation of 371 respondents in an organisation. A survey was conducted using the organisational commitment scale and the organisational culture questionnaire to determine the relationship between organisational culture and organisational commitment. The results suggest that organisational culture has an effect on organisational commitment. Recommendations are made to successfully implement both organisational culture and organisational commitment change initiatives. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

Diversity has, over the last few decades, become a burning issue on the agenda of most companies. Current diversity-related interventions are mainly based on behaviouristic and socio-cognitive approaches. In this research diversity was approached from the systems psychodynamic paradigm. The general aim was to gain an understanding of the diversity dynamics that manifests in an South African diversity experience. The literature review focussed on diversity in the workplace, on the group relations training model, and on the application of the group relations training model to diversity. Qualitative research was done by interviewing a sample of 15 delegates who attended the November 2000 Robben Island Diversity Experience. These unstructured interviews were used to obtain in-depth information about the participant's experience and the data was analysed hermeneutically. The emerging themes were `crossing the boundary, engage the new world, the ties that bind, being imprisoned, the struggle, the road to reconciliation, integration and healing, back to the future and the crucible'. It is recommended that South African organizations make more use of the systems psychodynamic approach to study the manifestations of diversity dynamics. The aim is not to replace the other approaches to diversity, but to add a perspective that can enhance awareness and sensitivity to the covert, unconscious and irrational forces that impact on diversity. / Industrial and Organisational Psycology / M. A.(Industrial and Organisational Psycology)

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 231-239) / Chapter one begins by introducing and orientating the reader to the study and the purpose of the study, namely the revelation of God. It also opens up what is central to the study by a way of a problem statement concerning this revelation of God, the black church and the human condition. The aims of the study and the research methodology are set out. The chapter ends with a hypothesis concerning the future doctrine of revelation and the prospects of this revelation in the lives of black people. Chapter two entails discussion on God and the church, as it pertains to revelation, starting with a historical account of Christian theology on the subject of revelation. The subject of revelation is engaged on an existential level, particularly the main areas of Christian theology, namely; special and general revelation. This is a section that puts both concepts within black experience, to see the viability for a black ecclesiology and black theology. Chapter two moves on to contend that for black church, there is a serious theological insurgent that is necessary and it is part and parcel of God’s revelation to blacks and the oppressed. This outlook places a section of critical reasoning in South African context and society concerning God’s revelation. Chapter three engages a philosophical meditation, ascribing meditation as a state of self-reflection for the black church and black theology. This meditation is cognisant of black experience and is self-diagnosis concern God and humanity, particularly the dehumanising, (how it must affirm essence and substance). The meditation of the black church engages the concept of absurdity as Camus (1995) (also see Melancon 1983) has posited the absurd as a malaise in the world and silence of the word to that malaise. The absurd is also linked to theodicy, however, the black experience and the encounter with God transcends absurdity and theodicy. As part of the transcending aspect of the black experience, the research considers Western atheism, Christianity and death of God, whose burial is in the mind, souls and bodies of blacks. The chapter then moves on to discuss the black church as a receptor of God’s revelation, the new image of the crucified and the new metaphysics guaranteeing the upliftment of blacks. Chapter four focuses on the black invisibility and the hiddenness of God, it is seeing invisibility and hiddenness as linked together. The chapter also focuses on the need for black visibility rooted in the ontological and physiological expression and experience of being human; Imago Dei. The chapter links black visibility with the concept of whiteness, being a dehumanising political identity imposed on the people of colour. The chapter then translates into the context of visibility, invisibility and God’s revelation within the economic South African context. The final analysis of the chapter is a confession of God’s revelation rooted in God’s visibility and running parallel to that of black visibility. Chapter five proposes that the black experience and the use of the Bible Sola Sriptura, as it reveals the black church as part of church history. As such, it takes the early church’s reading of the New Testament and understanding of Christology through kenosis; the emptying of God to be human and using that paradigm to link Christ’s human experience and the experience of the dehumanising and humanising that of blacks. The chapter concludes with a Christology and black Messiah, who links the secular and divine, general and special revelation. Chapter six concerns the findings of the study, recommendations and conclusion. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Systematic Theology)

The primary goal of this study is to promote knowledge and understanding of the restructuring process of the Family Violence Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) unit in the South African Police Service (SAPS) through impact evaluation. Many evaluation programmes provide blueprints and methods to manage and help solve organisational transformation. They, however, lack dealing with the unique organisational transformation process characterised in the South African Police Service (SAPS). Given this importance, there appears to be potential value in evaluating the impact of the restructuring process in the FCS. During the research extensive panel studies and individual interviews were conducted in the West Rand policing district with FCS members, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) directly involved with family violence, child protection and sexual offences, Senior Public Prosecutors involved with cases concerning the FCS and researchers at a security research institute. Furthermore, a descriptive literature study was conducted to acquire relevant information and perspective from available national and international literature. Various objectives were fulfilled in this study: • The impact of the restructuring process in the FCS, to assess the internal and external climate on service delivery, was identified and described. • It was determined whether the restructuring process in the FCS is achieving its proposed objective. • Feedback to help improve the effectiveness of the restructuring process and improve future strategies was provided. Moreover, this study and its results provide a framework to the SAPS as an organisation that is currently going through an extensive transformation process. As a result, the management of the SAPS will receive first hand information on the areas to specifically focus on during the restructuring of the FCS, or utilised this impact evaluation as a learning curve and an opportunity to rectify shortcomings and also systematically be guided through this process in realisation thereof. Consequently, this impact evaluation could act as a management tool to support and further develop the transformation process in the SAPS. Finally, this study contributes to the baseline of knowledge, with regard to structural transformation in the specialised field of policing. / Police Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Police Science)

This study explores approaches and strategies to implement in multicultural English-medium secondary schools for the management and education of black pupils with limited proficiency in English. It attempts to identify means of enhancing and accelerating the mastery by such pupils of English at a level sufficient to support their cognitive-academic needs. An account is given of those elements of the South African education system that have contributed to the disadvantagement that such children bring to the multic,llttu'al classroom. Relevant theories of bilingual education create a theoretical context for the qualitative research that follows, in which the experiences are recorded of educators at three schools where the needs of limited-English-proficient (LEI') pupils have been addressed. Data gathering was by means of focus-group interviews. Based Oll this research, guidelines are offered to help multicultural schools design policies and implement programmes to accommodate the needs of LEP pupils. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Comparative Education)

An exposition of South African English radio drama tracing the historical, cultural and political issues which led to the demise of the art form in 1999, and its resurrection at ICASA’s insistence in 2006. The research demonstrates the ideological influences of both British Imperialism and Afrikaner Nationalism on the development of South African radio drama, drawing parallels between the development of Afrikaans radio drama, Zulu radio drama and English radio drama. The study also deconstructs the role played by English language radio drama in underpinning the ideologies of whiteness, and illustrates attempts made towards transformation from 1985. The recent development of an essentially South African form of radio drama is described, and the effects of new ideological constraints imposed by the SABC are discussed. The study also provides a critical lens through which the SABC’s failure to observe its public service mandate is made evident. / Afrikaans and Literature / M. A. (Afrikaans & Theory of Literature)

Culture and religion have both healthy and unhealthy effect on the leadership development of women in Africa. In this regard, the impact of especially African Pentecostal Christian discourses, as well as Vhavenda cultural discourses, on the lives of women leaders are brought to the surface through literary reviews, questionnaires and interviews. Accordingly, the data obtained by means of these methods are analysed using existing theological and cultural hermeneutics methods. Furthermore, they are deconstructed in terms of a vhusadzi (womanhood) perspective of empowerment regarding women in the ministry, which is applicable in an African-South African context. The present role of women in Pentecostal churches in the Venda context is studied historically and critically with reference to a future of empowerment. It is found that the leadership role of women in the ministry in Pentecostal churches in Venda is faced by certain challenges, which include rereading the Bible from the perspective of women in partnership with men, validating women’s ordination in dialogue with patriarchal interpretations of presumed biblical prohibitions on women’s ordination, rescoping cultural influences on church leadership roles, which are supported by Venda proverbs and rituals and reframing perceptions of women in the ministry amongst church leaders and the laity. The unique contribution of this thesis is, firstly, its focus on Pentecostal women in Venda. Secondly, a vhusadzi perspective is formulated that has never been done before in the literature. This perspective encompasses the experiences and expectations of Vhavenda women living in the Limpopo Province in South Africa. Thirdly, a link is drawn between culture, religion and ministerial leadership with a gender focus that produces new knowledge of the relationship between religion and culture as it manifests itself in a Venda context. The vhusadzi approach is informed by the bosadi approach of the Old Testament scholar, Madipoane Masenya, and feeds on her insights into women’s access to the interpretation of biblical texts. The vhusadzi approach takes these insights further by applying them to Vhavenda women’s access to leadership roles in the church. It opens up the future for further research, inviting African women scholars to contextualise issues related to women’s ordination. / Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics / D. Th. (Systematic Theology)

Summaries and keywords in Afrikaans and English / Hierdie histories-argeologiese studie bied ‘n basiese beskrywing van die materiële kultuur van ‘n afgeleë Suider-Afrikaanse plaas wat tussen die 1880’s en die 1930’s bewoon is. Die studie berus op ‘n gedetailleerde ontleding van die opgegraafde vondste wat herwin is van ashope wat met drie wooneenhede op die plaas Welkomskraal, geleë in die distrik Venterstad in die Noordoos-Kaap, verbind word. Die artefakte is aan die hand van die naslaanversameling in die Bloemfonteinse Nasionale Museum en handelsadvertensies geïdentifiseer. Die materiële kultuur dek die volle spektrum van die alledaagse lewe van die plaasbewoners en word aangevul deur genealogiese data, wat aantoon dat die grondeienaars die nasate was van die eerste trekboere wat hulle in die gebied gevestig het. Die bewoningsperiode van Welkomskraal val saam met die tweede industriële revolusie, wat gekenmerk is deur die massaproduksie van goedere en ‘n toenemend globale handelsnetwerk. Die versameling lewer bewys dat boere in die verre binneland toegang tot ‘n wye reeks ingevoerde produkte gehad het, hoewel hulle nie noodwendig welvarend was nie. / This historical archaeological study provides a baseline description of the material culture of a remote southern African farm occupied between the 1880s and the 1930s. The study is based on a detailed analysis of the excavated finds recovered from middens associated with three homesteads, located on the farm Welkomskraal, in the Venterstad district of the north-eastern Cape. Artefacts were identified using the reference collection of the National Museum in Bloemfontein and commercial adverts. The material culture covers the full spectrum of the daily lives of the farm’s occupants and is complemented by genealogical data, which indicate that the landowners were the descendants of the first trekboers who settled in the area. The occupation of Welkomskraal coincided with the second industrial revolution, which was characterised by mass production of goods and an increasingly global trade network. The assemblage attests that farmers in the deep interior had access to a wide range of imported goods although they were not necessarily prosperous. / Anthropology and Archaeology / M.A. (Argeologie)

This thesis examines the discourse strategies used to construct initiation schools in online media and message boards. The focus is on understanding the tensions that come with enacting traditional practices in the face of modernity and its associated cultural expectations. The thesis describes the manner in which these tensions are constructed in text by the media in news reports and participants in discussion forums. While there is still debate around whether the internet will revolutionise public participation and create a digital utopia; the internet is acknowledged as one of the widest reaching sources of information and entertainment. Specifically, the internet provides a platform to challenge the traditionally top-down communication between the elite, who have privileged access to the media, and the general public, who were previously constructed as passive recipients of information. Using the male circumcision initiation rite, this thesis examines how the South African public discursively constructs the epistemic location of African traditions in South Africa. The study drew on a sample of news articles from the News24 site, the largest news site in South Africa, ranging from January 2008 to December 2013. A corpus of 62 articles were analysed using the Critical Discourse Analysis technique described by Teun van Dijk. The findings of the thesis were that the initiation rite is used as a rhetorical tool to argue for the abandonment of African cultural practices in favour of modern, Western influenced beliefs and values. The findings also indicate that the initiation rite is reduced to the act of circumcision in the media by focusing on the injury and deaths of the initiates and excluding the meaning of the rite as a meaningful cultural practice. The conclusion of the thesis challenges the epistemicide committed against the male circumcision initiation rite from within the Decolonial school of thought, which critically examines everyday interaction for universalising, normative language that aims to commit cultural epistemicide to reinforce the white, male, European, Christian traditions of masculinity. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

D. Admin. (Public Administration)