This dissertation utilizes archival research and digital methodologies to examine the birth and development of pentecostal mission in Hong Kong between the years 1907 and 1942. Current attention to Hong Kong has tended to focus on the first few years of pentecostal activity in the colony, the growth of early Chinese leadership, and the ways in which pentecostals were different from their evangelical peers. This study takes a longitudinal approach to the pentecostal movement in the colony by viewing it as a form of transnational discourse uniquely related to the local and regional contexts of Hong Kong and southern China. As such, this study is not interested in simply recovering the story of who went where. Instead, it is focused on tracing the changes of pentecostal mission in Hong Kong and understanding how those changes were entangled with the development of global pentecostal self-perception. The dissertation relies upon a broad survey of over six thousand pentecostal periodicals and the creation of a database that enables a meta-level analysis of trends in pentecostal mission. Particular attention is given to five themes: the spatial relationship between pentecostals and the colony, the structural dimensions of the pentecostal movement, common missionary practices, pentecostal spirituality, and pentecostal approaches to gender. By tracing these five themes, the dissertation shows that pentecostal missionary discourse changed dramatically during the first thirty-five-year period in the colony and that changes in missionary ideas, perception, and practices grew from pentecostals’ dialogue with their local environment, global context, and evangelical heritage. This study of pentecostal mission in Hong Kong is divided into three main time periods. From 1907 to 1913, pentecostal missionaries fit the mold of faith missionaries, arriving in China with no formal system of financial support. These missionaries embraced a Sino-Western leadership model and transformed Hong Kong into a transurban center of global missionary outreach. From 1914 to 1928, however, the unified model broke apart, and pentecostal mission, like the broader pentecostal movement, became denominational. As denominational frameworks took hold, missionaries began emulating larger evangelical missionary organizations as they sought to expand their influence into the “interior” of China. From 1929 to 1942, however, the political unrest on the mainland forced pentecostals back to Hong Kong, where they discovered a bevy of new opportunities for mission. Throughout these organizational and spatial changes, pentecostals in Hong Kong were also adapting to the religious marketplace of Hong Kong, negotiating evangelical conceptions of gender and mission and reformulating their place in the global pentecostal movement.

Purpose - This paper aims to examine the charismatic legitimacy of the organization Oatly, a vegan food brand, following the criticism from external stakeholders concerning Oatly’s new shareholder; the investment firm Blackstone Group. The study explores the views of young external stakeholders in regard to the statement Oatly issued in response to the criticism. The paper’s final purpose is to understand if Oatly is considered to be charismatically legitimate, and have established a charismatic legitimacy which protects them when facing criticism. Methodology - The theoretical framework of Conger and Kanungo (1998) charismatic leadership scale is adopted to analyze the views of young external stakeholders regarding Oatly’s response. Triangulation of qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches can reveal how stakeholders interpret Oatly’s statement.   Findings - Stakeholders were critical of the investment, yet simultaneously perceived Oatly as charismatic. Oatly’s established charismatic legitimacy enables the organization to make decisions that stakeholders perceive as defying of Oatlys’s fundamental ideology.  Research implications - The results have an impact on a societal level since it provides knowledge in regard to how organizations can use their established charismatic legitimacy to influence the public debate related to their actions. Originality/Value - The paper examines how consumer criticism affects the charismatic legitimacy of a vegan food brand through the lens of young external stakeholders. Furthermore, the study raises the importance of an established charismatic legitimacy for organizations when facing criticism concerning misalignments between the organization's actions and ideology.   Keywords - Oatly, charismatic legitimacy, Weber, organizational external communication.   Paper type - Research paper.

Den här studien syftar till att undersöka vilka strategier svenska kommuner använder för att motivera och legitimera besparingar som kommuniceras via pressmeddelanden eller officiella kommunnyheter. Det som analyseras är hur legitimeringar av besparingar representeras i kommunala pressmeddelanden, vilka röster och subjektspositioner som avbildas och hur sätts dessa i relation till varandra. Den syftar även till att undersöka på vilket sätt de legitimeringsstrategier och relationer bland subjektspositioner som identifierats i materialet bidrar till att reproducera maktstrukturer i samhället. Studien utgår från ett kritiskt  diskursanalytiskt perspektiv och baseras på pressmeddelanden och kommunnyheter  rån  sex svenska kommuner som behöver kommunicera besparingsåtgärder. Det teoretiska ramverket grundar sig  i  Webers  tre  typer  av  auktoritet:  traditionell,  laglig-rationell  och  karismatisk  auktoritet.  De  olika typerna av maktutövande  bygger på legitimitet och dess  rättfärdigande  egenskaper  stödjer  politisk dominans.  Studien  grundar  sig  även  i  Berger  och Luckmanns socialkonstruktionistiska syn på legitimering som en viktig faktor vid   konstruktion av verklighet. Utöver detta används legitimeringsstrategier från tidigare  legitimitetsteorietisk   forskningvägledande   vid  analysen   av materialet.  De  legitimeringsstrategier som observeras i materialet är rationalisering, exemplifiering, ansvarsutkrävande, moralisering, karismatisk legitimering och dramatiskt narrativ. Resultatet visaratt kommunernas ledning i sin diskurs prioriterar ekonomi framför välfärd och kan anses vara försvarare av den ekonomiska överordningen i samhället

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Prophecy is a major theme in Scripture and in contemporary practice in Pentecostal and charismatic settings. At its simplest, prophecy can be understood as a message from God delivered through a spokesperson to an audience, usually in the form of a revelatory experience. Despite the significance of prophecy in the history of Pentecostalism, the experiential coherence between modern-day charismatic prophets and Old Testament prophets has not been directly examined. Consideration of the literature shows conflicting messages. The application of biblical and historical studies tends to emphasize the divide between the Old Testament prophets and modern-day charismatic prophets while practical theological studies emphasize coherence. The heart of this practical theological study is a phenomenological investigation of the practice of charismatic prophecy in the Canadian context. Five textural and three structural elements are identified: Prophets recognize the presence of God, receive the prophetic impulse, discern the source and recipient of the message, release the prophetic message or act, and experience attendant physical and emotional sensations. The way that prophets experience this phenomenon is impacted by their mentoring, setting, and response to failure. This phenomenological description was then compared with the experience of Jeremiah to evaluate the level of coherence. Aside from uncertainty regarding the distinction of the first two textural components and the issue of discernment, a strong level of coherence was discovered between the Old Testament prophets and modern-day charismatic prophets. Jeremiah and modern-day Canadian prophets experience the phenomenon of prophecy in very similar ways. This high level of coherence leads to three conclusions. First, the application of biblical and historical studies that emphasize the discontinuity between the Old Testament prophets and modern-day charismatic prophets should be resisted in light of the data. This application—often based on a concern to safeguard the unique authority of Scripture from contemporary prophetic messages—is unnecessary since Canadian prophets hold a high value of Scripture that can be seen in the experience of Jeremiah himself. Second, Pentecostals should expand their narrative understanding backward in time to include the Old Testament prophetic lineage. Third, modern-day charismatic prophets should be encouraged to return to the Old Testament prophets for a deeper understanding of their practice.

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The purpose of this thesis is to shed some light on the topic of top-managers' awareness and use of communication in organizations with hopes of increasing awareness and understanding of communication use in an organizational context for managers and students alike. Interviews were conducted and questionnaires e-mailed to respondents. Findings pointed towards great awareness of many aspects of communication, channels and barriers and an understanding of its impact in listeners. Use of verbal communication channels also seemed to be favored among the respondents. However, questions are raised as to the efficiency of value building when using communication channels with a low degree of personal contact between sender and receiver and what the possible influences it can have on employee cynicism and identification towards the organization. An increased use of personal contact is recommended, but as managers' communication is largely controlled by time and a daily schedule, use of rhetoric seems more likely as a means of circumventing some of the possible negative aspects.

This study investigated the state of leadership mentoring and succession planning in the Charismatic Churches in Bushbuckridge. In order to gain a full understanding of the Charismatic Movement which emerged in Bushbuckridge only four decades ago, it was necessary to trace its origin from the Azusa Street Revival which gave birth to Pentecostalism almost a century ago. The Charismatic Movement emerged as a distinct movement only five decades later following the birth of the Pentecostal Movement. The reviewed literature revealed that the Charismatic Movement is a child of the marriage between the Pentecostal Movement and traditional denominations. The main watermark distinction between the theologies of the two movements is based on the fact that the Pentecostal Movement emphasises speaking in tongues while the Charismatic Movement places emphasis on the manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. By virtue of their one-man-founder, Charismatic Churches are likely to experience the same leadership mentoring and succession problems that are common to family businesses. An assessment of leadership mentoring and succession practices in the business world proved that the concept has been researched, practiced, and perfected more in the secular world than in the world of religious and biblical studies. Although this study uncovered some exceptionally successful mentoring relationships in both the New and the Old Testaments, they do not provide details of what those who were involved in the mentoring relationships did for them to be successful. It is in the secular world that mentoring relationships, stages and models have been researched and practiced. It is when mentors and protégés are pared correctly and their relationships managed properly throughout all the mentoring stages that organisations can be assured of smooth leadership transitions. A triangulation of the qualitative and the quantitative methods was used to collect data in this study. On the qualitative side of the research, data was collected by means of interviews and focus group studies. Interviews with the apostolic fathers of the Charismatic Movement in South Africa raised a concern over the lack of leadership mentoring and succession programmes, especially amongst the younger generation of churches. The concern was confirmed in all the focus group studies which were conducted in Bushbuckridge. The data which was collected from the qualitative side of the study provided a basis for the content of the questionnaire the researcher drew up for the quantitative side of the study. This side of the study contradicted the views of the participants in interviews and focus groups in that it reported that many Charismatic Churches in Bushbuckridge do in fact have leadership mentoring and succession programmes (85% and 72% respectively). The quantitative side of the study further revealed that education levels and gender have a statistically significant effect in leadership mentoring, while location does not. The researcher suggests that the contradiction in the outcomes of the two research methods deserve a follow-up study. This study presents to Charismatic Church leaders in Bushbuckridge lessons drawn from the leadership mentoring and succession practices of both the biblical and secular worlds. This study would be incomplete without the bringing to the fore of an illustrative text in the 2 Timothy 2:1-3. Generally speaking, adherents in the Charismatic Churches read and interpret the bible as authoritative for faith and life. The participants‘ call for the introduction or/and enhancement of leadership mentoring and succession is therefore harnessed by the biblical message in 2 Timothy 2:1-3. Such model of leadership could serve as an important and significant form of discourse in Africa in the context of leadership. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / New Testament Studies / unrestricted

Religion has become one of the central themes in the Ghanaian/Nigerian video film industry. The portrayal of religious elements which mirrors the religious dynamics of the audience has been attributed partly to the success and popularity of the films. The video films have also excited religious passions as well as criticisms. The heart of the debate, as the existing studies indicate, is how the various religious traditions (often, Christianity and Indigenous religions) are represented in the video films. Whereas some scholars opine that Christianity, especially Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches are frequently privileged, others contend that the religious delineation in the video films reflect experiential issues; the churches are portrayed in line with the niche, positive or otherwise, that they have created for themselves which is well known to producers and the consumers. This study examines the religious constructs in the Ghanaian/Nigerian video films phenomenon. The main focus is an investigation into audience reception of the video films, particularly among the members of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity in Ghana and the UK. It also explores the appropriation of the religious elements in general and Pentecostal-Charismatic narratives in selected video films. An ethnographic research method, comprising mainly of textual analysis of selected video films; participant observation and qualitative interviews, was used to draw comparative insights from a cross section of members of Action Chapel International and Word Miracle International churches in Accra and London. This thesis contributes to the on-going discourse on the Ghanaian/Nigerian video films and Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity partly popularized by Birgit Meyer and Afe Adogame. Hall’s Encoding/Decoding theoretical framework is used to explore the reception while the Uses and Gratifications theory is also adopted to examine the appropriation of the religious constructs in the Ghanaian/Nigerian video films. Notwithstanding the fluid representations of various religious traditions in Ghanaian/Nigerian video films, the findings show that the reception and uses of the religious narratives in the films by the audience comprise of a synthesis of full embrace on one hand and scepticism on the other. It was found that beyond entertainment, majority of the audience who were members of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity focus on the religious significance of the video films. Yet, most pastors and leaders in these churches were not comfortable recommending the video films as a good partner in the religious lives of their members. As this thesis focused on only Pentecostal-Charismatic audience, further research on members of other Christian denominations or religions regarding their self-representation in the video films is recommended. This will help to establish if the reception pattern of other religious groups is complex or linked directly with the portrayal trend of one’s religion.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to, from an employees’ perspective, study how to define leadership and how a good leader is characterised in terms of traits, charisma and efficiency. Method: This study was made by using a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews and has been collected through chain sampling. Theoretical framework: The basis of this study is theories that provide different definitions of leadership, traits required for leaders and also what efficiency, effective leadership and charismatic leaders means according to different researchers. Empiricism: Data for this study has been collected through seventeen interviews with people in varied positions. One of them was performed via mail and the remaining eye-to-eye. The age of the respondents varies as well as knowledge and experience of leadership, since all of them have or have had leaders and some of them are or have been leaders. Conclusion: The employees’ definition of leadership is based on traits and personality and show that there is a common link between good, effective and charismatic leadership. However, from the employees’ perspective it is not possible to find a clear equal sign between the three concepts.