Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Jul 7, 2010). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-10, Section: A, page: 3817. Adviser: Robert Toutkoushian.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Counseling and Educational Psychology, 2006. / "Title from dissertation home page (viewed July 12, 2007)." Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-10, Section: A, page: 3708. Adviser: Charles R. Ridley.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Psych.Org.) - University of Queensland, 2007. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Hamburg, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references.

No abstract available / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

This study explores women's understandings and experiences of empowerment so that they could empower themselves by using their own knowledge to see through factors that serve to disempower them. At a time when empowerment and its future is under intense discussion in South Africa, it seems wise to move away from quantitative studies which do not facilitate the development of comprehensive theory in industrial psychology. This study provides a qualitative feminist analysis of women's understandings and experiences of empowerment in an organisation. Written protocols, interviews and a workshop were used as data collection tools and seven women from one organisation participated in the study. The research revealed that women understand and experience empowerment in a number of ways. These understandings and experiences are affected by various factors: organisational factors; personal characteristics and abilities; their relationship with others at work and at home; and societal factors such as double standards for men and women and role expectations. The breadth and scope of the results imply that any attempt to empower women should include relational, motivational and feminist perspectives on power and empowerment. In addition, the results indicate that providing a space in which the women could explore the network of disempowering practices in their lives, was empowering for the women. Through the process of the research, the participants' understandings of empowerment evolved from viewing empowerment as something that is predominantly external (for example, influenced by others and organisational factors) to something that is internal (for example, influenced by motivational factors). This study cautions against seeing empowerment as something that is solely internal because by doing so women are placing the responsibility of empowerment upon themselves thus setting themselves up for failure. However, through the process of seeing empowerment as internal, the women were able to move towards a feminist understanding of empowerment in which not only is empowerment external ("out there") or internal ("within") but includes acknowledging one's own responsibility in empowerment as well as external societal factors that serve to hamper women.

Rapid changes and increased competitiveness in business environments, together with greater demands by employees for improvements in the quality of their work lives, make it necessary for organisations to review their operating styles and functions. Many companies have found an answer in Organisation Development (OD) which focuses on ways in which people associated with organisations learn to diagnose and solve those problems which limit organisational effectiveness. The present study evaluates the progress of an OD intervention underway in an organisation in Zimbabwe. A formative evaluation is undertaken during an OD intervention. It is designed to assess the change effort's progress in such a way that steps can subsequently be taken to correct, modify or enhance such aspects of the intervention as may be determined by the evaluation. The study begins with a review of the company's original and revised Mission Statements as well as the present and last two sets of corporate three-year plans. These documents inform the construction of an interview guide. Individual interviews are then used to ascertain attitudes of respondents to the OD intervention and the changes it is bringing about. In addition the interviews are used to gauge the degree of commitment of respondents to the intervention. All the senior managers in the organisation are interviewed as well as the holding company's chief executive and the external consultant facilitating the intervention. The study records fundamental changes taking place in the attitudes of top managers and the first signs of an impact of these attitude changes on the formulation of company plans. Management styles and the culture of the organisation also show some change and influence on routine business operations. In addition there are early indications of an alteration of behaviour at other levels in the organisation. Business outcomes are improving and it is proposed that the benefits are due to fortuitous market developments assisted to an extent by the culture and attitude changes brought about by the OD intervention.

Using Schein's (1992) notion of organisational culture, this study explored the position of a South African nongovernmental organisation (NGO) in the changing environment of post-apartheid South Africa. The study pursued three central goals: to describe the organisational culture of a South African NGO; to examine the tensions that have emerged owing to the changing nature of the organisational culture; and to analyze the organisational culture in relation to the changing NGO environment. The basic assumptions of the organisation regarding networking, the relationship with the government, funders and funding, leadership, human resource development, and service delivery, were collected. A single case study design was employed, with a sample of eight participants (representing the four different sections of the NGO) being drawn. Data were collected through documentary analysis, a focus group, and eight individual interviews using the critical incident technique. Analysis was performed using various qualitative data analysis techniques. The researcher found that participants considered networking, a cooperative relationship with the government, a proactive approach to obtaining funding, effective leadership and human resource development, and a good reputation for service delivery, to be essential for NGO survival. NGO basic assumptions are undergoing a transformation process, and tensions exist between long-standing and emerging assumptions. It was found that the transformation of assumptions is enabling the NGO to adapt to the challenges of the changing environment.

Acompanha: Guia didático para o ensino de psicologia organizacional com foco na sustentabilidade. / O ensino de Psicologia Organizacional em cursos da área tecnológica proporciona uma base para a gestão de pessoas a tecnólogos e engenheiros que, frequentemente, ocupam cargos de liderança no trabalho. Esta costuma ser uma das poucas disciplinas da área de gestão humana a compor os currículos deste tipo de curso. Partindo de uma preocupação com as repercussões socioambientais dos processos de gestão, o presente estudo teve por objetivo abordar o ensino de Psicologia Organizacional por meio de estratégias que propiciem reflexões acerca das repercussões socioambientais dos valores vivenciados no trabalho. A implementação da proposta intentou: a) oportunizar aos alunos reflexões sobre a influência que a cultura competitiva e seus valores subjacentes exercem sobre as atitudes adotadas no ambiente de trabalho; b) promover reflexões acerca da influência que os valores e atitudes cultivados no interior das empresas têm nos rumos do desenvolvimento tecnológico e, consequentemente, na sustentabilidade planetária; c) proporcionar reflexões sobre a necessidade de se problematizar o atual lema empresarial ‘colaborar para competir’; d) identificar as contribuições das estratégias utilizadas para o ensino de Psicologia Organizacional por meio da abordagem CTS; e) produzir um guia didático para o ensino de Psicologia Organizacional com foco nos valores da sustentabilidade. O trabalho foi desenvolvido com uma turma de 6º período de um curso de Tecnologia em Alimentos, consistindo numa pesquisa qualitativa de natureza interpretativa, por meio de observação participante. A abordagem dada ao fazer pedagógico fundamentou-se nos referenciais CTS, utilizando como estratégia didática os 'três momentos pedagógicos', que consistem numa adaptação dos referenciais freirianos. Tal abordagem possibilitou problematizar os valores contrários à sustentabilidade, culturalmente arraigados nos alunos, bem como a sua visão fragmentada em relação aos efeitos socioambientais do comportamento humano no trabalho. A receptividade positiva e a motivação dos discentes com a proposta conferiu validade ao seu potencial para a aprendizagem e para a formação de consciência crítica sobre os valores que permeiam o trabalho das organizações. Em decorrência, percepções e valores inerentes à sustentabilidade foram despertados, conferindo-se à compreensão dos conteúdos formais um caráter que possibilita o protagonismo em relação às necessárias transformações sociais. / The Organizational Psychology teaching in courses of technological area provides a basis for people management to technologists and engineers who frequently take positions of leadership at work. It's one of the few disciplines of human management that compose the curriculum of this type of course. Starting from a preocuppation with the impact socio-environmental of the management processes, this study aimed at addressing the teaching of Organizational Psychology through strategies that provide reflections about the social and environmental impact of values experienced in the work. The implementation of the proposal aimed: a) create opportunities for students to reflect about the influence that the competitive culture and its underlying values have on the attitudes adopted in the workplace; b) promote reflections about the influence that the values and attitudes cultivated within enterprises exert over the course of technological development and, consequently, in planetary sustainability; c) provide reflections upon the need to problematize the current corporate slogan 'collaborate to compete'; d) identify the contributions of the strategies used for Organizational Psychology teaching using the STS approach; and e) produce a didactical guide for the Organizational Psychology teaching with a focus on the values of sustainability. The work was developed with a 6 th period class of a Food Technology course, consisting of a qualitative interpretative research done through participant observation. The pedagogical practice approach was based on the STS references, using as teaching strategy the 'three pedagogical moments', which consist in an adaptation of Paulo Freire references. Such approach allowed to question the contrary values to sustainability, culturally ingrained in students, as well as their fragmented view about social and environmental effects of human behavior at work. The positive reception and motivation of students with the proposal gave validity to their potential for the learning and for the formation of critical consciousness about the values that permeate the work of organizations. As a result, perceptions and values inherent to sustainability have been awakened, giving for the understanding of formal contents a feature which enables protagonism in relation to the necessary social transformations.