Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis commences with an exploration of the ethics of whistleblowing as traditionally understood, describing the ethical dilemma at its centre: remaining loyal to one's organisation, against alerting society to organisational wrongdoing that threatens its welfare. The positions on several problematic issues in the literature, such as dissent, organisational retaliation, whistleblower motive, and mandatory whistleblowing will be presented and evaluated. The key internal/external disclosure dichotomy within whistleblowing will also be critically examined. The purported solutions to these issues, as well as whistleblowing's central dilemma, will be shown to remain unsatisfactory. This will be attributed to the adoption of an Enlightenment rules-based approach to ethics in general, which underpins and informs the ethics of whistleblowing in particular. An Enlightenment rules-based approach seeks to posit universal and immutable ethical standards that transcend context. As corrective to the above failings, the ethics of whistleblowing will be investigated from the view that seeks to understand whistleblowing as a historically determined and culturally mediated social practice. Within the contexts of the USA and South Africa it will be demonstrated that key whistleblowing issues (and even the central whistleblowing dilemma of divided loyalties) cannot be cast in immutable and universal terms, and are influenced by the contingencies that accompany them. An attempt will then be made to understand whistleblowing in the context of the globalisation of the last thirty years, which will prove more difficult. This will be undertaken through an analysis of Vandekerckhove's project, which seeks to place the normative legitimisations of whistleblowing legislation and organisational whistleblowing policies within a globalisation semantic able to contain the conflict between society and the organisation. This will be shown as ill-conceived because of Vandekerckhove's particular understanding of the organisation as an operationally closed system. Moving the argument forward will be undertaken at the hand of Critical Complexity theory which attempts to make the case for understanding the organisation as an open system. This will allow us to recast corporate responsibility as relational responsiveness to a particular stakeholder, which in turn will allow flexibility in terms of who qualifies as a recipient of a disclosure of wrongdoing. Consequently the internal/external disclosure dichotomy will be proved unsustainable. Further opening up the organisation will render the boundary with society meaningless, as it will be shown that the identity of society and organisation are inextricably tied together. As such, the notion of society versus the organisation will disappear, and whistleblowing will be reconceptualised as loyalty to both society and the organisation simultaneously, thus rendering the central dilemma of whistleblowing obsolete. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis begin met 'n studie van die etiese kwessies rakende fluitjieblasers soos dit tradisioneel verstaan word, en beskryf die sentrale etiese dilemma – om lojaal te bly tot die organisasie, teenoor om die gemeenskap in te lig oor die organisatoriese oortredings wat die welvaart van die gemeenskap bedreig. Die verskillende menings ten opsigte van verskeie problematiese kwessies in die literatuur soos verdeeldheid, organisatoriese vergelding, motief van die fluitjieblaser en verpligte fluitjieblaas sal aangebied en gëevalueer word. Die hoof vraag of 'n openbaring van informasie wat binne of buite die organisasie gebeur as fluitjieblaas beskou kan word, word ook krities ondersoek. Die voorgestelde oplossings tot hierdie kwessies, sowel as die fluitjieblaser se kerndilemma, is onbevredigend en sal dus onderskryf word deur die aanvaarding van 'n reëls-gebaseerde Verligtingsbenadering tot etiek in die algemeen, wat deur die etiek van fluitjieblaas spesifiek, ondersteun en ingelig word. 'n Reëls-gebaseerde Verligtingsbenadering poog om universele en onveranderlike etiese standaarde, wat konteks oorbrug, te postuleer. As korreksies tot die bogenoemde tekortkominge, sal die etiek van fluitjieblaas ondersoek word vanuit 'n benadering wat poog om fluitjieblaas as 'n histories bepaalde en versoenbare sosiale praktyk te verstaan. Binne die konteks van die VSA en Suid-Afrika, sal dit gedemonstreer word dat sleutel fluitjieblaas kwessies, en selfs die sentrale fluitjieblaas dilemma van verdeelde lojaliteit, nie binne onveranderlike en universele terme gegroepeer kan word nie, en dat hierdie kwessies beïnvloed word deur die gebeurlikhede wat daarmee gepaard gaan. 'n Poging sal aangewend word om fluitjieblaas binne die konteks van globalisering in die afgelope 30 jaar te verstaan, wat meer kompleks sal wees. Dit sal gedoen word deur 'n analise van Vandekerckhove se projek, wat poog om die normatiewe legitimering van fluitjieblaas wetgewing en organisatoriese fluitjieblaas beleide in 'n globale semantiek te plaas, ten einde om die konflik tussen die gemeenskap en die organisasie te verminder. Dit sal bewys word dat hierdie projek nie deurdag is nie, as gevolg van Vandekerckhove se bepaalde begrip van organisasies as 'n operasionele geslote sisteem. Die argument sal verder onderskryf word aan die hand van die Kritiese Kompleksiteitsteorie, wat die organisasie as 'n oop sisteem beskryf. Dit sal ons toelaat om korporatiewe verantwoordelikheid as 'n reaksie in 'n verhouding met 'n spesifieke belanghebbende te beskryf, wat weer op sy beurt ons sal toelaat om buigsaam te wees in die kwalifisering van wie as 'n ontvanger van 'n onthulling van oortredings geïdentifiseer moet word. Gevolglik sal die onderskeid tussen 'n interne en eksterne openbaring van informasie as onvolhoubaar bewys word. As die organisasie oper gemaak word, sal dit die grens met die gemeenskap betekenisloos maak, omdat, soos bewys sal word, die identiteit van die organisasie en gemeenskap onlosmaaklik vas is aan mekaar. So sal die konsep van gemeenskap teenoor die organisasie verdwyn, en sal fluitjieblaas geherkonsepsualiseer word as gelyktydige lojaliteit tot beide die gemeenskap en die organisasie, wat die sentrale dilemma van fluitjieblaas sal uitskakel.

This research programme explores, theoretically and experimentally, a new liftsystem for Vertical/Short Take-off and Landing (V/STOL) Aircraft. It is based upon an annular wing wrapped around a centrifugal flow generator, potentially creating a vehicle with no external moving parts, reduced vehicle aerodynamic losses compared to previous V/STOL technologies and substantially eliminating induced drag. It is shown that such a wing works best with a thick aerofoil section, and appears to offer greatest potential at a micro-aerial vehicle scale with regard to fundamental performance parameter “lift to weight ratio”. Certain efficiency losses are encountered mainly occurring from annular flow expansion and problems with achieving acceptable blower slot heights. Experimental methods are described along with results, and a comparison shows that the experimental values remain below theoretical values, partly due to flow asymmetry but possibly also other factors. Symmetrical blowing, as initially hypothesised, was found to be impracticable; this suggested use of pure upper surface blowing with Coanda effect. The modified approach was further explored and proved viable. The ultimate goal of this work was to develop an understanding and the facility to integrate the annular-wing into a vehicle to achieve controlled powered flight. To serve the purpose, issues encountered on current and past V/STOL aircraft are being investigated to set a path for further research/development and to validate/justify the design of future V/STOL aircraft. Also, presented is a feasibility study where different physical scales and propulsion systems are considered, and a turbofan has shown to achieve the best performance in terms of Range and Endurance. This privilege allows one to accurately study the V/STOL technologies around.

My engagement with making is a metaphor that contains the interior landscapes of my mind. I continue to explore it by comparing and contrasting exterior and interior, investigating surface and depth, covering and exposing, and taking apart and putting together. I work to translate my individual experiences and emotions into a tangible form. The visual dialogues that I engage in with my work explore a range of aspects that are inherent and specific to my Japanese cultural heritage. It often springs from my daily encounters with the subtle nuances and observable oddities of living in the “West”. These experiences have added to my self-awareness, and my sense of identity. I’ve always been fascinated by the visual phenomenon that occurs when light is transmitted, reflected, and/or refracted on/in/and through glass materials. I integrate these observable optical phenomena into personal narratives; by using “the-perceptional-shifts” that only the quality of glass it-self can generate, I transform my emotions into concrete materiality. The body of work that has developed over the past two years focuses on integrating my experiences, emotions and feelings, distance and time, and memories of and longing for my twin sister. I marry new technology with old, and attempting to bring the sensitivity of craft to new methods of making. Embedded in this work is my passion for life, materials, and making.

M.A. / Fraud and corruption as well as other forms of organizational wrongdoing has become a serious problem in South Africa. If employees become aware of the fact that a superior is involved in some form of wrongdoing they find themselves in a dilemma. If they report the transgression without being authorized to do so, they face the possibility of being victimized within the organization. The unauthorized disclosure of information about organizational wrongdoing by an employee has become known as whistleblowing. Whistleblowing could have positive consequences for the organization, as it provides the possibility that organizational misconduct could be exposed and dealt with. However, the unauthorized nature of the exposure often results in the organization focussing its attention on the messenger rather than the message. As a consequence the whistleblower is often ostracized until he or she leaves the organization voluntarily or is forced out, while the misconduct is ignored or even covered up in a misguided attempt to protect the organization’s reputation. The act of whistleblowing therefore often has a very detrimental effect on the individual whistleblower’s career, family relationships and self-image. Apart from the possible negative consequences faced by the individual when engaging in whistleblowing, the organization within which the whistleblowing occurs can also be negatively affected. Individual employees are their best form of detection when something is wrong within the organization. However, if the whistleblower is victimized and leaves the organization, it means that the organization loses a valuable employee and that the misconduct will continue. Furthermore, in future when employees become aware of some form of dishonesty they will tend to turn a blind eye rather than report the important information. Financial institutions and in particular banks, are particularly vulnerable to the possibility of fraud and corruption or other forms of misconduct occurring. Rather than focussing on the experiences of the whistleblower, this study investigated the views of managers at a commercial bank with regard to the nature and ways of managing whistleblowing in the organization. Senior managers were interviewed during the course of this study and three issues came to the fore. Firstly, the managers generally showed very little understanding with regard to the nature and implications of whistleblowing for the organization. Secondly, the organizational culture seems to concentrate mainly on creating an environment that is conducive to protecting the stakeholders’ interests than allowing reporting of wrongdoing to take place. Thirdly, there does not seem to be any effective mechanisms in place that could facilitate the disclosure of organizational misconduct in such a manner that it would result in a beneficial outcome for both the individual disclosing the information and the organization. The study concludes by making some recommendations with regard to ways in which a culture of ethics can be created in an organization. This would entail instituting mechanisms of confidential reporting, which would promote the authorized disclosure of organizational misconduct and therefore pre-empt the necessity of blowing the whistle. / Prof. J.M. Uys

Jean Paul Sartre proposed that: Historical situations vary…What does not vary is the necessity for him to exist in the world, to be at work there, to be there in the midst of other people, and to be mortal there. The limits are neither subjective nor objective, or rather, they have an objective and a subjective side. Objective because they are to be found everywhere and are recognizable everywhere; subjective because they are lived and are nothing if man does not live them, that is, freely determine his existence with reference to them (Sartre 1987: 38, 39). The Existential philosophy as outlined by Sartre, Levinas, and Kierkegaard cares about the lived experiences of individuals. Such a view is in contradistinction to other philosophical views which have a tendency to reduce human experience, or to lose the individual in abstraction. This thesis has a central concern for the ethical care of patients in the National Health Service. In order to explore the concrete experiences of patients it is necessary to consider the care providers. To that end, the individual health professional then becomes the focus of study. To assist in this approach a double narrative runs through the thesis, which comprises exploring ethical decision making in the NHS, and also on the legal concept of clinical negligence. These two concepts are intertwined in that legal hearings and rulings have a normative influence upon health care practice, and also influence public expectations. The explicit purpose of this approach was to ensure that the theory was explored and developed; grounded upon everyday clinical NHS practice, which includes legal and political influences. The first four chapters of the thesis constructs the three main areas of analysis; Philosophical, legal, and political. With this framework established, the critical analysis of five legal cases of clinical negligence (Chapters Five and Six), establishes convergences in the work of Sartre, Levinas, and Kierkegaard in relation to the subject, freedom and the ethical. The Kierkegaardian concept of kinesis is applied to explore the transition from possibility to actuality in ethical action. During this process a range of dynamics are identified in creating the concept as best described by Levinas as totalisation . Where previously the argument was located at the individual (subject) and organisational (system) level, in Chapter Seven it moves outwards to consider how the authentic individual can create a civil society. Given the recalcitrant barriers identified in the analysis, Chapter Eight considers existentialism as a theory of community and as contributing to epistemology. Together these theories are proposed as addressing the real needs of individuals, by promoting their freedom, and achieving unity in diversity. The recommendations in Chapter Nine are based upon the interplay of two main dialectics uncovered in the body of the thesis concerning ethics and epistemology. Deontology, Utilitarianism, and Virtue ethics were found to all contribute towards professional conduct. However, they were found to be insufficient because they reduce patients and health professionals’ existence to the same as everyone else. Further, Virtue ethics reverses the way in which ethical behaviour is evaluated in comparison to the other two main normative theories. That is, behaviour is evaluated against the virtue being foundational, as opposed to the act performed. However, there is no discussion on how the individual health professional would decide which approach to use. All three approaches then lack a crucial factor which is the existential dimension. Existential ethics is then presented as a possible approach to facilitate the development (kinesis) of health professionals to the ethical sphere of care. Existential ethics emphasises the pre-theoretical aspect in caring for patients. That is, it appreciates the individual and their difference, prior to any conceptualization which has the potential to reduce individual difference to sameness. From this perspective recommendations are outlined for facilitating individuals to develop the ethical aspect of care, for health care pedagogy, and for leadership within the NHS.

Per varie ragioni, tra cui le loro specifiche condizioni di crescita, la diagnosi di infezione e di contaminazione alimentare da clostridi presenta ancora numerose difficoltà sia a livello clinico-batteriologico che a livello molecolare. In questo lavoro di tesi si è cercato di ampliare lo spettro di conoscenze riguardo i clostridi e la loro diffusione; durante il primo anno di ricerca è stato studiato, applicando nuove tecniche di microscopia, il processo di germinazione di Clostridium tyrobutyricum, uno dei batteri maggiormente responsabili del gonfiore tardivo dei formaggi a pasta dura; l’applicazione di tecniche di Real-Time PCR ha nel contempo reso possibile una determinazione quantitativa dello stesso in latte. Successivamente, è stata condotta un’analisi di tipizzazione molecolare di clostridi nell’ambito di una filiera agro-zoo-casearia finalizzata alle matrici di processo al fine di individuare le possibili vie di diffusione dei microrganismi. La parte finale del lavoro è stata dedicata allo studio di espressione genica di un altro Clostridium responsabile di gonfiore ma scelto perché geneticamente indistinguibile da Clostridium botulinum, ovvero il Clostridium sporogenes; l’analisi trascrizionale dei suoi geni durante le fasi vegetativa, di sporulazione, germinazione ed esocrescita ha permesso di assegnare diverse funzioni a geni singoli o a gruppi di geni allo scopo di utilizzare queste informazioni per formulare ipotesi future anche su altre specie di clostridi patogeni. / For several reasons, including their specific growth requirements, the diagnosis of infections and food contamination caused by clostridia still presents much difficulty at the clinical, bacteriological and molecular levels. The main purpose of this work is to learn more about clostridia and their interactions with environment. First, new microscopy techniques have been used to study the germination process in Clostridium tyrobutyricum, an anaerobic bacterium responsible for late blowing defects during cheese ripening; meanwhile, the application of real-time PCR methods have been employed to enumerate C. tyrobutyricum cells and spores in milk. Then, a molecular genotyping has been set in order to identify the most common clostridia in a agro-dairy production aimed to detect the possible ways of diffusion of these microbial species. The last part concerns the study of expression patterns of Clostridium sporogenes, an apathogenic gram positive clostridium usually involved in food damage and frequently isolated from late bowled cheese; Clostridium sporogenes is genetically indistinguishable from Clostridium botulinum and is often used as a model for the toxic subtypes. The objective of this study is to use an array-based large-scale transcriptional analysis in order to study gene expression in four different steps of Clostridium sporogenes life cycle: vegetative cells, sporulating cells, dormant spores and germinating ones. Our aims includes being able to relate gene-expression patterns to specific phenotypes and to discover gene expression divergences between the different phases of living, germination and outgrowth of spore-forming bacteria. An important aim is to assign functions to groups of or individual C. sporogenes genes and use this information to formulate specific hypotheses for further testing also on pathogenic clostridia types.

An individual’s bad news reporting behavior has been studied from a number of perspectives and has resulted in a variety of research streams including the MUM effect (or reluctance to transmit bad news), whistle-blowing, and organizational silence. While many scholars in different areas have studied reporting behavior, it has not been widely discussed in the information systems literature. This dissertation research addresses an individual’s bad news reporting behavior (and its antecedents) in the troubled IT project context. Many social phenomena are multi-causal (Hollander 1971). The silence phenomenon involved in an individual’s bad news reporting behavior is multi-causal too. While prior research has identified many antecedents to the bad news reporting behavior, it has not provided any systematic approach for categorizing them. In this dissertation, the antecedents are categorized into three different levels: personal factors (i.e., individual-level factors), situational factors (i.e., project-level factors), and organizational factors. This research empirically investigates how the antecedents at different levels affect (i.e., encourage or discourage) an individual’s decision to report or not report bad news in the IT project context. The dissertation follows a multi-paper model, and includes three independent, empirical studies, each with its own research model focusing on personal, situational, and organizational factors.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att analysera hur ett framtida specifikt skydd för visselblåsare bör se ut i svensk lag. Norsk rätt till skydd för visselblåsare och Europarådets krav på sådan lagstiftning analyseras och jämförs för att kunna besvara syftet. Svensk rätt ger idag ett visst skydd för visselblåsare, dock erhåller alla inte samma skydd eftersom yttrandefriheten enbart gäller mot det allmänna. Det partiella skydd som finns är svåröverskådligt eftersom regleringen finns inom flera olika rättskällor. I norsk rätt har alla rätt till yttrandefrihet i anställningsförhållandet. Anställda har också rätt att varsla om kritikvärdiga förhållanden när det sker på ett försvarligt sätt, då råder ett repressalieförbud. I övrigt ska interna system införas när förhållandena kräver det. Europarådet ställer en rad krav som ska uppfyllas i en skyddslagstiftning för visselblåsare. Framförallt ska lagstiftningen erbjuda ett heltäckande skydd som ger ett säkert alternativ jämfört med att hålla tyst om oegentligheter som pågår. En jämförelse mellan den norska rätten och Europarådets krav visade att de är överensstämmande. Vid jämförelsen mellan svensk rätt och det norska systemet åskådliggjordes det att de båda systemen i grunden är lika. Skillnader finns dock vilket leder till att det i Norge finns ett starkare skydd för visselblåsare. Slutsatsen om hur ett svenskt skydd bör se ut blev mycket likt det norska systemet. För det första bör de svenska grundlagarna ändras så att yttrandefriheten gäller i alla anställningar. För det andra ska alla arbetstagare ha rätt att slå larm om oegentligheter och andra missförhållanden på arbetsplatsen på ett försvarligt tillvägagångssätt. När de kriterierna är uppfyllda råder ett repressalieförbud. Eventuellt kan det också införas lagkrav på att arbetsgivaren ska införa interna system för visselblåsning, dock enbart när förhållandena kräver det.

Active flow control has been extensively explored in wind tunnel studies but successful in-flight implementation of an active flow control technology still remains a challenge. This thesis presents implementation of active flow control technology onboard a 33% scale Extra 330S ARF aircraft, wind tunnel studies and flight testing of fluidic actuators. The design and construction of the pulsed blowing system for stall suppression (LE actuator) and continuous blowing system for roll control (TE actuator) and pitch control have been presented. Full scale wind tunnel testing in 7̕ X 10 Oran W. Nicks low speed wind tunnel shows that the TE actuators are about 50% effective as the conventional ailerons. The LE actuator is found to be capable of suppressing stall from 12° to about 22°. Comparison of characteristics of Active elevator and conventional elevator in 3' X 4' low speed wind tunnel show that, the active elevator is as effective as of conventional elevator deflected at 5°. Flight tests show that TE actuators are able to control the aircraft in flight in banked turns. The measured roll rates in-flight support the wind tunnel test findings.

This experiment is to investigate the effects of fluid with and without mass injection through a slit on the vortex shedding from a single cylinder. We research Reynolds Numbers on ranges from 800 to 4000. We used four kinds of ways which contain no mass injection, steady blowing, steady suction and oscillatory jet to study of the wake behind a circular cylinder under excitation in this experiment. No mass injection is measured for the sake of its reliability and comparability of experiment. Steady blowing and suction are applied to influence the wake flow. An oscillatory jet is used to influence the wake flow with varying frequencies and amplitudes. The experiment looks forward to use the results of this experiment so as to research into the effects on the wake flow, including the velocity values of fluctuation and turbulence intensity of the vortices structure, the dominant frequency in the flow pattern on a single cylinder. The main parameters in the study are the frequency, momentum and the location of the blowing and suction jet, which are a steady jet or unsteady oscillatory jet. Flow visualization has been carried out to investigate the interaction of steady or unsteady fluid perturbation and the vortex shedding of a cylinder.