Promoting leader integrity through the human resource management value chain
- Authors: De Villiers, Bridget
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Leadership -- South Africa , Leadership -- South Africa -- Moral and ethical aspects Business ethics Professional ethics Personnel management
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/50469 , vital:42197
- Description: Ethical breaches in the public and private sector in South Africa are prevalent and the effects thereof pervasive on the economy and within broader society. These ethical breaches include corruption, bribery, and the mismanagement of resources and may be attributed to poor decision-making on the part of organisational leaders. The complexity of the circumstances in which organisations operate in the 21st century requires that leaders effectively navigate moral dilemmas while considering the broad range of interests represented by many organisational stakeholders. Leaders need to act in a manner that is ethically sound to avoid the negative consequences associated with unethical organisational conduct, including a loss of profit, credibility and reputation. Ethical leadership is central to moral organisational governance, as compliance with rules and regulations alone is ineffective in building and sustaining an ethical organisation. Literature points to the centrality of leader integrity to the notion of ethical leadership and that an ethical organisational culture is sustained by leaders who possess integrity. In promoting leader integrity studies highlight management interventions and organisational success factors that promote an ethical organisation. Within the context of this study these management interventions and success factors were identified as promoting leader integrity. Further, the literature identified the important role of leaders in supporting these interventions and creating the conditions necessary to foster the success factors. These management interventions are offered through and the success factors are linked to the human resource management value chain. The main aim of this study was to explore the promotion of leader integrity through the human resource management value chain in South African organisations. The main aim of the study led to the development of several theoretical and empirical sub-objectives that were addressed through the following actions: A literature study was conducted examining the nature of ethical leadership and leader integrity and included a consideration of the dark side of leadership. The literature was further examined in relation to the nature of an ethical organisation and organisational integrity, the role of the leader in promoting an ethical organisational culture, and regarding the management interventions and success factors that were seen to promote leader integrity. The insights gained from the literature review assisted in the compilation of a survey questionnaire, this being the Management Interventions and Success Factors Scale. This scale, together with an existing scale, The Perceived Leader Integrity Scale (version 1.2), were used in the empirical study to determine the perceptions of employees as to whether specific management interventions and success factors were seen to promote leader integrity, and the extent to which their managers were seen to act with integrity. These employees worked in the public and private sectors across South Africa, and a final sample size of 606 respondents was achieved. The empirical results of the study revealed that management interventions and success factors were seen to promote leader integrity. However, due to high levels of inconsistency in the responses received it was recommended that a clearer link needs to be created in terms of how the success factors and interventions promote leader integrity. The empirical study further revealed that South African leaders were seen to act with integrity, more especially not to engage in acts of extreme negative deviance such as theft or sabotage, but that there was room for improvement as there were employees who reported moderate and low levels of integrity among their managers. Together with the literature review the empirical study contributed towards the development of a model and a framework for the promotion of leader integrity across the HRM value chain. South African leaders have a crucial role to play in promoting not only the moral fibre of the organisations that they represent, but also in contributing positively to moral regeneration at both a national and a global level through effective and integrity-based organisational governance. This is achieved through adopting an integrated, strategic and holistic approach to the promotion of leader integrity as proposed in this study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: De Villiers, Bridget
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Leadership -- South Africa , Leadership -- South Africa -- Moral and ethical aspects Business ethics Professional ethics Personnel management
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/50469 , vital:42197
- Description: Ethical breaches in the public and private sector in South Africa are prevalent and the effects thereof pervasive on the economy and within broader society. These ethical breaches include corruption, bribery, and the mismanagement of resources and may be attributed to poor decision-making on the part of organisational leaders. The complexity of the circumstances in which organisations operate in the 21st century requires that leaders effectively navigate moral dilemmas while considering the broad range of interests represented by many organisational stakeholders. Leaders need to act in a manner that is ethically sound to avoid the negative consequences associated with unethical organisational conduct, including a loss of profit, credibility and reputation. Ethical leadership is central to moral organisational governance, as compliance with rules and regulations alone is ineffective in building and sustaining an ethical organisation. Literature points to the centrality of leader integrity to the notion of ethical leadership and that an ethical organisational culture is sustained by leaders who possess integrity. In promoting leader integrity studies highlight management interventions and organisational success factors that promote an ethical organisation. Within the context of this study these management interventions and success factors were identified as promoting leader integrity. Further, the literature identified the important role of leaders in supporting these interventions and creating the conditions necessary to foster the success factors. These management interventions are offered through and the success factors are linked to the human resource management value chain. The main aim of this study was to explore the promotion of leader integrity through the human resource management value chain in South African organisations. The main aim of the study led to the development of several theoretical and empirical sub-objectives that were addressed through the following actions: A literature study was conducted examining the nature of ethical leadership and leader integrity and included a consideration of the dark side of leadership. The literature was further examined in relation to the nature of an ethical organisation and organisational integrity, the role of the leader in promoting an ethical organisational culture, and regarding the management interventions and success factors that were seen to promote leader integrity. The insights gained from the literature review assisted in the compilation of a survey questionnaire, this being the Management Interventions and Success Factors Scale. This scale, together with an existing scale, The Perceived Leader Integrity Scale (version 1.2), were used in the empirical study to determine the perceptions of employees as to whether specific management interventions and success factors were seen to promote leader integrity, and the extent to which their managers were seen to act with integrity. These employees worked in the public and private sectors across South Africa, and a final sample size of 606 respondents was achieved. The empirical results of the study revealed that management interventions and success factors were seen to promote leader integrity. However, due to high levels of inconsistency in the responses received it was recommended that a clearer link needs to be created in terms of how the success factors and interventions promote leader integrity. The empirical study further revealed that South African leaders were seen to act with integrity, more especially not to engage in acts of extreme negative deviance such as theft or sabotage, but that there was room for improvement as there were employees who reported moderate and low levels of integrity among their managers. Together with the literature review the empirical study contributed towards the development of a model and a framework for the promotion of leader integrity across the HRM value chain. South African leaders have a crucial role to play in promoting not only the moral fibre of the organisations that they represent, but also in contributing positively to moral regeneration at both a national and a global level through effective and integrity-based organisational governance. This is achieved through adopting an integrated, strategic and holistic approach to the promotion of leader integrity as proposed in this study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Productivity and resilience of intertidal resources available to extant human foragers on South Africa’s cape south coast: behavioural implications for early Homo sapiens
- Authors: De Vynck, Jan Carlo
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Marine invertebrates -- South Africa -- Prehistory , Shellfish -- South Africa -- Prehistory Fishes -- Behavior
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/30172 , vital:30854
- Description: Studies of pre-historic lifestyles can be limited by a lack of preserved material and sites and resource misinterpretation is augmented by the vagueness of pre-historic subsistence lifestyles. The present can inform the past and this study‟s ethnoarchaeological approach, through modern analogues, examines productivity, resilience and temporal and spatial size variation of intertidal invertebrates on the Cape‟s south coast. O‟Connell (1995) defined the mutualistic relationship between ethnography and archaeology thus: “Archaeology‟s ultimate aim is understanding past human behaviour by patterns in the form and distribution of objects made or modified by humans in the past and knowledge of human behaviour and its material consequences in the present. The first provides direct evidence of past behaviour; the second, a basis for interpreting that evidence”. Coastal archaeology, specifically the contribution of coastal resources to pre-historic subsistence, has gained increased global interest (Erlandson, 2001; Erlandson and Rick, 2008; Codding et al., 2014). Apart from the high representation of preserved shell in coastal archaeological sites, interest in intertidal resources has also been sparked by their economic value compared to terrestrial resource options. Intertidal resources offer low-risk protein acquisition whereas terrestrial protein can be dangerous to procure. However, in the past intertidal subsistence was thought to offer low caloric yields or unfavourable cost-to-benefit relationships until Meehan (1982) convincingly demonstrated the potential caloric „profit‟ possible from coastal foraging; the Anbarra women of northern Australia were contributing significantly to the overall caloric requirements of those people. In South Africa, two possible evolutionary behavioural hypotheses arose from the addition of intertidal resources to pre-historic diets. As background, it is important to note that the oldest global evidence for shellfish procurement [164 000 years ago (ka)] is found on the Cape‟s south coast (Jerardino and Marean, 2010) and the evidence is enriched by other sites from around 110 ka (Voight, 1973; Thackeray, 1988; Henshilwood et al., 2001; Langejans et al., 2012). Furthermore, this period coincides with the emergence of cognitively modern Homo sapiens as evidenced in xx the palaeoarchives from many sites in the region (d‟Errico et al., 2005; Marean et al., 2007; Wurz, 2008; Henshilwood et al., 2009; Watts, 2010; d‟Errico et al., 2012). These features have greatly enhanced the significance and importance of this area to understanding human evolution. The two hypotheses are centred around the effect that intertidal resources could have had on the emergence of our unique species. The addition of a nutritionally beneficial resource to cognitive development is seen by some (Broadhurst et al., 2002; Parkington, 2010) to have driven this cognitive evolution, where others suggest that resources which are both productive and dependable create pro-social proclivities that drive cognitive development (Whitaker and Byrd, 2014; Marean, 2014) and facilitate the migration of humans (Fa, 2008; Codding et al., 2014). Both hypotheses argue that resources on the Cape‟s coast must have been productive and had to be a frequent addition to diet to underpin brain development. The increased frequency of coastal resource procurement or coastal adaptation is therefore seen as an attribute of, or requisite for our species. This thesis attempts to shed light on the contribution of intertidal resources to prehistoric ‒ especially Middle Stone Age (MSA) – subsistence economy on the Cape‟s south coast and the possible effect thereof on human behavioural evolution. The first aim was to investigate the spatial productivity (once-off patch caloric profitability in numerous patches) of intertidal resources and the environmental and behavioural variables affecting it. The second aim was to investigate the resilience of caloric profitability (numerous harvests in the same patch) of these resources to sustained human predation. Productivity itself cannot affect human temporal social dynamics if the resource is swiftly depleted within a specific patch after one or a few harvests. Archaeological records that show the body size of shellfish decreasing over time are usually interpreted to indicate intensive exploitation and the depletion of these resources, but there may be other explanations for such patterns. Therefore, the third aim was to compare temporal and spatial variations in the body size of Turbo sarmaticus in the MSA, Later Stone Age (LSA) and the present day, in order to investigate whether such variations result from human exploitation or environmental changes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: De Vynck, Jan Carlo
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Marine invertebrates -- South Africa -- Prehistory , Shellfish -- South Africa -- Prehistory Fishes -- Behavior
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/30172 , vital:30854
- Description: Studies of pre-historic lifestyles can be limited by a lack of preserved material and sites and resource misinterpretation is augmented by the vagueness of pre-historic subsistence lifestyles. The present can inform the past and this study‟s ethnoarchaeological approach, through modern analogues, examines productivity, resilience and temporal and spatial size variation of intertidal invertebrates on the Cape‟s south coast. O‟Connell (1995) defined the mutualistic relationship between ethnography and archaeology thus: “Archaeology‟s ultimate aim is understanding past human behaviour by patterns in the form and distribution of objects made or modified by humans in the past and knowledge of human behaviour and its material consequences in the present. The first provides direct evidence of past behaviour; the second, a basis for interpreting that evidence”. Coastal archaeology, specifically the contribution of coastal resources to pre-historic subsistence, has gained increased global interest (Erlandson, 2001; Erlandson and Rick, 2008; Codding et al., 2014). Apart from the high representation of preserved shell in coastal archaeological sites, interest in intertidal resources has also been sparked by their economic value compared to terrestrial resource options. Intertidal resources offer low-risk protein acquisition whereas terrestrial protein can be dangerous to procure. However, in the past intertidal subsistence was thought to offer low caloric yields or unfavourable cost-to-benefit relationships until Meehan (1982) convincingly demonstrated the potential caloric „profit‟ possible from coastal foraging; the Anbarra women of northern Australia were contributing significantly to the overall caloric requirements of those people. In South Africa, two possible evolutionary behavioural hypotheses arose from the addition of intertidal resources to pre-historic diets. As background, it is important to note that the oldest global evidence for shellfish procurement [164 000 years ago (ka)] is found on the Cape‟s south coast (Jerardino and Marean, 2010) and the evidence is enriched by other sites from around 110 ka (Voight, 1973; Thackeray, 1988; Henshilwood et al., 2001; Langejans et al., 2012). Furthermore, this period coincides with the emergence of cognitively modern Homo sapiens as evidenced in xx the palaeoarchives from many sites in the region (d‟Errico et al., 2005; Marean et al., 2007; Wurz, 2008; Henshilwood et al., 2009; Watts, 2010; d‟Errico et al., 2012). These features have greatly enhanced the significance and importance of this area to understanding human evolution. The two hypotheses are centred around the effect that intertidal resources could have had on the emergence of our unique species. The addition of a nutritionally beneficial resource to cognitive development is seen by some (Broadhurst et al., 2002; Parkington, 2010) to have driven this cognitive evolution, where others suggest that resources which are both productive and dependable create pro-social proclivities that drive cognitive development (Whitaker and Byrd, 2014; Marean, 2014) and facilitate the migration of humans (Fa, 2008; Codding et al., 2014). Both hypotheses argue that resources on the Cape‟s coast must have been productive and had to be a frequent addition to diet to underpin brain development. The increased frequency of coastal resource procurement or coastal adaptation is therefore seen as an attribute of, or requisite for our species. This thesis attempts to shed light on the contribution of intertidal resources to prehistoric ‒ especially Middle Stone Age (MSA) – subsistence economy on the Cape‟s south coast and the possible effect thereof on human behavioural evolution. The first aim was to investigate the spatial productivity (once-off patch caloric profitability in numerous patches) of intertidal resources and the environmental and behavioural variables affecting it. The second aim was to investigate the resilience of caloric profitability (numerous harvests in the same patch) of these resources to sustained human predation. Productivity itself cannot affect human temporal social dynamics if the resource is swiftly depleted within a specific patch after one or a few harvests. Archaeological records that show the body size of shellfish decreasing over time are usually interpreted to indicate intensive exploitation and the depletion of these resources, but there may be other explanations for such patterns. Therefore, the third aim was to compare temporal and spatial variations in the body size of Turbo sarmaticus in the MSA, Later Stone Age (LSA) and the present day, in order to investigate whether such variations result from human exploitation or environmental changes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
Resilience and attachment as mediators impacting upon the psychosocial sequelae of unwanted early sexual experiences
- Defferary,Tanya Elizabeth Michele
- Authors: Defferary,Tanya Elizabeth Michele
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Resilience (Personality trait) Child sexual abuse , Attachment behaviour , Psychotherapy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/12494 , vital:27074
- Description: Unwanted early sexual experiences (UESE) are traumatic experiences that many children worldwide are exposed to on a daily basis. Some of these victims struggle to adapt to life, whereas others become survivors, exhibiting post-traumatic growth after such an experience. South Africa has some of the highest UESE prevalence rates in the world, highlighting the importance of research conducted within this field in the country. With an overarching psychofortogenic framework, and through the implementation of a convergent parallel mixed methods research design, the study explored and described whether resilience and attachment act as mediators impacting upon the psychosocial sequelae which a UESE survivor might experience. The study was divided into three phases. Phase 1 consisted of a small-scale survey design which was conducted with 304 participants while Phase 2 consisted of nine semi-structure interviews with UESE survivors, who were volunteers from the original sample. Finally, Phase 3 provided an integrated summary of the findings from the first two phases. During Phase 1 significant findings relating to the survivors of UESE, their levels of resilience and attachment relationships were outlined. Of the total sample, 32.43% males and 30.5% females indicated that they had been exposed to a UESE. Most of the perpetrators were known to the survivors with friends being identified as the most common perpetrators. Parental relationships characterised by trust, open communication and less alienation were found to impact upon the degree to which participants reported being bothered by the UESE. Furthermore, parental alienation at the time of the UESE had a significantly negative impact on the survivors’ adult relationship styles. During Phase 2 a number of themes emerged including the manner of disclosure, reasons for delayed disclosure, relationship to the confidant, confidant’s response to disclosure, effects of the response to disclosure, the impact of the UESE upon the survivor, impact of the UESE on relationships, coping/resilience, advice to professionals, the confidant, and the survivor. The final phase confirmed the research hypothesis that resilience and attachment act as mediating factors impacting upon a variety of psychosocial sequelae which a UESE survivor might experience. Serendipitously, disclosure was found to be a mediating factor, securing a significant role within the study. In conclusion a future intervention titled ‘Post-Traumatic Growth: A UESE model of Disclosure, Resilience and Attachment’, was outlined, based on the study’s findings.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Defferary,Tanya Elizabeth Michele
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Resilience (Personality trait) Child sexual abuse , Attachment behaviour , Psychotherapy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/12494 , vital:27074
- Description: Unwanted early sexual experiences (UESE) are traumatic experiences that many children worldwide are exposed to on a daily basis. Some of these victims struggle to adapt to life, whereas others become survivors, exhibiting post-traumatic growth after such an experience. South Africa has some of the highest UESE prevalence rates in the world, highlighting the importance of research conducted within this field in the country. With an overarching psychofortogenic framework, and through the implementation of a convergent parallel mixed methods research design, the study explored and described whether resilience and attachment act as mediators impacting upon the psychosocial sequelae which a UESE survivor might experience. The study was divided into three phases. Phase 1 consisted of a small-scale survey design which was conducted with 304 participants while Phase 2 consisted of nine semi-structure interviews with UESE survivors, who were volunteers from the original sample. Finally, Phase 3 provided an integrated summary of the findings from the first two phases. During Phase 1 significant findings relating to the survivors of UESE, their levels of resilience and attachment relationships were outlined. Of the total sample, 32.43% males and 30.5% females indicated that they had been exposed to a UESE. Most of the perpetrators were known to the survivors with friends being identified as the most common perpetrators. Parental relationships characterised by trust, open communication and less alienation were found to impact upon the degree to which participants reported being bothered by the UESE. Furthermore, parental alienation at the time of the UESE had a significantly negative impact on the survivors’ adult relationship styles. During Phase 2 a number of themes emerged including the manner of disclosure, reasons for delayed disclosure, relationship to the confidant, confidant’s response to disclosure, effects of the response to disclosure, the impact of the UESE upon the survivor, impact of the UESE on relationships, coping/resilience, advice to professionals, the confidant, and the survivor. The final phase confirmed the research hypothesis that resilience and attachment act as mediating factors impacting upon a variety of psychosocial sequelae which a UESE survivor might experience. Serendipitously, disclosure was found to be a mediating factor, securing a significant role within the study. In conclusion a future intervention titled ‘Post-Traumatic Growth: A UESE model of Disclosure, Resilience and Attachment’, was outlined, based on the study’s findings.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
On the development of ZnO nanorods on silicon substrate for light-emitting diode applications
- Djiokap, Stive Roussel Tankio
- Authors: Djiokap, Stive Roussel Tankio
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Zinc oxide , Chemical reactions , Compound semiconductors
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/29973 , vital:30802
- Description: The interest in zinc oxide (ZnO), a promising material for blue/ultraviolet light emitting devices, arises from its large exciton binding energy (60 meV). The main challenge associated with this promising compound semiconductor, however, arises from the difficulty to achieve stable and/or reproducible p-type doping. Since silicon (Si) technology still dominates the semiconductor industry, the objective of this thesis is to probe into the possibility of using ZnO nanorods (NRs) on p-type silicon for opto-electronic devices. ZnO NRs have been grown on seeded Si, as well as on nickel oxide (NiO) and aluminum nitride (AlN) coated Si, using a two-step chemical bath deposition (CBD) process. Various techniques, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), have been used to characterize the samples. The electrical characteristics of the heterojunction between the substrate and the ZnO nanostructures were evaluated by current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements. SEM and XRD studies have confirmed that, irrespective of the orientation of the Si substrate (Si (100) and Si (111)), the two-step CBD process yielded NRs that crystallised in the wurtzite structure and exhibited a hexagonal shape. Most of the rods developed perpendicularly to the surface of the substrate, with the orientation and distribution of the rods dictated by the seed layer density. Similarly, irrespective of the substrate, the luminescence of the ZnO nanostructures is dominated by near band edge (NBE) emission in the UV region (~ 3.29 eV) and deep level emission (DLE) in the visible region (2 eV to 2.6 eV). Annealing at moderate temperatures (~ 300 °C) increased the NBE emission and decreased the DLE. The removal of surface adsorbed impurities and enhanced defect passivation by hydrogen are responsible for these changes. The diode characteristics of the ZnO/Si heterojunction was studied by I-V and C-V measurements. Rectification was observed when the Si substrate had a relatively low acceptor density of ~1016 cm-3, while diodes produced on substrate with p ~1018 cm-3 were ohmic. From the C-V analysis the donor density in the ZnO was deduced to be ~1018 cm-3. In the case of rectifying junctions, thermionic emission did not dominate the charge transport. The carrier transport mechanism was therefore probed by the temperature dependent I-V xiii measurements (100 K to 295 K). Defect-assisted multistep tunneling was deduced to dominate in the n-ZnO/p-Si diodes at low forward bias. The band alignment between n-ZnO and p-Si predicts a much smaller barrier for electrons than for holes at the interface, which results in recombination on the Si side of the junction for a forward-biased diode. NiO intermediate layers (formed on Si by the thermal oxidation of Ni) were used to reduce electron injection from ZnO into Si. Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) and XRD analysis showed that while the grain size of the poly-crystalline NiO increased with NiO film thickness, the orientation and distribution of the subsequently grown ZnO nanorods were unaffected by the underlying NiO layer. Also, the photoluminescence response of the ZnO rods remained unchanged. I-V measurements did illustrate rectifying behaviour, with both the forward and reverse currents strongly decreased due to the resistive nature of the NiO. In another attempt at confining electrons to the ZnO side of the junction, AlN-coated Si (111) was used as a substrate for ZnO nanorods. CBD parameters that normally yield nanorods resulted in a plate-like architecture of the ZnO. By modifying the ZnO seed density on the AlN/Si substrate, the rod-like morphology could be recovered. Both the forward and reverse current decreased in these diodes. From studies aimed at identifying the transport mechanism it was concluded that trap-assisted tunnelling, resulting from a high density of defects in the seed layer, dominates in these devices. In conclusion, while no ZnO electroluminescence could be achieved from any of the devices, this study provides insight into the transport mechanisms in n-ZnO/barrier/p-Si heterostructures and highlights the importance of the heterointerface quality for light emitting devices.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Djiokap, Stive Roussel Tankio
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Zinc oxide , Chemical reactions , Compound semiconductors
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/29973 , vital:30802
- Description: The interest in zinc oxide (ZnO), a promising material for blue/ultraviolet light emitting devices, arises from its large exciton binding energy (60 meV). The main challenge associated with this promising compound semiconductor, however, arises from the difficulty to achieve stable and/or reproducible p-type doping. Since silicon (Si) technology still dominates the semiconductor industry, the objective of this thesis is to probe into the possibility of using ZnO nanorods (NRs) on p-type silicon for opto-electronic devices. ZnO NRs have been grown on seeded Si, as well as on nickel oxide (NiO) and aluminum nitride (AlN) coated Si, using a two-step chemical bath deposition (CBD) process. Various techniques, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), have been used to characterize the samples. The electrical characteristics of the heterojunction between the substrate and the ZnO nanostructures were evaluated by current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements. SEM and XRD studies have confirmed that, irrespective of the orientation of the Si substrate (Si (100) and Si (111)), the two-step CBD process yielded NRs that crystallised in the wurtzite structure and exhibited a hexagonal shape. Most of the rods developed perpendicularly to the surface of the substrate, with the orientation and distribution of the rods dictated by the seed layer density. Similarly, irrespective of the substrate, the luminescence of the ZnO nanostructures is dominated by near band edge (NBE) emission in the UV region (~ 3.29 eV) and deep level emission (DLE) in the visible region (2 eV to 2.6 eV). Annealing at moderate temperatures (~ 300 °C) increased the NBE emission and decreased the DLE. The removal of surface adsorbed impurities and enhanced defect passivation by hydrogen are responsible for these changes. The diode characteristics of the ZnO/Si heterojunction was studied by I-V and C-V measurements. Rectification was observed when the Si substrate had a relatively low acceptor density of ~1016 cm-3, while diodes produced on substrate with p ~1018 cm-3 were ohmic. From the C-V analysis the donor density in the ZnO was deduced to be ~1018 cm-3. In the case of rectifying junctions, thermionic emission did not dominate the charge transport. The carrier transport mechanism was therefore probed by the temperature dependent I-V xiii measurements (100 K to 295 K). Defect-assisted multistep tunneling was deduced to dominate in the n-ZnO/p-Si diodes at low forward bias. The band alignment between n-ZnO and p-Si predicts a much smaller barrier for electrons than for holes at the interface, which results in recombination on the Si side of the junction for a forward-biased diode. NiO intermediate layers (formed on Si by the thermal oxidation of Ni) were used to reduce electron injection from ZnO into Si. Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) and XRD analysis showed that while the grain size of the poly-crystalline NiO increased with NiO film thickness, the orientation and distribution of the subsequently grown ZnO nanorods were unaffected by the underlying NiO layer. Also, the photoluminescence response of the ZnO rods remained unchanged. I-V measurements did illustrate rectifying behaviour, with both the forward and reverse currents strongly decreased due to the resistive nature of the NiO. In another attempt at confining electrons to the ZnO side of the junction, AlN-coated Si (111) was used as a substrate for ZnO nanorods. CBD parameters that normally yield nanorods resulted in a plate-like architecture of the ZnO. By modifying the ZnO seed density on the AlN/Si substrate, the rod-like morphology could be recovered. Both the forward and reverse current decreased in these diodes. From studies aimed at identifying the transport mechanism it was concluded that trap-assisted tunnelling, resulting from a high density of defects in the seed layer, dominates in these devices. In conclusion, while no ZnO electroluminescence could be achieved from any of the devices, this study provides insight into the transport mechanisms in n-ZnO/barrier/p-Si heterostructures and highlights the importance of the heterointerface quality for light emitting devices.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
Data transport over optical fibre for ska using advanced modulation flexible spectrum technology
- Authors: Dlamini, Phumla Patience
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Fiber optics
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/50666 , vital:42329
- Description: Flexible Spectrum Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexed (DWDM) optical fibre networks are next-generation technology for handling extremely high data rates of the kind produced by MeerKAT and SKA.We optimise the flexible spectrum for real-time dynamic channel wavelength assignment, to ensure optimum network performance. We needed to identify and develop novel hardware and dynamic algorithms for these networks to function optimally to perform critical tasks. Such tasks include wavelength assignment, signal routing, network restoration and network protection. The antennas of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) network connect to the correlator and data processor in a simple point-to-point fixed configuration. The connection of the astronomer users to the data processor, however, requires a more complex network architecture. This is because the network has users scattered around South Africa, Africa and the whole world. This calls for upgrade of the classical fixed wavelength spectrum grids, to flexible spectrum grid that has improved capacity, reliable, simple and cost-effectiveness through sharing of network infrastructure. The exponential growth of data traffic in current optical communication networks requires higher capacity for the bandwidth demands at a reduced cost per bit. All-optical signal processing is a promising technique to improve network resource utilisation and resolve wavelength contention associated with the flexible spectrum. Flexible Spectrum Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexed (DWDM) optical fibre networks are next-generation technology for handling extremely high data rates of the kind produced by MeerKAT and SKA. Each DWDM channel is capable of 10 Gbps transmission rate, which is sliceable into finer flexible grid 12.5 GHz granularity to offer the network elastic spectrum and channel spacing capable of signal routing and wavelength switching for the scalability of aggregate bandwidth. The variable-sized portions of the flexible spectrum assignment to end users at different speeds depend on bandwidth demand, allowing efficient utilisation of the spectrum resources. The entire bandwidth of dynamic optical connections must be contiguously allocated. However, there is an introduction of spectrum fragmentation due to spectrum contiguity related to the optical channels having different width. Thus large traffic demands are likely to experience blocking regardless of available bandwidth. To minimise the congestion and cost-effectively obtain high performance, the optical network must be reconfigurable, achievable by adding wavelength as an extra degree of freedom for effectiveness. This can introduce colourless, directionless and contentionless reconfigurability to route individual wavelengths from fibre to fibre across multiple nodes to avoid wavelength blocking/collisions, increasing the flexibility and capacity of a network. For these networks to function optimally, novel hardware and dynamic algorithms identification and development is a critical task. Such tasks include wavelength assignment, signal routing, network restoration and network protection. In this work, we for the first time to our knowledge proposed a spectrum defragmentation technique through reallocation of the central frequency of the optical transmitter, to increase the probability of finding a sufficient continuous spectrum. This is to improve network resource utilisation, capacity and resolve wavelength contention associated with a flexible spectrum in optical communication networks. The following chapter provides details on a flexible spectrum in optical fibre networks utilising DWDM, optimising transmitter-receivers, advanced modulation formats, coherent detection, reconfigurable optical add and drop multiplexer (ROADM) technology to implement hardware and middleware platforms which address growing bandwidth demands for scalability, flexibility and cost-efficiency. A major attribute is tunable lasers, an essential component for future flexible spectrum with application to wavelength switching, routing, wavelength conversion and ROADM for the multi-node optical network through spectrum flexibility and cost-effective sharing of fibre links, transmitters and receivers. Spectrum slicing into fine granular sub-carriers and assigning several frequency slots to accommodate diverse traffic demands is a viable approach. This work experimentally presents a spectral efficient technique for bandwidth variability, wavelength allocation, routing, defragmentation and wavelength selective switches in the nodes of a network, capable of removing the fixed grid spacing using low cost, high bandwidth, power-efficient and wavelength-tunable vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) transmitter directly modulated with 10 Gbps data. This to ensure that majority of the spectrum utilisation at finer channel spacing, wastage of the spectrum resource as caused by the wavelength continuity constraint reduction and it improves bandwidth utilisation. The technique is flexible in terms of modulation formats and accommodates various formats with spectrally continuous channels, fulfilling the future bandwidth demands with transmissions beyond 100 Gbps per channel while maintaining spectral efficiency.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Dlamini, Phumla Patience
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Fiber optics
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/50666 , vital:42329
- Description: Flexible Spectrum Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexed (DWDM) optical fibre networks are next-generation technology for handling extremely high data rates of the kind produced by MeerKAT and SKA.We optimise the flexible spectrum for real-time dynamic channel wavelength assignment, to ensure optimum network performance. We needed to identify and develop novel hardware and dynamic algorithms for these networks to function optimally to perform critical tasks. Such tasks include wavelength assignment, signal routing, network restoration and network protection. The antennas of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) network connect to the correlator and data processor in a simple point-to-point fixed configuration. The connection of the astronomer users to the data processor, however, requires a more complex network architecture. This is because the network has users scattered around South Africa, Africa and the whole world. This calls for upgrade of the classical fixed wavelength spectrum grids, to flexible spectrum grid that has improved capacity, reliable, simple and cost-effectiveness through sharing of network infrastructure. The exponential growth of data traffic in current optical communication networks requires higher capacity for the bandwidth demands at a reduced cost per bit. All-optical signal processing is a promising technique to improve network resource utilisation and resolve wavelength contention associated with the flexible spectrum. Flexible Spectrum Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexed (DWDM) optical fibre networks are next-generation technology for handling extremely high data rates of the kind produced by MeerKAT and SKA. Each DWDM channel is capable of 10 Gbps transmission rate, which is sliceable into finer flexible grid 12.5 GHz granularity to offer the network elastic spectrum and channel spacing capable of signal routing and wavelength switching for the scalability of aggregate bandwidth. The variable-sized portions of the flexible spectrum assignment to end users at different speeds depend on bandwidth demand, allowing efficient utilisation of the spectrum resources. The entire bandwidth of dynamic optical connections must be contiguously allocated. However, there is an introduction of spectrum fragmentation due to spectrum contiguity related to the optical channels having different width. Thus large traffic demands are likely to experience blocking regardless of available bandwidth. To minimise the congestion and cost-effectively obtain high performance, the optical network must be reconfigurable, achievable by adding wavelength as an extra degree of freedom for effectiveness. This can introduce colourless, directionless and contentionless reconfigurability to route individual wavelengths from fibre to fibre across multiple nodes to avoid wavelength blocking/collisions, increasing the flexibility and capacity of a network. For these networks to function optimally, novel hardware and dynamic algorithms identification and development is a critical task. Such tasks include wavelength assignment, signal routing, network restoration and network protection. In this work, we for the first time to our knowledge proposed a spectrum defragmentation technique through reallocation of the central frequency of the optical transmitter, to increase the probability of finding a sufficient continuous spectrum. This is to improve network resource utilisation, capacity and resolve wavelength contention associated with a flexible spectrum in optical communication networks. The following chapter provides details on a flexible spectrum in optical fibre networks utilising DWDM, optimising transmitter-receivers, advanced modulation formats, coherent detection, reconfigurable optical add and drop multiplexer (ROADM) technology to implement hardware and middleware platforms which address growing bandwidth demands for scalability, flexibility and cost-efficiency. A major attribute is tunable lasers, an essential component for future flexible spectrum with application to wavelength switching, routing, wavelength conversion and ROADM for the multi-node optical network through spectrum flexibility and cost-effective sharing of fibre links, transmitters and receivers. Spectrum slicing into fine granular sub-carriers and assigning several frequency slots to accommodate diverse traffic demands is a viable approach. This work experimentally presents a spectral efficient technique for bandwidth variability, wavelength allocation, routing, defragmentation and wavelength selective switches in the nodes of a network, capable of removing the fixed grid spacing using low cost, high bandwidth, power-efficient and wavelength-tunable vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) transmitter directly modulated with 10 Gbps data. This to ensure that majority of the spectrum utilisation at finer channel spacing, wastage of the spectrum resource as caused by the wavelength continuity constraint reduction and it improves bandwidth utilisation. The technique is flexible in terms of modulation formats and accommodates various formats with spectrally continuous channels, fulfilling the future bandwidth demands with transmissions beyond 100 Gbps per channel while maintaining spectral efficiency.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
From song to literary texts : a study of the influence of isiXhosa lyrics on selected isiXhosa texts
- Authors: Dlepu, Siziwe Everrette
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- Songs and music -- Texts , Folk songs, Xhosa -- South Africa , Xhosa (African people) -- Music , Xhosa -- Music
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: vital:8460 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/943 , Xhosa (African people) -- Songs and music -- Texts , Folk songs, Xhosa -- South Africa , Xhosa (African people) -- Music , Xhosa -- Music
- Description: Songs play a vital role in the everyday life of the AmaXhosa. Each and every occasion or gathering is accompanied by singing. Their anger or pain, sorrow or joy is reflected in their singing. Although these songs are composed for social purposes and entertainment, they are also educational. Songs may be composed and sung to comment on political affairs, complain against the abuse of power by the authorities, declare war, protest, praise a hero, encourage working together and ridicule the foolishness of someone. Vocabulary and diction used in the composition of these songs, relays the message in a clever and witty style. Since the AmaXhosa are intellectuals, irony and satire are used. The satirical or ironical songs hide the meaning and the listener must unravel the real meaning. AmaXhosa singing, chanting and dancing is accompanied by instruments. These instruments add more rhythm to the dance.The AmaXhosa use anything at their disposal when carving their instruments. Their songs may be accompanied by the beating of cow-hide drums, blowing of reed-pipe whistles, animal horns, beating of sticks and hand-clapping. The most important instrument the AmaXhosa use is the human voice. They are experts in humming, gruff singing and whistling. The songs of the AmaXhosa encourage togetherness. When one composes a song, one does not express one’s own feelings, but also the feelings of the community. The AmaXhosa songs are about participation so group singing and dancing is encouraged. Everyone participates either by singing, dancing or clapping. x Respect is the central core of the AmaXhosa songs. That is why the songs are composed according to age groups and sex. Instruments are also used according to ages and sex. Written texts are also a tool to educate the reader. The writers have decided to include songs in their writings to act as a form of entertainment and education. Although some songs lack the hallmarks of a traditional song, they communicate the idea or relay the message the writer wants to convey to the reader. Terms: Mock enconuim, the grotesque and the principle of beautiful deformity, anaphoric construction, diction and connotation, authorial comments, the mask-persona form, usurping of authority and reduction of traditional status.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
From song to literary texts : a study of the influence of isiXhosa lyrics on selected isiXhosa texts
- Authors: Dlepu, Siziwe Everrette
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- Songs and music -- Texts , Folk songs, Xhosa -- South Africa , Xhosa (African people) -- Music , Xhosa -- Music
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: vital:8460 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/943 , Xhosa (African people) -- Songs and music -- Texts , Folk songs, Xhosa -- South Africa , Xhosa (African people) -- Music , Xhosa -- Music
- Description: Songs play a vital role in the everyday life of the AmaXhosa. Each and every occasion or gathering is accompanied by singing. Their anger or pain, sorrow or joy is reflected in their singing. Although these songs are composed for social purposes and entertainment, they are also educational. Songs may be composed and sung to comment on political affairs, complain against the abuse of power by the authorities, declare war, protest, praise a hero, encourage working together and ridicule the foolishness of someone. Vocabulary and diction used in the composition of these songs, relays the message in a clever and witty style. Since the AmaXhosa are intellectuals, irony and satire are used. The satirical or ironical songs hide the meaning and the listener must unravel the real meaning. AmaXhosa singing, chanting and dancing is accompanied by instruments. These instruments add more rhythm to the dance.The AmaXhosa use anything at their disposal when carving their instruments. Their songs may be accompanied by the beating of cow-hide drums, blowing of reed-pipe whistles, animal horns, beating of sticks and hand-clapping. The most important instrument the AmaXhosa use is the human voice. They are experts in humming, gruff singing and whistling. The songs of the AmaXhosa encourage togetherness. When one composes a song, one does not express one’s own feelings, but also the feelings of the community. The AmaXhosa songs are about participation so group singing and dancing is encouraged. Everyone participates either by singing, dancing or clapping. x Respect is the central core of the AmaXhosa songs. That is why the songs are composed according to age groups and sex. Instruments are also used according to ages and sex. Written texts are also a tool to educate the reader. The writers have decided to include songs in their writings to act as a form of entertainment and education. Although some songs lack the hallmarks of a traditional song, they communicate the idea or relay the message the writer wants to convey to the reader. Terms: Mock enconuim, the grotesque and the principle of beautiful deformity, anaphoric construction, diction and connotation, authorial comments, the mask-persona form, usurping of authority and reduction of traditional status.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
Development of MOVPE-grown InAsSb for barrier diode applications
- Authors: Dobson, Stephen R
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Gallium arsenide semiconductors , Electronics
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/49071 , vital:41598
- Description: In this study, layers of GaSb, InAs and InAsSb are grown by metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy and characterised. Growth is conducted using the precursors of trimethylgallium, trimethylindium, trimethylantimony and tertiarybutylarsine. Focus is then placed on the characterisation of the materials, carried out by the techniques of X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence spectroscopy, Hall measurements and photocurrent spectroscopy. It is observed that V/III ratio plays a vital role in the growth of the GaSb and InAsSb layers. Epilayers of GaSb showed best crystalline quality when a V/III ratio of 1.2 was used at a growth temperature of 600 °C and a cell pressure of 600 Torr. Resultant Hall measurements indicated p-type GaSb. The Hall carrier concentrations of the p-type GaSb samples were analyzed considering electrical neutrality conditions and found to be highly compensated with evidence of band impurity conduction at low measurement temperatures. Both the donor and acceptor concentrations were determined to be of the order of 1016 cm−3 for all samples. For low temperature (< 150 K) a monovalent acceptor concentration is calculated to have an activation energy at approximately 20 meV. At high temperature (> 150 K) a divalent acceptor is extracted with an activation energy varying between samples based on compensation in a range of 90 meV to 70 meV. Photoluminescence measurements show four peaks with recombination mechanisms linked to the native acceptor identified in literature as either the gallium antisite and/or vacant gallium site. A fifth peak observed is attributed to the longitudinal phonon of the native acceptor. InAs and InAsSb epilayer are all grown at a temperature of 600 °C and cell pressure of 600 Torr. InAs is grown at a V/III ratio of 9.5 on GaAs substrate. Photoluminescence of the InAs layer shows two distinct peaks, one of which is an extrinsic band to band recombination. The other is attributed to free electron to acceptor or a donor-acceptor pair transition. An additional weak peak is also observed which is assigned to the longitudinal phonon of the band to band. InAsSb growth was conducted under a range of V/III ratios of 4.8 to 5, with a vapour phase composition of 0.4 to 0.435. Structural analysis via X-ray diffraction showed a 6 % to 12 % solid antimony content. Photoluminescence exhibited a single broad peak for all samples, with extended band tails. Temperature and power dependant analysis of luminescence indicated a convolution of extrinsic band to tail and band to band recombinations. Hall measurements indicated the InAsSb was n-type material with an apparent measured maximum mobility at 120 K of 9.5 × 103 cm2/V.s. and a room temperature apparent mobility of 7.5 × 103 cm2/V.s. Analysis of hall results using a two-layer model calculated a true bulk mobility of the epilayer at room temperature with an increased value of 15.4 × 103 cm2/V.s. The two-layer model details the effects of the surface conduction. From photoconductivity measurements and further analysis a resultant effective lifetime, at room temperature, was found to be on same order of magnitude as that of InAs materials. Application of a single Einstein oscillator extrapolated 0 K energy gaps for two samples of solid Sb contents of 6 % and 12 %, of 354 meV and 332 meV, respectively. Finally consideration was given to the growth of aluminium containing compounds, particularly AlGaSb. Multiple phases were observed under scanning electron microscope showing growth of GaSb regions surrounded by amorphous solid aluminium and/or aluminium oxide phases. The failure of the aluminium to incorporate into the desired crystal structure is speculated to be due to impure precursor introducing oxygen into the films. Additionally, the effectiveness of the gallium precursor compared to the aluminium precursor in helping the removal of the methyl groups at the growth surface, could also promote a preference for GaSb growth.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Dobson, Stephen R
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Gallium arsenide semiconductors , Electronics
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/49071 , vital:41598
- Description: In this study, layers of GaSb, InAs and InAsSb are grown by metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy and characterised. Growth is conducted using the precursors of trimethylgallium, trimethylindium, trimethylantimony and tertiarybutylarsine. Focus is then placed on the characterisation of the materials, carried out by the techniques of X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence spectroscopy, Hall measurements and photocurrent spectroscopy. It is observed that V/III ratio plays a vital role in the growth of the GaSb and InAsSb layers. Epilayers of GaSb showed best crystalline quality when a V/III ratio of 1.2 was used at a growth temperature of 600 °C and a cell pressure of 600 Torr. Resultant Hall measurements indicated p-type GaSb. The Hall carrier concentrations of the p-type GaSb samples were analyzed considering electrical neutrality conditions and found to be highly compensated with evidence of band impurity conduction at low measurement temperatures. Both the donor and acceptor concentrations were determined to be of the order of 1016 cm−3 for all samples. For low temperature (< 150 K) a monovalent acceptor concentration is calculated to have an activation energy at approximately 20 meV. At high temperature (> 150 K) a divalent acceptor is extracted with an activation energy varying between samples based on compensation in a range of 90 meV to 70 meV. Photoluminescence measurements show four peaks with recombination mechanisms linked to the native acceptor identified in literature as either the gallium antisite and/or vacant gallium site. A fifth peak observed is attributed to the longitudinal phonon of the native acceptor. InAs and InAsSb epilayer are all grown at a temperature of 600 °C and cell pressure of 600 Torr. InAs is grown at a V/III ratio of 9.5 on GaAs substrate. Photoluminescence of the InAs layer shows two distinct peaks, one of which is an extrinsic band to band recombination. The other is attributed to free electron to acceptor or a donor-acceptor pair transition. An additional weak peak is also observed which is assigned to the longitudinal phonon of the band to band. InAsSb growth was conducted under a range of V/III ratios of 4.8 to 5, with a vapour phase composition of 0.4 to 0.435. Structural analysis via X-ray diffraction showed a 6 % to 12 % solid antimony content. Photoluminescence exhibited a single broad peak for all samples, with extended band tails. Temperature and power dependant analysis of luminescence indicated a convolution of extrinsic band to tail and band to band recombinations. Hall measurements indicated the InAsSb was n-type material with an apparent measured maximum mobility at 120 K of 9.5 × 103 cm2/V.s. and a room temperature apparent mobility of 7.5 × 103 cm2/V.s. Analysis of hall results using a two-layer model calculated a true bulk mobility of the epilayer at room temperature with an increased value of 15.4 × 103 cm2/V.s. The two-layer model details the effects of the surface conduction. From photoconductivity measurements and further analysis a resultant effective lifetime, at room temperature, was found to be on same order of magnitude as that of InAs materials. Application of a single Einstein oscillator extrapolated 0 K energy gaps for two samples of solid Sb contents of 6 % and 12 %, of 354 meV and 332 meV, respectively. Finally consideration was given to the growth of aluminium containing compounds, particularly AlGaSb. Multiple phases were observed under scanning electron microscope showing growth of GaSb regions surrounded by amorphous solid aluminium and/or aluminium oxide phases. The failure of the aluminium to incorporate into the desired crystal structure is speculated to be due to impure precursor introducing oxygen into the films. Additionally, the effectiveness of the gallium precursor compared to the aluminium precursor in helping the removal of the methyl groups at the growth surface, could also promote a preference for GaSb growth.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Core self-evaluations, racial evaluation and learning amongst Zulu students at the university of Zululand
- Authors: Dodd Nicole Marguerite
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Zulu (African people) -- Ethnic identity , Self-evaluation , Ethnicity
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: vital:9879 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1008398 , Zulu (African people) -- Ethnic identity , Self-evaluation , Ethnicity
- Description: Core Self-Evaluations [CSE] are a person’s estimation of his/her own worth and ability (Judge & Scott 2009). This in turn, is related to Racial Evaluation which is a person’s internal evaluation of his/her racial identity (Diller, 2010). The Employment Equity Act (55 of 1998) makes provision for the employment of equity candidates who can acquire skills in a reasonable amount of time. This requires individuals to be able to learn and then achieve in outcomes-based assessment. Core Self-Evaluations and Racial Evaluation can have an impact on how individuals perceive themselves, and how they perform in education, training and development (Hanley & Noblit, 2009). This study explored the relationship between Core Self-Evaluation, Racial Evaluation, Learning and Outcomes-Based Assessment using an experimental design. The Core Self-Evaluation scores in this study (n=230) were consistent with levels found internationally (Broucek, 2005). There was positive Racial Evaluation, with a relationship existing between Racial Evaluation and Core Self-Evaluations. This means that part of a person’s identity as an individual is related to Racial Evaluation, with that Racial Evaluation being positive amongst young Zulu students at the University of Zululand. There was a statistically significant, but small correlation between Learning and Core Self- Evaluation and a relationship was also found between CSE and Outcomes-Based Assessment results. When Core Self-Evaluation is higher, Learning tends to be more likely. The same pattern does not hold for Outcomes-Based Assessment results. Among Zulu students, lower CSE is linked to improved Outcomes-Based Assessment results. Racial Evaluation has a small relationship with CSE. However, efforts to remedy apartheid may be directed towards socio-economic development and need not focus on boosting Racial Evaluation when it comes to young Zulu adults.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Dodd Nicole Marguerite
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Zulu (African people) -- Ethnic identity , Self-evaluation , Ethnicity
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: vital:9879 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1008398 , Zulu (African people) -- Ethnic identity , Self-evaluation , Ethnicity
- Description: Core Self-Evaluations [CSE] are a person’s estimation of his/her own worth and ability (Judge & Scott 2009). This in turn, is related to Racial Evaluation which is a person’s internal evaluation of his/her racial identity (Diller, 2010). The Employment Equity Act (55 of 1998) makes provision for the employment of equity candidates who can acquire skills in a reasonable amount of time. This requires individuals to be able to learn and then achieve in outcomes-based assessment. Core Self-Evaluations and Racial Evaluation can have an impact on how individuals perceive themselves, and how they perform in education, training and development (Hanley & Noblit, 2009). This study explored the relationship between Core Self-Evaluation, Racial Evaluation, Learning and Outcomes-Based Assessment using an experimental design. The Core Self-Evaluation scores in this study (n=230) were consistent with levels found internationally (Broucek, 2005). There was positive Racial Evaluation, with a relationship existing between Racial Evaluation and Core Self-Evaluations. This means that part of a person’s identity as an individual is related to Racial Evaluation, with that Racial Evaluation being positive amongst young Zulu students at the University of Zululand. There was a statistically significant, but small correlation between Learning and Core Self- Evaluation and a relationship was also found between CSE and Outcomes-Based Assessment results. When Core Self-Evaluation is higher, Learning tends to be more likely. The same pattern does not hold for Outcomes-Based Assessment results. Among Zulu students, lower CSE is linked to improved Outcomes-Based Assessment results. Racial Evaluation has a small relationship with CSE. However, efforts to remedy apartheid may be directed towards socio-economic development and need not focus on boosting Racial Evaluation when it comes to young Zulu adults.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
A critical evaluation of the quality of social development interventions with specific reference to social assistance
- Authors: Draai, Enaleen Enchella
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: South African Social Security Agency , Social security -- South Africa , Social service -- South Africa , Public welfare -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: vital:8277 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1016210
- Description: Citizens interact with government departments and agencies for public services and goods which lead to a service encounter between a public official and client. Various initiatives and policies have been developed and are being implemented in the public service to adopt a client-centred approach to service delivery. The White Paper on the Transformation of the Public Service of 1997, identifies the eight Batho Pele principles which sets the framework for implementation of service quality within the South African public service. Government departments are expected to implement measurable service standards to determine levels of service quality to be met that will define levels of client satisfaction with service provision. The assessment of the service encounter by the client informs perceived levels of satisfaction held. This assessment of service quality by clients is therefore value-laden, subjective and periodic. The study focused on the implementation of measures to create and maintain a clientcentric public service in South Africa that would lead to levels of client satisfaction with service quality. The study assessed the implementation and maintenance of service quality at the Social Security Agency of South African the Eastern Cape. The SASSA is responsible for the disbursement of various social grants to facilitate a quality of life as enshrined by the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of South Africa, 1996. The focus of the study was linked to beneficiary maintenance and customer care at SASSA. The study included three different sample groups namely the clients, officials engaged in grant administration and different levels of management which included senior management, district and area managers. The findings revealed that the SASSA has implemented numerous new programmes aimed at a client-centric approach to service delivery. Analysis of the findings revealed expectation as well performance gaps which indicated that officials do not comply with the protocols of the agency and the Batho Pele principles. The promised service standards specified within the SASSA Customer Care Charter is not being realised which fundamentally indicate inefficient and ineffective monitoring of compliance with norms and standards. A conclusion drawn therefore is that the human dignity of clients in search of socials assistance who chiefly constitute vulnerable groups is being infringed. Three key service quality dimensions are identified that needs intervention for improved service quality. These dimensions include tangibility, assurance and responsiveness of functional components identified in respect of nine themes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Draai, Enaleen Enchella
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: South African Social Security Agency , Social security -- South Africa , Social service -- South Africa , Public welfare -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: vital:8277 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1016210
- Description: Citizens interact with government departments and agencies for public services and goods which lead to a service encounter between a public official and client. Various initiatives and policies have been developed and are being implemented in the public service to adopt a client-centred approach to service delivery. The White Paper on the Transformation of the Public Service of 1997, identifies the eight Batho Pele principles which sets the framework for implementation of service quality within the South African public service. Government departments are expected to implement measurable service standards to determine levels of service quality to be met that will define levels of client satisfaction with service provision. The assessment of the service encounter by the client informs perceived levels of satisfaction held. This assessment of service quality by clients is therefore value-laden, subjective and periodic. The study focused on the implementation of measures to create and maintain a clientcentric public service in South Africa that would lead to levels of client satisfaction with service quality. The study assessed the implementation and maintenance of service quality at the Social Security Agency of South African the Eastern Cape. The SASSA is responsible for the disbursement of various social grants to facilitate a quality of life as enshrined by the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of South Africa, 1996. The focus of the study was linked to beneficiary maintenance and customer care at SASSA. The study included three different sample groups namely the clients, officials engaged in grant administration and different levels of management which included senior management, district and area managers. The findings revealed that the SASSA has implemented numerous new programmes aimed at a client-centric approach to service delivery. Analysis of the findings revealed expectation as well performance gaps which indicated that officials do not comply with the protocols of the agency and the Batho Pele principles. The promised service standards specified within the SASSA Customer Care Charter is not being realised which fundamentally indicate inefficient and ineffective monitoring of compliance with norms and standards. A conclusion drawn therefore is that the human dignity of clients in search of socials assistance who chiefly constitute vulnerable groups is being infringed. Three key service quality dimensions are identified that needs intervention for improved service quality. These dimensions include tangibility, assurance and responsiveness of functional components identified in respect of nine themes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Video games as “play assemblages”: applying philosophical concepts from deleuze and guattari to create a novel approach to video games
- Authors: Du Plessis, Corné
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Video games Video games -- Research , Video games -- History and criticism Video games -- Analysis, appreciation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/16119 , vital:28322
- Description: The phenomena that we collectively refer to as “play” form a significant part of life at numerous levels. According to the play scholar, Johan Huizinga, play has not only been part of all human societies, it is also at the root of the development of numerous cultural activities, including structured games and sports, certain judicial and legal activities, war, and numerous forms of art. Despite its importance, play, with its various manifestations, is often relegated to being a children’s activity or an occasion of pure waste, and is a surprisingly marginalized topic in academic scholarship. In part to remedy this deficit, my aim in this thesis is to explore the comparatively new phenomenon of video games as a particular form of play. While there are undoubtedly many philosophical approaches that can respond to different aspects of the “problem” of video games, I propose that Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s philosophy of “difference” and “becoming” is particularly useful. On the one hand, Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy provides a viable framework through which to determine the limitations of the current prominent theories in the field of video game studies, which include “narratology”, “ludology”, and the more recent “hybrid approach”. On the other hand, their philosophy enables one to extend the creative and transformative potential that is inherent to a philosophical “problem”, in this case the “problem” of video games. By adapting selected Deleuzian and Deleuzoguattarian philosophical concepts, including “assemblage”, “percept”, “affect”, “transversal becoming”, and “becoming-imperceptible”, I aim to establish a philosophical framework through which different forms of play, and different video games, can be analyzed in terms of their capacity to generate “difference” and “becoming”. More specifically, I argue that video games can be understood as particular kinds of “play assemblages” that can potentially open the player to “transversal becomings”. The video games that I analyze as play assemblages that can generate “transversal becomings” are Thatgamecompany’s Flower (2009) and Journey (2012). Importantly, “transversal becomings”, understood in this instance as the “becoming-other” of human individuals, have the potential to contribute to the individual’s capacity for creative thought and action. Therefore, I argue that video games, far from being activities of pure waste, can potentially open the player to various forms of “becoming-other”, which can, in turn, increase the player’s capacity to think differently, to become different and to create differences. Ultimately, I aim to promote the value of play and video games on the one hand, and the value of Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy on the other hand, for the aim of extending the questioning power of life, and increasing our capacity to effectively respond to a continuously changing world of problems.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Du Plessis, Corné
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Video games Video games -- Research , Video games -- History and criticism Video games -- Analysis, appreciation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/16119 , vital:28322
- Description: The phenomena that we collectively refer to as “play” form a significant part of life at numerous levels. According to the play scholar, Johan Huizinga, play has not only been part of all human societies, it is also at the root of the development of numerous cultural activities, including structured games and sports, certain judicial and legal activities, war, and numerous forms of art. Despite its importance, play, with its various manifestations, is often relegated to being a children’s activity or an occasion of pure waste, and is a surprisingly marginalized topic in academic scholarship. In part to remedy this deficit, my aim in this thesis is to explore the comparatively new phenomenon of video games as a particular form of play. While there are undoubtedly many philosophical approaches that can respond to different aspects of the “problem” of video games, I propose that Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s philosophy of “difference” and “becoming” is particularly useful. On the one hand, Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy provides a viable framework through which to determine the limitations of the current prominent theories in the field of video game studies, which include “narratology”, “ludology”, and the more recent “hybrid approach”. On the other hand, their philosophy enables one to extend the creative and transformative potential that is inherent to a philosophical “problem”, in this case the “problem” of video games. By adapting selected Deleuzian and Deleuzoguattarian philosophical concepts, including “assemblage”, “percept”, “affect”, “transversal becoming”, and “becoming-imperceptible”, I aim to establish a philosophical framework through which different forms of play, and different video games, can be analyzed in terms of their capacity to generate “difference” and “becoming”. More specifically, I argue that video games can be understood as particular kinds of “play assemblages” that can potentially open the player to “transversal becomings”. The video games that I analyze as play assemblages that can generate “transversal becomings” are Thatgamecompany’s Flower (2009) and Journey (2012). Importantly, “transversal becomings”, understood in this instance as the “becoming-other” of human individuals, have the potential to contribute to the individual’s capacity for creative thought and action. Therefore, I argue that video games, far from being activities of pure waste, can potentially open the player to various forms of “becoming-other”, which can, in turn, increase the player’s capacity to think differently, to become different and to create differences. Ultimately, I aim to promote the value of play and video games on the one hand, and the value of Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy on the other hand, for the aim of extending the questioning power of life, and increasing our capacity to effectively respond to a continuously changing world of problems.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
A critical ethnography of HIV-positive women attending public health care facilities in Gauteng
- Authors: Du Plessis, Gretchen Erika
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: HIV-positive women -- South Africa -- Gauteng , HIV-positive women -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Gauteng
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: vital:16129 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/777 , HIV-positive women -- South Africa -- Gauteng , HIV-positive women -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Gauteng
- Description: Women living with HIV have a variety of reproductive health and psychosocial needs. The purpose of this critical ethnographic study was to examine how HIV, empowerment and reproduction are experienced by a volunteer sample of HIVpositive women attending public health care facilities in Gauteng. Feminist and critical approaches were used to guide the methodology of the research and the interpretation of the findings. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and observation. An overview of literature pertaining to the social construction of HIV-AIDS, women’s empowerment and reproductive decision-making is presented. A discourse of “healthy lifestyle” as technologies of the self is considered. Women’s empowerment as an ideal is described and structural barriers to its achievement are discussed. Stigma and discrimination as products of hegemony are discussed as important issues in the disempowerment of women living with HIV. HIV-AIDS as illness experience is reviewed with reference to the social context and to the individual context. Reproductive decision-making models and theories are critically analysed for their applicability to women living with HIV. The need for a conceptual shift in the notion of empowerment in order to understand constrained decision-making for women living with HIV is propagated. The stories of women living with HIV and dependent on public health care services are presented. Through the principles of a critical ethnography the lived experiences of these women are described by means of emerging themes. A historiography of family planning and HIV-AIDS services throws the narrations of the research participants into broader historic relief. Findings revealed that biomedical hegemonic power contoured and marked the lived experiences of women following an HIV-positive diagnosis. Taken-for-granted views of passivity and of own responsibilities regarding reproductive health are challenged. The women in the study were dependent upon public health care personnel for treatment, testing, dietary advice/supplementation and recommendations for a social xii disability grant. ARV-treatment was regarded as a low point in the illness career. All of the participants reported that the overriding problems in their lives were having too few material resources and not having the means to change this. This made them vulnerable to compounded health problems and decreased their ability to voice their own opinions about treatment. They did not regard themselves as having been at risk for contracting HIV and some harboured resentment towards men who were seen as being absolved from testing and responsibilities towards female partners, born and unborn children. Women who were not tested as part of antenatal sentinel groups tended to suffer symptoms of ill health for some time prior to being tested for HIV. Social support systems were either absent or consisted of trusted family members and friends. In many cases, women became the silent care-givers for those affected and infected by HIV. Anticipated stigma permeated the participants’ narrations of living with HIV and disclosure of their statuses was difficult. The use of male condoms, stressed during counselling sessions, was narrated as a difficult burden for women to bear. Although the research participants expressed low fertility preferences, HIV-AIDS was seen as disrupting the link between heterosexual conjugal relations and the taken-for-grantedness of procreation. HIV-AIDS also disrupted norms in infant feeding practices and bottle-feeding was regarded as a sign of possible HIV-infection and hidden. The research participants were not empowered with knowledge about how to deal with side-effects, condom failures and the reluctance of male partners to be tested for HIV. They enacted, resisted and lived with HIV in different ways, incorporating some of the biomedically prescribed posturing as women living positively and blending it with stigma-negating performances and gender-prescribed ways of dressing, walking and acting. Participation in a support group validated their experiences and promoted positive self-perception. The formation of a collective voice in the support group was hampered by irregular attendance, the interference of community leaders and horizontal violence. Power relations, yielded by biomedical hegemony, androcentric sociocultural practices, material deprivation, fear, discrimination and stigma potentially undermined the women’s abilities to become empowered. Expansion of choices in various spheres or fields and collective action xiii are proposed as dimensions to be added to an empowerment-of-women approach to the problems of reproductive health in the age of HIV-AIDS. The contribution of the study as an emancipatory project is evaluated and implications for policy and practice are suggested. On a methodological level, this study is a demonstration of the contribution to be made by a micro-level, critical analysis to the body of knowledge about female reproductive health in the era of HIV-AIDS in South Africa. On a theoretical level, this study contributes to a wider conceptualisation of women’s empowerment by recognising the interplay between micro-level elements of situated experience, knowledge and preferences and the macro-level elements of sociocultural, biomedical and material influences on health and reproductive behavior.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
- Authors: Du Plessis, Gretchen Erika
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: HIV-positive women -- South Africa -- Gauteng , HIV-positive women -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Gauteng
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: vital:16129 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/777 , HIV-positive women -- South Africa -- Gauteng , HIV-positive women -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Gauteng
- Description: Women living with HIV have a variety of reproductive health and psychosocial needs. The purpose of this critical ethnographic study was to examine how HIV, empowerment and reproduction are experienced by a volunteer sample of HIVpositive women attending public health care facilities in Gauteng. Feminist and critical approaches were used to guide the methodology of the research and the interpretation of the findings. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and observation. An overview of literature pertaining to the social construction of HIV-AIDS, women’s empowerment and reproductive decision-making is presented. A discourse of “healthy lifestyle” as technologies of the self is considered. Women’s empowerment as an ideal is described and structural barriers to its achievement are discussed. Stigma and discrimination as products of hegemony are discussed as important issues in the disempowerment of women living with HIV. HIV-AIDS as illness experience is reviewed with reference to the social context and to the individual context. Reproductive decision-making models and theories are critically analysed for their applicability to women living with HIV. The need for a conceptual shift in the notion of empowerment in order to understand constrained decision-making for women living with HIV is propagated. The stories of women living with HIV and dependent on public health care services are presented. Through the principles of a critical ethnography the lived experiences of these women are described by means of emerging themes. A historiography of family planning and HIV-AIDS services throws the narrations of the research participants into broader historic relief. Findings revealed that biomedical hegemonic power contoured and marked the lived experiences of women following an HIV-positive diagnosis. Taken-for-granted views of passivity and of own responsibilities regarding reproductive health are challenged. The women in the study were dependent upon public health care personnel for treatment, testing, dietary advice/supplementation and recommendations for a social xii disability grant. ARV-treatment was regarded as a low point in the illness career. All of the participants reported that the overriding problems in their lives were having too few material resources and not having the means to change this. This made them vulnerable to compounded health problems and decreased their ability to voice their own opinions about treatment. They did not regard themselves as having been at risk for contracting HIV and some harboured resentment towards men who were seen as being absolved from testing and responsibilities towards female partners, born and unborn children. Women who were not tested as part of antenatal sentinel groups tended to suffer symptoms of ill health for some time prior to being tested for HIV. Social support systems were either absent or consisted of trusted family members and friends. In many cases, women became the silent care-givers for those affected and infected by HIV. Anticipated stigma permeated the participants’ narrations of living with HIV and disclosure of their statuses was difficult. The use of male condoms, stressed during counselling sessions, was narrated as a difficult burden for women to bear. Although the research participants expressed low fertility preferences, HIV-AIDS was seen as disrupting the link between heterosexual conjugal relations and the taken-for-grantedness of procreation. HIV-AIDS also disrupted norms in infant feeding practices and bottle-feeding was regarded as a sign of possible HIV-infection and hidden. The research participants were not empowered with knowledge about how to deal with side-effects, condom failures and the reluctance of male partners to be tested for HIV. They enacted, resisted and lived with HIV in different ways, incorporating some of the biomedically prescribed posturing as women living positively and blending it with stigma-negating performances and gender-prescribed ways of dressing, walking and acting. Participation in a support group validated their experiences and promoted positive self-perception. The formation of a collective voice in the support group was hampered by irregular attendance, the interference of community leaders and horizontal violence. Power relations, yielded by biomedical hegemony, androcentric sociocultural practices, material deprivation, fear, discrimination and stigma potentially undermined the women’s abilities to become empowered. Expansion of choices in various spheres or fields and collective action xiii are proposed as dimensions to be added to an empowerment-of-women approach to the problems of reproductive health in the age of HIV-AIDS. The contribution of the study as an emancipatory project is evaluated and implications for policy and practice are suggested. On a methodological level, this study is a demonstration of the contribution to be made by a micro-level, critical analysis to the body of knowledge about female reproductive health in the era of HIV-AIDS in South Africa. On a theoretical level, this study contributes to a wider conceptualisation of women’s empowerment by recognising the interplay between micro-level elements of situated experience, knowledge and preferences and the macro-level elements of sociocultural, biomedical and material influences on health and reproductive behavior.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
Ecophysiology and nutrient uptake mechanisms facilitating the prolonged bloom persistence by Cyanothece sp. in Lake St Lucia, South Africa
- Authors: Du Plooy, Schalk Jacobus
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Cyanobacterial blooms , Cyanobacteria -- Physiology , Cyanobacteria
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/7344 , vital:21324
- Description: Cyanobacterial blooms are becoming more frequent worldwide, with possible negative effects on human health. The effects of climate change and eutrophication have been associated with persistent cyanobacterial blooms becoming more frequent. Altered water characteristics, salinity in particular, influence ecosystem dynamics that may lead to conditions conducive to cyanobacterial blooms. The occurrence of an 18-month long Cyanothece sp. bloom (the longest for any cyanobacterium recorded so far worldwide and the first of the genus) from June 2009 to December 2010 in Africa’s largest estuarine lake, St Lucia, highlighted the susceptibility of ecosystems to anthropogenic alterations. This study investigated the long-term survival and physiological adaptations of Cyanothece sp. to various and dynamic environmental conditions that contributed towards its bloom persistence. The main findings are the high salinities at which Cyanothece sp. could perform important physiological processes such as N uptake, N2 fixation and photosynthesis. Nutrient uptake (both nitrogen and phosphorus) was observed over the full experimental salinity range (0-300) while N2 fixation was only observed up to a salinity of 120. Nutrient uptake rates significantly decreased at this threshold salinity of 120. Interestingly, photosystem II activity was not observed in Cyanothece sp. during this study, but photosystem I activity was robust. Salinity had a minor influence on electron transport rates by photosystem I, high temperature (> 30°C) did however increase electron transport rates. Rapid responses to hypo-osmotic shock (i.e. osmotic downshift during freshening events) by Cyanothece sp. cells also helped minimize cell rupture due to high turgor pressure. Zooplankton abundance within the St Lucia system was negatively correlated with salinity, while grazing experiments indicated that the typical estuarine zooplankton species are able to graze on Cyanothece sp. cells. Therefore, the disappearance of zooplankton at salinities above 60 must have been an important factor in the bloom persistence. Apart from the ecological factors that were at play in St Lucia during the bloom period, the persistence of the Cyanothece sp. bloom can be attributed to the robust nature of their nutrient uptake, nitrogen fixation and photosynthetic systems to maintain activity despite extreme hypersalinity levels.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Du Plooy, Schalk Jacobus
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Cyanobacterial blooms , Cyanobacteria -- Physiology , Cyanobacteria
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/7344 , vital:21324
- Description: Cyanobacterial blooms are becoming more frequent worldwide, with possible negative effects on human health. The effects of climate change and eutrophication have been associated with persistent cyanobacterial blooms becoming more frequent. Altered water characteristics, salinity in particular, influence ecosystem dynamics that may lead to conditions conducive to cyanobacterial blooms. The occurrence of an 18-month long Cyanothece sp. bloom (the longest for any cyanobacterium recorded so far worldwide and the first of the genus) from June 2009 to December 2010 in Africa’s largest estuarine lake, St Lucia, highlighted the susceptibility of ecosystems to anthropogenic alterations. This study investigated the long-term survival and physiological adaptations of Cyanothece sp. to various and dynamic environmental conditions that contributed towards its bloom persistence. The main findings are the high salinities at which Cyanothece sp. could perform important physiological processes such as N uptake, N2 fixation and photosynthesis. Nutrient uptake (both nitrogen and phosphorus) was observed over the full experimental salinity range (0-300) while N2 fixation was only observed up to a salinity of 120. Nutrient uptake rates significantly decreased at this threshold salinity of 120. Interestingly, photosystem II activity was not observed in Cyanothece sp. during this study, but photosystem I activity was robust. Salinity had a minor influence on electron transport rates by photosystem I, high temperature (> 30°C) did however increase electron transport rates. Rapid responses to hypo-osmotic shock (i.e. osmotic downshift during freshening events) by Cyanothece sp. cells also helped minimize cell rupture due to high turgor pressure. Zooplankton abundance within the St Lucia system was negatively correlated with salinity, while grazing experiments indicated that the typical estuarine zooplankton species are able to graze on Cyanothece sp. cells. Therefore, the disappearance of zooplankton at salinities above 60 must have been an important factor in the bloom persistence. Apart from the ecological factors that were at play in St Lucia during the bloom period, the persistence of the Cyanothece sp. bloom can be attributed to the robust nature of their nutrient uptake, nitrogen fixation and photosynthetic systems to maintain activity despite extreme hypersalinity levels.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
The effects of frost on Albany subtropical thicket and nama-karoo shrubland in South Africa
- Authors: Duker, Robert
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Shrubland ecology , Desert ecology -- South Africa Ecological surveys -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/29951 , vital:30799
- Description: Numerous treeless shrublands exist in areas where climates should support tree growth. In South Africa, the predominantly lowland Albany Subtropical Thicket (thicket), and the predominantly upland Nama-Karoo semi-desert shrubland share a boundary that is often abrupt and analogous to a forest-shrubland alpine ‘treeline’. This boundary exists across similar climatic and edaphic conditions, and field observations and leaf-level experiments suggest that certain thicket component species have lower levels of frost tolerance than the Nama-Karoo shrubs. The hypothesis is that the occurrence of sub-zero temperatures and frost dictates the position of this boundary at both the local landscape and broader regional levels. I test this hypothesis by quantifying leaf-level and whole-plant freezing tolerance of thicket and Nama-Karoo shrubland species, in relation to their local- and regional-scale distribution, and by modelling the occurrence of frost in the mountainous areas of the coastal lowlands relation to 1) naturally occurring boundaries between these two vegetation types, and 2) levels of aboveground net primary productivity (NPP) of Portulacaria afra Jacq. (spekboom) cuttings (planted with the aim of restoring livestock-degraded thicket). I found that the observed and modelled occurrence of frost in the local landscape has significant negative influences on the photosynthetic health, survival and growth rates of thicket component species, and that leaf-level freezing tolerance of evergreen thicket and Nama-Karoo shrubland species is strongly related to their broader regional-scale distributional thresholds. These results support the hypothesis that the occurrence of sub-zero temperatures and frost play a major role in determining the local- and regional-scale distribution of thicket and Nama-Karoo shrubland species, via their reliance on frost-defined refugia at a variety of different scales, and that the once-widespread and regionally dominant thicket vegetation contracted into small climatic refugia during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). These results also have major implications for landscape- and regional-level planning of livestock-degraded thicket restoration efforts that use planting of spekboom as an ecosystem engineer, and for predicting boundary shifts under the predicted future warming of global climates.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Duker, Robert
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Shrubland ecology , Desert ecology -- South Africa Ecological surveys -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/29951 , vital:30799
- Description: Numerous treeless shrublands exist in areas where climates should support tree growth. In South Africa, the predominantly lowland Albany Subtropical Thicket (thicket), and the predominantly upland Nama-Karoo semi-desert shrubland share a boundary that is often abrupt and analogous to a forest-shrubland alpine ‘treeline’. This boundary exists across similar climatic and edaphic conditions, and field observations and leaf-level experiments suggest that certain thicket component species have lower levels of frost tolerance than the Nama-Karoo shrubs. The hypothesis is that the occurrence of sub-zero temperatures and frost dictates the position of this boundary at both the local landscape and broader regional levels. I test this hypothesis by quantifying leaf-level and whole-plant freezing tolerance of thicket and Nama-Karoo shrubland species, in relation to their local- and regional-scale distribution, and by modelling the occurrence of frost in the mountainous areas of the coastal lowlands relation to 1) naturally occurring boundaries between these two vegetation types, and 2) levels of aboveground net primary productivity (NPP) of Portulacaria afra Jacq. (spekboom) cuttings (planted with the aim of restoring livestock-degraded thicket). I found that the observed and modelled occurrence of frost in the local landscape has significant negative influences on the photosynthetic health, survival and growth rates of thicket component species, and that leaf-level freezing tolerance of evergreen thicket and Nama-Karoo shrubland species is strongly related to their broader regional-scale distributional thresholds. These results support the hypothesis that the occurrence of sub-zero temperatures and frost play a major role in determining the local- and regional-scale distribution of thicket and Nama-Karoo shrubland species, via their reliance on frost-defined refugia at a variety of different scales, and that the once-widespread and regionally dominant thicket vegetation contracted into small climatic refugia during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). These results also have major implications for landscape- and regional-level planning of livestock-degraded thicket restoration efforts that use planting of spekboom as an ecosystem engineer, and for predicting boundary shifts under the predicted future warming of global climates.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
An assessment of the Millennium Development Goal's poverty reduction target in Ogun State, Nigeria
- Durokifa, Anuoluwapo Abosede
- Authors: Durokifa, Anuoluwapo Abosede
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Millennium Development Goals Economic development projects -- Nigeria Sustainable development -- Nigeria
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/4649 , vital:28483
- Description: Nigeria, like many nations of the world, is confronted with a high level of poverty. Over the years the country has taken several initiatives to reduce the incidence of poverty. Nigeria was one of the earliest countries to adopt the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs] as a strategy in reducing poverty and promoting development across the vast nation. The federating states have also rolled out a number of poverty reduction programmes tailored along the millennium development goals. This study, therefore, evaluates the achievement of the millennium development poverty reduction target in Ogun State, South west Nigeria. The study seeks to ascertain whether the state was able to significantly reduce poverty with the introduction of the MDGs. The study also attempts to establish difference or similarity (if any) between past poverty reduction policies in the state and the MDGs poverty reduction strategies. In carrying out this study, related literature on poverty, development and poverty reduction efforts (strategies and programmes) implemented in the state were extensively reviewed and relevant information retrieved for the study. This study employed the mixed method research, comprising both the quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data through the administration of a questionnaire was obtained from 232 respondents. While in-depth interview with seven participants provided the qualitative data. Quantitative data was analyzed using Descriptive statistics, and chi-square statistical technique was used to analyze the quantitative data while qualitative data analysis was carried out using transcription and thematic clusters. The findings of the study, in general, revealed that the MDG poverty reduction strategy did not make any significant contribution in reducing poverty in the state. The MDG strategy was not any different from past poverty reduction strategies implemented in the state. The findings of the research also strongly indicated that there was low awareness regarding the MDGs poverty reduction strategies set up amongst the citizens of the state. The low awareness emerged as a major hindrance to the success of the MDG programme. Based on the findings of this study, a sustainable development poverty reduction model was developed. The model gives room for programme awareness; people’s consultation and participation. It emphasizes the need to consider the community setting or environment factors in the planning and execution of poverty reduction programme. This model contend that aligning strategies to the peculiar need of each environment is a critical component for the sustenance of any poverty reduction programme.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Durokifa, Anuoluwapo Abosede
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Millennium Development Goals Economic development projects -- Nigeria Sustainable development -- Nigeria
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/4649 , vital:28483
- Description: Nigeria, like many nations of the world, is confronted with a high level of poverty. Over the years the country has taken several initiatives to reduce the incidence of poverty. Nigeria was one of the earliest countries to adopt the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs] as a strategy in reducing poverty and promoting development across the vast nation. The federating states have also rolled out a number of poverty reduction programmes tailored along the millennium development goals. This study, therefore, evaluates the achievement of the millennium development poverty reduction target in Ogun State, South west Nigeria. The study seeks to ascertain whether the state was able to significantly reduce poverty with the introduction of the MDGs. The study also attempts to establish difference or similarity (if any) between past poverty reduction policies in the state and the MDGs poverty reduction strategies. In carrying out this study, related literature on poverty, development and poverty reduction efforts (strategies and programmes) implemented in the state were extensively reviewed and relevant information retrieved for the study. This study employed the mixed method research, comprising both the quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data through the administration of a questionnaire was obtained from 232 respondents. While in-depth interview with seven participants provided the qualitative data. Quantitative data was analyzed using Descriptive statistics, and chi-square statistical technique was used to analyze the quantitative data while qualitative data analysis was carried out using transcription and thematic clusters. The findings of the study, in general, revealed that the MDG poverty reduction strategy did not make any significant contribution in reducing poverty in the state. The MDG strategy was not any different from past poverty reduction strategies implemented in the state. The findings of the research also strongly indicated that there was low awareness regarding the MDGs poverty reduction strategies set up amongst the citizens of the state. The low awareness emerged as a major hindrance to the success of the MDG programme. Based on the findings of this study, a sustainable development poverty reduction model was developed. The model gives room for programme awareness; people’s consultation and participation. It emphasizes the need to consider the community setting or environment factors in the planning and execution of poverty reduction programme. This model contend that aligning strategies to the peculiar need of each environment is a critical component for the sustenance of any poverty reduction programme.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Gender equality in the provision and utilisation of women administrative personnel : a comparative study of the Camdeboo Local Municipality and Inxuba Yethemba Local Municipality
- Authors: Dywili, Mhlobo Douglas
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Women -- Government policy -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Sex discrimination against women -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Women's rights -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Equality -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/2414 , vital:27817
- Description: In 2000, cabinet adopted the South African Policy framework for women’s empowerment and gender equality, 2000 (Policy framework) which provided for the establishment of the National Gender Machinery (NGM). The NGM is a network of coordinated structures within and outside government which operate cooperatively in facilitating political, social, economic and other forms of transformation to dismantle systemic gender inequality and promote equality between women and men. The implementation of gender equality policy as a function area has constitutionally been given to the national and provincial legislatures in South Africa. The constitution allocated this function to the local sphere of government. Camdeboo and Inxuba Yethemba local municipal authorities are the facilitators of sustainable gender equality policies to citizens on behalf of the national and provincial spheres of government. The study was thus conducted within the Camdeboo local municipality and Inxuba Yethemba local municipality. Camdeboo locoal municipality is one of nine local municipalities in Sarah Baartman district municipality. Inxuba Yethemba local municipality is in Chris Hani district municipality. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the implementation of gender equality in the Provision and Utilisation of Women administration Personnel a comparative study of the Camdeboo local municipality and the Inxuba Yethemba local municipality and to determine the impact of the existing policy on the gender equality policy on the needs of women of both municipalities. For this purpose the fundamental and overall study problem was found to be that the gender equality at the Camdeboo and Inxuba Yethemba is hampered by the implementation of an inadequate municipality gender equality policy and by incompetent municipal personnel in particular and in general by the municipality itself. These action do not satisfy the main purpose of the Employment Equity Act no 55 of 1998 to achieve in the workplace by promoting equal opportunity and fair treatment in all forms of employment through elimination of unfair discrimination as well as the implementation of affirmative action measures. The hypothesis was furthermore based on the fact that the existing gender policy of Camdeboo local municipality and Inxuba Yethemba local municipality gender equality policy are inadequate to satisfy women and impacts negatively if not harmfully on human being of women. The study revealed that besides the implementation of gender equality policy by these incompetent municipal personnel, there are economic, social, political and physical effects on women. In case of applications for senior management position, preference is always given to their male counterparts at the expense of equally qualified female applications. Secondly, Gender equality in human resource determination forms part of the processing phase in the system theory. These two municipalities should be made to commit themselves by appending their signatures to all control measures put in place to evaluate the level and the extent of gender equality across all the departments/ sections in the municipality. Any section/ department that implements gender equality more effectively should be identified applauded and given recognition. This would motivate and eliminate gender inequality. Personnel provision and utilization is of paramount importance to every organization. It then becomes extremely necessary to examine the gender equality on human resource determination.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Dywili, Mhlobo Douglas
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Women -- Government policy -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Sex discrimination against women -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Women's rights -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Equality -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/2414 , vital:27817
- Description: In 2000, cabinet adopted the South African Policy framework for women’s empowerment and gender equality, 2000 (Policy framework) which provided for the establishment of the National Gender Machinery (NGM). The NGM is a network of coordinated structures within and outside government which operate cooperatively in facilitating political, social, economic and other forms of transformation to dismantle systemic gender inequality and promote equality between women and men. The implementation of gender equality policy as a function area has constitutionally been given to the national and provincial legislatures in South Africa. The constitution allocated this function to the local sphere of government. Camdeboo and Inxuba Yethemba local municipal authorities are the facilitators of sustainable gender equality policies to citizens on behalf of the national and provincial spheres of government. The study was thus conducted within the Camdeboo local municipality and Inxuba Yethemba local municipality. Camdeboo locoal municipality is one of nine local municipalities in Sarah Baartman district municipality. Inxuba Yethemba local municipality is in Chris Hani district municipality. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the implementation of gender equality in the Provision and Utilisation of Women administration Personnel a comparative study of the Camdeboo local municipality and the Inxuba Yethemba local municipality and to determine the impact of the existing policy on the gender equality policy on the needs of women of both municipalities. For this purpose the fundamental and overall study problem was found to be that the gender equality at the Camdeboo and Inxuba Yethemba is hampered by the implementation of an inadequate municipality gender equality policy and by incompetent municipal personnel in particular and in general by the municipality itself. These action do not satisfy the main purpose of the Employment Equity Act no 55 of 1998 to achieve in the workplace by promoting equal opportunity and fair treatment in all forms of employment through elimination of unfair discrimination as well as the implementation of affirmative action measures. The hypothesis was furthermore based on the fact that the existing gender policy of Camdeboo local municipality and Inxuba Yethemba local municipality gender equality policy are inadequate to satisfy women and impacts negatively if not harmfully on human being of women. The study revealed that besides the implementation of gender equality policy by these incompetent municipal personnel, there are economic, social, political and physical effects on women. In case of applications for senior management position, preference is always given to their male counterparts at the expense of equally qualified female applications. Secondly, Gender equality in human resource determination forms part of the processing phase in the system theory. These two municipalities should be made to commit themselves by appending their signatures to all control measures put in place to evaluate the level and the extent of gender equality across all the departments/ sections in the municipality. Any section/ department that implements gender equality more effectively should be identified applauded and given recognition. This would motivate and eliminate gender inequality. Personnel provision and utilization is of paramount importance to every organization. It then becomes extremely necessary to examine the gender equality on human resource determination.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Emotional intelligence training model for executive leadership in South Africa
- Authors: Els, Deon André
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Development leadership -- South Africa , Executives -- Training of -- South Africa , Emotional intelligence -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/7398 , vital:21350
- Description: Global leadership crises and increasing executive leadership failures necessitate a new approach to executive leadership development. Globalisation results in new leadership challenges that affect people, the planet and peace across the world. Critical issues include increasing extremism and terrorism, displaced migrants fleeing to stable countries, earth warming and economic decline. The role of the individual executive leader cannot be isolated from human development challenges. Various executive leadership failures and examples of unethical leadership practises, both internationally and in South Africa, place the focus on ethical governance and emotionally matured leadership development. This study follows a nexus, based on a three-stranded cordial link between human development, emotional intelligence and executive leadership. The central themes of the United Nations Human Development’s (UNDP) reports of 1990 to 2009 as well as the Post-United Nations Human Development Report of 2015 form a framework for evaluating the relationship between human development and executive leadership. Although economic growth is central to human development, the development of people through building human capabilities and active participation to improve their lives, are the main goals of the UNDP-2015. The role of executive leadership, leadership derailment and required executive proficiencies and attributes are investigated by evaluating traditional leadership theories and approaches as a lens for investigating leadership development. The positive effect of globalisation is that it affords new approaches and opportunities for executive leadership development. Emotional intelligence-based leadership, including the role of neuro-leadership, is evaluated and an integrative approach that involves the new paradigm of leadership as a response to human development challenges and globalisation is presented. The new paradigm of integrative leadership approaches includes empirical-based authentic leadership, shared leadership and gender-based leadership. The integrative leadership models of Hatala and Passmore are selected as a framework to propose a theoretical emotional intelligence leadership model for this study. New opportunities to develop emotionally intelligent executive leaders include technology-based training, iLeadership and eLeadership in an environment without boundaries. Time constraints are identified as a key obstacle for leadership development. Various training and executive coaching strategies are evaluated and proposed to accelerate leadership development. The link between human development and executive leadership development is proposed by collective leadership approaches towards Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) above entrepreneurial acumen and stakeholder involvement. A positivist approach based on quantitative research using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is used. The primary research problem is formulated to investigate the multidimensional and complex nature of factors that influence the success of developing emotionally intelligent executive leaders in South Africa. A conceptual theoretical model comprising of factors that influence Human Development and the perceived success of Emotional Intelligence Training is developed. A total of ten independent variables that influence the two mentioned dependent variables are identified. The proposed model and envisaged hypotheses are empirically tested. The study consists of a 73-itemed questionnaire with 360 participants. The sourced data are statically analysed by means of the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to assess the discriminate validity of the research instrument and to confirm underlying dimensions of the constructs. Cronbach-alpha coefficients are calculated for each of the identified factors by using SEM. The significance of the hypothesised relationships in the revised model is tested. The value of this study’s contribution to the body of knowledge lies within the findings, the proposed Integrative Emotional Intelligence Leadership Model and recommendations for future research. The proposed model identifies practical training approaches to accelerate executive leadership against a background of serious leadership failures in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Els, Deon André
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Development leadership -- South Africa , Executives -- Training of -- South Africa , Emotional intelligence -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/7398 , vital:21350
- Description: Global leadership crises and increasing executive leadership failures necessitate a new approach to executive leadership development. Globalisation results in new leadership challenges that affect people, the planet and peace across the world. Critical issues include increasing extremism and terrorism, displaced migrants fleeing to stable countries, earth warming and economic decline. The role of the individual executive leader cannot be isolated from human development challenges. Various executive leadership failures and examples of unethical leadership practises, both internationally and in South Africa, place the focus on ethical governance and emotionally matured leadership development. This study follows a nexus, based on a three-stranded cordial link between human development, emotional intelligence and executive leadership. The central themes of the United Nations Human Development’s (UNDP) reports of 1990 to 2009 as well as the Post-United Nations Human Development Report of 2015 form a framework for evaluating the relationship between human development and executive leadership. Although economic growth is central to human development, the development of people through building human capabilities and active participation to improve their lives, are the main goals of the UNDP-2015. The role of executive leadership, leadership derailment and required executive proficiencies and attributes are investigated by evaluating traditional leadership theories and approaches as a lens for investigating leadership development. The positive effect of globalisation is that it affords new approaches and opportunities for executive leadership development. Emotional intelligence-based leadership, including the role of neuro-leadership, is evaluated and an integrative approach that involves the new paradigm of leadership as a response to human development challenges and globalisation is presented. The new paradigm of integrative leadership approaches includes empirical-based authentic leadership, shared leadership and gender-based leadership. The integrative leadership models of Hatala and Passmore are selected as a framework to propose a theoretical emotional intelligence leadership model for this study. New opportunities to develop emotionally intelligent executive leaders include technology-based training, iLeadership and eLeadership in an environment without boundaries. Time constraints are identified as a key obstacle for leadership development. Various training and executive coaching strategies are evaluated and proposed to accelerate leadership development. The link between human development and executive leadership development is proposed by collective leadership approaches towards Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) above entrepreneurial acumen and stakeholder involvement. A positivist approach based on quantitative research using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is used. The primary research problem is formulated to investigate the multidimensional and complex nature of factors that influence the success of developing emotionally intelligent executive leaders in South Africa. A conceptual theoretical model comprising of factors that influence Human Development and the perceived success of Emotional Intelligence Training is developed. A total of ten independent variables that influence the two mentioned dependent variables are identified. The proposed model and envisaged hypotheses are empirically tested. The study consists of a 73-itemed questionnaire with 360 participants. The sourced data are statically analysed by means of the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to assess the discriminate validity of the research instrument and to confirm underlying dimensions of the constructs. Cronbach-alpha coefficients are calculated for each of the identified factors by using SEM. The significance of the hypothesised relationships in the revised model is tested. The value of this study’s contribution to the body of knowledge lies within the findings, the proposed Integrative Emotional Intelligence Leadership Model and recommendations for future research. The proposed model identifies practical training approaches to accelerate executive leadership against a background of serious leadership failures in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
A leadership development model to enhance ethical governance in South Africa
- Authors: Els, Ryno Juan
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Leadership -- South Africa , Public administration -- Moral and ethical aspects Corporate governance Business ethics -- South Africa Africa Professional ethics Organizational behavior -- Moral and ethical aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/39863 , vital:35489
- Description: From the United States of America’s White House to the Vatican in Vatican City, from Harare, Zimbabwe to the Union buildings in South Africa, to large organisations like Volkswagen, BP and KPMG, leadership failures are prolific. Globalised and local leadership failures and scandals are plagued by narcissistic, toxic, corrupt and dishonest behaviour by heads of state, CEOs and clergy. The effect of executive leadership failures is that they set the tone for a corrupt culture that spirals negatively down to grass-roots level. Unethical leadership in organisations manifests in various ways including misconduct, deception and cheating. Apart from regular exposés of leadership scandals globally, there has been a notable increase in ethical leadership derailments caused by unethical behaviour. The question is why leaders, who are considered to understand value-based morality, engage in unethical behaviour when confronted with the opportunity. In recent, empirical research in behavioural ethics and moral psychology, it was found that morally sound leaders often indulge in unethical behaviour. Unethical leadership behaviour includes misdemeanours in tax returns, overstating performance, inflating business expense accounts, involvement in corruption, counter-productive work behaviour, being morally disengaged and being untruthful during negotiations. Recent research indicates that unethical leadership leads to an increase in poor governance and propels vicious cycles that have a negative impact on human development, economic growth and the environment. This research study includes traditional and contemporary leadership theories that have been evaluated as well as an in-depth discussion of the necessity and importance of ethical governance. An innovative, ethical leadership development model has been designed and aligned with servant, ethical, authentic and integrated leadership styles where spiritual, cultural and emotional intelligences play a significant role in leadership maturity. A fresh perspective on the King IV Report (2016) as an international benchmark together with other authoritative literature and case studies of unethical governance have been discussed to shed light on the latest leadership theories and ethics in the 21st century. The findings of this study have been tested statistically by means of structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings confirmed empirically that accountability, stakeholders’ interests and the regulatory environment need to be implemented by ethical leaders in order to enhance ethical governance. The lack of a practical, outcome-based, leadership development model provided an opportunity to develop an ethical leadership development model that would have a positive impact on ethical governance, thereby contributing to the body of knowledge.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Els, Ryno Juan
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Leadership -- South Africa , Public administration -- Moral and ethical aspects Corporate governance Business ethics -- South Africa Africa Professional ethics Organizational behavior -- Moral and ethical aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/39863 , vital:35489
- Description: From the United States of America’s White House to the Vatican in Vatican City, from Harare, Zimbabwe to the Union buildings in South Africa, to large organisations like Volkswagen, BP and KPMG, leadership failures are prolific. Globalised and local leadership failures and scandals are plagued by narcissistic, toxic, corrupt and dishonest behaviour by heads of state, CEOs and clergy. The effect of executive leadership failures is that they set the tone for a corrupt culture that spirals negatively down to grass-roots level. Unethical leadership in organisations manifests in various ways including misconduct, deception and cheating. Apart from regular exposés of leadership scandals globally, there has been a notable increase in ethical leadership derailments caused by unethical behaviour. The question is why leaders, who are considered to understand value-based morality, engage in unethical behaviour when confronted with the opportunity. In recent, empirical research in behavioural ethics and moral psychology, it was found that morally sound leaders often indulge in unethical behaviour. Unethical leadership behaviour includes misdemeanours in tax returns, overstating performance, inflating business expense accounts, involvement in corruption, counter-productive work behaviour, being morally disengaged and being untruthful during negotiations. Recent research indicates that unethical leadership leads to an increase in poor governance and propels vicious cycles that have a negative impact on human development, economic growth and the environment. This research study includes traditional and contemporary leadership theories that have been evaluated as well as an in-depth discussion of the necessity and importance of ethical governance. An innovative, ethical leadership development model has been designed and aligned with servant, ethical, authentic and integrated leadership styles where spiritual, cultural and emotional intelligences play a significant role in leadership maturity. A fresh perspective on the King IV Report (2016) as an international benchmark together with other authoritative literature and case studies of unethical governance have been discussed to shed light on the latest leadership theories and ethics in the 21st century. The findings of this study have been tested statistically by means of structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings confirmed empirically that accountability, stakeholders’ interests and the regulatory environment need to be implemented by ethical leaders in order to enhance ethical governance. The lack of a practical, outcome-based, leadership development model provided an opportunity to develop an ethical leadership development model that would have a positive impact on ethical governance, thereby contributing to the body of knowledge.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Critical reflections on the war on terrorism from an international human rights perspective
- Fabbriciani, Antonio Antonino
- Authors: Fabbriciani, Antonio Antonino
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Human rights , War on Terrorism, 2001-2009 , Civil rights , International law
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: vital:9041 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1205 , Human rights , War on Terrorism, 2001-2009 , Civil rights , International law
- Description: This study explored the balancing out of the rights associated with terrorist and counter-terrorist attacks by using descriptive case studies of the US 9/11 attacks; and the counter-terrorist attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq. The research was conducted within a critical theory paradigm, drawing on the ideas of Habermas and other Critical Theorists. The research design was influenced by the securitive and ideological nature of the topic and it was decided that an extensive review of literature would be more suitable than a field study. A small number of interviews added to the richness of the data. Human rights, needs and international relations were investigated to serve as a theoretical starting-point for the study (Chapter 2). The case studies were subsequently explored against the background of this theoretical approach. This thesis therefore assessed the impact of human rights law on terrorism and counter-terrorism attacks under the Human Rights Act (1998). It considered how the provisions of the Human Rights Act have influenced the formulation and interpretation of anti-terrorism laws, and it examined the role of the judiciary in adjudicating disputes between the individual and the state. It further discussed human needs and the progress on human rights, terrorist attacks, as well as counter-terrorism attacks. Extensive data was gathered on the 9/11 attacks, and it was concluded that these attacks fall within the definition of crimes against humanity under international human rights jurisprudence. To bring about a truly secure world we must adopt a new paradigm that shifts priority to the security of the individuals and of communities to achieving human security, the honouring of human rights, and respect for the rule of law. This will obviously require a renewed commitment by all individuals and a shared sense of responsibility for all people, all over the world. What we need now is a major course correction – a new iii A. Fabbriciani approach which begins with a broader understanding of what defines human rights and the rule of law (Wilson, 2007). The study also focuses on counter-terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq (Chapters 3 and 4). It was shown that counter-terrorist attacks had an effect on the global economic system and development policies, which have been dominated by ideological strategies for many years. However, resistance has come from Islamic states, which have realised that new-liberal economic practices are incompatible with their theological and economic traditions. This has caused a situation to rethink global development programmes by political leaders, and to move away from new-liberal schemes towards true global development strategies. One of the main findings of the study was that the crimes of persecution and torture on the basis of political or religious views have been perpetrated by both parties, namely Al-Qaeda, and the US and its allies. It has been shown that the explored acts of terrorism and counter-attacks represent crimes against humanity, as defined by the relevant provisions of international law.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
- Authors: Fabbriciani, Antonio Antonino
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Human rights , War on Terrorism, 2001-2009 , Civil rights , International law
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: vital:9041 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1205 , Human rights , War on Terrorism, 2001-2009 , Civil rights , International law
- Description: This study explored the balancing out of the rights associated with terrorist and counter-terrorist attacks by using descriptive case studies of the US 9/11 attacks; and the counter-terrorist attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq. The research was conducted within a critical theory paradigm, drawing on the ideas of Habermas and other Critical Theorists. The research design was influenced by the securitive and ideological nature of the topic and it was decided that an extensive review of literature would be more suitable than a field study. A small number of interviews added to the richness of the data. Human rights, needs and international relations were investigated to serve as a theoretical starting-point for the study (Chapter 2). The case studies were subsequently explored against the background of this theoretical approach. This thesis therefore assessed the impact of human rights law on terrorism and counter-terrorism attacks under the Human Rights Act (1998). It considered how the provisions of the Human Rights Act have influenced the formulation and interpretation of anti-terrorism laws, and it examined the role of the judiciary in adjudicating disputes between the individual and the state. It further discussed human needs and the progress on human rights, terrorist attacks, as well as counter-terrorism attacks. Extensive data was gathered on the 9/11 attacks, and it was concluded that these attacks fall within the definition of crimes against humanity under international human rights jurisprudence. To bring about a truly secure world we must adopt a new paradigm that shifts priority to the security of the individuals and of communities to achieving human security, the honouring of human rights, and respect for the rule of law. This will obviously require a renewed commitment by all individuals and a shared sense of responsibility for all people, all over the world. What we need now is a major course correction – a new iii A. Fabbriciani approach which begins with a broader understanding of what defines human rights and the rule of law (Wilson, 2007). The study also focuses on counter-terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq (Chapters 3 and 4). It was shown that counter-terrorist attacks had an effect on the global economic system and development policies, which have been dominated by ideological strategies for many years. However, resistance has come from Islamic states, which have realised that new-liberal economic practices are incompatible with their theological and economic traditions. This has caused a situation to rethink global development programmes by political leaders, and to move away from new-liberal schemes towards true global development strategies. One of the main findings of the study was that the crimes of persecution and torture on the basis of political or religious views have been perpetrated by both parties, namely Al-Qaeda, and the US and its allies. It has been shown that the explored acts of terrorism and counter-attacks represent crimes against humanity, as defined by the relevant provisions of international law.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
Effects of natural antioxidants and thermal treatment on quality of meat from Bonsmara and non-descripts cattle
- Authors: Falowo, Andrew Bamidele
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Meat -- Preservation Antioxidants Meat -- Microbiology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/2589 , vital:27906
- Description: The broad objective of this study was to determine the effects of natural antioxidants and thermal treatment on quality of meat from Bonsmara and non-descript cattle. A survey was conducted among 222 consumers in Alice (Fort Hare University community), Eastern Cape Province to determine the level of their awareness on application of antioxidants as preservatives in meat and meat products during storage. Representative samples of Muscularis longissimuss thoracis et lumborum and liver were collected from each carcass of Bonsmara (n=40) and non-descript (n=40) cattle reared on natural pasture to determine the effect of natural antioxidants and thermal treatment on their quality. The results from the survey revealed that 51.35 percent of the respondents had not heard about the use of antioxidant as preservatives in meat products. However, among the remaining respondents (48.65 percent) that were aware of antioxidant and its use as preservative, about 19 percent knew of natural antioxidants, 35 percent synthetic antioxidants while 46 percent had knowledge of both. The results further revealed that the majority of the respondents (82 percent) that had knowledge of natural antioxidants were concerned about the use of synthetic antioxidants in meat and meat products due to their health consequences. The in vitro antioxidant and antibacterial analyses of Bidens pilosa and Moringa oleifera leaf extracts revealed that they contain rich bioactive compounds. Furthermore, the addition of leaf extracts from Moringa oleifera (ML, 0.05 and 0.1 percent w/w) and Biden pilosa (BP, 0.05 and 0.1 percent w/w) to ground raw beef as a natural antioxidant were found to improve the physicochemical, oxidative stability and microbiological qualities of meat compared to the control (meat without extract) and BHT treatment (0.02 percent w/w) during 6 days storage at 40 C. Cattle breed did not have much effect on colour parameters. However, the overall pH of ground beef treated with extracts showed lower values than control and BHT treated beef. Also, ground beef samples containing extracts exhibited (P < 0.05) better colour stability, especially higher redness (a* values), than the control. The formation of TBARS in beef samples treated with extracts was significantly (P < 0.05) lower than the control and BHT treatment. The antibacterial assay of the extracts revealed an appreciable broad spectrum activity against the tested bacteria and microbial counts in ground beef samples compared to control and BHT group. Ground beef treated with plant extracts exhibited lower microbial and lactic acid bacterial counts (P < 0.05) at day 0 and 3 than control samples. Moreover, it was observed that application of sous vides thermal method did not significantly affect the fatty acids and mineral loss in beef and liver across the treatments. However, the total concentration of MUFA was lower in raw liver (20.11±2.38 - 21.08±1.23 percent) than in beef (40.22±1.90 - 42.53±1.29 percent), while total PUFA content were higher in liver (30.73±2.60 - 31.11±1.19 percent) than in beef samples (10.13±3.36 - 11.02±2.74 percent) (p < 0.05). The results also revealed that liver samples from Bonsmara and non-descript cattle had a higher percentage of intramuscular fat content of 4.67 ± 0.53 percent and 4.44 ± 0.53 percent respectively, and fat free dry matter of 27.51 ± 1.05 percent and 25.73 ± 1.05 percent, respectively, than the beef samples (p < 0.05). The concentrations of Mg (52.80±0.22 - 53.70±0.02mg/100g) and Zn (8.90±0.15 - 19.60±0.15mg/100g) were higher in beef than liver samples. The level of Ca (17.00±0.17 - 17.50 ± 0.17mg/100g) in liver was higher than that of beef samples. It was concluded that most consumers preferred the use of natural antioxidants in meat products than synthetic antioxidants due to their health risk. The effectiveness of M. oleifera and B. pilosa leaf extracts on meat quality also revealed that these plants are promising candidates as natural preservatives and their application should be considered in the meat industry. Lastly, findings from this study showed that application of the sous vide technique could protect meat products from nutritional loss during thermal treatment.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Falowo, Andrew Bamidele
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Meat -- Preservation Antioxidants Meat -- Microbiology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/2589 , vital:27906
- Description: The broad objective of this study was to determine the effects of natural antioxidants and thermal treatment on quality of meat from Bonsmara and non-descript cattle. A survey was conducted among 222 consumers in Alice (Fort Hare University community), Eastern Cape Province to determine the level of their awareness on application of antioxidants as preservatives in meat and meat products during storage. Representative samples of Muscularis longissimuss thoracis et lumborum and liver were collected from each carcass of Bonsmara (n=40) and non-descript (n=40) cattle reared on natural pasture to determine the effect of natural antioxidants and thermal treatment on their quality. The results from the survey revealed that 51.35 percent of the respondents had not heard about the use of antioxidant as preservatives in meat products. However, among the remaining respondents (48.65 percent) that were aware of antioxidant and its use as preservative, about 19 percent knew of natural antioxidants, 35 percent synthetic antioxidants while 46 percent had knowledge of both. The results further revealed that the majority of the respondents (82 percent) that had knowledge of natural antioxidants were concerned about the use of synthetic antioxidants in meat and meat products due to their health consequences. The in vitro antioxidant and antibacterial analyses of Bidens pilosa and Moringa oleifera leaf extracts revealed that they contain rich bioactive compounds. Furthermore, the addition of leaf extracts from Moringa oleifera (ML, 0.05 and 0.1 percent w/w) and Biden pilosa (BP, 0.05 and 0.1 percent w/w) to ground raw beef as a natural antioxidant were found to improve the physicochemical, oxidative stability and microbiological qualities of meat compared to the control (meat without extract) and BHT treatment (0.02 percent w/w) during 6 days storage at 40 C. Cattle breed did not have much effect on colour parameters. However, the overall pH of ground beef treated with extracts showed lower values than control and BHT treated beef. Also, ground beef samples containing extracts exhibited (P < 0.05) better colour stability, especially higher redness (a* values), than the control. The formation of TBARS in beef samples treated with extracts was significantly (P < 0.05) lower than the control and BHT treatment. The antibacterial assay of the extracts revealed an appreciable broad spectrum activity against the tested bacteria and microbial counts in ground beef samples compared to control and BHT group. Ground beef treated with plant extracts exhibited lower microbial and lactic acid bacterial counts (P < 0.05) at day 0 and 3 than control samples. Moreover, it was observed that application of sous vides thermal method did not significantly affect the fatty acids and mineral loss in beef and liver across the treatments. However, the total concentration of MUFA was lower in raw liver (20.11±2.38 - 21.08±1.23 percent) than in beef (40.22±1.90 - 42.53±1.29 percent), while total PUFA content were higher in liver (30.73±2.60 - 31.11±1.19 percent) than in beef samples (10.13±3.36 - 11.02±2.74 percent) (p < 0.05). The results also revealed that liver samples from Bonsmara and non-descript cattle had a higher percentage of intramuscular fat content of 4.67 ± 0.53 percent and 4.44 ± 0.53 percent respectively, and fat free dry matter of 27.51 ± 1.05 percent and 25.73 ± 1.05 percent, respectively, than the beef samples (p < 0.05). The concentrations of Mg (52.80±0.22 - 53.70±0.02mg/100g) and Zn (8.90±0.15 - 19.60±0.15mg/100g) were higher in beef than liver samples. The level of Ca (17.00±0.17 - 17.50 ± 0.17mg/100g) in liver was higher than that of beef samples. It was concluded that most consumers preferred the use of natural antioxidants in meat products than synthetic antioxidants due to their health risk. The effectiveness of M. oleifera and B. pilosa leaf extracts on meat quality also revealed that these plants are promising candidates as natural preservatives and their application should be considered in the meat industry. Lastly, findings from this study showed that application of the sous vide technique could protect meat products from nutritional loss during thermal treatment.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
A social media model for public participation in a South African municipality
- Authors: Fashoro, Ifeoluwapo
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Information technology -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Social media -- South Africa Political participation -- Technological innovations -- South Africa Municipal government -- South Africa -- Citizen participation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/29851 , vital:30786
- Description: Social media have become the preferred method of communication for individuals, organisations and even governments. These technologies have become ingrained in our everyday lives and have changed the way we communicate, collaborate are informed of recent happenings around the world. Social media websites are reported to be the most popular around the world. In the government sphere, social media is purported as a technology that will revolutionise citizen participation, service delivery and government-citizen interactions. Accordingly, governments around the world are steadily implementing social media in a bid to meet citizens’ demand for immediate and constant access to information, as well as increased opportunities to participate in government. Public participation has become an important focus area for government which could be used to effectively engage citizens and foster citizen trust. The United Nation’s E-government survey reports the presence of 125 countries on social media platforms. Despite the increased use of social media by governments, consensus among researchers is that governments need guidance on how to use social media effectively to achieve the potential benefits proposed by these technologies. Many social media adoptions by governments have been deemed as experimental; no formal action plan was designed, and many government employees are expected to learn social media use on-the-job. The aim of this research was to investigate and propose a social media model for public participation to leverage the opportunities provided by social media and present an effective and structured approach towards public participation. The research was designed as a mixed methods research using a case study based in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The research involved a survey of citizens in the selected municipality based on the Uses and Gratifications Theory, interviews with employees responsible for social media in said municipality and a contents analysis of the existing social media pages of the municipality. The model was developed from the findings of the survey, interviews and existing literature. The implementation of the model was done in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. The municipality appointed a social media champion responsible for obtaining support from top management and politicians within the municipality. Additional staff were added to the social media team and formal social media training was provided to the team. An official social media strategy was drafted and at the time of writing, needed to be approved by top management. The proposed model was operationalised within the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. This research makes several contributions to the E-government and social media fields in South Africa. The major contribution is the provision of guidance for South African municipalities to implement and use social media in an effective manner to achieve public participation. The research provided a phased approach to social media implementation that eliminates ad hoc experimentation and ensures the municipality’s social media activities are effective. The development of the model was based on the characteristics of the municipality and its citizens derived from the interviews and survey carried out. There are five phases in the model; Initialisation, Setup, Organisation, Institutionalisation and Maintenance. The model can be thought of as a guideline, and as such municipalities should adapt the implementation of the model to fit their organisational characteristics. The social media model will assist municipalities to determine the resources, tools and tactics to enable them to implement social media effectively, which will result in an improved engagement and participation process with citizens, and thereby foster trust.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Fashoro, Ifeoluwapo
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Information technology -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Social media -- South Africa Political participation -- Technological innovations -- South Africa Municipal government -- South Africa -- Citizen participation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/29851 , vital:30786
- Description: Social media have become the preferred method of communication for individuals, organisations and even governments. These technologies have become ingrained in our everyday lives and have changed the way we communicate, collaborate are informed of recent happenings around the world. Social media websites are reported to be the most popular around the world. In the government sphere, social media is purported as a technology that will revolutionise citizen participation, service delivery and government-citizen interactions. Accordingly, governments around the world are steadily implementing social media in a bid to meet citizens’ demand for immediate and constant access to information, as well as increased opportunities to participate in government. Public participation has become an important focus area for government which could be used to effectively engage citizens and foster citizen trust. The United Nation’s E-government survey reports the presence of 125 countries on social media platforms. Despite the increased use of social media by governments, consensus among researchers is that governments need guidance on how to use social media effectively to achieve the potential benefits proposed by these technologies. Many social media adoptions by governments have been deemed as experimental; no formal action plan was designed, and many government employees are expected to learn social media use on-the-job. The aim of this research was to investigate and propose a social media model for public participation to leverage the opportunities provided by social media and present an effective and structured approach towards public participation. The research was designed as a mixed methods research using a case study based in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The research involved a survey of citizens in the selected municipality based on the Uses and Gratifications Theory, interviews with employees responsible for social media in said municipality and a contents analysis of the existing social media pages of the municipality. The model was developed from the findings of the survey, interviews and existing literature. The implementation of the model was done in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. The municipality appointed a social media champion responsible for obtaining support from top management and politicians within the municipality. Additional staff were added to the social media team and formal social media training was provided to the team. An official social media strategy was drafted and at the time of writing, needed to be approved by top management. The proposed model was operationalised within the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. This research makes several contributions to the E-government and social media fields in South Africa. The major contribution is the provision of guidance for South African municipalities to implement and use social media in an effective manner to achieve public participation. The research provided a phased approach to social media implementation that eliminates ad hoc experimentation and ensures the municipality’s social media activities are effective. The development of the model was based on the characteristics of the municipality and its citizens derived from the interviews and survey carried out. There are five phases in the model; Initialisation, Setup, Organisation, Institutionalisation and Maintenance. The model can be thought of as a guideline, and as such municipalities should adapt the implementation of the model to fit their organisational characteristics. The social media model will assist municipalities to determine the resources, tools and tactics to enable them to implement social media effectively, which will result in an improved engagement and participation process with citizens, and thereby foster trust.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018