A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Psychology, University of Zululand, South Africa, 2006. / The University of Zululand Community Psychology Centre (CPC) is a joint project of the Department of Psychology, Educational Psychology and Industrial Psychology. It was established in response firstly to the University's need to provide relevant training for its post-graduate psychology students and secondly to meet the need within the Zululand community for affordable psychosocial and psycho-educational services. The Centre works in partnership with other local Zululand Mental Health centres. The Centre is accredited with the Professional Board for Psychologists of the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). This board ensures that institutions providing psychological services observe ethical codes of conduct and good practice (HPCSA, 2002). The present research was motivated by the fact that the CPC functioning has never been evaluated in terms of service delivery and relevance. The desire to know whether the CPC serves the purposes for which it was established, and to identify areas that need improvement, is a strong motivation. This helps to identify its viability, effectiveness, and value for the University of Zululand and the community served by the University. The aims of the study were to evaluate the CPC in terms of clients' perceptions with regard to effectiveness of the centre in meeting their needs and improving their psychological well-being. An accidental or convenient sample was used. An invitation to volunteer was extended to clients who happened to come for the CPC services. Volunteers completed a questionnaire^ which included a biographical inventory needs analysis questionnaire and RyfTs Scale (1995) of psychological well-being. Participants were pre and post-tested on the variable of psychological well being. The study concluded that the CPC still serves the purpose for which it was established. It is still relevant to the demand of the community. The results revealed that pre and post testing was associated with a significant improvement in total psychological well-being as with special reference to personal growth and positive relations with others. / NRF

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Business Administration (MBA), Business Studies Unit, Durban University of Technology in the Faculty of Commerce, 2008 / The conditions for doing business are changing rapidly. In the last decade, the resin market has witnessed a substantial growth and rapid changes globally as well as domestically. Customer satisfaction is a critical issue in the success of any business system, hence, one of the key challenges of this market is how to satisfy and retain their customers. This issue is strongly related to how service quality is managed and which holds a significant importance to customers’ satisfaction and their perceived performance of companies. In order for companies to survive and grow, they must find new ways of thinking, which has led to doing marketing researches, especially those related to customer satisfaction. In this study, the SERVQUAL model was employed to establish the customers’ perceptions versus their expectations of service quality at Cray Valley Resins. Both primary and secondary data were used to inform this particular research. The research was quantitative in nature and conducted in the form of a self-administered survey. The type of study used was the cross-sectional analytical survey method. The summary of the findings reveals that the dimensions with the highest expectation were tangibles followed by responsiveness. Coincidently these two dimensions also had the largest gap scores. The overall mean gap score (-0.326) is relatively small. Thus, it can be concluded that although the customers hold a good opinion of the quality of the services provided, expectations of the services were higher.

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Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Business Administration (MBA), Business Studies Unit, Durban University of Technology in the Faculty of Commerce, 2008 / The conditions for doing business are changing rapidly. In the last decade, the resin market has witnessed a substantial growth and rapid changes globally as well as domestically. Customer satisfaction is a critical issue in the success of any business system, hence, one of the key challenges of this market is how to satisfy and retain their customers. This issue is strongly related to how service quality is managed and which holds a significant importance to customers’ satisfaction and their perceived performance of companies. In order for companies to survive and grow, they must find new ways of thinking, which has led to doing marketing researches, especially those related to customer satisfaction. In this study, the SERVQUAL model was employed to establish the customers’ perceptions versus their expectations of service quality at Cray Valley Resins. Both primary and secondary data were used to inform this particular research. The research was quantitative in nature and conducted in the form of a self-administered survey. The type of study used was the cross-sectional analytical survey method. The summary of the findings reveals that the dimensions with the highest expectation were tangibles followed by responsiveness. Coincidently these two dimensions also had the largest gap scores. The overall mean gap score (-0.326) is relatively small. Thus, it can be concluded that although the customers hold a good opinion of the quality of the services provided, expectations of the services were higher.

D.Cur. (Professional Nursing Science) / It was very dear that dramatic transformation is needed in the new South Africa to accommodate the transformation demanded by the Reconstruction and Development Programme, the National Health System, and other political, economic, social, technological and staff management changes. It was also evident that transformational leadership was needed in nursing in general and in nursing management in particular. This is a qualitative, contextual, exploratory, descriptive and theory-generating study, with the overall aim of exploring and describing a model for transformational Ieadershlp by nursing unit managers to facilitate individual and nursing unit transformation. To accomplish this aim, specific objectives were formulated. Firstly, a conceptual framework and model were explored and described by means of analysis, synthesis, derivation and deductive reasoning. The model was described within the meta theoretical assumptions of the Nursing for the Whole Person Theory (ORU 1990; RAU 1992). The theoretical assumptions were derived from till' Nursing for the Whole Person Theory whereas the methodological assumptions were based on the Nursing Research model of Botes (1995). This Nursing Research model proposed functional reasoning approach. During the exploration and description of the model, connect identification and classification were handled according Lo the survey list of Dickoff, james and Wiedenbach (1968). Thereafter, an education programme was explored and described by deriving the theoretical content on transformational leadership from the conceptual framework and LIl(' model. TIll' principles of adult education (Knowles 1984, Gravett 1991) and the constructivistic learning theory (Klopper 1994 (a» were utilised for the didactical development of the education programme. This education programme was then implemented in a nursing service. Through purposive sampling, four nursing unils in the same nursing service were selected and the model implemented for a period of 12-14 weeks. The cases Ludy method was utilised.

Job titles and responsibilities of community health workers (CHWs) have evolved along with the different organizations that have elected to employ them. In a 2020 speech, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden discussed the health disparities individuals face in economically distressed communities. He specifically discussed the roles of CHWs and the hiring of 150,000 CHWs to be placed in communities across the country. Unfortunately, information on the experiences, competencies, and factors that contribute to the success of CHWs is limited. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to explore CHWs’ perceptions of what their role entails and what internal and external factors impact their success on healthcare teams and at the current organization for which they work. Forty CHWs from four different states completed 60-minute semi-structured Zoom interviews. The findings of this study described the role of CHWs as locating and engaging members, connecting members of the health plan to both medical and social resources, assisting in navigating the healthcare system, and educating members on their benefits. The COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2021 introduced changes in the way CHWs completed outreach and connected with members; it also introduced the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and connections to testing and vaccine programs. Important competencies highlighted by CHWs included empathy, communication skills, networking skills, and cultural competency. CHWs preferred hands-on learning methods when acquiring necessary skills for success. Lastly, organizations can assist and motivate CHWs in their organizations by providing incentives, ongoing training, and management support.

No uniform plan has been developed to evaluate career information delivery systems or to collect data from the various systems. Out of this context, a theoretical evaluation model was developed by which internal or external evaluators of career information delivery systems may develop evaluation strategies. The proposed model offers a comprehensive approach to the study and evaluation of career information delivery systems. A symbolic representation and narrative description of the various aspects of the proposed model are presented. Three groups of data sources have been identified to make significant contributions for immediate and longitudinal studies and include: (1) users (students and clients); (2) user site personnel (staff/counselors); and (3) administrators. The coordinated and interrelated parts of career information delivery systems are identified as (1) the organization and management structure, (2) information development, (3) information delivery, (4) user services, (5) economic efficiency, and (6) user impact. The model is flexible enough to allow for a wide variety of evaluation strategies and can be divided, as appropriate, into several phases. Furthermore, a sample evaluation study on a major component of the evaluation model, information delivery, was implemented on the 1981 Virginia Career Information Delivery System microfiche. The data for this study was collected by three methods: (1) a questionnaire to obtain user reactions and demographic information, (2) a questionnaire to obtain site information and, (3) on site interviews with structured questions to gather information in a less formal method. The purpose of this phase of the study was to illustrate proper application of one phase of the model which addressed the seventeen performance evaluation criteria identified by NOICC and thirteen additional items specific to state data collection identified by this writer. It is believed that this model will serve as an overall framework for future and more comprehensive studies, and in the end will improve career information delivery systems. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a computer-assisted career information delivery system (CIDS), Virginia VIEW, with a computer-assisted guidance system (CAGS), DISCOVER, at a Virginia community college using parts of Shealy' s 1982 evaluation model patterned on the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee's specifications. User impact, user satisfaction, and economic efficiency components were studied. Screened volunteers in this five-week unstructured study were randomly assigned to four treatment groups of 25 students each: (A) Virginia VIEW; (B) Virginia VIEW and DISCOVER; (C) Control, wait for five weeks before using DISCOVER or VIEW; and (D) DISCOVER. Program completers (A=l7), (B=l8), (C=l9), and (D=20) took the Career Development Inventory (CDI) developed by Super and the Career Decision Scale (CDS) developed by Osipow as pre- and post-test instruments. Counseling assistance was available at all times upon request and records were kept on CIDS/CAGS User Logs. Student Planning and Counselor's Observation Logs were also kept. Based on the pre- and post-test results of the CDI and CDS, students did not differ in the affective, behavioral, and cognitive areas of career development and decision making at the end of five weeks (user impact). Students did not differ in their opinions (user satisfaction) of the information development, information delivery, or user service components of the two systems. Results on economic efficiency revealed that Virginia VIEW was less expensive per student user, while DISCOVER was less expensive per student hour of use. There were no clear differences in the three areas evaluated by this study between Virginia VIEW or DISCOVER. It was recommended that Shealy' s model be used again to evaluate the Interactive Virginia VIEW against DISCOVER and SIGI. Further research was also recommended in the use of the weekly Quantitative and Qualitative Student Career Planning Log. / Ed. D.

Prof. W.J. Schurink

Abstract This study proposes a model for meeting increasingly mandated outcome research objectives in a university counseling center setting. It is proposed that counseling centers utilize their existing intake forms, along with an annual satisfaction survey to determine the effectiveness of counseling services. Effectiveness is defined as improvement and measured by the reduction of the symptoms or presenting concerns with which the client initially presented. It also introduces the Relative-Change Index (R-Chi) as an objective way to quantify intra-individual change occurring as a result of therapy. This new mathematical procedure allows for a more meaningful assessment of the client's degree of improvement, relative to their potential for improvement. By re-administering the problem checklist, routinely included as part of the initial paperwork for each client at intake, again post-therapy, it is possible to quantify improvement by measuring the difference in distressing concerns. Additionally, including a subjective, retrospective survey question asking the client to indicate their perceived rate if improvement at follow-up provides construct validity and allows for correlational comparisons with R-Chi. Results suggest that student/client ratings of the degree to which the services they received satisfactorily addressed their presenting concerns were significantly rated to their R-Chi score. This model suggests that the framework guiding client outcome research should include measures of the client's level of distress, improvement in reducing the distress, and satisfaction with services.