In the higher education industry, employee engagement is crucial to the survival of organizations because engaged employees increase profits, productivity, and sustainability. The purpose of this single case study was to explore leadership strategies that leaders of higher education organizations used to promote employee engagement. Expectancy theory was the conceptual framework for this study. Four leaders of a higher education organization in the southeastern United States were purposefully selected for the study based upon their experience implementing effective leadership strategies to promote employee engagement. Data were collected through face-to-face semistructured interviews, direct observation, and review of publicly available organizational documents. Data were transcribed and coded for common patterns and themes, then member-checked to reinforce the validity of the interpretations. Three themes emerged from the data analysis: engaging through communication, developing engagement strategies, and engaging through recognition and rewards. The findings from this study might contribute to social change by providing higher education leaders with strategies to promote a sustainable workforce, competitive edge, and increase productivity and profitability.

Thesis (M.A.) (Clinical Psychology) --University of Limpopo, 2009. / Aims: The aim of the study was to determine the psychological impact, coping strategies and social support structures among female survivors of domestic violence. Participants: 112 female survivors of domestic violence who came to a trauma centre in Thohoyandou, Limpopo Province to seek help were selected as participants of the study. The participants in this study came from around Thohoyandou in the Thulamela Municipality district. The participants’ ages ranged from 15 to 65 years. Instruments: The questionnaire used was consisted of the following: 6 items covering the demographic variables of the participants such as age, marital status, level of education, employment status, number of years married, number of children; 37 items dealing with assessing the psychological problems i.e. depression and post-traumatic stress disorder; and 42 items dealing with seeking social support and coping strategies. Results: A significant number of the physically abused women were suffering from depression (z=2.8434, p<0.05). The results further revealed that a significant number of physically abused women had PTSD (z=15.31, p<0.05). The findings of this study showed that physically abused women tend to seek help from informal social support rather than formal social support (t=-8.572, df=104, p<0.05 with Mean score=1.99, SD= 1.236 for informal support and Mean score= .78, SD = .951 for formal support). This study further shown a significant difference on the use of escape-avoidance coping strategies compared to the use of many other coping strategies such as problem solving strategy (t= 4.065, df= 110, p<0.05 ); confrontive coping strategy (t= -.42232, df=111 , p<0,05), seeking support strategy (t= -8.740, df= 111, p<0.05) and self –control coping strategy (t= -5.451, df= 111, p<0.05). There was no significant difference between the use of escape-avoidance coping strategy and the use of distance coping strategy (t=.03348, df=111, p>0.05) and responsibility coping strategy (t=-.842, df=111, p>0.05). 11 • Conclusion: This study provides data that can be used to motivate the implementation of intervention programmes to address domestic violence against women. Such programmes must include the implementation of cost-effective intervention aimed at reducing the psychological harm caused by physical abuse. The study also highlighted the need for psychological treatment services. These services must present an important venue to identify and manage depression and PTSD amongst physically abused women. Intervention strategies must include imparting physically abused women with help seeking and coping skills. / Not listed

Ph.D--Education, University of Limpopo,2008 / This thesis describes the research carried out in the three education and training innovative projects which are the cases of this study, namely: African Pathways, Ikhwelo and LoveLife. The research was conducted in the context of the on-going research activities of the programme of Adult Education of the University of Limpopo. The aim of the study was to gain insight into current practices and strategies which might be effective when developing and implementing the education and training innovative projects in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. I also intended to investigate the factors that determine the success and failure of education and training innovative projects in a developing context. In order to achieve the aims outlined above, I formulated the following main research questions: • What are the effective strategies for the development and implementation of education and training innovative projects in the Limpopo Province? • What are the factors that determine the success and/or failure of education and training innovative projects in a developing context? This study seeks answers to the above-mentioned research questions. Hence it addresses issues that not only need considerable development and further inquiry for advancing the academic debate, but are also relevant for practitioners who are working in the field and facing these challenges. In trying to answer the questions outlined above, I decided to undertake a multiple case study to investigate three education and training innovative projects which are the cases of the study. This study had elements of development, implementation and evaluation designs. It was also the intention of the study to describe the three educational projects and the real-life context in which they occurred. It was the objective of this study to develop success indicators of education and training innovative projects. These success indicators could possibly lead to a model which could be useful for the establishment and sustenance of innovative projects in a developing context. Chapter two outlines the theoretical framework of the study. Based on the readings of the relevant literature, and preliminary discussions with experts in the fields of innovation and action research, it appeared that for any innovation to succeed factors that determine and influence sustainability need to be taken into consideration. Hence there has been a discussion about factors that contribute to, and influence the sustainability of education and training innovative projects. Critical factors such as: Local context, ownership, bottom-up strategy, cross-sectoral collaborations and effective communication channels were discussed in detail in this chapter. I have also outlined the theoretical model which is essential when investigating the success factors and indicators for education and training innovative projects in a developing context. The chapter concludes with a discussion about a young adult in the South African context, views about social exclusion and lifelong learning. In Chapter three, I describe the design of the study. The main focus of this chapter was to discuss the two tracks of data collection. The first track had to do with fieldwork while the second track was about the mini-conference or the focus group interview of the study. An explanation and discussion of the instruments that were utilised to collect data from different role players in various phases of data collection is also given. I further explain how the data that has been collected from various phases was analysed using qualitative data analysis methods. The chapter concludes by discussing what I call ‘reflections’, a section that was about my main learning areas and the difficulties that I encountered during the process of this research. Chapter four presents the empirical results of the study. It gives an account of the strategies that might be effective when developing and implementing the education and training innovative projects in the Limpopo Province. In this chapter I present an overview of the three projects, that is, African Pathways, Ikhwelo and loveLife, which are the cases of this study. A description of programmes which are offered in each project of this study is given. I also indicate the aims and objectives of each project. The chapter further discusses issues around staffing and learners in each project. I have also outlined in detail the views of the interviewees in relation to the critical factors of this study. The chapter concludes by discussing the findings of observations based on each project of the study. Chapter five is a cross-case analysis of the projects. The intention was to compare and contrast cases based on the critical factors of the study, while trying to determine the effective strategies for the development and implementation of education and training innovative projects in the Limpopo Province. During this process, I have been careful in preserving each individual case’s uniqueness with the need to understand generic processes at work across cases. In chapter six, I discuss further the empirical results of the study. It is based on the mini-conference or the focus group meeting that I held with the Project Managers and Educators in the Adult Education Resource Centre of the University of Limpopo. This chapter gives an account of factors that determine the success and/or failure of the education and training innovative projects in a developing context. The final chapter (seven) presents the final conclusion and recommendations of this study. This chapter integrates the information from previous chapters in discussing effective strategies which are useful when developing and implementing the education and training innovative projects in the Limpopo Province. It also provides suggestions which might contribute towards the development and implementation of more effective strategies of education and training innovative projects in a developing context. The chapter concludes by mentioning issues that need to be further researched, as the ABET field seems to be under-researched, particularly the area of education and training innovative projects. / Not listed

Thesis (MBA) --University of Limpopo, 2010 / There is enough evidence and common consensus in literature that although strategy implementation is a challenge to many organisations, it is strategy formulation that continues to receive more attention. It is also evident that municipalities In South Africa, let alone Limpopo Province, experience certain barriers to strategy implementation. Given this situation, this study highlights the most frequent barriers to strategy implementation in general and attempts to identify and describe barriers that impede strategy implementation in a municipal context. It further recommends, from a systems theory point of view, a strategy implementation framework that recognises the importance of multiple strategy implementation factors as well as participatory democracy in local government.

Thesis (MBA) --University of Limpopo, 2010

I assumed that the reproductive strategies of the two Accipiter species investigated in this study, the northern Goshawk (A. gentilis) and the Cooper's hawk (A. cooperii), would be similar to the strategies of other monogamous raptors with sex role partitioning. Any differences in the species' reproductive strategies, particularly hunting strategies, were expected to be a function of their size differences. Contrary to predictions, results indicated that, in north-central New Mexico during brood rearing, both species had similar hunting strategies and utilized similar prey species. These results also indicated that the reproductive strategies of the Cooper's hawk were not adequately described by simple models of sex role partitioning. In this population, over 50% of the female Cooper's hawks deserted during the fledgling-dependency period and made no attempt to renest. In all cases of desertion, the male provided uniparental care until the young were independent. Based on time-energy budget estimates, the deserting females were in poorer physical condition at the time of desertion than were the nondeserting females. This was attributed to the deserter preferentially feeding the nestlings when the quantity of food delivered to the nest by either parent was inadequate to meet the family's requirements. Based on these observations, I developed a dynamic stochastic optimization model to explore the hypotheses that (1) the optimal reproductive strategy of the female Cooper's hawks is the strategy that maximizes her reproductive fitness; and (2) the major factors affecting the female's reproductive fitness and, thus, her optimal strategies are her physical condition, the physical condition of the nestlings, the risks to the nestlings associated with each strategy, and the foraging capabilities of her mate. The model defined reproductive fitness as the weighted average of the nestlings' expected survival and the female's expected reproductive potential in the next breeding season. Using independent sources for the parameters, the model validation compared the model predictions with actual observations of the behavior of radio-tagged, nesting females in this population of Cooper's hawks. The model correctly predicted 90% of the strategies exhibited by the nesting females, which supported the initial hypotheses.

Utah cattle ranchers realize relatively little profit from ranch ownership and management. This study represents an attempt to identify ranch management strategies that produce more profit over time than do conventional strategies. To identify optimum management strategies for the long term, analyses of ranches under both normal and adverse ranch operation conditions using the COPLAN linear programming model were made for strategy comparison. To depict these ranch business environmental conditions, production levels were estimated from available biological data and price levels were estimated by indexing 1977 ranch product prices (the most current budget data available for Utah). The variability of strategy expected net returns above variable costs over a defined array of ranch operation conditions was estimated to evaluate income stability for each strategy. Overall profitability comparisons were made among strategies for evaluation in the context of ranch ownership and management. Percent returns on owned ranch capital were estimated as the basis for this comparison. Optimum strategies based on various ranch operation conditions for a large Utah cattle ranch were similar, as were optimum strategies based on the same conditions for a small Utah cattle ranch. Availability of winter/spring forage should be the principal constraint limiting cow-herd size based on the analyses. Range improvement practices that reduce the winter/spring range forage bottleneck are economically feasible in general, however, such practices must be evaluated on a site-specific basis. Optimum strategies for both large and small ranches focused on: 1) intensively managed cow/yearling enterprises at herd levels corresponding to levels of available winter/spring forage, 2) intensively managed crop production enterprises based on sale of crops, and 3) yearling stocker steer enterprises based on seasonal forage surplus. The economic analyses showed that alternative (optimum) management strategies could increase profit over conventional strategies dramatically. Optimum strategies for the large ranch produced net returns above variable costs many times greater than those produced by the strategy employed in 1977. Expected net returns above variable costs that resulted from small ranch optimum strategies were vastly superior to those produced by the 1977 strategy. Working capital requirement increased approximately 50 percent over levels required by strategies employed in 1977 for both large and small ranch optimum strategies. Expected income variances and standard deviations were greater for both large and small ranch optimum strategies than for strategies practiced in 1977; however, income standard deviations expressed as percentages of strategy expected values (relative income variabilities) were much less. Percent returns on owned ranch capital expected from the practice of optimum strategies were eight times greater than percent returns from practice of the 1977 strategy for the large Utah cattle ranch and six times greater than those resulting from employment of the 1977 small ranch strategy.

Socially withdrawn children are at increased risk for various maladaptive outcomes. One intervention suggested to mediate these outcomes is the use of peermediated social skills training. However, little research supports its use with socially withdrawn children; even less research has investigated the role of peer mediators in the generalization of treatment effects. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a generalization training package on the generalization of socially withdrawn students and their peer mediators' interactions. This study compared the effectiveness of various procedures in a peer-mediated intervention on the generalization of prosocial interactions with socially withdrawn students and examined how students' perceptions of social support, bullying experiences, and intervention acceptability changed as a result of the peer-mediated social skills training intervention. Results indicated that the socially withdrawn participants engaged in more prosocial behavior following the intervention and that it generalized to a highly unstructured, novel setting with multiple students.

The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) now specifies minimum retroreflectivity requirements. These requirements include an obligation for agencies to develop a strategy for maintaining compliance. With budget considerations, it is important that transportation agencies be able to efficiently assess the performance of their assets and adopt management strategies to comply with such requirements. As a foundational work, this research develops specific methodology for assessing the condition and performance of sign assets that are maintained by a large transportation agency. In doing so, this research provides for the determination of key elements that should be considered when developing any sign asset management strategy. This work incorporates and builds upon previous research in order to develop an assessment strategy that can provide new insight and understanding into where sign asset management efforts should be focused. Given the conditions unique to the Utah Department of Transportation’s (UDOT) sign assets, the findings of this research present a potential paradigm shift from the previous assumptions regarding the best prospective management practices. Sign damage was determined to be the primary issue affecting the nighttime visibility of UDOT maintained signs. By controlling damage issues within UDOT's sign assets, retroreflectivity compliance may be maintained. The findings of this research provide for new options and considerations in managing both sign retroreflectivity and nighttime visibility at a large scale.

La presente investigación tiene como objetivo analizar la relación entre el engagement y las estrategias de afrontamiento en estudiantes de medicina de una universidad privada de Lima, de modo que se pueda descubrir la relación entre estas dos variables, y qué estrategias de afrontamiento se encuentran positivamente relacionadas con el engagement. La muestra está conformada por 137 participantes, y se hizo de modo no probabilístico e intencional. El 59.9% de la muestra son mujeres y el 39.4% hombres, cuyas edades oscilan entre 15 y 34 años, siendo la media 19.53 años y el 20.4% de 19 años. En cuanto al ciclo de estudios oscilan entre 1 y séptimo ciclo, siendo el 48.9% del tercer ciclo. Luego del análisis estadístico de los datos se encontró que existe una correlación positiva y significativa entre las estrategias de afrontamiento Búsqueda de apoyo social, Actitud positiva y proactiva, y evitación con el engagement. / This research purpose is to analyze the relationship between engagement and coping strategies as well as to discover if there exist coping strategies that are positively related to this concept, in medical students from a private university of Lima-Perú. The sample of the research was made up of 137 participants and was done in a non-probabilistic and intentional way, 59.9% of the sample was women and 39.4% were men, all of them between 34 and 15 years old. The average age was 19.53 years old and 20.4% was 19 years old. All of the participants were between first and seventh semester, being the 48.9% of them on the third. All data was analyzed with the SPSS program. After the statistical analysis it was found that there is a positive and significant correlation between the coping strategies search for social support, positive and proactive attitude, and the avoidance with engagement. / Tesis