Evolving Role and Nature of Workplace Leaders and Diversity: A Theoretical and Empirical Approach

Blumer (1962) regarded the ‘many possibilities of uncertainty as inherent to the process of joint action.’ Joint action reflects the efforts of participants to work out the line of action in light of what they observe each other doing. Leadership appears to be approached from two fundamental perspectives: an organisational perspective (the influence that is exercised to change the direction of the organisation), and an individual task perspective (the influence that is directed at changing the work behaviour of an individual). In this article, it is suggested that the symbolic interaction of perspective integrates the two fundamental perspectives in that both perspectives require meaningful, reflexive integration and meaning, group membership, organisational role and experience. The evolving role of leaders to attract, retain and connect with a diverse workforce in a changing environment gives rise to interactive leadership competency requirements. This article suggests that managing diversity requires business leaders to adopt an approach to diversity management that is sensitive not only to race and ethnic differences, but also to the background and values of all individuals at work. The empirical study was done and four hundred and forty (440) leadership styles were measured in eleven (11) organisations. The study used the Hall and Hawker (1988) inventory leadership styles and a diversity questionnaire to measure diversity management experience.discrimination, diversity management, engaging leadership style, experience, heroic leadership style, management, transformational leadership

Organisational commitment and responses to planned organisational change: An exploratory study

Previous research has identified organisational commitment as apre-requisite to the successful implementation of organisationalchange. Change managers rely on the commitment of employeeswhen implementing organisational change, but organisationalcommitment may decrease in response to the change. Thisappeared to be the case when a South African telecommunicationsorganisation embarked on an organisational change initiative in2008. The commencement of the change was followed by largescaleemployee resignations, suggesting a possible decline inorganisational commitment as a result of the change. Organisationalchange is complex and is accompanied by cognitive, affectiveand behavioural responses from employees, but little researchhas been conducted to show how these responses are related toorganisational commitment. This study attempts to address thisgap by exploring whether levels of organisational commitment arerelated to employee attitudes towards change, and whether theseattitudes are related to the manner in which employees perceive thechange process. Data were collected from 113 employees through anelectronic survey. The findings indicate that affective and normativecommitment are positively associated with change readiness,personal and organisational valence. Change readiness, personaland organisational valence are, in turn, positively associated withemployee perceptions of change communication and training

Developing a national cadre of effective leadership towards sustainable quality service delivery in South Africa

The application of the three (3) dimensional leadership competency model has the likelihood of having a positive impact on a sustainable developmental local governance framework. The purpose of the study was to explore the relevance of the Three (3) dimensional leadership competency model so as to suggest leadership traits that can be used in the enhancement of a developmental local governance framework. The lack of leadership with the requisite competencies and capabilities in the local government system has been the source of corruption and maladministration, and therefore necessitates an intervention in the development of leadership competencies. The research design, approach and method focuses primarily a qualitative approach, namely face-to-face in-depth interviews using a structured interview schedule triangulated through the review of published documents and publications. The findings show that significant progress has been achieved in many areas of the ideal of a developmental local governance framework, yet the lack of a value-based cadre of leaders is reversing the gains that have been achieved in the last 15 years of the ANC rule. Managerial competencies that are key components of leadership limit the acceleration of a developmental governance framework. This study indicates the relevance of the Three (3) dimensional leadership competency model in the enhancement of a developmental local governance framework, and has suggested key elements of leadership traits within the context of what can be used to achieve the objects of a developmental local governance framework

Effect of Bioregion on the Size and Production Efficiency of Bonsmara Cattle in Semi-Arid Parts of Southern Africa

The effects of bioregions in the semi-arid parts of Southern Africa on growth, size and reproduction efficiency of Bonsmara cows are investigated. The regional distribution of cattle influences the growth, size and reproduction efficiency of cows, and provides evidence for an optimal cow size for different bioregions. Effects of bioregion on growth and reproduction of extensive beef cattle is complex, because the proportion of variation in growth traits explained by bioregion, depends on the physiological stages of growth, e.g., birth, weaning, 12- or 18-month growth stages. For production efficiency, weaning- and yearling weights as well as age at first calving (AFC) and reproduction index (RI) were influenced most by bioregion. Management practices, such as livestock recording and improvement strategies, and better nutrition at weaning and yearling age, limit the negative effects of bioregion on cow growth and size. Genetic trends indicate that the efficiency of growth improved, but was associated with a decline in reproductive characteristics. Indiscriminate selection for growth traits in cattle adversely affects reproduction. The current data indicate that cows of medium size had the best reproduction rates. Acceptable reproduction of larger cows can be achieved with improved management and strategic feed supplementation, although more costly

Delimitation and characterisation of Talaromyces purpurogenus and related species

Taxa of the Talaromyces purpurogenus complex were studied using a polyphasic approach. ITS barcodes were used to show relationships between species of the T. purpurogenus complex and other Talaromyces species. RPB1, RPB2, β-tubulin and calmodulin sequences were used to delimit phylogenetic species in the complex. These data, combined with phenotypic characters, showed that the complex contains four species: T. purpurogenus, T. ruber comb. nov. and two new species T. amestolkiae sp. nov. and T. stollii sp. nov. The latter three species belong to the same clade and T. purpurogenus is located in a phylogenetic distant clade. The four species all share similar conidiophore morphologies, but can be distinguished by macromorphological characters. Talaromyces ruber has a very distinct colony texture on malt extract agar (MEA), produces bright yellow and red mycelium on yeast extract sucrose agar (YES) and does not produce acid on creatine sucrose agar (CREA). In contrast, T. amestolkiae and T. stollii produce acid on CREA. These two species can be differentiated by the slower growth rate of T. amestolkiae on CYA incubated at 36 °C. Furthermore, T. stollii produces soft synnemata-like structures in the centre of colonies on most media. Extrolite analysis confirms the distinction of four species in the T. purpurogenus complex. The red diffusing pigment in T. purpurogenus is a mixture of the azaphilone extrolites also found in Monascus species, including N-glutarylrubropunctamine and rubropunctatin. Talaromyces purpurogenus produced four different kinds of mycotoxins: rubratoxins, luteoskyrin, spiculisporic acid and rugulovasins and these mycotoxins were not detected in the other three specie

Differential cellular interaction of Sutherlandia frutescens extracts on tumorigenic and non-tumorigenic breast cells

Sutherlandia frutescens (SF) is a traditional Africanmedicinal aid employed for the treatment of various ailments such as inflammation, pulmonary asthma and congestion. The present study was conducted to demonstrate the differential cellular interaction of aqueous SF extracts in a breast adenocarcinoma epithelial cell line (MCF-7) and a non-tumorigenic breast cell line (MCF-12A) by means of polarization-optical differential interference contrast microscopy, crystal violet staining, light microscopy and flowcytometry. Results showed that aqueous SF extracts induced cell death inMCF-7 andMCF-12A via two types of cell death namely apoptosis and autophagy. Effects on proliferation and cytotoxicity were investigated by means of crystal violet staining. The latter indicated that, at a 1/10 dilution, the tumorigenic MCF-7 cell line was more prominently affected when compared to the nontumorigenic MCF-12A cell line. Apoptosis induction was demonstrated by qualitative and quantitative light microscopy and cell cycle progression studies, while autophagy induction was assessed by an increase inmicrotubule- associated protein light chain 3 (LC3) levels (a specific marker of autophagy). The MCF-7 tumorigenic cells, however, were more susceptible to these extracts when compared to the non-tumorigenic MCF-12A cells. Data obtained contribute towards understanding the differential cellular interaction exerted by aqueous SF extracts in tumorigenic versus non-tumorigenic breast cells. Results will enable researchers to further study cell death mechanisms induced by these aqueous extracts and to identify active compounds for evaluation in anticancer therapy and potential in vivo efficacy.Cancer Association of South Africa (Cape Town, South Africa)http://www.elsevier.com/locate/sajbhb201

Reducing the number of accepted species in Aspergillus series Nigri

The Aspergillus series Nigri contains biotechnologically and medically important species. They can produce hazardous mycotoxins, which is relevant due to the frequent occurrence of these species on foodstuffs and in the indoor environment. The taxonomy of the series has undergone numerous rearrangements, and currently, there are 14 species accepted in the series, most of which are considered cryptic. Species-level identifications are, however, problematic or impossible for many isolates even when using DNA sequencing or MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, indicating a possible problem in the definition of species limits or the presence of undescribed species diversity. To re-examine the species boundaries, we collected DNA sequences from three phylogenetic markers (benA, CaM and RPB2) for 276 strains from series Nigri and generated 18 new whole-genome sequences. With the three-gene dataset, we employed phylogenetic methods based on the multispecies coalescence model, including four single-locus methods (GMYC, bGMYC, PTP and bPTP) and one multilocus method (STACEY). From a total of 15 methods and their various settings, 11 supported the recognition of only three species corresponding to the three main phylogenetic lineages: A. niger, A. tubingensis and A. brasiliensis. Similarly, recognition of these three species was supported by the GCPSR approach (Genealogical Concordance Phylogenetic Species Recognition) and analysis in DELINEATE software. We also showed that the phylogeny based on benA, CaM and RPB2 is suboptimal and displays significant differences from a phylogeny constructed using 5 752 single-copy orthologous proteins; therefore, the results of the delimitation methods may be subject to a higher than usual level of uncertainty. To overcome this, we randomly selected 200 genes from these genomes and performed ten independent STACEY analyses, each with 20 genes. All analyses supported the recognition of only one species in the A. niger and A. brasiliensis lineages, while one to four species were inconsistently delimited in the A. tubingensis lineage. After considering all of these results and their practical implications, we propose that the revised series Nigri includes six species: A. brasiliensis, A. eucalypticola, A. luchuensis (syn. A. piperis), A. niger (syn. A. vinaceus and A. welwitschiae), A. tubingensis (syn. A. chiangmaiensis, A. costaricensis, A. neoniger and A. pseudopiperis) and A. vadensis. We also showed that the intraspecific genetic variability in the redefined A. niger and A. tubingensis does not deviate from that commonly found in other aspergilli. We supplemented the study with a list of accepted species, synonyms and unresolved names, some of which may threaten the stability of the current taxonomy.The Czech Ministry of Health, the Charles University Research Centre program, the Czech Academy of Sciences Long-term Research Development Project, the project of Charles University Grant Agency, JST SPRING, the Foundational Biodiversity Information Programme (FBIP) of the National Research Foundation of South Africa, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science - Postdoctoral Fellowships for Research in Japan and Grant-in-aid for a JSPS research fellow.https://www.journals.elsevier.com/studies-in-mycologyam2023BiochemistryGeneticsMicrobiology and Plant Patholog