An Afrocentric exploration of South African cultural-religious narratives of depression
- Authors: Conway-Cleaves, Matthew
- Date: 2022-12
- Subjects: Depression, Mental , Psychology and religion , Affect (Psychology) -- Religious aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/26962 , vital:66206
- Description: The perceptions of causes of depression are diverse, formulated from many different factors such as personal experiences, education, generational and cultural influences, and religious beliefs. While there is a large body of literature on both depression and religion and culture, there is a limited amount available that synthesizes the findings of multiple different studies, finding key common themes. Therefore, this review aimed to develop a comprehensive understanding of how religious and cultural narratives describe and influence depression. As a result, a meta-ethnography was carried out to synthesise existing literature on cultural-religious narratives of depression within a South African context. Five published journal articles were sampled for translation and synthesis. From this process, three key themes were developed, namely Conflictual Coexistence, Observation-Based Discernment, and Status or Stigma. The result is a lens that is formed through a mixture of traditional cultural religious traditions and beliefs interconnected with contemporary ways of understanding and being. This framework for diagnosing and treating a mental illness is heavily reliant on observable symptoms. As a result, status or stigma can be attached to multiple aspects of the situation surrounding an individual with or suspected of having a mental illness. Stigmatisation can be noted to form a cycle that becomes inclusive of prognosis, finance/employment and not being able to fulfil culturally held expectations. As a result, future research, and therapeutic intervention of this mental disorder within this demographic will be better informed. , Thesis (MSoc) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2022
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- Date Issued: 2022-12
Psychological empowerment as a moderator of the relationship between job insecurity and intention to quit among employees at Emalahleni local municipality, Eastern Cape
- Authors: Mapete, Siphosethu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1580-9382
- Date: 2020-09
- Subjects: Employee morale , Municipal officials and employees
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/20174 , vital:45405
- Description: Psychological empowerment, job security and retention are important characteristics that all organisations would be happy to have among all their employees. This is because retention and psychological empowerment on their own are characteristics that are linked to many desirable organisational outcomes such as job satisfaction, productivity and employee retention. In other words, a psychologically empowered employee is an engaged and desirable one, and it is therefore extremely important for organisations to know how engagement among employees can be generated or enhanced, especially the case in the public sector that is characterised by high levels of stress among its employees. The main objective of the study is to explore the combined effect of psychological empowerment, job insecurity and intention to quit in the South African public sector where psychological empowerment plays a moderating effect. The study enquires into the effects gender, race, marital status, age and educational level have on the study variables. A quantitative approach is adopted. A structured self – administered questionnaire comprising of four sections: biographical information, Psychological Empowerment Questionnaire (PEQ), Job Insecurity Inventory (JII) and Turnover Intention Scale (TIS) was used to collect the data. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) will be used to analyse data, and both descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized. The results revealed a negative relationship between job insecurity and intention to quit. A negative relationship was also found between the dependent variable psychological empowerment and the independent variable intention to quit. Additionally, a combined effect of psychological empowerment and job insecurity on intention to quit was also found due to the fact that no previous studies found job insecurity to be significantly positively related to intention to quit. Job insecurity was also found to be significantly negatively related to intention to quit, and the two variables combined (psychological empowerment and job insecurity) were found to be even more strongly related to intention to quit than any of the two separately. These are the results the present study found. , Thesis (MCom) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce, 2020
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- Date Issued: 2020-09
Managing the procurement of learner teacher support material (LTSM) in the Eastern Cape Department of Education
- Authors: Gobe, Mziwamadoda Chumasande
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Government purchasing , Industrial procurement -- Management
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/24846 , vital:63616
- Description: The use of learner teacher support material (LTSM) was introduced with the aim of improve the education quality in South Africa. However, the procurement of the learner teacher support material has had several challenges. The study therefore was aimed at assessing the management of the procurement of LTSM in the Eastern Cape which is done by the Eastern Cape Department of Education. The aims of the study therefore were, to provide a full description of the current supply chain management practices of the ECDOE, examine the strengths and weaknesses of the current procurement management model in the acquisition of LTSM and investigate alternative selection, delivery and management models. To attain these aims data was collected using both the quantitative and qualitative methods. The use of the two methods helped to establish a balance in collecting data as the research sought to use both quantitative and qualitative data. The research used a case study design.The research instruments that were used to collected data were questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The data for the study was provided by school principals, district officials and ECDoE officials. These were the best participants for the study as they have information on the current procurement system. The data was analysed in themes. The data was presented and discussed in relation to other studies that have been conducted on similar topics. The study found that the current procurement system is flawed due to several reasons like lack of clarity on roles and responsibilities, training and other factors discussed in the study. The study also found that there are inherent strengths and weaknesses in the current procurement model. The study found that the weaknesses can be addressed. The study also found that improvements and alternatives are possible for procurement. The study suggested several recommendations. Some of the recommendations include training the current staff involved in the supply chain management of the procurement system. The other being clarifying the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders involved in the procurement process. , Thesis (MPA) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce. 2015
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- Date Issued: 2015
The four flows model and organising: a case study of the grounding programme at the University of Fort Hare
- Authors: Dube, Nomzamo https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9873-6566
- Date: 2015-01
- Subjects: Communication in organizations , Organizational behavior
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/24739 , vital:63538
- Description: The research focuses on McPhee and Zaug (2000)’s four flows model prevalent in the Communicative Constitution of Organisation (CCO) school of thought to explicate its applicability in the organisation of the Grounding Programme, a compulsory trans-disciplinary first year programme at Fort Hare University. This thesis diverts emphasis from studying organisation as a noun to Karl Weick (1979)’s view of seeing organisation as a verb, shifting emphasis to the term organising, thus looking at organisation as an on-going process not as an entity. The theoretical basis of the research is Giddens’ structuration theory which attempts to offer a conceptual stability to the friction of employees’ compelling needs for freedom and the organisational rules and policies. The structuration theory is foundational to the CCO perspective which gave birth to the four flows model, therefore perfectly ideal for the purpose of the study. Research methods used in this study are open ended interviews, participant observation and document examination. These complement each other and impeccable for this study. Upon intersecting the four flows model and the Grounding Programme, it came to light that the model was formed out of a series of models and theories, the weaknesses of each model or theory perpetuates to the next hence causing series of problems. Unsolved issues of the structuration theory perpetuates to the CCO which in the long-run extend to the four flows model. Findings also show that the inadequacies of one communicative flow of the four flows model affect the other flows hence it is sometimes difficult to track how the actual problem began. Again, not all flows are relevant for organisational purposes. In spite of McPhee and Zaug’s attempt to narrow the model into four distinct flows, the model still remains incomprehensive and has loopholes when linked to a particular organisation because organisations are different. However, McPhee and Zaug’s model ought to be credited for its successes too, which are outlined in the thesis. , Thesis (MSoc) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2015
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- Date Issued: 2015-01
Numerical quadrature of oscillatory and non-oscillatory integrals
- Authors: Dukuza, Kenneth Njengele https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4525-7390
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Oscillations , Numerical integration , Numerical analysis
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/24304 , vital:62600
- Description: In this dissertation we develop efficient new methods and techniques to numerically evaluate integrals of both oscillatory and non oscillatory kind. We have done a comprehensive literature review on the existing methods and made some modifications to them so as to cope with difficulties such as oscillations and strong singularities. In the numerical algorithms we have used mainly the MATLAB source code. Our results have been compared with well known methods by renowned authors in this field. , Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science and Agriculture, 2009
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- Date Issued: 2009