In many Higher Education institutions, fun or enjoyment represents purposelessness, and is often characterised as something that should only be indulged in at specific times, in measured ways, and on special occasions. Play and games are thus often assigned a role that is secondary to ‘real’ work. This essentially artificial separation between work and play has had a profound effect on traditional learning theories and educational design. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of the metaphor of a game in the interaction, dynamics and complexities of a web-based module that is presented to adult learners. The uniqueness of this study is attributable to a combination of the following elements: • games and play, and their motivational potential and value for adults • adult learners, group complexities and dynamics, and the various kinds of online interactions to which learners are subjected • the World Wide Web as a learning environment. The case study upon which this thesis is based is the facilitation of a particular module that is presented as part of a two-year tutored Masters degree in Computer Integrated Education at the University of Pretoria. The presentation of the module simulated the spirit and atmosphere of Survivor / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Curriculum Studies / PhD / Unrestricted

Throughout the animal kingdom, individuals often differ consistently from one another in how they cope with their environment. In particular, consistent behavioural variation, known as animal personality, is a substantial driver of a range of important ecological and evolutionary processes. As most animal species are social for at least part of their lives and group living is common, a crucial link between personality and the social context may be expected. In this thesis I systematically investigate this link, using three-spined stickleback fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus) as my model system. I begin by showing that fish vary consistently in their boldness and sociability, with only boldness being positively linked to food intake for fish at rest. This finding provides support for evolutionary theory that links personality variation to life-history strategies, and lays the basis for work related to the social context. I continue by investigating how the social context may modulate personality variation and show that short contact with a social group may have carry-over effects and obfuscate personality expression when individuals are alone. Next, I observed fish in different pairs over time and found that social experience from both the current as well as previous social contexts are integrated in the risk-taking and leadership decisions of individuals but also depends on their boldness type. This result provides support for the importance of social feedback in the expression of personality differences. I go on to demonstrate that, in a pair, bolder fish have lower social attraction, with positive effects on individual’s leadership but negative effects on social coordination. Finally, by detailed tracking of the collective movements and group foraging of free-swimming shoals, I reveal boldness and sociability have complementary driving effects of on social structure, collective behaviour, and group functioning. Furthermore, I show that in turn the group composition determines the performance of individual personality types, providing a potential adaptive explanation for the maintenance of personality variation. Taken together, these studies provide an integrated account of animal personality and the social context and highlight the presence of a feedback loop between them, with personality variation being a key driver of collective behaviour and group functioning but also strongly affected and potentially maintained by it.

L’objectif de cette thèse est d’éclairer un phénomène invisible mais prégnant dans les organisations : les relations affinitaires au travail. Articulant les approches en psychosociologie et en philosophie avec une littérature plus récente propre aux sciences de gestion portant sur les réseaux et les workplace friendships, la thèse permet de mieux comprendre les relations affinitaires dans leur caractérisation, leur développement et leurs conséquences en contexte de travail. Basée sur deux niveaux d’analyse, individuel et groupal, la méthodologie se déploie autour de récits de vie et de quatre études de cas d’équipes de travail aux caractéristiques organisationnelles contrastées. Quatre types de relations affinitaires au travail sont ainsi identifiés : les « amis », les « collègues amis », les « amitiés stratégiques » et les « collègues ennemis ». Leur formation est non seulement influencée par des facteurs individuels et inter individuels, mais aussi par la structure et la culture organisationnelles. Leurs conséquences contrastées portent sur le bien-être et la motivation au travail, les relations de collaboration et le fonctionnement des équipes. Cette thèse montre que les relations affinitaires s’avèrent structurantes pour le fonctionnement d’une organisation à fort potentiel de collaboration. / The purpose of this dissertation is to understand an invisible but significant phenomenon in organizations: friendship ties at work. The conceptual framework combines philosophy and psychosocial studies with network approach and workplace friendship perspectives from the management literature. It highlights the characterization, development and consequences of friendship ties at work. Through individual and group-level analysis, the methodology is based on life stories and multiple case studies of work teams. Four types of workplace friendships are identified: « personal friends », « work friends », « strategic friends » and « work enemies ». Their development is influenced by individual and inter individual factors as well as organizational structure and culture. Friendship ties have also consequences on well-being, motivation, collaboration and functioning of teams at work. The findings underline that workplace friendships are more structuring for the functioning of organizations based on strong potential of collaboration.