Browsing by Author "Parker, Benjamin Philip."

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An Afro-European communitarian ethic as a model for a private sector response to HIV/AIDS, with special reference to the King II Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa.
(2005) King, Judith Ann.; Prozesky, Martin Herman.; Parker, Benjamin Philip.; Stobie, Melissa Lauren.
This thesis formulates and argues for a composite conceptual framework of ethics for strategic and sustainable corporate benevolence as a means of addressing HIV/AIDS in South Africa. The template consists of the following theoretical elements: modern virtue ethics, contemporary Western communitarian ethics, the African philosophy of Ubuntu and a feminist ethic of care. This template is applied to relevant pragmatic ends through the proposition that the King I I Report - as it explicitly advocates a universally communitarian and essentially African code of ethics for a business response to HIV/AIDS - offers a viable and valuable model to both understand and transcend the tensions between profits and caring in the post-apartheid era of the South African experience of the pandemic. Specific features of the thesis include contextual perspectives on the ethical variances of HIV/AIDS stigma and behaviour change, cached as the thought-form of " I and We" as opposed to "Us and Them", and the psycho-social linguistics of re-interpreting "the wounded other" as "the wounded us". This is drawn together conceptually in discussion around the individual in and of, rather than as opposed to, the community, stressing how the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic is compelling our society to integrate this reverence into our disposition and conduct. In the spirit of this Afro-European communitarian ethic, and to apply this postulated theory for a concrete social morality in the wake of HIV/AIDS, the thesis argues that there is an ethical role for businesses in restoring the balance between nurturing and selfinterest - an equilibrium that is essential for both human expression and human survival. This involves underscoring the elderly and young women, as well as children, who head households and care for orphans of AIDS in circumstances of great vulnerability, (particularly the nation-wide body of informally organised volunteer home-based caregivers), as target beneficiaries for a gravely urgent and massive empowerment effort by the business sector.
Conceptualising whole school development : examining the approaches of non-government organisations to school development in South Africa.
(1999) Bertram, Carol Anne.; Parker, Benjamin Philip.
This study attempts to provide conceptual clarification around the concept of whole school development in South Africa. It does so through examining the approaches to school development of five non-government organisations in South Africa as well as the literature and research in the areas of school effectiveness, school improvement and educational change. The concept of whole school development emerged in South Africa in the 1990s. It was seen as the way to develop quality schooling where individual teacher inservice programmes traditionally offered by NGOs had failed. The literature review presents two different ways of approaching school change: namely school effectiveness and school improvement. It locates the South African concept of whole school development within the international paradigm of school improvement because it has a clear commitment to understanding the process of school change. International research suggests that there is a need for school change processes to deal with school culture and not only with changing school structures and procedure. A focus on changing culture seems to suggest an understanding of change which is normative-re-educative. School development planning is the most common strategy for school development and this study suggests that it needs to be implemented in an holistic way. These themes are conceptualised as continua. After presenting the data from the interviews, the study then maps the work of the five organisations onto these continua. Common themes which emerge are that all the organisations make use of school development planning to some extent: all organisations rely on well-skilled facilitators and all acknowledge the imperative to build the capacity of teachers within the school to lead their own development process through a school development committee. The study ends by suggesting three principles of procedure which can be used in school development. These are that school development needs to focus both on structure and culture; that an organising framework is needed to help schools prioritise the issues and that a systemic way of approaching problems is useful. Some of the challenges facing whole school development, particularly around issues of replicability. sustainability and the role of the community are explored.
Critical systematic engagements with rural development and nature conservation organizations.
(2004) Luckett, Sidney.; Fincham, Robert John.; Parker, Benjamin Philip.
This collection of papers represents the author's maturing reflection on systemic engagements with three different organizations within the latter half of the first decade in post-Apartheid South Africa. The first two papers deal with two different systemic engagements: the first with a rural community development organization in a rural area of KwaZulu-Natal south of Durban and the second with the implementation of a district health system by a provincial health authority, also in KwaZulu-Natal. The last three are concerned with the theoretical and practical aspects of a single critical systems intervention (CSI) for policy development within the KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Service, a parastatal nature conservation organization. The first paper, Designing a Management System for a Rural community Development Organization Using a Systemic Action Research Process describes the use of Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) for the development of a Human Activity System (HAS) Model, that is, a conceptual model of purposeful human activities, to facilitate debate regarding a 'problem situation' faced by the community development organization. A Critical Systems Intervention to Improve the Implementation of a District Health System in KwaZulu-Natal is the second paper. As the title suggests, this paper describes a Critical Systems Intervention in a district health system implementation process. By using Concept Maps and Sign-Graph diagrams with SSM this paper contributes theoretically to the growing body of literature on methodological pluralism. Paper 3, Towards a critical systems approach to policy formulation in organizations contributes to the literature on organizational policy. It is noted in this paper that whilst there is a substantial body of literature on organizational strategy as well as on public policy, there is a dearth of literature on organizational policy. The thrust of the paper is twofold. Firstly, it draws a distinction and shows the relationship between organizational policy and organizational strategy. Secondly, building on this distinction, it develops a critical systems approach to policy formulation. Paper 4, Environmental Paradigms, Biodiversity Conservation and Critical Systems Thinking develops a framework of environmental paradigms which may be used for any CSI in nature management as a tool for values clarification. The collection concludes with Paper 5, A Critical Systems Intervention for Policy Development within a Nature Conservation Organization. It discusses the process undertaken in the nature conservation organization - Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife - intervention and shows how the approach to policy formulation (developed in Paper 3) and the framework for environmental paradigms (developed in Paper 4) were used in the intervention.
Democracy, power and the organization of education projects.
(1994) Parker, Benjamin Philip.; Moulder, James.
Abstract available in pdf file.
Efficiency versus democracy : unpacking the decision-making process in South African cities.
(2006) Barichievy, Kelvin Charles.; Piper, Laurence.; Parker, Benjamin Philip.
This thesis probes the extent and consequences of the new local government reforms in four municipalities, namely, Msunduzi, (Pietermaritzburg) Buffalo City, (East London) eThekwini (Durban) and Nelson Mandela (Port Elizabeth). These reforms call for a shift from a representative type of local government to a participative form of local governance and require municipalities to conduct their activities in a more democratic way than they did before. Of particular concern to this thesis is the effect of these democratic requirements on the efficiency of the decision-making process. The research has yielded sufficient evidence to support the claim that greater democracy in the decision-making structures and processes will result in a cost to efficiency. This, therefore, confirms the tension between democracy and efficiency in municipal decision-making. A distinction is made between efficiency and efficacy, in that whereas efficiency is measured in terms of "minimum effort", efficacy includes normative evaluation as to whether the decision-making outcomes really address the needs and preferences they are intended to. This thesis examines the impact of these new democratic requirements on the municipal decision-making process in terms of both theories of democracy and systems theory. Through applying Robert Dahl to the new democratic requirements the thesis identifies four criteria in terms of which democratic operation of municipal decision-making is measured: inclusivity, transparency, accountability and participation. Through reviewing systems theory, the thesis identifies the importance of reviewing the structural, organizational culture and development aspects of the decision-making process to develop the fullest picture of what is going on. The thesis then proceeds on the basis of a qualitative evaluation of the case studies to yield several significant sub-findings including that there are no efficiency reasons for preferring the executive mayoral system over the executive committee system, and good democracy reasons to prefer the latter over the former.
Factors in media selection for quality distance education: a survey of issues and recommendations for practice.
(2000) Long, Leanne M.; Aitchison, John Jacques William.; Parker, Benjamin Philip.
This dissertation examines the contribution that media make in quality distance education and seeks explanations for poor media selection processes. Distance education is viewed in policy documents as playing a crucial role in the development of South Africa and the provision of a wide range of education opportunities through distance methods has increased rapidly. There are however grave concerns about the quality of much of this provision. This reflects global disappointment where many technology-based educational operations failing to meet expectations. In Part One, the study scrutinizes the role of media in distance education and concludes that conceptually and in practice technology is indeed viewed as a crucial component of distance provision and consequently decision around the selection and usage of media will be significant in quality distance education. Thereafter the study analyses possible reasons for poor media choices, highlighting aspects such as over-enthusiastic beliefs in technology, a neglect of educational issues and an under theorized approach. Given that there has been considerable research activity into media usage, the study then examines why previous research has not been influential in media decisions, concluding that the research is conceptually flawed and overly crude. Having identified and discussed bad practice, Part Two moves into the positive and identifies basic principles in making better choices (such as examining our own beliefs, conceptualizing the relationship between education and technology and mobilizing team approaches). Developing more sophisticated understandings of education and technology and ways in which can be utilized forms the bulk of this section and includes a focus on current notions of quality education. Rather than concluding with strong recommendations, two specific areas for consideration - convergence and media combinations- are suggested.