This study investigates the role of mentoring and social capital in managing gender diversity at the senior management levels of the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland. Although the NHS employs a large number of females, they are not fairly represented at the senior managerial levels. The objectives of this research are: to explore whether there is a relationship between equal opportunities and managing diversity; to identify whether it is more difficult for females to progress to senior managerial levels compared to males; to investigate whether access to mentorship is likely to facilitate the career progression of females; and to analyse whether access to social capital is likely to assist the career progression of females. Hence this thesis is aimed to develop a framework for Human Resource Development (HRD) professionals to help to facilitate the career progression of women to senior managerial roles. The data for the study were collected from the senior level managers, who worked for one of the 14 NHS health boards in Scotland, namely, the NHS Tayside. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were the primary methods of data collection. Some documentary data on gender and ethnic diversity at the senior levels were also collected from the organisation. The questionnaires were sent out to 633 male and female senior managers, 242 complete responses were received. This gave a response rate of 38.23%. A total of 13 interviews were conducted, 10 of the interviewees were females and three were males. The areas that the research investigated were the relationship between equal opportunities and managing diversity, differences between male and female career progression, and the role of mentoring and social capital in female career progression to senior managerial positions. The analysis of the findings revealed that there is a positive relationship between equal opportunities and managing diversity. It confirmed that females find it more difficult to progress their careers to senior managerial levels compared to their male counterparts. Moreover, it established that there is a positive correlation between mentoring and female career progression. Similarly, a positive correlation is also found between access to social capital and female career progression. This thesis makes a number of contributions to theoretical and practical knowledge in the areas of Human Resource Management (HRM), Human Resource Development (HRD), Equal Opportunities (EO) and Managing Diversity (MD). To the best of the researcher’s knowledge no similar studies were conducted in the context of the NHS in Scotland. It contributes to the theory of diversity management by proving that there is a positive relationship between equal opportunities and managing diversity. It also offers original empirical evidence in support of the theories of human capital and social capital. It provides the Human Resource (HR) managers, practitioners, policy and decision makers, at an organisational level, a greater understanding of managing diversity in general and managing gender diversity in particular. This will help them to introduce and implement effective policies and initiatives to facilitate gender diversity at senior managerial levels.

Examining the phenomenon of post-conflict reconstruction, the research challenges the appropriateness of the uniform application of general policies and practices to any particular environment. As a context- and conflict-dependant practice, a post-conflict reconstruction that aims at achieving lasting peace and sustainable development should address specific needs through relevant mechanisms. This is especially relevant for post-ethnic-conflict cases. The thesis argues that post-conflict reconstruction after an ethnic conflict should address as a matter of priority the problems related to the recovery or construction of societal micro-frameworks with respect to the macro-unit in focus. Based on the explored concepts of social capital, a model outlining its specific fragmentation after an ethnic conflict is elaborated and the research discusses the mechanisms that have the potential to contribute to the achievement of planned and desired reconstruction outcomes and levels of success. To test the theory against empirical findings, the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina is examined, as it provides good examples for the negative impact of ethnic conflict on macro and micro socio-political levels and for the discrepancies between expected and achieved results. The reconstruction practice in Bosnia and Herzegovina is considered in the context of policies and programmes designed and implemented by representatives of the international and local community, with a focus on the efforts directed towards social capital rebuilding.

Leadership quality is recognised as a major contributor to organisational performance. With a talent war looming, there is an increasing emphasis on developing an internal leadership talent pipeline. Formal leadership development programmes are a major vehicle for this purpose. Leadership development programmes find themselves competing with other organisational projects for funds and are expected to show a return on investment. Successful learning translation from the programme to the workplace is therefore essential to fulfil this requirement. Yet, the generally accepted transfer rate of 10% is worryingly low. Traditional learning transfer research, with the working environment explored from a hierarchical and single dyad perspective, provides inconsistent results and little advice for the human resource development (HRD) profession on how to improve transfer performance. This research creates a new conversation by considering learning transfer from a network social capital perspective; a perspective, arguably, more aligned to the socially situated nature of leadership. A longitudinal case study of a senior leadership development programme, underpinned by a critical realist philosophy, is used to explore how a leader’s network social capital – defined as the value inherent in the relationships within the leader’s organisational, professional and home networks – may influence leadership learning translation in the workplace. The results show a far wider range of social network actors are perceived as enabling or hindering the translation of leadership programme knowledge into improved practice than currently considered in the literature. Further, the four groups of identified developmental roles enacted by the social network and forming the leader’s network social capital (Opportunity to participate in learning translation, Structure for learning translation, Learning assistance and Access to vicarious leadership practice) can be sourced from many different parts of the leader’s network. The diversity, multiplexity and individuality of network social capital may explain the ambiguity and contradiction within the extant learning transfer results. Mechanisms facilitating the formation and flow of the four social capital groups are also isolated and then discussed within the context of the leader’s personal agency. The research is limited by a single case focus and its outcomes may be influenced by the seniority of the leaders within the case. However, the inference of the study’s findings is that the HRD community needs to think far wider than the leader’s line manager when designing strategies to support leadership learning translation. The emergence of two distinct drivers of social capital flows suggests consideration of two distinct solutions for improving translation – one focussed on the organisation and one directed at the leader.

行为经济学试图分析决策过程对经济行为和结果的影响。我的博士论文由四篇独立的论文组成，运用经济学和心理学的理论视角，研究了个人和群体的决策和行为模式。本论文探讨的问题包括建立社会关系的过程中交互性的影响、队列中的信息外部性、群体决策中较差决定的概率支配、引领型消费者和追随型消费者的不同行为模式等。 / 在题为“社会资本与电信客流失：移动网络中交互性“的第一篇论文中， 我实证检验交互性在发展社会关系中的作用。基于包括网络连接度、社会关系强度、交互性等社会资本要素，我设计了一种预测电信客流失的方法。该算法基于源自用电信服务数据的社会资本度量和服务状态，因此它能较为容易的运用于现实数据库和客关系管理。 / 在题为“一种顺序行为中的信息积累模型“的第二篇论文中，我研究了顺序模式的社会学习过程，提出了一种基于多阶段决策过程的度量信息积累程度和评介信息瀑布稳定性的数学模型。理论结果反映了信息瀑布中行为模式的两个主要特征：信息积累和边际效应递减。 / 在题为“社会学习和群体的智慧：网络中的同步行为“的第三篇论文中，我分析了个人行为通过学习策略在网络中蔓延的现象。这种基于网络的同步学习是通过仿真和数值实验得到了直观的。本研究证明，网络中的同步学习对个体和群体表现有促进作用。同时，其促进的程度是存在阈值的。 / 在题为“社会化媒体中的学习：社会化线索与决策偏差“的第四篇论文中, 我通过分析网络爬虫收集的互联网数据，探讨了社会化媒体中学习策略的影响。这项研究表明，流行性产品的选择中起主导作用的是社会化线索。社会化线索放大了产品之间的销量的差异。此外，我还发现了社会化线索的两种不对称性：（1）社会学习过程中人们对长期变化和短期变化的非对称敏感性；（2）领导型用和追随型用提供好坏口碑的非对称性。这些发现表明，社会线索在决策过程中是存在偏差的。 / Behavioral economics tries to understand the impact of decision process on economic behaviors and outcomes. Utilizing theoretical lenses of psychology and economics, my dissertation, composed of four essays, studies the behavioral pattern of individuals and groups to tell philosophies behind some interesting phenomena, such as reciprocity in developing social relations, information externality in queues, probable dominance of collectively bad decisions, the contradicting behavioral pattern of leaders and followers when facing bad choices, and etc. / In my first essay entitled “Social Capital and Telecom Churn: Reciprocity in Mobile Telecom Networks“, I empirically examine the role of reciprocity in the development of social relations. Based on multiple dimensions of social capital, e.g., network connectivity, social tie strength, internal network ratio, and reciprocity, I develop a method to predict telecom churns. The algorithm is based on social capital derived from historical usage patterns and service status, thus it is easy to be implemented with customer database. / In my second essay entitled “A Model of Information Aggregation in Sequential Moves“, I investigate sequential learning process and propose a mathematical model that measure information aggregation and evaluate the stability of informational cascades with a multi-stage decision process. The results capture two primary behavioral aspect of informational cascade: information aggregation and diminishing sensitivity. / In my third essay entitled “Social Learning and the Wisdom of Crowd: Simultaneous Moves in Network“, I investigate the phenomenon of social contagion through learning strategies among individuals in the network. This network-based simultaneous learning process is simulated via computer programme to seek insights on the effect of simultaneous learning on collective and individual actions. Through numerical experiment, it demonstrats that learning in network can be effective while bad decisions have chance to dominate, and there is a threshold for collective decision quality. / In my forth essay entitled “Learning in Social Media: Social Cues and Decision Biases“, I investigate the effect of learning strategy in the context of social media with internet usage dataset collected by web crawler. This study demonstrates that choices based on social cues dominate for popular products, and it exaggerates the inequality among products. Besides, two types of asymmetries exist for social cues: (1) Asymmetric sensitivity for immediate and accumulative changes in social learning process; and (2) Asymmetric behavioral pattern in providing WOMs for leaders and followers. These findings suggest that social cues may be biased. / Essay 1. Social capital and telecom churn: reciprocity in mobile telecom networks -- essay 2. A cognitive model of information aggregation in sequential moves -- essay 3. Social learning and the wisdom of crowd: simultaneous moves in network -- essay 4. Learning in social media: social cues and decision biases. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Hu, Hao. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references. / Abstracts also in Chinese. / PREFACE --- p.1 / SOCIAL CAPITAL AND TELECOM CHURN: RECIPROCITY IN MOBILE TELECOM NETWORKS --- p.6 / Chapter 1. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.7 / Chapter 2. --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.7 / Chapter 2.1. --- Service Continuity and Churn --- p.7 / Chapter 2.2. --- Social Capital in the Network --- p.9 / Chapter 3. --- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK --- p.11 / Chapter 3.1. --- Network Connectivity --- p.12 / Chapter 3.2. --- Social Tie Strength --- p.12 / Chapter 3.3. --- Internal Network Ratio --- p.13 / Chapter 3.4. --- Reciprocal Social Norm --- p.13 / Chapter 3.5. --- Service Continuity and Churn --- p.14 / Chapter 4. --- EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS --- p.14 / Chapter 4.1. --- Research Setting and Data Collection --- p.14 / Chapter 4.2. --- Variables and Proxies --- p.14 / Chapter 4.3. --- Social Capital and Service Continuity --- p.17 / Chapter 4.4. --- Service Continuity and Churn --- p.20 / Chapter 5. --- PREDICTIVE MODEL FOR TELECOM CHURN --- p.21 / Chapter 5.1. --- Performance Assessment Criteria --- p.21 / Chapter 5.2. --- Bench Mark Model --- p.21 / Chapter 5.3. --- Three-Stage Model --- p.23 / Chapter 6. --- DISCUSSION AND CONCLUDING REMARKS --- p.25 / Chapter 6.1. --- Theoretical Extension --- p.25 / Chapter 6.2. --- Managerial Implication --- p.26 / Chapter APPENDIX I --- MEASUREMENT CLASSIFICATION --- p.27 / Chapter APPENDIX II --- DATA DESCRIPTION --- p.28 / REFERENCES --- p.30 / A COGNITIVE MODEL OF INFORMATION AGGREGATION IN SEQUENTIAL MOVES --- p.32 / Chapter 1. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.33 / Chapter 2. --- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK --- p.34 / Chapter 2.1. --- Conceptual Background --- p.34 / Chapter 2.2. --- Decision Scenarios --- p.35 / Chapter 2.3. --- Hypothesis --- p.38 / Chapter 3. --- ANALYTICAL MODEL --- p.40 / Chapter 3.1. --- Model Setup --- p.40 / Chapter 3.2. --- Sequential Analysis --- p.41 / Chapter 4. --- NUMERICAL ANALYSIS --- p.43 / Chapter 4.1. --- Margin Analysis --- p.43 / Chapter 4.2. --- Product Complexity --- p.44 / Chapter 4.3. --- Information Revealing --- p.46 / Chapter 5. --- CONCLUSION --- p.47 / Chapter References --- p.48 / SOCIAL LEARNING AND THE WISDOM OF CROWD: SIMULTANEOUS MOVES IN NETWORK --- p.50 / Chapter 1. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.51 / Chapter 2. --- THE PARADIGM OF A NESTED WORLD --- p.52 / Chapter 2.1. --- Bounded Rationality and Social Learning --- p.53 / Chapter 2.2. --- Social Learning and Conformity tendency --- p.54 / Chapter 2.3. --- Summary - Judgment and Collective Behavior --- p.55 / Chapter 3. --- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK --- p.56 / Chapter 3.1. --- Primary Investigation --- p.57 / Chapter 3.2. --- Secondary Investigation --- p.61 / Chapter 4. --- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY --- p.62 / Chapter 4.1. --- Construct Measures --- p.62 / Chapter 4.2. --- Computational Model --- p.64 / Chapter 4.3. --- Numerical Experiment --- p.67 / Chapter 4.4. --- Pattern Analysis --- p.68 / Chapter 5. --- CONCLUSION --- p.73 / Chapter 6. --- IMPLICATION --- p.74 / REFERENCES --- p.75 / LEARNING IN SOCIAL MEDIA: SOCIAL CUES AND DECISION BIASES --- p.78 / Chapter 1. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.79 / Chapter 2. --- RESEARCH BACKGROUNDS --- p.81 / Chapter 2.1. --- Social Cues and Choices --- p.81 / Chapter 2.2. --- Decision Biases of Social Cues --- p.82 / Chapter 3. --- HYPOTHESES --- p.83 / Chapter 3.1. --- Comparative Impact of Social Cues --- p.84 / Chapter 3.2. --- Reference Dependence in Social Learning --- p.85 / Chapter 3.3. --- WOM Driven by Leaders Confirmatory Bias and Followers Regret --- p.86 / Chapter 4. --- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY --- p.87 / Chapter 4.1. --- Data Summary --- p.88 / Chapter 4.2. --- Empirical Analysis --- p.89 / Chapter 5. --- DISCUSSION AND CONCLUDING REMARKS --- p.94 / REFERENCES --- p.95

A major challenge for supply chain managers is how to manage sourcing relationships to ensure reliable and predictable actions of existing suppliers. The extant research into sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has suggested the transactional (e.g. monitoring and auditing) and collaboration (e.g. supplier development) as the main two approaches by which buyers can sustain an acceptable level of suppliers' internal social performance. A successful implementation of such approaches, and hence improving suppliers' social performance, often requires a level of cooperation that can be difficult to establish, particularly on the part of suppliers. Despite the recent proliferation of SSCM research, little efforts have been devoted to exploring the factors that increase the effectiveness of the two approaches. This research aims to examine the individual and combined effect of socially sustainable transactional practices (SSTPs) and socially sustainable collaboration practices (SSCPs) on supplier's internal social performance and buyer's operational performance. The study also sets out to examine the moderating effects of social capital dimensions (i.e. relational, cognitive and structural) on the relationships among SSTPs, SSCPs and supplier's internal social performance. A mail survey was administered to 1,250 stratified randomly selected large manufacturing companies operating in the UK. An analysis of 119 responses using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation modelling (PLS-SEM) revealed that SSTPs are ineffective in driving supplier's internal social performance, whilst SSCPs are more effective. Moreover, although the interaction effect of SSTPs and SSCPs is non-significant, the data suggested that the simultaneous implementation can be detrimental to supplier's internal social performance. Furthermore, social capital dimensions were found to play different roles on the implementation of SSTPs and SSCPs. Relational capital plays a unique role by increasing the effectiveness of both SSTPs and SSCPs, while cognitive capital is critical for SSCPs, and structural capital is vital for SSTPs. This study contributes to SSCM literature by exclusively focusing on the social dimension of sustainability, examining the joint implementation of SSTPs and SSCPs and featuring the centrality of social capital in the implementation of SSCM practices. The study sets a foundation for new research avenues in the SSCM context and provides a set of managerial implications that support informed decision-making by supply chain managers.

This thesis explores the relationship between social capital and conflict in two different contexts, by answering the following two questions: How does exposure to violence affect social capital in urban Maharashtra, India? How does returning home affect social capital amongst internally displaced persons and returnees from Nahr el Bared camp in North Lebanon? This thesis then goes on to look at the labour market implications of returning home to Nahr el Bared camp, exploring the role of social capital (amongst other mechanisms) in this relationship. The following paragraphs are abstracts from the three empirical chapters that address these questions. The first empirical chapter explores the relationship between exposure to riots and social capital in urban Maharashtra. We exploit a panel dataset collected by the authors and apply a random effects model with lagged covariates to estimate an exogenous relationship between neighbourhood exposure to riots and four forms of social capital: membership in a group or organisation, trust in neighbours, participation in community discussions and participation in community festival preparations. Consistent with Bellows and Miguel's study of conflict and social capital (2009), we find that households living in neighbourhoods that experienced a riot are more likely to be members of groups and organisations. On the other hand, we find that these households are less likely to join community discussions, which lends more to the hypothesis of fragmented post-conflict societies with a damaged social fabric (Colletta and Cullen, 2000). We explore various mechanisms behind these results and find that the increased membership in organisations is greatest in diverse neighbourhoods that have not experienced recent changes in composition. However, riots reduce trust and the likelihood of participation in fragmented and polarised riot-affected neighbourhoods. Riots also decrease participation in festival preparations in neighbourhoods where out-migration has been low. Our analysis suggests that individuals and households instrumentally use social capital to their advantage, a type of insurance to protect against potential communal violence in the future. However, riots can have adverse affects on different forms of social capital that go beyond the surface level of social networking to feelings of trust and sense of community. The second empirical chapter studies the effect of returning home after conflict induced displacement on social capital, compared to remaining displaced. I have collected a household survey of displaced Palestinians from a refugee camp in Lebanon, and this chapter assesses the impact of return on the different dimensions of social capital based on a diverse and rich set of questions. An instrumental variable is used to model the return decision in one part of the camp, and the exogenous nature of return is exploited in another section of the camp. Results show that return can improve social capital if households return within one year of the war ending and with their friends and family. If households have been displaced for too long, then social capital is decreased upon returning home. This indicates that social capital is not simply carried over from displacement to return, but is rebuilt in a process that takes time and effort. The third and final empirical chapter studies the effect of returning home on labour market outcomes. Theoretically the effect of return is ambiguous, depending on changes in both the demand and supply of labour. I empirically study the effect of return on four labour market outcomes: participation in the labour force, working, wages and number of days worked. I analyse a dataset of individuals originally from Nahr el-Bared camp in North Lebanon, displaced within Lebanon after a war in 2007 between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam. I use an instrumental variable and exploit the exogenous nature of the return process in order to estimate a causal effect of return. The results show that return increases the likelihood of working by 117 percentage points. This effect is greatest for those who have returned within two years, reaping the benefits of greater aggregate demand as the market increases. Women returnees are more likely to be working compared to the displaced, but there is no difference in employment between men who have been displaced and those who have returned. This could be because women possess skills that are adaptable in labour markets, working in cottage type industries from home, as opposed to the more specialised skills that men tend to possess.

<p>Abstract</p><p>This dissertation is a case study of processes of inequality in disaster response in neighborhoods recently devastated by natural disaster. The context is New York City beginning from the immediate aftermath of Superstorm Sandy on October 29, 2012. Specifically, this is a multilevel, multi-process comparative examination of emergent racial and class inequality (1) between two storm-impacted neighborhoods on the Rockaway peninsula and Brooklyn, and (2) two adjacent neighborhoods within The Rockaways. The fulcrum of the study is to understand a cumulative process by which racial minority and urban poor residents residing in cities fare worse after a disaster relative to their white and non-poor neighbors. To examine this question, over the course of two years this study collected data through interviews with 120 respondents who are residents, community leaders, field-site managers, workers and volunteers from various disaster relief entities (FEMA, New York State agencies, a large NGO, and local NPOs including small and Large Churches) working and living in these post-disaster contexts. </p><p>The first part of the analysis traces how the spatial organization, practice and culture of federal and state institutional actors privilege white and middle class residents over minorities and the poor. For this analysis, I comparatively analyze the process of response building through agency and organizational ties across Canarsie in Brooklyn and Westville and Eastville in "The Rockaways." The aspects of response that I compare primarily focus on decisions, actions, beliefs and expectations of management of these relief centers run by FEMA, Churches and local state governmental agencies in the respective neighborhoods. These managers are "on the ground" field site managers for the various centers.</p><p>Drilling down from the institutional to the social network environment, a significant part of this research focuses on relational-level comparisons of resident-responder interactions and informational and resource exchanges in and around warming and distributional centers of one central large NGO and one central local NPO located in Westville and Eastville, on the Rockaway Peninsula. This part of the study uses the setting of a natural disaster to examine how and why poor and minority residents living in proximity to affluent and white residents are less inclined to convert social network opportunities into social capital. Although these neighborhoods receive similar types of aid through a large NGO and FEMA, the combination of racial and class characteristics of these neighborhoods and their residents influence the relational dynamics of response, with race and class consequences in receiving disaster assistance. </p><p>The main conclusions from this research are (1) at the institutional network level, organizational social capital through organization agglomeration, hosting and coalition building led to a "nucleus of relief" in communities endowed with spatial privilege and the presence of large churches. (2) At the social network level, while all residents generate and benefit from crisis capital, which has short term benefits, whites are better positioned to create social capital which has long-term benefits, despite desegregation of interactional space. </p><p>Together these findings challenge current explanations of minority network disadvantage which emphasize macro-level segregation and deficient networks. The findings of this research in fact suggest that despite opportunities for "mixing," inequalities emerge through racialized interactions that inhibit translation and development of new social ties into lasting resources among low-income minorities who are living and surviving in the same areas as whites. The findings also contribute to the disaster literature by showing how race infiltrates institutional and spatial aspects of response that are different from arguments of prejudicial discrimination or merely poor coordination. The emphasis on structural racialization processes is also a much needed consideration in disaster research which tends to focus on quantifying disaster outcomes by racial characteristics of individuals or community demographic composition.</p> / Dissertation

This study examined the different roles of social capital (i.e. efficacy, serendipity, and liability), network relationships, network closure and structure important to the internationalisation process of high technology International New Ventures (INVs). Although there has been a growing recognition of the role of social capital in the internationalisation process of firms, research into the three roles of social capital and their interrelation with network closure and structure is a research area that very few empirical studies exist. This study seeks to fill this gap by gaining rich insights into the internationalisation process of high technology INVs and by exploring the importance of strong and weak ties mechanism in early and later international market entries. In this study social capital is the sum of actual and potential resources that derive from network relationships. The study built on qualitative data collected from nine in-depth case studies of Greek and Scottish software INVs. The multiple semi-structure interviews were carried out in 2013 and 2014 with founders and CEOs. The material of the nine cases was used to understand and explain the internationalisation process and how social capital and network relationship influence it. The case material analysis proceeded from within case analysis to cross-case analysis in order to explore common patterns and differences across the cases. A theoretical framework based on the existing gaps was developed and tested in this research. This study contributed to the literature on International Business (IB), International Entrepreneurship (IE) and Social capital by exploring the evolution of social capital diachronically. A new type of INV was found: the niche market INV, which strategically uses its social capital to capture and exploit new opportunities in foreign markets. New insights are given to which role of social capital becomes more crucial in initial and later international market entries. This study found that the efficacy role of social capital played an important role both in initial and later stages of internationalisation. However, the serendipity role of social capital was more important for companies with many structural holes that did not have the necessary network relationships to bridge them. This study showed that Greek and Scottish entrepreneurs have different backgrounds; Greek entrepreneurs lack previous international work experience. It was found that virtual social capital in the digital era is becoming more and more important. A number of implications for management practice, policy and education are presented for developed markets firm managers and governments in the fields of IE and IB.

Contemporary Pentecostal and Charismatic (PC) Christianity has attracted scholars and practitioners of religions globally. This is because Pentecostalism in all its variations has been reckoned as the fastest growing brand of Christianity. In the particular case of sub- Saharan Africa, Pentecostalism has become one of the key religious features of Christianity since the late 1990s. As such, it clearly has a strong appeal to millions of Africans. Notwithstanding, the PC movement has also had its share of criticism based on its distinctive beliefs and practices, particularly in relation to the prosperity gospel and the abuse of power. In this thesis, using the Church of Pentecost (COP) and International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) as case studies, I examine the individual (personal) and group (collective) empowerment/disempowerment components in Pentecostalism in Ghana. Theories encompassing empowerment, social, cultural and religious/spiritual capital are reviewed within Pentecostalism in Ghana. The thesis central focus is on how the churches (COP and ICGC) constitute social, cultural and religious capital in their efforts to empower individuals and society. The study explores internal structures of power, polity and leadership in the churches, as well as their role in social policy, human development programmes, civic and public life issues. These were the main themes that emanated from the research. The findings show that the churches have made positive impact in transforming religious and social landscapes. They have also shown prospects in human development and brought awareness in the spheres of politics and civic responsibility. However, some beliefs and practices (i.e. gender inequality in church leadership, structures of power and authority, etc.) have affected aspects of individuals’ and groups’ empowerment. These insights come from the research analysis of the processes and outcomes of the churches’ practical work, for instance, theology/preaching, practical ministries, church projects in areas such as education, gender roles and practices, moral conduct and church discipline, trust and voluntarism. A case study research method involving textual examination of primary documents, qualitative interviews and participant observation was used to show the different perspectives from a representative sample of pastors and members of the COP and ICGC. While most scholarly works give a lot of insight to the developments of Pentecostalism in Ghana, their efforts have mainly focused on the founders and leaders of the movement as representative of their organisations. This has been useful to a point; however, this study has shown that such an approach muted the voices of the members of the churches whose viewpoints in the development of the PC churches remain significant. Thus, this study built-in views from both the clergy and laity of COP and ICGC. The thesis shows the present developments (life, thoughts and practices) of the PC churches in Ghana with COP and ICGC in context. It expands discussions on works previously written by Paul Gifford and Emmanuel Kingsley Larbi. Gifford and Larbi give an account of the developments of the churches with tremendous insight into their religious and social backgrounds. J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu further builds up the discussion on Pentecostalism in Ghana and draws attention to its contemporary forms and religious significance in Ghana’s religious life and society. The fluid nature of Pentecostalism requires constant updating and this thesis fills in some of the previously unexplained recent developments and on-going reforms within Pentecostalism in Ghana.

Economic activities are lacking in many townships around South Africa. The newly developed Reconstruction and Development Programme townships are also facing the problem of encouraging economic activities. These townships are always criticized for being overcrowded by the people who are unable to support economic activities because of lack of capacity to be employed. This study adopted assets pentagon method to find the assets which the people have in the township which they can use to support and encourage economic activities in the area. Assets Pentagon method includes social and political capital, human capital, physical capital, financial capital and natural capital. The availability of these assets in the township will be vital to encourage and support economic activities