M.A. / Contemporary organisations and the people working within these organisations are currently facing a high degree of change which is having an adverse affect on the employer-employee trust relationship. This study examines the nature of this change and, in so doing, considers the issue of the post-industrial and the post-modern as an indicator of the arrival of a new era. The conclusion is reached that the grand narratives are inadequate as explanations for the arrival of a totally new era and that they rather refer to what may be seen as a transformational process. In this regard, attention needs to be given to more narrow theories. With this in mind emphasis is placed, not only on the continuities within society, but on social discontinuities and, in particular, on the erosion of employer-employee trust. The issue of trust as a factor in organisational success is discussed in some depth while attention is given to contemporary theories of trust and the apparent lack of synthesis amongst these theories. An attempt is made, based on some of the theories discussed, to develop a comprehensive model of trust. This model deals with both the conditions that lead to the onset of trust and those factors of trustworthiness which may enhance or erode trust within an existing relationship. The impact, of what appears to be the emergence of a new epoch and in particular the changing nature of work, on the notion of organisational trust is also discussed. Such issues as job losses, reduced opportunities and increasing work loads, changing job structures, changing employee values, organisational diversity and the rise of individualism are considered. This leads on to the conclusion that, within an increasingly competitive world, trust plays a central role within an organisation. For this reason it is argued that it is important for employer and employee to address the erosion of trust, and for the sociologist to become involved by taking an active role, as both researcher and facilitator, in the process of improving the employer-employee trust relationship.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (D. Litt. et Phil.)--University of South Africa, 1997.

Thesis (D. Litt. et Phil.)--University of South Africa, 1997.

This paper presents a post-Keynesian ecological macro model that combines three strands of literature: the directed technological change mechanism developed in mainstream endogenous growth theory models, the ecological economic literature which highlights the role of green innovation and material flows, and the post-Keynesian school which provides a framework to deal with the demand side of the economy, financial flows, and inter- and intra-sectoral behavioral interactions. The model is stock-flow consistent and introduces research and development (R&D) as a component of GDP funded by private firm investment and public expenditure. The economy uses three complimentary inputs - Labor, Capital, and (non-renewable) Resources. Input productivities depend on R&D expenditures, which are determined by relative changes in their respective prices. Two policy experiments are tested; a Resource tax increase, and an increase in the share of public R&D on Resources. Model results show that policy instruments that are continually increased over a long-time horizon have better chances of achieving a "green" transition than one-of climate policy shocks to the system, that primarily have a short-run affect. / Series: Ecological Economic Papers

D.Cur. / Nurse educators have a multifaceted and ambiguous professional as well as personal role. They teach nursing theory, accompany student nurses in the clinical area and are expected to carry out research. Very few — in the nursing colleges — are actually involved in scientific study and relate this to unavailability of resources like sponsorship and time, to support such efforts. Added to this is their personal role as spouse or partner, as parent, as significant other and as friend. Faced with the challenges of the change from curative to the primary health care approach to health services delivery, and according to provincial legislation, the restructuring and rationalisation of health services, induding rationalisation of nursing colleges, the nurse educator is negatively affected by these changes and gets stressed. As a result of the complex and changing social, economic and political dimate, these challenges pose a threat to the nurse educator, who perceived herself as being unable to cope. Change occurs continuously in nursing, and therefore in nursing education, because of the dynamic health care system. Change, for better or for worse, can be stressful. It puts big demands on a person's ability to cope. The nurse educator in this changed climate, being unable to cope, gets stressed, and if any stressful situation is allowed to progress to distress, the health — mental, physical and spiritual — of the nurse educator might be adversely affected. Supporting the nurse educator to cope with this change may help her to accept the dynamic changes taking place around her. Learning to cope will not only give nurse educators control over their lives and well-being, but would leave them free to concentrate on helping themselves and others and teaching student nurses. The purpose of this research was to generate and describe a support approach and to describe guidelines to operationalise the support approach, for the psychiatric nursing clinical specialist to utilise for the nurse educator who is working in a nursing college that is earmarked for rationalisation, in order to promote, maintain and restore mental health as an integral part of health. Based on the above discussion, the following questions were addressed in this research: How do nurse educators experience life in all its dimensions? What support do they think they should receive? What approach can be described to support the nurse educator? What guidelines can be described to operationalise the support approach? A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research design was followed. The research was conducted in four phases with a pilot study preceding the first phase of the research. In phase one, phenomenological interviews were conducted with seven nurse educators to explore their experience of life in all its dimensions. Data was analysed according to Tesch's method. Based on the results of analysed data, fear and uncertainty, anger and hope/hopefulness were the identified themes. In phase two, focus group discussions were held with the same group of nurse educators to explore their views on what could be done to support them. Selfmanagement, justice and fairness and enrichment were the identified themes. In phase three themes from phase one and phase two were utilised to form a bridge, leading to the description of an approach to support nurse educators. Phase four dealt with the description of guidelines to operationalise the support approach. Recommendations and limitations of the research were also discussed.

M.Cur. / Following the democratic elections that took place in 1994, South Africa is undergoing transformation. This transformation was initiated by the external and internal driving forces, of which, the political forces are the most significant. This political transformation led to the promulgation of the Constitution of the country, which impacted on the transformation of the health system, to ensure accessibility and equity. The promulgation of the Constitution was followed by many legislative and policy changes, such as a new Higher Education Act. The South African transition from apartheid to democracy, necessitated that all the existing policies, institutions and practices should be transformed and revised, according to the demands of the new era. With the new political dispensation of the country, many regional, national and local policies have changed. These changes have had an inevitable impact on higher education, which in turn impacts on nursing education. The change in the higher education system required the restructuring and rationalisation of nursing colleges in all the provinces. The need for the transformation of nursing colleges is unavoidable because of the development of the new legislation to readdress the imbalances of the past. Following the new political dispensation, it was however necessary to transform these nursing colleges through rationalisation/integration. The focus of this study is on the transformation of nursing colleges in Gauteng, which poses many challenges to the directors in terms of the management of transformation. The transformation process impacts directly on the directors of nursing colleges. This study is based on the transformation management of selected nursing colleges in Gauteng. The study is conducted in two phases. Phase one explores and describes the experiences and perceptions of directors regarding the transformation of nursing colleges in Gauteng. Phase two describes the formulation of transformation management standards which consists of two phases of standards formulation, namely, the development phase and the quantifying phase.

M.A. / Changes in South Africa's political, socio-political and economical environments are putting pressure on local organisations to move towards a non-racial, democratic and fully representative internal organisation environment. In an attempt to accelerate the process, companies are embarking on programmes such as affirmative action and black empowerment for the employment and development of previously disadvantaged groups in order to assimilate them into the organisational culture. At present, however, the results of these efforts still leave a lot to be desired and the management of diversity in South Africa is viewed with interest as well as scepticism. The link between the success of diversity management and a supportive organisational culture has been made in the literature on the subject, but not explored extensively in terms of the elements contributing to the culture, especially language and the processes involved in sharing meaning. It has been proven that a well-planned strategic approach to diversity management should have communication as its pivotal point, making language and meaning the next logical field of study. The literature overview thus systematically explored the ways in which the process of sharing meaning can perpetuate the status quo or act as a change agent in the process of transforming an organisational culture to be receptive and supportive of diversity.

Extensive research suggests organizations have unique guiding principles, called core values, which play a central role in strategic decision making, sustaining high-performance cultures, and guiding organizational culture change. Although the Competing Values Framework (CVF) has been widely used to identify a standardized set of core values, it has not been used to identify unique core values at a given organizations. Unique core values help to distinguish organizations and drive market success. The present research focused on development of a technique to extend the application of the CVF to identify the core values unique to a given organization. The CVF-based Core Values Identification Technique (CCVI) was developed and empirically tested at three companies. Data collection methods included semi-structured interviews, review of documents, participant observation and the standard CVF-based Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI). The data analysis employed grounded theory methods in conjunction with the standard OCAI analysis. The primary research result is the iteratively developed and empirically tested tool, the CCVI Technique. Secondary research results include the identification of unique core values at each of the three participating companies. Lessons learned and the rationale for making modifications to the technique based on the case studies, along with best practices for utilization and opportunities for informing organizational change efforts are discussed.