Student intellectual stimulation, interest, and engagement within the college classroom is of great importance when attempting to heighten learning, both cognitively and affectively. Although scholars have examined predictors of student interest and engagement within the classroom setting, it has yet to be examined in correlation with an instructor’s use of humor. More specifically, student intellectual stimulation is rarely studied on its own, especially in relation to an instructor’s humor orientation. This study seeks to determine if an instructors humor orientation acts a predictor of student intellectual stimulation, engagement, and interest within the college classroom setting. This study obtained data from a sample of 337 full-time college students at two Northern California Universities. Data was collected through a self-administered paper and pencil questionnaire. Six sections of the questionnaire subsequently measured students’ perceptions of an instructor’s humor orientation, student intellectual stimulation, student interest, student engagement, demographic information on the participant, as well as the instructor that they were reporting on. The Humor Orientation scale was used to measure the dimensions of the instructor’s humor use within the classroom. The Student Intellectual Stimulation Scale (SISS) was used to examine the instructors use of intellectual stimulation within the classroom. Last, the student Interest and Engagement scales were utilized to measure the how interested and engaged students were within the reported course. This study found a statistically significant positive relationship amongst an instructors use of humor orientation and their ability to intellectually stimulate, engage, and interest students within the course. More specifically, an instructors use of humor within the classroom acted as a predictor to students being more intellectually stimulated, interested, and engaged within that given course. Furthermore, this study is of significance because it suggests that an instructor that uses humor within the classroom setting, will not only help intellectually stimulate their students, but they will also help enhance their interest, and engagement within the course, which can possibly lead to heightened cognitive and affective learning. Thus, instructors that are perceived to be funny within their respective course, are more likely to have students that are intellectually stimulated, interested, and engaged which enhances learning.

Survival of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) is a critical issue for business leaders. The Ghana Statistical Service reported that over 60% of SMEs, including Ghanaian small and medium scale private basic schools, fail during their first 5 years of operation. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the transformational leadership skills that proprietors of Ghanaian small and medium scale private basic schools have used to enhance employee performance for sustainability beyond 5 years. The conceptual framework for this study was Bass and Avolio's transformational leadership theory. Data collection included semistructured interviews to elicit narratives from 3 proprietors from 3 different Ghanaian private basic schools about what leadership skills they used to enhance employee performance. Data also came from a review of relevant school documents and a reflective journal. The data were analyzed with Yin's 5-step data analysis technique. Data analysis included identification of key themes and triangulation of data from interviews and relevant school documents. The main themes revealed that leaders used idealized influence, inspirational motivation, and intellectual stimulation to enhance employee performance for sustainability of the schools. Findings indicate school leaders can enhance employee performance when they adopt transformational leadership, particularly when leaders articulate a clear vision, encourage teamwork, and involve followers in decision-making. Social implications include helping proprietors of Ghanaian private basic schools enhance employee performance for sustainability beyond 5 years to improve student education, enhance employment, and contribute to improved living standards.

All managers are likely to experience situations where their employees encounter setbacks and challenges. How individuals respond to workplace setbacks or challenges is going to be determined by their level of resilience. Resilient employees are likely to take charge and bring about change, making them highly desirable in a business environment characterized by digital transformation and continuous change. Despite this, there is scarce research on how employee resilience could be promoted by managers. Therefore, this study targets that gap by exploring how the leadership dimensions individualized consideration and intellectual stimulation could promote employee resilience. Utilizing a sample of 10 employees who were currently undergoing a digital transformation, an exploratory interview study was conducted to capture the experience of employees. An abductive thematic analysis was used to analyze the findings, meaning that our theoretical framework played a guiding role in coding and thematic development. The findings showed that individualized consideration and intellectual stimulation were both important to promote employee resilience. However, the presence of individualized consideration was found to be necessary for intellectual stimulation to promote employee resilience. Thus, it was concluded that managers need to primarily focus on individualized consideration prior to engaging in intellectual stimulation to create a strong foundation for a change process.

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This research comprised an investigation into the relationship between transformational leadership and organisational creativity. The overall aim of the research was to determine whether creativity in organisations can be linked to transformational leadership behaviours. A literature review was done to conceptualise transformational leadership and organisational creativity and to identify the theoretical relationship between these concepts. During the investigation it was found that a relationship does exist between transformational leadership and organisational creativity. A one-way ANOVA analysis and post hoc analysis were performed to address the empirical research questions. The descriptive statistics were analysed in terms of senior management and middle management, and their raters. The data analysis revealed that the research results were largely supportive of the theoretical research findings on the relationship between transformational leadership and organisational creativity. With regard to senior management, it was found that most raters rated their teams as creative, despite the fact that a relationship between transformational leadership and organisational creativity could not be determined due to the small sample size. With regard to middle management, it was found that a correlation existed between inspirational motivation, idealised influence (attributes and behaviour) and organisational creativity. It was further found that there was a correlation between senior management’s perceptions of their transformational leadership attributes and their direct reportees’ perceptions. There were significant differences between middle managers’ perceptions of certain elements of transformational leadership and that of their direct reportees. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

This research comprised an investigation into the relationship between transformational leadership and organisational creativity. The overall aim of the research was to determine whether creativity in organisations can be linked to transformational leadership behaviours. A literature review was done to conceptualise transformational leadership and organisational creativity and to identify the theoretical relationship between these concepts. During the investigation it was found that a relationship does exist between transformational leadership and organisational creativity. A one-way ANOVA analysis and post hoc analysis were performed to address the empirical research questions. The descriptive statistics were analysed in terms of senior management and middle management, and their raters. The data analysis revealed that the research results were largely supportive of the theoretical research findings on the relationship between transformational leadership and organisational creativity. With regard to senior management, it was found that most raters rated their teams as creative, despite the fact that a relationship between transformational leadership and organisational creativity could not be determined due to the small sample size. With regard to middle management, it was found that a correlation existed between inspirational motivation, idealised influence (attributes and behaviour) and organisational creativity. It was further found that there was a correlation between senior management’s perceptions of their transformational leadership attributes and their direct reportees’ perceptions. There were significant differences between middle managers’ perceptions of certain elements of transformational leadership and that of their direct reportees. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

Summaries in Afrikaans and English / Text in Afrikaans / Vanaf geboorte is die ouers en die omgewing wat hulle vir die kind skep van die uiterste belang. Ouers behoort 'n ruimte te skep waar die kind intellektueel gestimuleer kan word, begeleide leerervaringe kan ontvang en waar hy veiligheid en geborgenheid kan beleef Dit is in hierdie voorskoolse jare waar die grondslag gele word vir latere leer. Waar vroee stimulering en bemiddeling ontbreek is dit later baie moeilik om met insette dieselfde positiewe resultate te bereik. Begeleide leerervaringe is 'n essensiele komponent van en voorwaarde vir optimale ontwikkeling. Wanneer die kind aan geletterdheidervaringe blootgestel word in sy voorskoolse jare, kan hy, wanneer hy skool toe gaan, die insette en konsepte as "bekend" ervaar, omdat hy reeds vroeg al daarmee kennisgemaak het. Die ouers kan die kind se voorskoolse jare s6 ontwerp dat die kind se potensiaal optimaal verwesenlik kan word. In die empiriese ondersoek is onderhoude met ouers gevoer sodat hulle hul ervarings met hul kinders wat hulle voorskools gestimuleer het, kon weergee. Volgens die resultate blyk dit dat vroee stimulering waarskynlik 'n belangrike faktor is ten opsigte van latere prestasie. / Parents should create an atmosphere where the child can be stimulated intellectually, can receive mediated learning experiences (MLE) and where he can experience safety and security. It is in the preschool years that the foundation is laid to make learning easier later on. Where early stimulation and mediation is lacking it is very difficult later on to achieve positive results with the same inputs. When the child is exposed to literacy experiences in his pre-school years, he can experience the inputs and concepts as "known" when he attends school, as he was already acquainted with them. The parents can shape the pre-school years of the child in such a manner that the potential of the child can be realised optimally. In the empirical investigation parents were interviewed in order to determine the extent to which they supplied intellectual stimulation to their pre-school children. According to the results it appears that early stimulation is probably an important factor with regard to achievement in later years. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between the transformational leadership (TL) style of officers and their followers’ organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) in a South African military environment. TL was measured by means of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) (Form 5X) and OCB by means of the Organisational Citizenship Behaviour Scale (OCBS). A sample of 300 followers was identified at a military unit in the South African Army and the participants were requested to complete the two questionnaires. The MLQ produced a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.91 and the OCBS a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.79, which were both statistically significant and acceptable. The main hypothesis of the empirical study was accepted, which predicted a significant relationship between TL and OCB (r = 0.412, significant at the 0.001 level). The hypotheses predicting a significant relationship between TL the five sub-dimensions of OCB produced mixed results. These results are as follows; there was no significant relationship between TL and Civic Virtue (r = 0.180), between TL and Sportsmanship (r = 0.132) and between TL and Courtesy (r = 0.207). Additionally, the hypotheses predicting a significant relationship between TL and Altruism (r = 0.499) and between TL and Conscientiousness (r = 0.315) were accepted. / Industrial & Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The purpose of the study was to investigate what the personnel considers about transactional and transformational leadership regarding the leader's use of contingent reward, management by exception, charisma/inspirational leadership, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration leadership. For this qualitative study, a semi- structured interview guide was used to investigate six employee perceptions of the leadership styles on a company in central Sweden. The result was analyzed by deductive thematic methodology to identify keywords linked to respective theme and subcategory based on the Bass Factor Model (1985) (Avolio, Bass & Jung, 1999) division of leadership. The result presents the personnel’s perspective and adds to the knowledge of the employees view on meaning and implication of leadership. The result gives a picture of both transactional and transformational leadership as oriented to satisfying the needs of the employees in a workplace. The findings can give the organization greater understanding of how leadership can be applied to the workplace according to employee interests. / Syftet med studien var att undersöka vad personalen anser om transaktionellt och transformativt ledarskap avseende ledarens användande av villkorad belöning, leda genom avvikelser, karismatiskt/inspirerande, intellektualiserande och individualiserande ledarskap. För denna kvalitativa studie användes en semistrukturerad intervjuguide för att undersöka sex medarbetares uppfattningar av ledarskapsstilarna på ett företag i mellersta Sverige. Materialet analyserades genom deduktiv tematisk metod för att identifiera nyckelord kopplade till respektive tema och underkategori baserade på Bass faktormodell (1985) (Avolio, Bass & Jung, 1999). Resultatet presenterar personalens perspektiv på ledarskap och bidrar med kunskap om hur medarbetarna ser på betydelsen och tillämpningen av ledarskap. Det framkom en bild av både transaktionellt och transformativt ledararskap som inriktat på att tillfredsställa medarbetares behov i arbetslivet. Resultatet kan ge organisationen ökad förståelse för hur ledarskap kan tillämpas på arbetsplatsen enligt medarbetarnas intressen.

The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between the transformational leadership (TL) style of officers and their followers’ organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) in a South African military environment. TL was measured by means of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) (Form 5X) and OCB by means of the Organisational Citizenship Behaviour Scale (OCBS). A sample of 300 followers was identified at a military unit in the South African Army and the participants were requested to complete the two questionnaires. The MLQ produced a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.91 and the OCBS a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.79, which were both statistically significant and acceptable. The main hypothesis of the empirical study was accepted, which predicted a significant relationship between TL and OCB (r = 0.412, significant at the 0.001 level). The hypotheses predicting a significant relationship between TL the five sub-dimensions of OCB produced mixed results. These results are as follows; there was no significant relationship between TL and Civic Virtue (r = 0.180), between TL and Sportsmanship (r = 0.132) and between TL and Courtesy (r = 0.207). Additionally, the hypotheses predicting a significant relationship between TL and Altruism (r = 0.499) and between TL and Conscientiousness (r = 0.315) were accepted. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)