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The aim of the research was to investigate the needs of adolescents and to determine their attitude, knowledge and skills regarding HIV/AIDS and life skills. The next step was to develop an empowering program to teach them life skills and to educate them with regard to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. To meet this aim, the following objectives were formulated: -To identify the needs of adolescents and extend their knowledge, skills and attitude regarding HIV/AIDS and life skills through empirical research and literature study. -To design a life skills program through a literature study and empirical research in order to improve the social functioning of the adolescents. The objectives were achieved by studying the relevant literature and through empirical research. The available literature on the subject was consulted to determine whether any research has been conducted in this field, and whether the subject could be researched. The empirical research was conducted to confirm the previous research findings. The literature study and empirical research were vital for formulating a social work empowering program. In this research, the survey method was used as a systematic fact-gathering procedure. Data was gathered through a structured questionnaire. The data was used to describe the study sample, since socio-economic status could possibly have an effect on the general health and development of children. The research data were collected from the adolescents and their families to estimate the prevalence of their living standards, habits and lifestyle, knowledge, attitude and behaviour regarding HIV/AIDS . The findings of this research reflected that adolescents had an urgent need for more knowledge and information concerning HIV/AIDS and life skills. In order to address this problem an empowering program was developed and will be presented. In this research the group work method will be used as an effective intervention strategy in empowering young people. Education is crucial; therefore it seems important to educate young people in certain life skills to empower them to cope with the challenges and demands of life. / Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2007.

Since the Chinese economic reform in 1979, there have been various types of enterprises being established instead of the period when the market was mainly dominated by state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Nowadays, except for the government (GOV) departments, the three main types of enterprises are state-owned enterprises (SOEs), private-owned enterprises (POEs) and foreign-owned enterprises (FOEs). In the paper, the aim is to compare the difference in empowering and coaching of the leadership style from employees’ perspective across different types of enterprises and government in Shanghai and find out the potential reasons for the differences. To make the suggestions for improvement in leadership, the paper has compared the existing condition with the employees’ preference in both empowering and coaching leadership style. 144 Questionnaires have been collected in order to make quantitative tests. The questionnaires have been distributed to both employees and managers in different types of companies and government in Shanghai. SPSS 19.0 were used to deal with the data and helped to draw the conclusion.   Based on the literature reviews, the paper proposed three hypotheses. The results show that some of the hypotheses are confirmed; however, some of the hypotheses are rejected. For the rejected ones, the paper give the possible explanations and at the same time, based on other variables of the information of respondents, further analysis has been done to find out how the ideal and actual leadership styles affected by other variables in different groups.

The aim of the research was to investigate the needs of adolescents and to determine their attitude, knowledge and skills regarding HIV/AIDS and life skills. The next step was to develop an empowering program to teach them life skills and to educate them with regard to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. To meet this aim, the following objectives were formulated: -To identify the needs of adolescents and extend their knowledge, skills and attitude regarding HIV/AIDS and life skills through empirical research and literature study. -To design a life skills program through a literature study and empirical research in order to improve the social functioning of the adolescents. The objectives were achieved by studying the relevant literature and through empirical research. The available literature on the subject was consulted to determine whether any research has been conducted in this field, and whether the subject could be researched. The empirical research was conducted to confirm the previous research findings. The literature study and empirical research were vital for formulating a social work empowering program. In this research, the survey method was used as a systematic fact-gathering procedure. Data was gathered through a structured questionnaire. The data was used to describe the study sample, since socio-economic status could possibly have an effect on the general health and development of children. The research data were collected from the adolescents and their families to estimate the prevalence of their living standards, habits and lifestyle, knowledge, attitude and behaviour regarding HIV/AIDS . The findings of this research reflected that adolescents had an urgent need for more knowledge and information concerning HIV/AIDS and life skills. In order to address this problem an empowering program was developed and will be presented. In this research the group work method will be used as an effective intervention strategy in empowering young people. Education is crucial; therefore it seems important to educate young people in certain life skills to empower them to cope with the challenges and demands of life. / Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

The South African work situation is continuously changing due to globalisation, and most organisations embark on strategies that are geared to ensure survival. The political economical, social and demographical situation of the country encourages the changing work environment to be aligned with the international community. Strategies and tactics such as structuring down sizing, re-organisation, and technological changes are deployed by most organisations with the hope of profit making, survival and to remain competitive in this changing world of work. While organisations embark on these strategies, employees are facing massive job loss, which results in employees experiencing feelings of job insecurity. Employees, who feel psychologically empowered through leadership empowering behaviour, endue a sense of job security and thus contribute towards a healthy work organisation. Employees from four business units in a steel-manufacturing organisation were targeted. The study population included employees the managerial and non-managerial categories. A cross-sectional survey design was used to obtain the research objectives. Three standardised questionnaires were used in the empirical study, namely Leader Empowering Behaviour Questionnaire, Job Insecurity Inventory and the Measuring Empowerment Questionnaire. The results indicated average mean scores on the scales of leader empowering behaviour, job insecurity and psychological empowerment when compared to previous studies. Strong negative correlations were found between leader empowering behaviour and job insecurity and between job insecurity and psychological empowerment. Strong positive correlation was found between leader empowering behaviour and psychological empowerment. Regression analyses showed that leader empowering behaviour predicts job insecurity and psychological empowerment. It was also found that job insecurity predicted psychological empowerment. This research indicates that leadership has a positive impact on employees' feelings of security and empowerment. Based on the results recommendations were made and can be implemented by this organisation. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2007.

The South African work situation is continuously changing due to globalisation, and most organisations embark on strategies that are geared to ensure survival. The political economical, social and demographical situation of the country encourages the changing work environment to be aligned with the international community. Strategies and tactics such as structuring down sizing, re-organisation, and technological changes are deployed by most organisations with the hope of profit making, survival and to remain competitive in this changing world of work. While organisations embark on these strategies, employees are facing massive job loss, which results in employees experiencing feelings of job insecurity. Employees, who feel psychologically empowered through leadership empowering behaviour, endue a sense of job security and thus contribute towards a healthy work organisation. Employees from four business units in a steel-manufacturing organisation were targeted. The study population included employees the managerial and non-managerial categories. A cross-sectional survey design was used to obtain the research objectives. Three standardised questionnaires were used in the empirical study, namely Leader Empowering Behaviour Questionnaire, Job Insecurity Inventory and the Measuring Empowerment Questionnaire. The results indicated average mean scores on the scales of leader empowering behaviour, job insecurity and psychological empowerment when compared to previous studies. Strong negative correlations were found between leader empowering behaviour and job insecurity and between job insecurity and psychological empowerment. Strong positive correlation was found between leader empowering behaviour and psychological empowerment. Regression analyses showed that leader empowering behaviour predicts job insecurity and psychological empowerment. It was also found that job insecurity predicted psychological empowerment. This research indicates that leadership has a positive impact on employees' feelings of security and empowerment. Based on the results recommendations were made and can be implemented by this organisation. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2007.

During 1987 my essential beliefs about the nature of the world were challenged by a chance event which led to my arrival in Arnhemland. Working with Aboriginal people allowed me to see first hand the failings of Western ideas in Aboriginal education and health. This is how a 12 year collaboration with Aboriginal people began. The aim was to search for answers to the question, 'Why so many ideas that had been successfully used in the Western world, fail to meet the needs of aboriginal people? My experiences prior to 1995 had led me to believe that Both Ways, an education pedagogy developed in teacher education, was the best approach for empowering Aboriginal Health Workers. I believed Both Ways gave Aboriginal Health Workers a means to develop solutions to aboriginal health issues which valued and respected their aboriginal knowledge. I needed to describe and evaluate the practice of both ways with Aboriginal Health workers for the purpose of proving the benefit of this pedagogy for other educators in this field. This thesis describes how I came to think Both Ways was a good idea; how I defined Both ways; and how I put it into practice. It also provides a description of the issues raised in my critique of Both Ways and in my attempts to provide answers to these issues. Several years of collecting data, including records from action research group discussions, participant observation, interviews with peers and students, and formal evaluations left me with many concerns about Both Ways. As educators follow my journey of discovery I hope that they will recognise experiences and insights that they themselves have shared. The descriptions and discussions in this thesis will add significantly to the overall discourse about health worker education. Similarly, the exploration of ideas beyond Both Ways will add significantly to the overall body knowledge about the power relationships involved in teaching in a cross cultural setting / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

When consulted, aid-recipients consistently report not feeling included or adequately consulted regarding the planning and execution of programmes. On top of a serious lack of opportunities to be engaged or empowered this seems to provide a sufficient reason to explore ways of making participation in humanitarian action an empowering experience in itself. This paper will explore how empowerment could be used in practice and employs the term empowering participation to refer to the desired process of including aid-recipients. To do so it uses a hypothetical example of how it might be accommodated in a programme’s feedback mechanism (FM), that controls a certain access to information and influence, identified as key to empowerment, as a case study to understand some of the potential, and limits, of empowerment as praxis. To get a better idea of how the special circumstances of different groups affect the process youth have been singled out as the programme’s hypothetical target group. The key finding is that for a FM to facilitate empowering participation a clear focus has to be on a commitment to, and recognition of, an incentive to see the relationship within it as one between experts. Requiring the reasons for entering into a communicative relationship to be clearly stated as well as clarifying the roles of those involved. Perversely, confusion or vagueness could frustrate or counter empowerment efforts. There are certainly challenges, but without confronting them we will not know what benefits could have been reaped and if we take serious the view that people should fundamentally be supported to help themselves, we should not shy away from asking and giving serious consideration to difficult questions.

Empowerment is a fundamental human right. The indigenous women in Guatemala, however, sufferfrom both gender and racial discrimination, which through history have un-empowered them. Usinga qualitative methodology, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 13 indigenous Guatemalanwomen to examine the conditions these women face in the process of empowering themselves. Inorder to aid the collection and analysis of the data, we developed a theoretical model of empowermentconsisting of the following empowering components: economic capacity, human capital, socialcapital, gender equality, political influence, self-esteem, and awareness. The empirical results showthat all components of the model, indeed, influence the empowerment of our respondents in the study.The challenges that these women face are related to gender inequalities, discrimination, corruption,economic scarcity, and dependency on others. To facilitate their empowerment, the women currentlyuse formal networks to start businesses and achieve greater awareness about their life situation andtheir rights as women. We conclude that reduction in gender discrimination, access to healthcare,possibilities to education, and economic independency are necessary in combination with supportfrom the government and NGOs in order to empower the indigenous women in Guatemala.