The previous economic structure in South Africa was well served by the FET College institutions in that they provided a resource pool for large companies and organisations. This however, developed a student mindset of becoming an employee instead of the employer of an organisation. With an economy in transition, privately owned companies or organisations now account for an increasing proportion of economic development. Hence, FET Colleges need to redefine their role in the economy and society, specifically in the type of entrepreneurship courses they offer. This study examines the provision of entrepreneurship education at a FET College in the Eastern Cape with special reference to the levels of provision, support mechanisms, course objectives, contents, teaching and assessment methods to ascertain whether they are appropriately developed to prepare students for entrepreneurship as a career option. This study followed a qualitative research paradigm, implementing a case study approach during the research. In order to analyse the above, the New Venture Creation and Entrepreneurship and Business Management students were selected for this study. Data were collected by handing out questionnaires to a sample of 200 students to assess entrepreneurship courses and pedagogies. The results of this study, indicate that entrepreneurship education at a specific FET College is not enabling the students with sufficient knowledge and skills to start their own business. The results indicate a low level of entrepreneurship education and a weak standing of entrepreneurship courses, which tend to only be part of the Finance course offered within the Business Studies Department at a FET College. Contributing factors to this low level of entrepreneurship education have been identified by lack of support mechanisms by management, the theoretical orientation of entrepreneurship curriculum, teaching methods and assessment of tasks. Based on these findings, it is strongly suggested that this FET College should: (1) develop specialised entrepreneurship programmes for all students; (2) receive special funding for entrepreneurship education; (3) integrate experiential learning in the curriculum; and (4) give special consideration to training entrepreneurship educators.

This study was designed to analyze the sources of revenue, revenue variability, program and personnel changes, and the fiscal soundness of six Latino nonprofit organizations (LNPOs) in three major cities in Western Massachusetts, for the period 1989 to 1992. Income variability was assessed for the period 1985 to 1992. Contingency or adaptive theory formed the basis of the study, with emphasis on organizational uncertainty, and the concepts of complexity and chaos. Contingency theory holds that there is no best way to organize, and that any way of organizing is not equally effective. The review of the literature was exhaustive and presented an analysis of the history, economic impact, and relationship of both LNPOs and non-LNPOs with the modern welfare state. IRS Form 990 and Form PC, filed by the six LNPOs with the Public Charities Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General, was the source of the data for this study. The study concluded that the aggregate reliance of LNPOs on government sources of revenue was 79.5 percent. Diversity of the funding base of these LNPOs was very limited. The average rate of revenue increase for 67 percent of these LNPOs ranged from 14 percent to 72.3 percent. The influence of revenue variability on the program mix and primary personnel was not as conclusive. Revenue increases correlated more with salary increases of primary personnel than with increases in the number of programs. Revenue increases correlated with salary increases of the rank and file for four of the six LNPOs. Fifty percent of the LNPOs in the study were rated as fiscally sound. None of the six LNPOs had contingency reserves and endowment funds. The most compelling recommendations for improving the infrastructures of these LNPOs include: the expansion of their funding base; the establishment of contingency reserves and endowment funds; effect changes in management and in governance; improve technology; and develop partnership with area colleges and universities for developing degree programs for managers of NPOs, and programs and workshops aimed at providing technological assistance to LNPOs.

This dissertation analyzes the utilization of two distinct modes of thinking, divergent and convergent, in the problem solving process. The concept for this study was developed from seminal work done by J. P. Guilford, Alex Osborn, and Sidney Parnes. Based on the assumption that problem solving requires these two distinct modes of thinking, it was hypothesized that a relationship exists between the modes and certain personality types. Two instruments, the Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI) and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), were used to gather quantitative data from 177 volunteer subjects. The LSI determined Converger/Diverger styles and the MBTI indicated personality type preferences of Sensing/Intuition (S/N) and Judging/Perceiving (J/P). The responses were analyzed by means of the Pearson chi-square test for significance. As predicted, a significant relationship between LSI Converger/Diverger styles and MBTI personality type preferences for Judging/Perceiving (J/P) was demonstrated. No significant relationship was demonstrated between the Converger/Diverger styles and the personality preferences of Sensing/Intuition (S/N). However, a relationship was shown to exist between Converger/Diverger styles and the combinations of Intuition-Perceiving (NP) and Sensing-Judging (SJ).

The problem of this study was to compare the effects of Prose practice, Left-hand/right-hand Equal practice, and Left-hand/right-hand Prescribed practice on the development of stroking skills of students enrolled in beginning typewriting classes. In addition, the effects of the practices were examined for subjects with high and low initial straight-copy abilities. The 260 subjects in the study represented 12 classes from three high schools in rural, southeastern Minnesota during first semester, 1982-1983. Pretest and posttest measures of straight-copy, left-hand, and right-hand stroking skills were obtained by the administration of two different three-minute straight-copy, three different one-minute left-hand, and three different one-minute right-hand timed writings on each occasion. Following the pretest, subjects within each class were randomly assigned to the three treatments. The practice sessions involved five minutes of practice per day for fifteen days. Subjects in the Prose group practiced ordinary prose copy containing no special features or contrived words. Subjects in the Left-hand/right-hand Equal group practiced equal amounts of left-hand and right-hand lines. Subjects in the Prescribed group practiced a proportional number of left-hand and right-hand lines, depending on hand-weaknesses exhibited on the pretest. The statistical hypotheses were tested using analysis of covariance. Respective pretest measures of the dependent variable criteria were used as covariates. The findings of the study support the following conclusions: (1) practice using prose copy is more effective than practice using equal amounts of left-hand/right-hand copy in the development of straight-copy speed for students with initial straight-copy ability of 21.0. gwpm or higher, (2) left-hand/right-hand practice in equal or prescribed amounts is more effective than prose practice in the development of left-hand speed, (3) left-hand/right-hand practice in equal or prescribed amounts is more effective than prose practice in the development of right-hand speed, (4) left-hand/right-hand practice in prescribed amounts results in more errors per minute on right-hand copy than does practice using prose copy, and (5) significantly improving one-handed keystroking skill does not improve straight-copy stroking skill.

This study is concerned with the impact of two simultaneous trends in American business. The first is that work teams have become increasingly popular in the workplace (Miller, 1991). The second is that increasing cultural diversity is a demographic fact in the current and future workforce (Johnston and Packer, 1987). On the basis of these trends, this study presumes that work teams are becoming more culturally diverse and that research is needed on how work group dynamics may be affected by cultural differences. The specific goal of this study is twofold. First, to determine whether members of a culturally diverse work group felt that others in the group treated them differently because of their cultural background. The second object is to determine if those people in question felt that cultural differences (in a group or as a whole) interfered with the group's ability to work together. To achieve this goal, I interviewed five white men, three African American men, four Latino men and four white women from four different types of work groups. Past research has suggested that cooperative teamwork minimizes cultural tensions within a culturally diverse group. However, despite participants perceiving their teams as cooperative, the men of color in their twenties and thirties and all the white women experienced ongoing harassment and exclusion because of their culture. These participants perceived a relationship between their cultural group membership and their work group's dynamics. The two older men of color (over age forty-five) did not claim to have experienced harassment or exclusion.

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This study examined the work experience of a selected group of business executives by extending to the executive role the debate over paradigm commensurability that is taking place in the organization literature. The study set out to answer two meta-questions. These were: (MQ1) Can executives be multi-paradigmatic? (MQ2) What are the epistemological issues that need to be resolved so we can find out? This study used Burrell & Morgan's (1979) sociological paradigms framework and a research method that appeared to be compatible, Bougon's (1983) Self-Q Method. Four top level business executives were interviewed individually in Puerto Rico and New Jersey. The data generated was then analyzed through the lenses of each paradigm in Burrell and Morgan's (1979) framework. The researcher positioned herself in each one of the paradigms and analyzed the data through the lenses of the paradigms. The first analysis covers the two paradigms status quo paradigms: interpretive and functionalist. For the interpretive analysis, life history techniques were used. For the functionalist analysis techniques associated with grounded theory were used first (Strauss, 1987). The data was then submitted to a cluster analysis. The second analysis covers the two critical paradigms. From the radical humanist paradigm, the researcher reexamined the analysis of the interpretive paradigm from a critical perspective. Particular attention was given to the notion of self created entrapments. The radical structuralist analysis focused on the systemic contradictions embedded in corporate life. The analysis was based on a reanalysis of the findings of the functionalist paradigms. In relation to the appropriateness of the Self-Q Method for multiple paradigms research, it was found that the method is a point of departure for multiparadigmatic analysis. The method as used, however, is not sufficient. It is recommended that complementary techniques be used in future studies.

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