Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

Despite reform processes in the employment of Supply Chain Management (SCM) as a strategic tool in the South African public sector, there are predicaments in SCM practices, especially in municipalities. This notwithstanding, research that demystifies the SCM implementation practices in local municipalities within the West Rand District, SA is lacking. This study explores supply chain management practices implemented at the West Rand District municipalities. An exploratory and descriptive study was conducted based on a semi-structured questionnaire. The collected data was analysed descriptively using SPSS, inferentially using Fisher Exact test, as well as by content analysis using Atlas.ti. The findings of the study revealed that overall the West Rand District municipalities have adopted and implemented the SCM practices. However, SCM practices are sometimes not always aligned with government policies. The most implemented SCM practice was demand management, followed by acquisition management. The least implemented practices were logistics, disposal, risk and performance management. No significant differences were observed among the municipalities, except for municipality C (within its own supply chain practitioners). The municipalities face serious SCM challenges in implementing their SCM practices. These challenges stem from: a lack of training for SCM staff, lack of proper capacity, poor planning, and ineffective black economic empowerment in the West Rand District. Based on the results, there is a need of training for SCM staff, capacity building, better planning interventions, and more effective black economic empowerment. It should be reiterated that the lack of proper SCM processes and procedures are the root cause of problems in service delivery in South Africa. The study concludes by recommending that SCM practitioners should regularly update their SCM policies, ensure proper compliance with the elements of SCM, as well as to source competencies, skills, and knowledge from higher education institutions and private accredited service providers. / Business Management / M. Tech. (Business Administration)

352 pages / What can be called the conventional view concerning the operation of family, kinship and other ascriptive ties during social change in non-Western countries is subjected to an extensive critique. The conventional view typically characterizes social organization in non-industrial areas as primarily subject to ascriptive principles. Social values are conceptualized as "tradition," "primitive," or "custom-bound," and it is asserted that an emphasis on family ties and ascription is part of an integrated set of phenomena found in non-industrial areas. With respect to industrial societies, the conventional view asserts that ascriptive principles do not operate to any important degree. These societies are described by concepts such as "modern," "civilized" or "individualistic," and it is argued that an emphasis on individual achievement and competition are part of an integrated set of phenomena found in more developed societies. The conventional view stresses the interrelatedness of all parts of society and therefore societies at different levels of development must have different social structures and social values. In this view, social change becomes a shift from phenomena which characterize the "traditional" society to phenomena which characterize the "modern" society. Since these two societies are in opposition at so many points it is asserted that the shift is generally sudden and dramatic. This dissertation criticizes the conventional view for its assertion that societies can be divided into these two types and that social change generally can be conceived of as a transition between these types. Societies with different levels of technology may in fact have similarities in their social organization. Social relationships are regular and recurrent but the same regularity may be found at different technological levels. In addition to offering a unique theoretical synthesis, the dissertation offers empirical data on the existence of achievement orientations among tribal peoples. A total of 1330 workers were sampled at four rubber plantations in Liberia, West Africa. The majority can be described as achievement oriented. Variables reflecting the conventional view, e.g. "modernization," "industrialization," and "urbanization" were used in an attempt to explain these findings. Specifically studied were education, work experience, "adaption to wage-labor," self-conception and urban experience. Achievement orientation was not positively related to any of these variables. Instead, this dissertation accounts for the existence of an achievement orientation among tribal people by showing that the amount of achievement orientation varied by tribe. Two factor analyses and a cluster analysis show that although a basic similarity existed among the tribes, i.e. all stress achievement, men from three Kwa-speaking tribes in our sample, the Kru, Krahn, and Grebo, were more achievement oriented than men from the other seven tribes. This variation by language group suggested that an explanation for the existence of achievement responses should be sought in the social structure of the tribes. Historical and ethnographic data showed that the Kwaspeaking group have a distinctive history of occupying coastal jungle areas and governing themselves through decentralized political authority. They did not have secret societies nor did they congregate in dense populations. The Mande and West Atlantic-speaking peoples had been pushed toward the coast by expansionary pressures from the interior. These latter peoples were relatively more stratified, had secret societies, were more likely to have farmed, and had a centralized political authority. The existence of centralized authority and secret societies probably weakened individual achievement emphases. This evidence shows the existence of achievement orientations among tribal peoples and provides an explanation for it that contrary to expectations of the conventional view does not make reference to modernization.

Noon is a West-Atlantic language of the Cangin subgroup, spoken by 25 000 people in central Senegal, in and around the town of Thies. The aim of this study is to provide a full grammatical description of Noon, since no such study has been done on the language. We have not followed a specific linguistic model as framework, but rather tried to work from the classical approach of presenting the structures in the grammatical units of the language, from morphology to discourse, All analysis is presented with language examples from data collected in the Thies area over the years 1994-1998. The study is divided into 11 chapters, followed by a short interlinearised text sample with a free translation. The first chapter presents a brief overview of the phonology and the morphophonological processes that take place in affixation. Another important feature described in this section is the restricted regressive vowel harmony process, based on the ATR feature. In chapters 2-3, the nominal system is described, including the noun class system of 6 basic classes with which most nominals are in agreement. There is also a threefold locative distinction present in determined nominals. This locative distinction is further elaborated in the demonstratives. Chapter 4 treats prepositions and adverbs. In chapters 5-6, verbal morphology and the verb phrase are presented, A major feature of the Noon verb is the derivational affixation which, apart from carrying aspectual information, also has bearing on the valency of the verb. The conjugational system is based on affixation, but also on the use of auxiliaries and particles. Chapter 7 deals with conjunctions, particles and interjections, and chapter 8 treats clause structures: independent ones, both verbal and non-verbal, but also dependent clauses. In chapter 9, different simple sentence types are described, followed by the complex sentences, including serial and reduplicative types. Chapter 10 depicts some important features that occur on the discourse level such as the wider use of spatial deixis in temporal and textual references. Finally, in chapter 11 is presented a comparative view of some of the major dialect differences in Noon.

215 pages / On the border between Beadle & Adam’s dime novel and Edwin Porter’s ground-breaking film, The Great Train Robbery, this dissertation returns to a period in American theater history when the legendary cowboy came to life. On the stage of late nineteenth century frontier melodrama, three actors blazed a trail for the cowboy to pass from man to myth. Frank Mayo’s Davy Crockett, William Cody’s Buffalo Bill, and James Wallick’s Jesse James represent a theatrical bloodline in the genealogy of frontier heroes. As such, the backwoodsman, the scout, and the outlaw are forbearers of the cowboy in American popular entertainment. Caught in a territory between print and film, this study explores a landscape of blood-and-thunder melodrama, where the unwritten Code of the West was embodied on stage. At a cultural crossroads, the need for an authentic, American hero spurred the cowboy to legend; theater taught him how to walk, talk, and act like a man. / Committee in charge: Dr. John Schmor, Co-chair; Dr. Jennifer Schleuter, Co-chair; Dr. John Watson, Member; Dr. Linda Fuller, Outside Member

No description available.

Dr. M.C. van Loggerenberg

M.A. / Migration is a phenomenon that cannot universally be ignored. Mass migration, or the mass displacement of people, is increasingly drawing public attention, not simply for humanitarian reasons, but because any large scale influx by foreigners tends to create domestic and interstate tensions. Migration has shown that it holds profound economic, socio-cultural and political ramifications for every state and town in the region. The researcher has become intensively aware of the problems that residents in West Rand are faced with and that internal migration has far-reaching effects on the social functioning of these residents. It has also become evident that a deficiency exists within the social work profession with regard to services rendered to the people influenced by internal migration. The main objective of this exploratory-descriptive study was to determine the following: • What effect internal migration has on the social functioning of the residents of Kagiso, Mohlakeng, Bekkersdal and Khutsong. • In what manner could the above problem be addressed.

M.Ed. / The Department of Education in North West is inundated with disputes as a result of procedures not being followed, in respect of promotional posts. This state of affairs has caused the Department a lot of money, a lot of stress to those affected as well as affecting the progress of many schools in the North West Province. The aim of this study is to describe a prevention strategy to be used in order to reduce the number of disputes experienced in the Department of education. In this work exploratory and descriptive, qualitative design is mainly used. The aim being to develop new insight into the phenomena and to increase understanding. Through interviews, the research has been able to explore and describe the viewpoints of, Director for co-ordination, District managers, affected Education Labor relations Council, with regard to causes of such disputes. The researcher has been able to develop prevention and an intervention strategy in North West. Prevention strategies, focusing on causes of such disputes, should be designed taking cognizance of factors highlighted by this study such as low level of illiteracy among School Governing Body members and unclear procedures on selection.

Devenu en quelques décennies un sujet d’étude majeur pour les géographes, urbanistes, et sociologues du monde entier, l’espace urbain de Los Angeles n’a pas encore le destin qu’il mérite dans les études littéraires et cinématographiques. / Although it became a major field of work for geographers, urbanists and sociologists worldwide over the last decades, Los Angeles urban space still doesn’t have the place it deserves in literature and cinematographic studies.