A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Community Psychology in the Department of Psychology, University of Zululand, 2001. / Health institutions are faced with a major task of promoting health, preventing and treating different kinds of illnesses in complex contexts. The large numbers of patients demand a high degree of team building and teamwork if these institutions are to be effective and efficient in service delivery. The present study seeks to develop a team building program which will assist in promoting teamwork. An hypothesis was formulated to investigate if a team building program would make any significant change with regard to health service delivery in a psychiatric context as perceived by staff and patients. A total number of 185 participants took part in the study. The population comprised 97 females and 88 males. There were 59 English, 7 Afrikaans and 119 Zulu speakers. Both staff and patients were offered questions relating to team functioning. The staff participants were further given questions relating to the manner in which teams are built. The team building program was informed by the ideas obtained from the responses as well as from literature. The team building program was then offered to the staff members. A statistical analysis of the results was undertaken and the results showed that the program was significantly effective in promoting teamwork as evaluated by staff and patients. / Human Sciences Research Council

A report on a research study presented to The Department of Social Work School of Human and Community Development Faculty of Humanities University of the Witwatersrand In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Social Work January 2018 / When change is introduced in the workplace, marginalized employees may develop a negative attitude towards the process due to ignorance and fear. The study aimed to explore the cleaning staffs’ perceptions on the municipal pre- mergers between two West Rand Municipalities. The focus study was to explore the cleaning staff members’ emotions and reactions towards the merger before it was to be implemented specifically focusing on their perceptions around job security, job responsibility, and communication. There is currently little research done on pre-mergers, especially between political organizations. The research followed a qualitative approach in a form of a case study. Face to face interviews were conducted with seventeen (17) cleaning staff from two Municipalities to collect data utilizing a self – developed, semi structured interview schedule. Sampling was done using a non-probability convenience sampling method. These employees are usually marginalized and have limited if any decision making powers in their working space. The data was analysed utilizing thematic analysis. The findings identified that even the most marginalized of employees could have an impact on change processes based on several factors and there is a relationship between a previous workplace change experience and a new one. The study transformed into a comparative study as marked differences emerged because one of the Municipalities had been through a merger previously and it had a different impact as compared to those who had not gone through the merger process previously. The findings revealed that communication strategies impact on the perceptions of all levels of employees regardless if they participate in the planning process of any organisational change process or not. Open communication and constant consultation by an employer was found to inspire employees to do well because they become confident of their future within the organization. The research findings carve a way to future pre- merger studies with deeper insight into the usually marginalized groups in the workplace. / MT 2018

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