Philosophy, art and leadership have been considered in previous studies, nevertheless rarely have all three been blended in one. The aim of this thesis resided in the attempt to build an unfixed conceptual net, having the ambition to shed light on the innermost parts of the leader; by collecting insights from philosophical notions, the figure of an artistic leader arises. The personal importance of this work was rooted in the hope of a leadership sourced in an inner reflection. Through qualitative research, we made use of concepts derived from Kant, Foucault, Nietzsche, Heidegger and several other thinkers, targeting the ontological, sensible, and reflecting centers of the figure of the artistic leader; which ultimately was completed by primary data retrieved from experts. At the heart of the thesis, namely the fourth strand, these thoughts are developed in two volumes. The first regards the emergence of the artistic leader, a concise ontology of this figure, the suggestion of the paramount importance played by self-reflection and the ‘care’ as found in a Foucauldian understanding, as well as the mechanisms of the mind of the leader. The eventual practices of the artistic leader are developed in the second volume, seen as expressive channels through which this figure could interact with the environment. The thesis - by its very nature - is open ended, as it is a suggestion of a figure drawing its relevance in the continual constructive thinking this work hopes to generate in the reader.

This thesis develops a new way of engaging emotion in a large organisation and develops a new form of organisational practice entitled “Reflective Emotional Practitioning.” The thesis argues that the concept of emotional intelligence as accepted in organisations represses rather than embraces emotion. The conceptual framework centres the inquiry on the problem of organisational power as an obstacle to the creative harnessing of emotion at work. The thesis reverses the organisations’ centralised power by placing the individual at the centre so that the individual learns to reflect upon and embrace emotion in collective and self inquiry, and demonstrates how this may lead to creative and ethical work. The thesis is divided into two parts: in the first, the author carried out action research workshops on emotional intelligence and performance management, but it became clear that power was an issue, repressing emotions. But through reflection this became a turning point after the author engaged in deep self-reflection in meditative supervisions, writing and reflective practice. This enabled the author to process experience into a methodological shift towards a self-ethnography and research action applied to the work situation in what became called Reflective Emotional Practitioning (REP). The REP model was used as a tool to venture further on a visceral pathway, uncovering the author’s relationship with emotion. The author began to recognise that the self and the other could be held in reflexive practice and writing. In the second part evidence comes through further vignettes representing the author’s pathway and shone a light on a dialogical process between the self and others. Freedom and space were revealed and the research began to demonstrate the inner- and outer-selves working through emotion. Through this process emotion became conceptualised as “felt energy”. Felt energy was triggered by the outer world, but also a place of knowing from which further action could be taken, and then further reflected upon. The reflexive writing process used vignettes to illustrate how emotion was engaged, fed back and stored as a “return to the self” in a continual learning process. Through illuminating a new way of both conceptualising and working with emotions, the author shows how, over several years of reflective practice, the method underpinned some major innovative and sustainable work projects. The thesis concludes by defining the contribution of this research as a transferable approach that can engage emotion in self-empowered actions within an organisation’s power regime. The contribution is to both methodology and knowledge about the way emotion is experienced, used and conceptualised, although the author acknowledges and discusses the difficulty of producing knowledge through writing the self, particularly within the confines of a large public sector organisation. However, the struggle to write the self has produced a rich text that conveys the possibilities of transferring the approach for other organisational researchers and reflective practitioners engaging emotion in their different personal and organisational contexts.

It became very obvious, during my research, that alchemy was much more than just aspects of practical metallurgy and much more relevant in terms of symbolic and psychic investigations into the significance of the unconscious mind, the individual and the journey to discover the 'centre.' I use the concept of alchemy as a means to explore the unknown mystery of existence, being and the inner self. 'One Square Inch Between the Eyes' is a phrase used by Taosists to describe that area of the body that contains the highest form of energy and is the centre of spiritual development and transformations. Important aspects of true alchemy appear through Taosist manifestations and is expressed by the unity of nature and humankind. It is seen as a principle of universal understanding and a means to get behind or within appearances. This thesis begins to inquire into aspects of how alchemical notions have developed, both on a practical and symbolic level and how both have impacted on our lives. In the research process, several definitions of alchemy have been identified together with how these definitions have been adopted culturally. I begin to look at areas of art and creativity, science and chemistry, medicine and illness and how people see these aspects of cultural necessities through alchemical concepts and notions. / Master of Arts (Hons) (Visual Arts)

The main purpose of this research is to evaluate authentic movement as an effective approach to liberative religious education. Authentic movement is a field of modern dance that focuses on emotional movement and its ability to open access to the human unconsciousness, especially as understood in Carl Jung’s psychological perspective. Through authentic movement, a person is able to glimpse one’s inner self and one’s sense of the Divine, and also to release suppressed feelings, including those feelings evoked by the pressures of social expectations and stereotypes. Authentic movement thus engages persons in a process of religious education that can liberate them toward greater integration with their inner selves and religious experience.

In this qualitative study excessive weight gain in men is placed in the context of a life course trajectory with its characteristic stages. A combination of symbolic interactionism and life course perspectives was deemed appropriate for studying obesity as their basic assumptions complement each other to create a holistic view of the phenomenon. Both the life course and symbolic interactionism perspectives stress the interaction between individuals and their social environment, an observation particularly evident when viewed as a micro-level experience. The chosen approach emphasises the social creation of meanings about life transitions and individual development. The obese man cannot be seen as an isolated unit as, like all people, he is a social being forming part of a network of relationships. Theoretically those with whom he is socialising can be classified as significant others, general others and reference group others. It is their influence that is important in his personal development and experience of the self. While the symbolic interactionism perspective accentuates the development of the self in interaction with others, the life course perspective gives clarity on the way the individual handles transition experiences in order to regain balance after a time of disequilibrium resulting from different trajectories. The theory of cognitive appraisal used in this study enhanced understanding of the obese man‟s passion for food, and the emotion of joy experienced when busy with food-related activities. Cognitive appraisal takes place in each situation when the obese man needs to make a decision or take action in terms of food and life style behaviour. The strategy of enquiry for this research followed a phenomenological and qualitative approach. The unit of analysis was a white man who was obese. The inclusion criteria for the sample were: being older than 21; and complying with the acknowledged criterion for obesity of having a BMI greater than 30kg/m². A purposive sampling technique was employed with each of the 14 participants being interviewed on more than one occasion. Participants were expected to, and were able to describe their experiences of being obese retrospectively. The researcher made almost exclusive use of lengthy, individual, in-depth, unstructured interviews. Three themes emerged from the data namely the meaning of food, the sadness of obesity and coping with obesity. The findings from this study show that, as a social object, the obese man‟s eating habits and the meaning that food has for him are influenced by, and learnt from others such as his family during childhood and adolescence, and his married partner and work colleagues in young adulthood. Essentially, indulgence in eating is for the anticipated pleasure it brings. Thus several factors like marriage, friends and career influence the food trajectory of the obese man. The obese man‟s food trajectories affect his weight trajectory and have a negative impact on his experience of self. His overweight body gives rise to distressing physical constraints and causes emotional experiences of sadness. He is unable to make peace with his obese state and needs to consciously address the situation. Coping strategies used by the obese participants were critical in their handling of their obesity. In the process of self-appraisal they needed confirmation that they could handle the problem so that it did not influence the way they experienced their physical and inner selves. Regardless of all the coping strategies adopted, the participants were not totally able to handle their plight. It actually got worse and impacted extremely negatively on their well-being. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / gm2014 / Consumer Science / unrestricted

This study analyzes and reports on the characteristics of writing-triggered peak experience and other positive human experiences and explores some possible factors that can bring about such moments. Three basic questions were explored: Can writing trigger peak experience and other positive human experiences? How are writing-triggered peak experience and other positive human experiences best described? What factors influence the occurrence of writing-triggered peak experience and other positive human experiences? Participants were asked to write about their happiest moment in writing. The sample consisted of 270 students enrolled in undergraduate writing classes at a major southwestern university. Of 270 participants, 119(44%) reported having had at least one peak experience or similar positive human experience as a result of writing. Protocols reporting peak experience and other positive human experiences in writing were analyzed for content, yielding a total of 14 descriptive attributes. The participants described their writing experiences as flow of the words, the process of writing is its own reward, peak performance, clarity, disappearance of negative states of mind, and enhanced sense of power and personal worth. Content analysis also yielded 13 possible triggers of peak experience and other positive human experiences including self-expression, realization, free writing, use of writing for introspection, and creative and inspirational writing. In addition, personal orientation was explored as a possible trigger of peak experience and other positive human experiences using a 16-item questionnaire. Factor analysis results yielded four factors: (1) aesthetic creative expressive writing, (2) writing as a thinking and problem solving tool (3) self-discovery, and (4) not interested in writing. Factor one accounted for the highest variance (37%). The common elements in this factor were expressive writing, self-related writing and creative poetic writing with poetic and creative writing having the highest loading.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2016-02-15T16:18:53Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Julio Cesar Werlang_.pdf: 939264 bytes, checksum: 631e477d7e6cb17f2a1fcbed748d4faf (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-02-15T16:18:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Julio Cesar Werlang_.pdf: 939264 bytes, checksum: 631e477d7e6cb17f2a1fcbed748d4faf (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-21 / Nenhuma / Reflexão crítica sobre o sujeito e a subjetividade no contexto da contemporaneidade a partir do pensamento de Theodor Adorno, especificamente em sua dialética negativa com o foco na questão do conhecimento e bárbárie. O primado do objeto como indicativo de uma nova concepção epistemológica, necessária para abrir asreais possibilidades emancipatórias do sujeito críticono mundo administrado. O sujeito crítico e consciente de suas determinações, limites e possibilidades nas sociedades capitalistas tardias, se apresenta como quem cultiva sua interioridade e individualidade, em contraposição a autoreferencialidade e o individualismo do sujeito liberal, por isso, mantém um olhar contemplativo, reflexivo e resistente na conquista de sua liberdade em meio a falsa liberdade promovida pela indústria cultural, sendo eticamente sensível e solidário às dores e sofrimentos dos outros e da natureza, e assim, se faz artista e protagonista de um novo tempo. / Critical reflection on the subject and subjectivity in the contemporary context from the thought of Theodor Adorno, specifically in its negative dialectic with the focus on the question of knowledge and barbarism. The primacy of the object as indicative of a new epistemological conception, required to open real emancipatory possibilities of the subject in the administered world. The critical and conscious subject of its determinations, limits and possibilities in late capitalist societies, presents itself as one cultivates his inner self and individuality as opposed a self referentialityand the individualism of liberal subject, and maintains a contemplative, reflective and resilient look in winning its freedom in the midst of false freedom promoted by the culture industry, being ethically sensitive and supportive with the pain and suffering of others and of nature, and thus becomes an artist and protagonist of a new time.

This thesis aimed to investigate generational differences in the frequency and importance of meaningful work in employees based on the 7 facets of the Map of Meaning. Hypotheses were tested through Analysis of Variance of secondary data. 395 participants self-reported levels of meaningful work on the Comprehensive Meaningful Work Scale. Results indicated that Generation Y had significantly lower levels of meaningful work. Generation Y had significantly lower levels of Unity (importance), Serving (frequency and importance), Expressing full potential (frequency), Reality (frequency and importance) and Inspiration (frequency). Significant differences occurred mainly between Generation Y and Baby boomers, with some significant differences between Generation Y and Generation X and no significant differences between Generation X and Baby boomers. Results showed that overall frequency and importance levels were significantly lower for Generation Y. Overall frequency levels were lower than overall importance levels, which suggests that employees’ desire for meaningful work may not be satisfied. In light of this evidence, it is suggested that to improve organisational outcomes such as engagement, retention and performance, managers should provide opportunities for employees to engage in meaningful work with particular focus on Generation Y. Employees themselves should take responsibility to find meaning in their own work and life because engagement in meaningful activities can lead to satisfaction, belonging, fulfilment and a better understanding of one’s purpose in life.