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Item Open Access The influence of trust and commitment on customer loyalty: a case study of Liberty Life(University of the Free State, 2012) Roberts-Lombard, Mornay; Du Plessis, LeonEnglish: The finance, real estate and business services sector, including the long-term insurance industry, contributed 20.3% to gross domestic product in 2011. However, the majority of Liberty Life’s customers are cancelling their policies as they face an uncertain economic future due, in part, to retrenchments. During 2008, it became apparent that Liberty Life had to improve its customer relationship management strategies. This article primarily aims to investigate the influence of trust and commitment on customer loyalty through customer relationship management at Liberty Life in South Africa. The results indicate that Liberty Life can become more trustworthy by keeping promises to customers, showing concern for the security of their transactions, providing quality services, showing respect for customers, and fulfilling obligations. The results also indicate that customers regard the product adjustments made by Liberty Life to suit their individual needs as an indicator of the commitment.Item Open Access Academic writing in Blackboard: a computer-mediated discourse analytic perspective(University of the Free State, 2012) Brokensha, SusanEnglish: This article reports on how text-based synchronous and asynchronous modes of communication in Blackboard were employed at tertiary level to encourage students to share their perceptions of academic writing and sensitise them to the writing process. Employing a computer-mediated discourse analytic (CMDA) framework, three research questions were posed: What were the discussion topics in each mode of computer-mediated communication (CMC)? What types of knowledge construction were reflected in each mode? What kinds of discourse features were generated in each mode? The overall conclusions reached were that both modes of CMC reflected conceptual moves, although few theoretical ideas were present in asynchronous CMC and none in synchronous CMC. Asynchronous CMC was also more syntactically complex than synchronous CMC. This preliminary study suggests that both modes may help learners achieve the above aims.Item Open Access Seeking Leviathan? A test of the revenue maximisation objective in the South African National Lottery(University of the Free State, 2012) Keeton, LyndalEnglish: A Leviathan is an inefficient government that maximises the public revenue it raises. This article seeks evidence of a Leviathan in the South African government in respect of the National Lottery. This search is motivated by the Lotteries Act of 1997 which legislates that the goal of the National Lottery is to maximise the public revenue raised from the sale of National Lottery tickets. The effective price model is used to estimate the demand curve for National Lottery tickets. Although the National Lottery is not yet maximising revenue, the actions of the National Lottery suggest seemingly Leviathan tendencies.Item Open Access The economics of greening the Grahamstown National Arts Festival in South Africa(University of the Free State, 2012) Dobson, Blaise; Snowball, JenEnglish: The article analyses the broad history underpinning the notion of sustainable development and its context within the events industry in South Africa. It explores the willingness of festival-goers to pay for a hypothetical recycling programme to reduce the negative externalities of the Festival. Results show that festival-goers were, on average, willing to pay an additional R2.30 per “green” ticket to fund the proposed programme. A statistical regression was used to explore the determinants of willing-to-pay. If applied to all tickets, the total willing-to-pay amount far exceeded the actual cost of the recycling programme.Item Open Access Interpretation and implementation of the environmental education curriculum: a case study of three Lesotho schools(University of the Free State, 2012) Molapo, Lira; Stears, Michéle; Dempster, EdithEnglish: This study aims to determine how the Lesotho school curriculum promotes environmental learning and how teachers implement this aspect of the curriculum. The framework of teaching about, in and for the environment is used to analyse curriculum documents as well as the way in which teachers at three Lesotho schools implement the curriculum. The results show that the intended curriculum contains laudable goals with regard to learning in and for the environment. However, teachers interpret the curriculum in such a way that they teach mainly about the environment; never in the environment and seldom engage learners in activities where they could develop positive attitudes encouraging them to act for the environment. This has implications for the promotion of environmental education in Lesotho schools.Item Open Access The design of a semantic differential scale for measuring the psychosocial well-being of students(University of the Free State, 2012) Viljoen, MarianneEnglish: This article describes the construction and standardisation of a semantic differential scale for measuring and quantifying the psychosocial well-being of students. The respondents rate the following aspects of their childhood years: emotional support while growing up, socio-economic background, whether they grew up in an environment conducive to learning, and the presence of depression in the family. Regarding the students’ current life situation, the scale measures the degree of relationship and economic problems experienced by the students, the presence of depression, and concerns regarding HIV and AIDS.Item Open Access Past and present ideologies in South African schooling: towards a framework of ethics(University of the Free State, 2012) Van Niekerk, PetroEnglish: A general climate of inertia, low teacher morale and a lack of accountability are dominant features of the current South African education system. This article argues that the root cause of the problem lies in underlying entrenched mindsets and attitudes derived from ideologies and value systems. An in-depth investigation of past and present ideologies revealed mindsets such as a culture of entitlement and a victim mentality directly related to a lack of accountability. This article aims to inform and empower educators to become change agents in their classrooms. It is recommended that a framework of ethics be adopted by all stakeholders in education to make a difference to education and society.Item Open Access Mentoring children guilty of minor first-time crimes: methods, strengths and limitations(University of the Free State, 2012) Steyn, Francois; Louw, Dap; Van Rensburg, DingieEnglish: In the absence of evidence regarding the impact of mentoring on child offenders in South Africa, this article explores the strengths and limitations of this approach in a local context. It investigates the theory and methods of mentoring, and presents a case study of the strategy as practised by the National Youth Development Outreach in Pretoria. Mentoring appears ineffective for children with hardened negative attitudes and chronic offending as their value preferences may contradict those of mentors. Three months are insufficient to establish meaningful relationships and achieve mentoring goals. Reconciliation – a central objective of the Child Justice Act (75 of 2008) – is difficult to achieve given the absence of victims in the mentoring process.Item Open Access Obtaining informed consent in non-Western contexts: reflections on fieldwork experiences in Zimbabwe(University of the Free State, 2012) Jeko, Ishmael; Mangwaya, Ezron; Blignaut, SylvanEnglish: Current ethics frameworks for regulating social science research seem to be based mainly on Western sociocultural traditions, arguably making it difficult for researchers in non-Western contexts to use them as ethics guides. Yet, these frameworks tend often to be used, un-adapted, as default ethics compasses to guide the conduct of research in non-Western contexts. In this article, the authors reflect on their experiences in obtaining informed consent for an educational research study in Zimbabwe using a Western-based ethics protocol. The experiences are reflectively interpreted in the context of literature with a view to suggesting some sensitive issues that need to be taken into account when seeking informed consent of research participants in non-Western contexts, particularly in Africa.