Organisationer står inför en ökad global konkurrens och en dynamisk marknadsutveckling vilket utmanar traditionella strategier och förutsätter kontinuerlig förändring. Forskning pekar på behovet av nya idéer och teorier för att stödja smidiga övergångar och framgångsrika förändringsprocesser. Även om flera förändringsledningsmodeller existerar, återstår en brist på omfattande förståelse och utnyttjande av faktorerna som påverkar förändringsframgång, särskilt kopplat till engagemang.  Syftet med studien är att beskriva och utveckla ett ramverk för hur ledare kan implementera förändring på ett sätt som främjar engagemang. Studien ämnar undersöka hur ledare vid förändringsarbeten kan arbeta för att främja medarbetares engagemang och identifiera utmaningarna som ledare möter vid förändringsarbeten för att främja medarbetares engagemang och hur dessa kan överkommas. Studien har genomförts i form av en kvalitativ studie med induktiv ansats och författarna har använt en metod inspirerad av Classic Grounded Theory. Totalt har sju ledare inom varierande organisationer intervjuats genom kvalitativa intervjuer.Efter analys av empirin har en modell kunnat sammanställas, EFF, som presenteras och som ger ledare ett ramverk och tillvägagångssätt för att kunna implementera förändring på ett sätt som engagerar medarbetare. Modellen jämförs och diskuteras tillsammans med befintliga etablerade förändringsledningsmodeller och teorier samt flertal likheter och skillnader upptäcks. Modellen trycker också på de utmaningar som ledare möter och ger ett arbetssätt för hur dessa utmaningar ska överkommas. / Organizations are facing increased global competition and dynamic market development, which challenges traditional strategies and requires continuous change. Research points to the need for new ideas and theories to support smooth transitions and successful change processes. While several Change Management models exist, a lack of comprehensive understanding and utilization of the factors that influence the success of change, especially linked to engagement, remains. The purpose of this study is to describe and develop a framework for how leaders can implement change in a way that promotes engagement. The study aims to investigate how leaders in Change Management can work to promote employee engagement and identify the challenges that leaders face in Change Management to promote employee engagement and how these can be overcome. The study has been conducted in the form of a qualitative study with an inductive approach and a method inspired by Classic Grounded Theory. A total of seven leaders in various organizations have been interviewed through qualitative interviews. After analysis of the empirical data, a model was created, EFF. The model is presented and provides leaders with a framework and approach to be able to implement change in a way that engages employees. The model is compared and discussed together with existing established Change Management models and theories and several similarities and differences are discovered. The model also emphasizes the challenges that leaders face and provides a way of working for how these challenges are to be overcome.

The objective of this project is to challenge the traditional interior design of gynaecologist clinics and develop a fresh and innovative concept that enhances the overall experience for patients. By utilising colour, material, and form, this interior concept aims to transform the perception of healthcare facilities, ultimately improving the well-being and comfort of patients during gynaecological visits. To exemplify a different, more welcoming and safe environment, my experiments have involved using colour, material and form, as well as purpose designed chairs for the waiting room as well as the examination rooms, respectively. Besides this I have explored distractive elements during the patients’ examination. The design process for this project involved conducting qualitative research and studying existing gynaecologist clinic designs, patient experiences, and current trends in healthcare environments. Valuable insights has been gathered through interviews with healthcare professionals and patients, which helped identify areas for potential improvement. Additionally, the project explored the use of innovative design techniques, materials, and spatial configurations that foster a sense of privacy, and well- being. The design process also involves the development of design sketches and digital visualisations to aid in the visualisation and refinement of the interior concept. By utilising all design elements, the concept aims to create a health-promoting experience that ensures a safe, pleasant, and welcoming environment for both patients and staff.

Bakgrund: Diabetes typ 2 har blivit en av vår tids största folkhälsosjukdomar. Det som är hoppfullt är att sjukdomen går att fördröja och till och med förhindra med sunda levnadsvanor. För de redan drabbade går det att göra mycket för att förbättra hälsan och förhindra följdsjukdomar. Distriktssköterskor har en central roll i diabetesvård inom primärvård, för att genom det hälsofrämjande samtalet motivera patienter till egenvård. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att belysa förutsättningar som distriktssköterskor inom primärvård har för hälsofrämjande samtal med patienter som har diabetes typ 2. Metod: Studien genomfördes med kvalitativ metod där 14 distriktssköterskor svarade på en enkät med öppna frågor. Resultatet bearbetades med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: Förutsättningar för goda hälsofrämjande samtal påverkas av distriktssköterskans utbildning, avsatt tid för samtalet och möjligheten att inhämta och lämna ut adekvat information. Teamarbetet är av betydelse och den viktigaste teammedlemmen är patienten. Det är viktigt att patienten känner delaktighet i samtalet för att bli motiverad att ta ansvar för sin hälsa. Konklusion: Utbildning, tid och information är viktiga premisser för ett bra patientmöte. Det visade sig också att samarbete med andra professioner och samarbete med patienten är viktigt för ett bra teamarbete. / Background: Type 2 diabetes has become one of the biggest public health diseases of our time. What is hopeful is that the disease can be delayed and even prevented with healthy lifestyle habits. For those already affected, there is much you can do yourself to improve your health and prevent sequelae. The district nurse has a central role in diabetes care in primary care, in order to motivate the patient to self-care through the health-promoting conversation. Aim: The purpose of the study was to highlight the presuppositions that district nurses in primary care have for health-promoting conversations with patients who have type 2 diabetes. Method: The study was conducted using a qualitative method where 14 district nurses answered a questionnaire with open questions. The results were processed using qualitative content analysis. Findings: Presuppositions for good health-promoting conversations are affected by the district nurse's education, the time allocated for the conversation and the ability to obtain and provide adequate information. Teamwork is important and the most important team member is the patient. It is important that the patient feels participation in the conversation in order to be motivated to take responsibility for their health. Conclusion: Education, time and information are important premises for a good patient meeting. It also showed that collaboration with other professions and collaboration with the patient is important for good teamwork.

Previous empirical research of co-workership focuses on experiences of implementation or development programs. This study particularly intends to examine co-workership itself as there are no studies with the same focus. The purpose of this study was to shed light on employees’ perceptions of co-workership after an implementation of the topic and describe employees’ perceptions of sustainable and health-promoting working life factors in relation to co-workership. This is a qualitative study with semi-structured interviews based on ten employees from the same organization. The data collection is analyzed according to a phenomenographic approach to highlight significantly different perceptions. The outcome space describes employees’ perceptions of co-workership. Categories which highlight interactions & relationships and organizational insight & awareness as central perceptions of co-workership in this study. The category harmony emerged from perceptions of sustainable and health-promoting working life factors. Finally, the category symbiotic relationship, refers to perceptions of the relationship between sustainable and health-promoting working life factors and co-workership. This research contributes to increasing knowledge about how employees and work groups perceive co-workership where the implementation has taken place. Which also highlight the topics importance in promoting a sustainable and healthy working life.

The purpose of this study was to appraise the meaning and challenges of the principal’s school governance role in the Gert Sibande Region of the Mpumalanga Province. This was premised on the inherent challenges of the principal’s role as prescribed in the South African Schools Act, which locates the principal in the school governing body (SGB) as a member who promotes the best interests of the school; as well as an ex officio member who represents and promotes the interests of the employer – the Department of Education. It was found, through the literature review, that the challenges of the principal’s school governance role were largely symptoms of different emphases on the various functions of the SGB as listed in the South African Schools Act. As such, the concept of school governance was contextualised into an understanding of the essence of the school governance mandate as concerned with three main roles of the SGB, namely, providing the school with a strategic direction, the SGB being critical friend to the school and holding the school to account. Through qualitative interviews of purposely selected school principals, educator-governors and parent-governors, it was found that the principal’s role was influenced by, among others, challenges pertaining to the principals’ ex officio role, parent governors’ low education level, parent governors perceptions about being in the SGB, the perceptions about the principals’ role in the SGB by other members and miscellaneous challenges pertaining to perceptions and structural factors about the school governance role. This was found to be a result of the listed nature of the Schools Act’s governance roles and responsibilities and pointed to the need for giving context to them through an approach that focuses on the meaning and implications of the school governance mandate. For that reason, this study proposes a Three-step Approach to school governance. The Three step-Approach to school governance takes the school governance mandate as a point of departure and models the school governance process from the intention to establish SGBs through elections of a new and incoming SGB while the outgoing SGB is in the final stages of its term of office; to training of SGB members over stages that focus on the relevant content and components of school governors; and culminates into the start of the process of functioning of the incoming SGB. The emphasis of this approach is on fostering a clear understanding of the school governance mandate; how it contextualises the listed functions in the Schools Act; and the need for the SGB to start functioning with members already trained and in full understanding of their roles as they relate to the school governance mandate of promoting the best interests of the schools through the provision of quality education for all learners at the school. / PhD (Education Management)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015.

The purpose of this study was to appraise the meaning and challenges of the principal’s school governance role in the Gert Sibande Region of the Mpumalanga Province. This was premised on the inherent challenges of the principal’s role as prescribed in the South African Schools Act, which locates the principal in the school governing body (SGB) as a member who promotes the best interests of the school; as well as an ex officio member who represents and promotes the interests of the employer – the Department of Education. It was found, through the literature review, that the challenges of the principal’s school governance role were largely symptoms of different emphases on the various functions of the SGB as listed in the South African Schools Act. As such, the concept of school governance was contextualised into an understanding of the essence of the school governance mandate as concerned with three main roles of the SGB, namely, providing the school with a strategic direction, the SGB being critical friend to the school and holding the school to account. Through qualitative interviews of purposely selected school principals, educator-governors and parent-governors, it was found that the principal’s role was influenced by, among others, challenges pertaining to the principals’ ex officio role, parent governors’ low education level, parent governors perceptions about being in the SGB, the perceptions about the principals’ role in the SGB by other members and miscellaneous challenges pertaining to perceptions and structural factors about the school governance role. This was found to be a result of the listed nature of the Schools Act’s governance roles and responsibilities and pointed to the need for giving context to them through an approach that focuses on the meaning and implications of the school governance mandate. For that reason, this study proposes a Three-step Approach to school governance. The Three step-Approach to school governance takes the school governance mandate as a point of departure and models the school governance process from the intention to establish SGBs through elections of a new and incoming SGB while the outgoing SGB is in the final stages of its term of office; to training of SGB members over stages that focus on the relevant content and components of school governors; and culminates into the start of the process of functioning of the incoming SGB. The emphasis of this approach is on fostering a clear understanding of the school governance mandate; how it contextualises the listed functions in the Schools Act; and the need for the SGB to start functioning with members already trained and in full understanding of their roles as they relate to the school governance mandate of promoting the best interests of the schools through the provision of quality education for all learners at the school. / PhD (Education Management)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015.

Thesis (M. Tech. (Agriculture)) -- Central University of Technology, Free State, 2013 / ntroduction: Good quality Eucalyptus is of importance to South Africa’s pulp and paper industry. Limited land is available for forestry, therefore Eucalyptus with genotypes for good pulp and paper qualities, particularly hybrids, are bred and cloned via cuttings. Although these Eucalyptus clones keep the favourable genotypes in the population, many have difficulty with rooting. Research has shown that rhizobacteria can improve rooting. Thus, one strategy to enhance the rooting of cuttings is to use rhizobacterial preparations. The aim of this study was to characterise rhizobacterial communities of Eucalyptus hybrid and species and identify possible plant-growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). Materials and methods: Rhizospheric samples were collected from Eucalyptus hybrids and species. The rhizobacterial communities were characterised using fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) analysis and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). DGGE fragments were further sequenced to identify rhizobacteria. Results and discussion: FAME analysis successfully achieved a broad characterisation of the Eucalyptus hybrid and species rhizobacterial communities based on their fatty acid composition. Myristic acid (C14:0) was the most abundant fatty acid. DGGE profiles gave a molecular profile of the Eucalyptus hybrid and species rhizobacterial communities based on their DNA composition. Nitrosomona eutropha was present in all samples which illustrates a nitrogen-rich environment. Adhaenbacter aquaticus was unique to the better rooting Eucalyptus hybrid GU111. Conclusion: This study provided some insight into the diversity of rhizobacterial communities of Eucalyptus hybrids and species. Possible PGPR were identified and the observation made that the nature of the soil environment changes with the aging of the associated host. These findings allow further investigation into the formulation of potential rhizobacterial preparations for rooting enhancement of Eucalyptus cuttings.

Potential vegetative and reproductive increases in yield, as well as the biological efficacy against Fusarium verticillioides and F. proliferatum causing ear and stem rot in maize crops of commercially-formulated micro-organism formulation T-Gro (Trichoderma harzianum isolate DB103 WP) combined with Spartacus (Beauveria bassiana isolate DB 105 WP), T-Gro combined with Armenius (Bacillus subtilis isolate DB 109 WP), T-Gro combined with Maximus (Bacillus subtilis isolate DB 108 WP), T-Gro combined with Shelter (Bacillus subtilis isolate DB 101), T-Gro combined with Bismarck (Microbacterium maritypicum isolate DB 107 WP), as well as individual treatments of T-Gro, Armenius, Bismarck, Maximus and Shelter, were investigated when applied to maize seed and soil under field conditions. All the micro-organism treatments were compared with Thiram 750WP (750g/kg thiram WP) and an untreated control. The micro-organism treatments showed an increase in vegetative as well as reproductive yields when compared to the reference product Thiram 750 WP and the untreated control. There were no observations of adverse effects on the germination of maize seed in all the treatments that were applied. The three isolates B. subtilis, T. harzianum, and M. maritypicum, showed a significant reduction in vascular tissue discolouration of the main and ear stems, indicating a potential to be used in the reduction and control of diseases caused by Fusarium spp. Results also showed poor to very good increases of stem and foliage biomass as well as cob yield per plant produced by the micro-organism treatments when compared to the untreated control. The highest cob yield per plant that differed significantly from the untreated control was produced by T-Gro and Shelter. No phytotoxicity of any kind was observed with the application of the micro-organism formulations and they could therefore be deemed suitable to be used for the treatment of maize seed. The micro-organism formulations containing fungal and bacterial biological control agents have the potential to be used in commercial maize production to increase vegetative and reproductive yields and reduce the severity of ear and stem rot in maize. / Agriculture Animal Health & Human Ecology / M.Sc. (Agriculture)

Inoculation with diazotrophic bacteria is well documented as a means to enhance growth and increase yields of various crops, especially when used as an alternative or a supplement to the use of nitrogenous fertilizers and agrochemicals for sustainable agriculture. Nitrogen is the most limiting nutrient for increasing crop productivity, and the use of chemical sources of N fertilizers is expensive, and may contribute to environmental pollution. Therefore, there is a need to identify diazotrophic inoculants as an alternative or supplement to N-fertilizers for sustainable agriculture. The search for effective diazotrophic bacterial strains for formulation as biofertilizers has been going on for over 40 years and a number of inoculant biofertilizers have been developed and are commercially available. In the current study, 195 free-living diazotrophic bacteria were isolated from soils collected from the rhizosphere and leaves of different crops in different areas within the KwaZulu-Natal Province, Republic of South Africa. Ninety five of the isolates were selected for further screening because they were able to grow on N-free media using different carbon sources. Isolates that were very slow to grow on N-free media were discarded. Of these, 95 isolates were screened in vitro for growth promotion traits tests including tests for ammonia production and acetylene reduction. The best 20 isolates that were also able to reduce acetylene into ethylene were selected for growth-promotion trials on maize under greenhouse conditions. Of the 20 isolates, ten isolates enhanced (P = 0.001) growth of maize above the Un-inoculated Control. Molecular tests were conducted to identify the ten most promising isolates selected in the in vitro study. In the greenhouse study, these diazotrophic isolates were screened for their ability to enhance various growth parameters of maize (Zea mays L.), following various inoculation techniques (drenching, seed treatment, foliar spray and combination of these). Inoculations with the five best diazotrophic isolates by various methods of application increased dry weight and leaf chlorophyll content (P < 0.001, P = 0.001), respectively, compared to the Untreated Control. Although, all methods of application of diazotrophic inoculants used in this study resulted in increased dry weight and leaf chlorophyll content, combined methods of application (seed treatment + drenching) and sole application (seed treatment) were significantly more (P < 0.05) efficient. The best five most promising isolates were identified for growth promotion of maize under greenhouse conditions. They were also assessed for their effects on germination of wheat in vitro and were further tested in combination with various levels of nitrogenous fertilizer for growth-promotion of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). These five isolates were also investigated for their potential to enhance growth and yields of maize and wheat crops in field trials, when combined with a low dose of nitrogenous fertilizer. These isolates were further studied for their contribution for enhancing plant growth through nitrogen fixation by predicting N content in leaves using a chlorophyll content meter (CCM-200) and correlated to extractable chlorophyll level at R2 = 0.96. In this study, relative to the Un-inoculated Control, the best five isolates enhanced growth of maize and wheat when combined with a 33% N-fertilizer levels for a number of growth parameters: increased chlorophyll levels and heights of maize, shoot dry weight of maize and wheat; and enhanced root and shoot development of these crops in both greenhouse and field conditions. The best contributions of diazotrophic bacteria was achieved by Isolate LB5 + 0% NPK (41%), V9 + 65% NPK (28.9%), Isolate L1 + 50% NPK (25%), Isolate L1 + 25%NPK (22%) and LB5 + 75% NPK (15%) undergreenhouse conditions. At 30 or 60 DAP, isolates with 33%N-fertilizer caused relatively higher dry weight than the 100%NPK. Inoculation of Isolate StB5 without 33N% fertilizer cuased significant (P<0.005) increases in stover dry weight. In field studies, inoculation of diazotrophic bacteria alone or with 33%N-fertilizer resulted in relatively greater increases of dry weight, stover dry weight, number of spikes and yield at different growth stages higher than the Un-inoculated or Unfertilized Control. However, the increases were not statistically significant. The use of microbial inoculants in combination with low doses of nitrogenous fertilizers can enhance crop production without compromising yields. The isolates obtained in this study can effectively fix nitrogen and enhance plant growth. The use of microbial inoculants can contribute to the integrated production of cereal crops with reduced nitrogenous fertilizer inputs, as a key component of sustainable agriculture. / Ph.D. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2013.

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