M.Tech (Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of procedural, distributive and interactional justice on job satisfaction among members of the South African Police Academy, Thabong. A critical function of the South African Police Service (SAPS) is to ensure that the inhabitants of South Africa are safe. Members of the SAPS need to be committed and have a high morale to ensure that the vision of the SAPS is fulfilled. This study advocates the application of the equity theory. People prefer to work in an environment that is perceived as just. Employees will experience satisfaction with their job in terms of equity when the equity theory is applied. However, inequity will lead to tension at the workplace. In order for the officers as employees of the SAPS to function effectively, it is essential for the SAPS to ensure that their employees are satisfied. In this study, a quantitative approach was applied to gain an understanding of the influence of organisational justice (OJ) dimensions (PJ, DJ, IJ) on job satisfaction (JS). This involved administering questionnaires to 234 employees who were attending management courses at the SAPS Academy, Thabong in the northern Free State province of South Africa. Two primary tests were used to assess the suitability of the data for factor analysis. These tests are the Kaiser-Meyer Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett’s test of sphericity. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to examine the correlations among the constructs. A means analysis was conducted to assess the perceptions of the employees in respect of PJ, DJ, IJ and JS. Multiple regression analysis was executed to examine whether the independent variables of PJ, DJ and IJ predict the dependent variable JS. The Cronbach alpha coefficient test provided an adequate indication of reliability of the instrument. Face/ content, construct and convergent validity methods were applied to establish validity of the study. A positive relationship between the OJ and JS was found in this study. The SAPS will be able to improve the JS levels of SAPS officers by making positive improvements when applying OJ to influence the various elements of JS identified in this study. This will effectively enable SAPS officers to meet the challenge of providing improved service. The proper implementation of OJ will ultimately lead to the organisations success as well as the progression of its employees. Since the SAPS depends on human resources, the organisation is required to assess the current OJ practices and create a working environment that stimulates and motivates employees so that their JS levels increase. The recommendations proposed for this study offer vital information on OJ practices that could assist the SAPS to improve the perceptions of employees. Accordingly, the application can improve employees’ low morale resulting from unfairness and injustice, thereby increasing the JS levels amongst employees. The findings of the research may generate guidelines for OJ practices. Recommendations include a systematic and transparent reward system that recognises employees’ excellent performance and rewards them accordingly. Another recommendation is the creation of a well-structured consultative forum to grant employees an opportunity to provide management with their perceptions of unfair practices. Future research should extend to other sectors within the public sector environment, as well as expanding the research to include several other JS elements.

Syftet med föreliggande studie är att undersöka om och isåfall hur lärare på språkintroduktionsprogrammet i sin undervisning stöttar flerspråkiga elevers interaktion på målspråket genom uppföljningar. Metoden för studien grundar sig i två modeller: Exchange Structure Model av Sinclair & Coulthard (1975) och interaktionell stöttning av Hammond & Gibbons (2005). Data samlades in i form av ljudinspelningar och klassrumsobservationer på språkintroduktionsprogrammet. Resultatet visar att läraren i interaktionen med flerspråkiga elever med begränsade språkliga kunskaper använder sig av stöttande drag genom kopplingar till tidigare erfarenheter, sammanfattningar, metakommentar, approprieringar, omformuleringar, antydande eliciteringar  och framåtriktningar. Undersökningens slutsatser är att uppföljningar kan stötta interaktionen på målspråket och att det kan vara viktigt att läraren för det flerspråkiga klassrummet hittar ett innehåll som är intresseväckade för eleverna.

M. Tech. (Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / The purpose of this study was to determine the perception of organisational justice on job satisfaction among administrative staff members at a university of technology in South Africa. A critical function of the administrative staff at a university of technology is to ensure that all students and other staff members are assisted as effectively and efficiently as possible. Administrative staff at a university of technology in South Africa needs to be committed and have a high morale to ensure that the vision of the University of Technology is fulfilled. This study promotes the application of the Equity Theory. People prefer to work in an environment that is perceived as just. Employees will experience satisfaction with their job in terms of Equity when the Equity Theory is applied fairly. However, inequity will lead to tension at the workplace. In order for the administrative staff at a university of technology in South Africa to function effectively, it is essential for a university of technology to ensure that their administrative staff is satisfied. In this study, a quantitative approach was undertaken to gain an understanding of the perception of organisational justice and its dimensions on job satisfaction. This involved distributing questionnaires to 200 administrative staff at a university of technology in South Africa. Two primary tests were used to assess the suitability of the data for factor analysis. These tests are the Kaiser-Meyer Olkin measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett’s test of sphericity. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to examine the correlations among the constructs. A means analysis was conducted to assess the perceptions of the employeesin respect of distributive justice, procedural justice, interactional justice and job satisfaction. Regression analysis was executed to examine whether the independent variables of distributive justice, procedural justice and interactional justice predict the dependent variable job satisfaction. The Cronbach alpha coefficient test provided an adequate indication of reliability of the instrument. Face/content, construct and convergent validity methods were applied to establish validity of the study. A positive relationship between organisational justice and job satisfaction was found in this study. The administrative staff will be able to improve the job satisfaction levels of other administrative staff by making positive improvements when applying organisational justice to influence the various elements of job satisfaction identified in this study. This will effectively enable administrative staff to meet the challenge of providing improved service. The proper implementation of organisational justice will, ultimately, lead to the organisations’ success, as well as the progression of its employees. Since a university of technology depends on human resources, the organisation is required to assess the current organisational justice practices and create a working environment that stimulates and motivates employees so that their job satisfaction levels increase. The recommendations proposed for this study offer vital information on organisational justice practices that could assist a university of technology to improve the perceptions of administrative staff. Accordingly, the application can improve employees’ low morale resulting from perceived unfairness and injustice, thereby increasing the job satisfaction levels among administrative staff. The findings of the research may generate guidelines for organisational justice practices. Recommendations include a systematic and transparent reward system that recognises employees’ excellent performance and rewards them accordingly. Another recommendation is the creation of a well-structured consultative forum to grant employees an opportunity to provide management with their perceptions of unfair practices. Future research should extend to other sectors within the public sector environment, as well as expanding the research to include several other job satisfactionelements. Further, research using both mediation and moderation to investigate the associations between organisational justice and job satisfaction is recommended.

As the extensive digitization has taken place, workplaces worldwide have undergone changes to integrate digitization into daily work life. The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine how this digitization affects organizations at an individual level. Trust and engagement have proven to be central components in previous studies of organizations. Leadership and social relationships have been shown in previous research to be important components for maintaining trust and commitrnent. The aim of the study is to investigate whether employees in workplaces in Sweden, with experience transitioning from on-site work to remote work, perceive changes in trust and comitment due to digitization. Additionally, we aim to explore possible social interaction pattems and leadership methods that may play a role in this context. This qualitative study bases its results on seven semi-structured interviews with individuals experienced in remote work and on-site work. The theoretical framework consists of James MacGregor Bums' theory ofTransformative Leadership, Randall Collins' theory of interaction pattems, and Herbert Blumer's theory of symbolic interactionism. The results of our research indicate that trust and commitment are maintained and created by social relationships and transformative leadership. Social relationships in the workplace foster commitrnent, and transformative leadership contributes to the creation ofboth trust and commitment. In remote work, trust and commitment remain stable if the organization succeeds in transformative leadership, and if employees manage to maintain strong social relationships. However, the difficulties in transferring social relationships digitally became clear in the study. Therefore, a transition is required to transfer social interaction toa digital platform while still maintaining engagement. / I takt med den omfattande digitaliseringen har arbetsplatser världen över genomgått förändringar för att integrera digitaliseringen i det dagliga arbetslivet. Syftet med denna kvalitativa studie är att undersöka hur denna digitalisering påverkar organisationer på individnivå. Tillit och engagemang har visat sig vara centrala komponenter i tidigare studier av organisationer. Ledarskap och sociala relationer har i tidigare forskning visat sig vara viktiga komponenter för att upprätthålla tillit och engagemang. Syftet med studien är att undersöka om anställda på arbetsplatser i Sverige, med erfarenhet av övergång från arbete på plats till hembaserat distansarbete, upplever förändringar i tillit och engagemang till följd av digitaliseringen. Vi strävar dessutom efter att utforska möjliga sociala interaktionsmönster och ledarskapsmetodersom kan ha en roll i detta sammanhang. Denna kvalitativa studie baserar sina resultat på sju semistrukturerade intervjuer med individer som har erfarenhet av distansarbete och arbete på plats. Det teoretiska ramverket består av James MacGregor Bums teori om Transformativt ledarskap, Randall Collins teori om interaktionsmönster, samt Herbert Blumers teori om symbolisk interaktionism. Resultatet i vår forskning indikerar att tillit och engagemang upprätthålls och skapas av sociala relationer och ett transformativt ledarskap. Sociala relationer på arbetsplatsen skapar engagemang och ett transformativt ledarskap bidrar till skapandet av både tillit och engagemang. Vid distansarbete förblir tilliten och engagemanget stabilt om organisationen lyckas med ett transformativt ledarskap och om anställda lyckas behålla starka sociala relationer. Svårigheterna med att överföra de sociala relationerna digitalt blev dock tydligt i studien. En omställning krävs därför för att överföra social interaktion till en digital plattform och samtidigt upprätthålla engagemang.

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No description available.

Due to an educational system that tends to prioritize receptive reading and listening skills and a concomitant lack of opportunities to engage in meaningful spoken production in the target language outside of the class, many English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in Japan struggle to develop their English speaking abilities even after many years of study. For many of these learners, post-secondary coursework presents a first opportunity to engage in consistent active oral production of the language in interactive communicative situations, but how language abilities develop in this context over time is not well understood. This longitudinal, mixed methods research study explores the development of interactive second language (L2) speaking proficiency of Japanese university students throughout their first year of post-secondary study. The participants were 92 female students from five sections of a required oral communication course of which I was the instructor: 34 from two mid-proficiency sections and 58 from three low-proficiency sections. In addition to the standard curriculum for this course, these participants also completed a series of ten 10-minute discussion tasks in groups of three to four participants on personal information topics of general interest over the course of two 15-week semesters that comprise the academic year. All of the group discussion tasks were video-recorded and carried out under the same procedures: without any pre-task planning time but with a post-task transcription and reflection assignment. The first group discussion task was administered for training and instructional purposes and excluded from the data analyses leaving seven tasks conducted roughly one month apart throughout the academic year as well as one additional repeated task with the same group assignments completed at the end of each semester. In total, nine discussion tasks were carried out for analysis in this study. A number of quantitative measures were collected for this study at various points throughout the academic year. First, all of the group discussion performances were rated using an adapted rating scale consisting of criteria dedicated to complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) as well as interactional engagement and overall communicative effectiveness. Additional measures consisting of participant ratings assigned to topic difficulty and group member familiarity were collected via questionnaire after each discussion task. Furthermore, measures of extraversion and English-speaking self-efficacy were collected along with the three repeated tasks that spanned the entire year. Finally, initial and end-of-year scores on the TOEIC-IP test consisting only of listening and reading sections were used as measures of general English proficiency. To provide a richer understanding of the participants’ perceptions of their development as well the social and individual difference factors considered most directly relevant to the research questions, an embedded qualitative component consisting of two focus groups and one individual interview was also carried out. The results indicated that the participants in this study made small but significant improvements in their mean interactive English speaking abilities across both the three repeated tasks and between the most temporally distant earliest and latest new tasks administered in the first and second terms, accounting for relatively large amounts of the variance in the measures. Furthermore, the social and individual difference factors investigated were found to jointly predict 56% of the variance seen in the interactive English speaking measures for the three repeated tasks. Of these factors, the participants’ initial general proficiency scores, English speaking self-efficacy ratings, and averaged group member initial proficiency scores were found to be much stronger predictors than their topic difficulty, group member familiarity, and extraversion ratings. When the ratings given along the five rating scale dimensions were inspected, strong relationships were revealed among all of them, though particularly among the CAF rating measures. Tracking these relationships over time revealed that they tended to strengthen from one task to the next with the most readily identifiable changes found among the relationships between accuracy, interactional engagement, and overall communicative effectiveness. Finally, the qualitative component of this study revealed that the participants interviewed perceived changes in their conscious attention during the group discussion tasks shifting from accuracy concerns to speaking fluently/effectively, a general lack of concern for and attention to complexity throughout, and improvement in their interactional engagement over the course of the academic year. Furthermore, the interviewees were found to generally ascribe a high degree of influence on their resulting group discussion task speaking performances to both the topic prompts assigned and their group members’ personalities as well as to the complex interplay between group member proficiency and familiarity among other factors. Although a number of limitations should be taken into account, it is believed that the results of this study provide new, important insights into the longitudinal development of interactive English speaking proficiency in an EFL university context where learners have little engagement with target language beyond limited classroom contact hours. / Teaching & Learning

M. Tech. (Department of Labour Relations Management, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / In South Africa, rail transport is an important element to support economic development and this service is provided by the railway company as the focus of this study. Similar to other companies, the selected railway company depends on its employees as a crucial resource to execute duties aimed at the realisation of its objectives. For the company to remain successful, its employees must have positive behaviours and attitudes and have the ability to work in a fair and just environment. Organisational justice, as an indicator of a fair and just work environment, and organisational citizenship behaviour, influence work-related behaviours and attitudes and are critical for the smooth operation of any organisation. Currently, the railway company seems to have a high number of reported incidents relating to organisational citizenship behaviour including misconduct, disciplinary, criminal and/or civil action. This might be an outcome of employee perceptions of organisational justice. This study examines the relationship between organisational justice and organisational citizenship behaviour for the first time in the rail industry in South Africa. Drawing on the Social Exchange Theory, the primary aim of this study is to investigate employees’ perceptions of organisational justice and their effects on organisational citizenship behaviour in a railway company in Johannesburg, Gauteng. The study adopted a deductive research approach and a quantitative method was used to collect data. Utilising a structured questionnaire, respondents were solicited to provide their demographic variables and their responses to four different measurement scales, namely procedural justice, distributive justice, interactional justice and organisational citizenship behaviour using a seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1=strongly disagree to 7=strongly agree. Using convenience sampling, questionnaires were distributed to 400 identified employees of the railway company in Johannesburg, Gauteng. A total of 378 questionnaires were returned and this constituted the sample size of the study. The Spearman’s rho correlation coefficient was used to find the strength of relationships with the use of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0. To assess the employees' perceptions of organisational justice, their levels of organisational citizenship behaviour and the relationship between the constructs, descriptive statistical analysis, correlation and regression analysis were used. Based on the findings, the results of the correlation analysis revealed no significant relationships between all three dimensions of organisational justice (procedural justice, distributive justice, interactional justice) and organisational citizenship behaviour. Regression analysis also resulted in no predictive relationships between organisational justice and organisational citizenship behaviour. Evidence indicates that the fairness of distribution, procedures and interactions are not the key contributors in affecting the level of organisational citizenship behaviour of employees at the railway company. The study makes various recommendations including that management should treat employees fairly and equally and apply fair decision-making processes with fair outcomes. Additionally, to improve, increase and keep the standard of OCB, an organisational policy on organisational justice should be in place, which must constantly be updated. Research on OJ and OCB is still limited, particularly in the field of rail transport, as this study is the first and only study that has been conducted in South Africa. This represents an opportunity for academics and labour relations practitioners to further engage in research on antecedents and outcomes of organisational behaviour in the railway industry.

The social environment has been recognised as one of the key aspects in determining the quality of life throughout the human lifespan. Human behaviour, thoughts, feelings and attitudes are socially constructed and can only be understood when viewed from the perspective of social interaction. Older individuals, who live in residential facilities experience a diminished quality of life due to factors such as loss of independence, reduced social networks, functional dependence, and contextual changes. Depression, loneliness and social isolation are an integral part of these individuals’ lives. People develop specific styles of relating, also referred to as interpersonal styles. The systems theory is used to explain the circular processes of the interaction between people. In particular the Self-Interactional Group Theory (SIGT) is proposed as theoretical framework to explore the relational qualities of older people in a residential care facility. SIGT views the interaction between people on three levels, namely the intra-personal level, the interpersonal level and the group level, which operate interdependently in the interaction between people. The interpersonal level of analysis consists of the definition of the relationship, relational qualities, motivation to engage with people to address needs and needs satisfaction as well as the circular processes of which the interaction consists of. The interactions between people always take place in an interpersonal context, embedded in broader environments. A qualitative and exploratory research design was selected to explore the relational qualities in interactions between older individuals living in a residential care facility. This study is based on data collected during a primary research study at a residential care facility for older individuals in 2013. The purpose of study was to explore the quality of life of older individuals residing in a residential care facility in Gauteng, South Africa. The data-gathering process in the primary research study involved the Mmogo-Method, a visual projective data-gathering method, the World Café method and person-centred interviews to gain insight into the participants’ life experiences at the residential care facility. For the purpose of this research, only the person-centred interviews were used for the secondary analysis of the data. Twelve purposely-selected individuals (aged 80 to 95; 3 men and 9 women) from the residential care facility participated voluntarily in the person-centered interviews, which were audio recorded. The collected data were transcribed verbatim and subjected to two different methods of analyses. First, data were analysed thematically by adopting an inductive approach. The themes identified in this first phase were next subjected to a deductive content analysis. The themes were categorised according to the relational variables in accordance with the Interactional Pattern Analysis (IPA), thereby contributing to the trustworthiness of the findings. The findings revealed that the interactions between older individuals take place in a broader environment that advocate the active participation of people. Active participation takes place both in and outside the facility and older people reported that this contributed to their quality of life. The relational qualities that could be described as enhancing interpersonal connectivity and satisfying older people’s needs for confirmation were identified as empathy, unconditional acceptance of others, confirmation and interpersonal flexibility. This research, however, highlighted relational qualities that restrained quality of life of older people, namely confusing self-presentation, ineffective expression on needs and withdrawal due to physical immobility. Needs were expressed in a very unspecific, blaming or manipulative manner, and consequently needs were not satisfied, but provoked, instead, feelings of frustration, pain and guilt. This research highlighted the predicament that older people find themselves in. Their decreased physical abilities and limited emotional repertoire to move towards others and the environment also limit their needs satisfaction. The presenting problem of social isolation can be explained by the combination of limited physical mobility and relational qualities that restrain quality of life for older people. This research study thus holds important implications for relationship-focused approaches in residential facilities for older individuals in order to empower and enable them to enhance their quality of life. Specific recommendations include interventions to assist older people to express their needs more effectively and to use opportunities in interaction to confirm them as autonomous functioning older people. / MA (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

<p>Ova disertacija se bavi analizom jezički<br />ispoljene učtivosti na primerima filmskih<br />dijaloga kojima se ispoljava slaganje i<br />neslaganje sa sagovornikom na engleskom i<br />srpskom jeziku, kao i u titlovanim prevodima na<br />srpskom. Osnovni ciljevi istraživanja jesu da se<br />klasifikuju, opi&scaron;u i primerima potkrepe<br />strategije slaganja i neslaganja sa sagovornikom,<br />da se sumiraju i uporede dobijeni rezultati u dva<br />jezika, te da se utvrde promene prilikom<br />titlovanog prevođenja odabranih dijalog&acirc; sa<br />engleskog jezika na srpski. Pretpostavke u vezi<br />sa uklapanjem dobijenih rezultat&acirc; u<br />odgovarajuće kulturne matrice i osiroma&scaron;enjem<br />interakcijske komponente sadržaja titlovanog<br />prevoda istražene su u svetlu relevantnih<br />teorijskih razmatranja, putem kvalitativne<br />analize odabranog jezičkog materijala.</p> / <p>This thesis deals with verbally expressed<br />politeness in film dialogues of agreement and<br />disagreement with the interlocutor in English<br />and Serbian, as well as in subtitled translations<br />into Serbian. The most important goals of the<br />research are to classify, describe and exemplify<br />the strategies of agreement and disagreement in<br />selected US and Serbian films, to summarize<br />and compare the results of the analysis in the<br />two languages and to determine the changes in<br />the interactional component of meaning in the<br />subtitling mode of translation from English into<br />Serbian. The hypotheses concerning the<br />analysed cases of agreeing and disagreeing in<br />the light of prevalent politeness patterns in US<br />and Serbian culture, as well as the presumed<br />undertranslation of the interactional component<br />of meaning in the Serbian subtitles are tested<br />considering the relevant theoretical frameworks,<br />by means of applying the method of qualitative<br />analysis</p>