The purpose of this study has been to provide a rich description of the role of the literacy leader in two primary schools. Through this study I was seeking to identify what the role of the literacy leader is and how this role is enacted. The role has been described from the perspectives of the literacy leader, a principal and five members of two school’s teaching staff. The desire to better understand the role of the literacy leader is important to those in the role and those they interact with. This is particularly so for those in my position as a professional developer, working alongside both a school and its literacy leader as they undertake in-depth literacy professional development. Literacy leaders have assumed greater responsibilities within schools since the 1999 Literacy Taskforce report which suggested a range of initiatives to better support literacy learners in New Zealand. Since this report there has been a governmental priority on literacy as a foundation learning area. Interest in literacy success for all stems from both international and national assessment knowledge. This information highlights the strength of New Zealand students in literacy but also identifies a group of students who do not perform well and continue to underachieve in literacy into adulthood. This underachievement limits the opportunities they have as adults for employment and participation in society. There has been no formalised role description for literacy leaders or how they might enact this role. The purpose of this study therefore has been to identify the role and how it is enacted. The literacy leader role has been analysed from multiple perspectives. Participant observation and in-depth interviewing have provided a rich picture of the role and how it is enacted. It is from these insights that some clarity has been gained about the characteristics of the role, how it is interpreted by the participants and then enacted by the two leaders. The findings indicate the role identified by those participating in this study and the reality of how it is enacted, are closely matched. The tasks of a literacy leader are complex and their dual role of classroom teacher and literacy leader adds to this complexity as they manage both positions simultaneously. This study identified that being a literacy leader requires a central focus on improved student achievement. It requires literacy leaders to provide strong leadership in literacy professional development/learning. This study also suggests that literacy leaders are seen as learning partners during the in-depth literacy professional development/learning focus where all involved are learners. The final role they play is in supporting the development of a collaborative professional learning community where all of the learning occurs. It raises issues and questions for those who interact with the literacy leader both within the school and those outside the school in how they can support them in this role. It also surfaces the need for schools and professional developers to address how the structures they are operating within can be reorganised to afford the time needed to be effective in this role. Finally when schools, advisers and Ministry of Education enter into a partnership of learning openly demonstrating that each will learn from the other, then capacity is built across all levels of the education system in meeting the goals of improved student outcomes.

The South African work situation is continuously changing due to globalisation, and most organisations embark on strategies that are geared to ensure survival. The political economical, social and demographical situation of the country encourages the changing work environment to be aligned with the international community. Strategies and tactics such as structuring down sizing, re-organisation, and technological changes are deployed by most organisations with the hope of profit making, survival and to remain competitive in this changing world of work. While organisations embark on these strategies, employees are facing massive job loss, which results in employees experiencing feelings of job insecurity. Employees, who feel psychologically empowered through leadership empowering behaviour, endue a sense of job security and thus contribute towards a healthy work organisation. Employees from four business units in a steel-manufacturing organisation were targeted. The study population included employees the managerial and non-managerial categories. A cross-sectional survey design was used to obtain the research objectives. Three standardised questionnaires were used in the empirical study, namely Leader Empowering Behaviour Questionnaire, Job Insecurity Inventory and the Measuring Empowerment Questionnaire. The results indicated average mean scores on the scales of leader empowering behaviour, job insecurity and psychological empowerment when compared to previous studies. Strong negative correlations were found between leader empowering behaviour and job insecurity and between job insecurity and psychological empowerment. Strong positive correlation was found between leader empowering behaviour and psychological empowerment. Regression analyses showed that leader empowering behaviour predicts job insecurity and psychological empowerment. It was also found that job insecurity predicted psychological empowerment. This research indicates that leadership has a positive impact on employees' feelings of security and empowerment. Based on the results recommendations were made and can be implemented by this organisation. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2007.

The South African work situation is continuously changing due to globalisation, and most organisations embark on strategies that are geared to ensure survival. The political economical, social and demographical situation of the country encourages the changing work environment to be aligned with the international community. Strategies and tactics such as structuring down sizing, re-organisation, and technological changes are deployed by most organisations with the hope of profit making, survival and to remain competitive in this changing world of work. While organisations embark on these strategies, employees are facing massive job loss, which results in employees experiencing feelings of job insecurity. Employees, who feel psychologically empowered through leadership empowering behaviour, endue a sense of job security and thus contribute towards a healthy work organisation. Employees from four business units in a steel-manufacturing organisation were targeted. The study population included employees the managerial and non-managerial categories. A cross-sectional survey design was used to obtain the research objectives. Three standardised questionnaires were used in the empirical study, namely Leader Empowering Behaviour Questionnaire, Job Insecurity Inventory and the Measuring Empowerment Questionnaire. The results indicated average mean scores on the scales of leader empowering behaviour, job insecurity and psychological empowerment when compared to previous studies. Strong negative correlations were found between leader empowering behaviour and job insecurity and between job insecurity and psychological empowerment. Strong positive correlation was found between leader empowering behaviour and psychological empowerment. Regression analyses showed that leader empowering behaviour predicts job insecurity and psychological empowerment. It was also found that job insecurity predicted psychological empowerment. This research indicates that leadership has a positive impact on employees' feelings of security and empowerment. Based on the results recommendations were made and can be implemented by this organisation. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2007.

While studying narratives in the context of its own religious tradition may uncover that religious tradition's doctrines and priorities, this study assumes that a comparative model contributes to a clearer understanding of the uniqueness of each religion's ideas. By comparing religions rather than studying them in isolation, we may understand each with greater clarity. / The narratives compared and contrasted in this study are the birth narratives of Moses and the Buddha. These two figures may be identified as the respective heroes of the Jewish and Buddhist religions. This comparative study highlights and examines the similarities and differences presented in their birth narratives and seeks to determine the significance these narratives have from within the context of their respective doctrinal traditions. Although studying one tradition alone produces important results, it is only by comparing and contrasting religious traditions, and in this case the birth narratives of different religious traditions, that the uniqueness and qualities of each come into full view. / This study begins with an examination of Moses' birth narrative, first as it has been understood by modern scholarship, and then as it has been presented in the classical literature of early Judaism. In the second part, the Buddha's birth narrative is explored, first from the perspective of modern, Western scholarship, and then as it appears in the Pali and Sanskrit literature of early Buddhism. The third part of this study is committed to a comparative analysis of the two birth narratives.

A model was developed that explores several personal characteristic of individuals as predictors of their motivation to lead. Stable personality traits were hypothesized to interact with an individual's belief in the nature of effective leadership to differentially predict the level of their leadership aspirations. The use of a team laboratory design allowed for an examination of the causal nature of an individual‘s motivation to lead. An appointed team leader led their four-person team in a performance task with high levels of interdependence to examine the leader's impact on teamwork. Team leaders were rated by multiple sources during the task on directive leadership, empowering leadership, and laissez-faire leadership. Several significant relationships between personality and motivation to lead were found that lend support to earlier research on the antecedents to motivation to lead, although no moderating effects were uncovered. Leadership behaviors were differentially related to increases in team processes, and demonstrated strong associations with satisfaction with the leader, and leadership potential. Results indicated that team leaders who do not calculate the personal costs of leadership may be unable to positively influence team action processes. This study has implications for functional leadership theory, the development of the motivation to lead construct, and trait perspectives of leadership.

Followers' perceptions of female leaders tend to be different from male leaders. For instance, the prototypes that correspond to female leaders tend to be more communal and transformational, whereas male leaders are associated with agentic and dominant leadership prototypes. Female leaders can be perceived with bias due to conflicts between the communal role expected of women and the agentic role traditionally expected of leaders. Additionally, collectivist or individualist nature of leaders' orientation, as well as organizational culture has the possibility of affecting followers' perceptions. Leader's orientations reflect either a collectivistic or individualistic personal style. Collective orientations indicate that the leader is group or team oriented, whereas an individual orientation signifies higher identification with the self and enhancing competition. Organizational cultures also theoretically have collectivistic or individualistic components. Leaders whose personal orientation (collectivist or individualist) matches the organizational culture (collectivistic or individualistic) are expected to be categorized as a leader more so than leaders whose personal orientation does not match the organizational culture. Female leaders, however, may be at a disadvantage in organizational cultures or with orientations that are incongruent with their gender roles. To examine these issues, scenarios were used in order to manipulate organizational culture and leader's orientations, and pictures were employed for leader gender manipulations. An online survey was distributed to a variety of business-related list serves, and 388 employees from U.S. based companies participated. Participants assessed the target leaders on perceptions of leader prototypicality, likability, and perceptions of mutual commitment and support. Results show that female leaders are perceived to be more transformational and less dominant than male leaders. Further, no differences between leaders were found on all dimensions of prototypicality and liking when examining the interaction between organizational culture, leader's orientation, and gender. There were main effects of leader's orientations on perceptions of mutual commitment and support with individualist leaders perceived as having lower perceptions of mutual commitment and support than collectivist leaders. Additionally, the three-way Leader Gender by Leader Orientation by Organizational Culture interaction on leader-member exchange showed that female leaders were penalized when they were embedded within individualistic organizational cultures or portrayed individual orientations. These penalties seem to be additive with female leaders depicting individual orientations within individualistic organizational cultures being rated even lower on perceptions of mutual commitment and support. This relationship was not found for male leaders; however male leaders were penalized for depicting individual orientations in collectivistic organizational cultures. An advantage was found for female leaders who depict collective orientations in collectivistic organizational cultures. These leaders were rated higher than male leaders in perceptions of mutual commitment and support, perhaps due to the congruence of the female gender role with the highly valued transformational leadership style. The implications of this study are that organizations should focus their culture on being more collectivistic, which could enhance perceptions of female leaders by their followers.

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