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The relationship between leadership and employee engagement in an automotive original equipment manufacturer in South Africa
Get PDFThe manufacturing industry is one of the greatest contributors to the South African economy. Owing to a competitive and complex automotive climate, it is suggested that only a few automotive manufacturing organisations will remain viable in the coming years, without the optimal reliance on human capital resources to navigate an unpredictable and unfolding landscape. In securing a sustainable future, the engagement of these human capital resources is necessitated. This competitive landscape has resulted in the call for adaptive and flexible leadership. Leadership behaviour is categorised into three streams, namely, transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and non-leadership, which is referred to as laissez-faire leadership. Employee engagement is defined as the extent to which an employee is committed to, and involved in, their operational function and the organisation, whilst portraying a willingness to perform and contribute beyond that which is expected of them. The purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between leadership and employee engagement in an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) in South Africa. This OEM operates in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng Provinces of South Africa. Globally, the OEM launched a leadership journey to facilitate a shared value system that supported a vision towards organisational success, by focusing on transformed ways of working and acting, as a global collective team. The outcome of this desired journey yielded eight Leadership Principles. These Leadership Principles are referred to, and included in the research study, to gain a more robust internal perspective of the leadership behaviours that are most advocated within the OEM, in relation to employee engagement. The objective of this research therefore was to establish the relationship between leadership and employee engagement in the respective OEM, by investigating the impact of transformational leadership and transactional leadership on employee engagement. A triangulation approach was adopted to analyse the data, using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. The result when testing the reliability coefficient scores of the leadership instrument described a poor measure for transactional leadership, and a good measure for transformational leadership. Therefore, the results that stemmed from the statistical analysis in relation to transactional leadership could not be trusted. However, in the context of this research, it was found that there is a statistically significant relationship between transformational leadership and employee engagement. Whilst utilising the qualitative research methodology, it was found that there is a limited definition-based relationship between transactional leadership and the eight Leadership Principles. However, there is a definition-based relationship between the Leadership Principles and transformational leadership, owing to similarities found in the definition descriptions between at least six of the eight Leadership Principles. In the investigation of whether there is a definition-based relationship between the Leadership Principles and employee engagement, it was found that a limited definition-based relationship between the eight Leadership Principles and engagement existed. The research therefore met its objectives in determining a relationship between leadership and employee engagement in an Original Equipment Manufacturer in South Africa.Thesis (MCom) -- Faculty of Commerce, Management, 202
Decolonising Content Narratives in Mathematics and Science Education: The Case of Reinventing Length Measurement
Get PDFAIn South Africa and in many other parts of the world, decolonising the curriculum has become a valued goal, while frameworks that would systematically support the decolonising project through instructional design are not broadly available. In this conceptual paper we bring readers to consider one framework for instructional design, the theory of Realistic Mathematics Education, and discuss how it can aid in decolonising education in primary years. We exemplify our conceptual position through an instructional design for teaching length measurement—a key grounding practice in both early years mathematics and science throughout the world. We propose that the resulting decolonised narratives are not only useful in marginalised contexts of countries with a history of colonisation. Due to their positioning of mathematics as a human endeavour, these narratives are capable of generating meaningful, equitable engagement with mathematics for diverse student groups in a variety of educational settings
Transdisciplinary curriculum design for sustainability transitions: A reflective dialogue
Get PDFInter- and transdisciplinary curricula can potentially develop an integrated understanding of an increasingly interconnected, complex world and develop students' agency, empathy, creativity and critical thinking skills. Within the South African qualification landscape, the Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip) is identified as a multior interdisciplinary qualification that allows working professionals 'to undertake advanced reflection and development by means of a systematic survey of current thinking, practice and research methods in an area of specialisation'. In this paper, four academics reflexively share their experiences of (re)developing and piloting transdisciplinary curricula for the PGDip in Sustainable Development (at Stellenbosch University) and the PGDip in Sustainability Learning (at Rhodes University). Reflections centre around the rationale, context and emergence of the two programmes, their structure and intended learning outcomes, and principles guiding the overall curriculum design. We highlight the appropriateness of transdisciplinary approaches to curricula focused on the sustainability field, and it distils three broad features of the two PGDip programmes that seem important - even necessary - for developing students' competencies as sustainability practitioners. These are ontological groundedness, epistemological openness and ethical attentiveness
What does practising the Adaptive Systemic Approach offer engaged sustainability science?
Get PDFEngaged sustainability science is a relational response that mobilises knowledge into constructive action. However, theoretical and conceptual development has outstripped effective practice. Some of the barriers to practice include: (1) integrative theories, concepts and vocabulary that are not familiar to most disciplinary scholars; (2) literature that supports these perspectives is dispersed and difficult to organise into practical steps; (3) the skill-set for effective engagement is rare, and includes facilitating co-learning that is attentive to power and equity. By providing a clear set of activities, the Adaptive Systemic Approach enables novice and experienced research practitioners to start, and to follow a pathway
A lateral line organ for Slow co-engaged science for hot messes
Get PDFSurfacing the connections between science engagement, engaged science, and sustainability sciences, we urge a re-evaluation of sustainability science's beneficiaries and goals, by advocating a transdisciplinary approach to address sustainability challenges, based on a relational ontology. Thinking with posthumanist, feminist new materialist and Black feminist theories, we consider the importance of multispecies attention and empathy in scientific research. We propose a concept of evolving new perceptual organs in humans to enhance collective responsiveness, inspired by the lateral line organ in fish and their collaborative intelligence for navigating contemporary social and ecological crises and injustices in 'hot messes'
Public Health Communication and Language Policy at Rhodes University During the COVID-19 Pandemic
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic offered unprecedented obstacles to public health communication worldwide. Pandemic revealed disparities and significant gaps in access to public health information for those not proficient in English, potentially leading to the exclusion of indigenous language speakers and minority communities from issues of national interest, including vital COVID-19 updates. This chapter examines the case study of Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape, South Africa and explores the institution's language policies and practices during the pandemic. The institution grapples with linguistic diversity, where English is the primary language of teaching and administration. The study explores language, public health communication, and inclusion at Rhodes University. It seeks to find linguistic and cultural contestations during this time by evaluating the university's response to the pandemic through language. The study uses document analysis to understand how Rhodes University's language practices impacted public health communication during the pandemic
Sound Matters: Podcasting As A Learning And Teaching Intervention To Enhance Reading And Writing Skills
Get PDFIn this chapter, a group of student-researchers and their lecturer discuss their findings relating to a podcasting intervention which took place in an Ethnomusicology thirdand fourth-year class at Rhodes University in Makhanda, Eastern Cape, South Africa. As part of a larger project, in which the class explored podcasting in general, they experimented with the medium in order to ascertain in what role it could be used as a learning and teaching aid in tertiary pedagogy. Audio recordings of the lecturer discussing journal articles relating to the module were sent to students. They listened to and used them in different scenarios, orchestrated to research their effectiveness in diverse learning and teaching situations. Using a qualitative case study research design methodology, the student researchers and their lecturer present these findings through a participatory lens. They analyse the podcasts’ efficacy and limitations from various perspectives through coding responses. Finally, they discuss future usage of the medium as a way to enhance students’ understanding of academic readings
South African birds in a Canadian museum: the legacy of colonial service by Lionel E Taylor
No full textThe Beaty Biodiversity Museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, holds a collection of 498 specimens of 275 bird species presented by Lionel E Taylor, who worked in South Africa for the Department of Forestry from 1902 to 1911. Most specimens are in very good condition, and many have date and locality information; about one-third were collected around Irene, outside Pretoria, in Gauteng province, where Taylor lived before relocating to Canada. Full details can be accessed from the museum’s website. The history and composition of this collection is described here briefly
Counting Common Starlings: is Sturnus vulgaris invasive in rural South Africa?
No full textThe numbers of Common Starlings Sturnus vulgaris and indigenous starling species, as well as a subset of other common birds, were recorded from October 2006 to January 2020 at 72 point-count sites along four routes (two urban and two rural) in the Eastern Cape Province of South African. In the rural habitat, Common Starlings were localised at buildings; in the urban habitat, there was no clear indication that their presence influenced the occurrence or abundance of the Red-winged Starling Onychognathus morio, a native species which has colonised towns and nests on buildings. In this region there is little evidence that Common Starlings invade areas that have not been heavily modified by human activities
The Southern African Program on Ecosystem Change and Society: an emergent community of practice
Get PDFSustainability-focused research networks and communities of practice have emerged as a key response and strategy to build capacity and knowledge to support transformation towards more sustainable, just and equitable futures. This paper synthesises insights from the development of a community of practice on social-ecological systems (SES) research in southern Africa over the past decade, linked to the international Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS). This community consists of a network of researchers who carry out place-based SES research in the southern African region. They interact through various cross-cutting working groups and also host a variety of public colloquia and student and practitioner training events. Known as the Southern African Program on Ecosystem Change and Society (SAPECS), its core objectives are to: (1) derive new approaches and empirical insights on SES dynamics in the southern African context; (2) have a tangible impact by mainstreaming knowledge into policy and practice; and (3) grow the community of practice engaged in SES research and governance, including researchers, students and practitioners. This paper reflects on experiences in building the SAPECS community, with the aim of supporting the development of similar networks elsewhere in the world, particularly in the Global South