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AJSW, Volume 5, Number 1, 2015                                                       Editorial Note 

African Journal of Social Work, 5(1), June 2015                                                ii 

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EDITORIAL NOTE 

I am glad to bring to you Volume 5 Number 1 of the African Journal 

of Social Work (AJSW). In my previous editorial, I indicated that the 

AJSW was seeking indexing at regional and international level. Our 

first application was with the African Journals Online (AJOL). The 

application is still pending but we are hopeful we will meet their 

requirements. 

In this issue, the first article came from Ajelerea Ajewumi and Lydia 

Yemisi in Nigeria. Their study examined the adoption and utilization 

of programme communication variables in community development 

projects. They argued that low participation in community 

development has been attributed to the ineffective dissemination of 

specific community development information to community members. 

Descriptive survey research design was adopted and multi-stage 

sampling procedure was used to select 300 respondents. Self-

structured questionnaire and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was 

used to collect data for the study. Data from demographic were 

analysed using percentages while Pearson Product Correlation 

Moment were used to analyse the hypotheses. The findings revealed 

that there was a positive significant relationship between adoption of 

communication and usage of programme communication. The result 

also established that there was a positive significant relationship 

between adoption of programme communication and citizen 

participation in community development projects. The study 

concluded that social and community mobilisation is a potent factor 

in ensuring citizen participation in the life cycle of community 

development programmes. The study recommended that change 

agents should pay attention to these communication variables at 

every stage of a project’s life cycle in mobilizing and disseminating 

development information. 

http://www.ajol.info/


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AJSW, Volume 5, Number 1, 2015                                                       Editorial Note 

African Journal of Social Work, 5(1), June 2015                                                iii 

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African societies have been known for their strong family support 

systems that view children as society’s future and as an important 

fabric if humanity is to be perpetuating itself, argue Francis Maushe 

and myself in the third paper. The family system in Zimbabwe has 

undergone some changes owing to devastating effects of HIV and 

AIDS and the economic meltdown that beset the country from 2000 

through to 2015. In a normal Zimbabwean set up, children were 

supposed to be catered for by adult members of their immediate 

family first and foremost. The extended family and to some extend 

the community were expected to be alternate carers. Now there is a 

new family set up: the child headed household (CHH). This research 

employed qualitative methods to establish the daily experiences of 

10 CHH. The research established that CHH faced immense 

difficulty in providing for their daily needs including food, education 

and clothing. They also lack psychosocial support such as guidance, 

love, belonging and protection. They note that while they were still 

loosely integrated in the extended family system, they were mostly on 

their own when it came to fending for the family. One participant 

noted “...our father’s relatives could have taken us in, but I guess 

they are also heavily constrained. We take each day as it comes. We 

are on our own but we have not allowed our situation to extinguish 

the desire of success in us. We do not blame them. We have to move 

on our own”. 

 

Ruth Ololade Akinwumi and Jacob Kehinde Mojoyinola researched 

on social work and music therapy. They argued that music therapy 

helps in a wide range of pain conditions, primarily by its ability to 

improve mood, encourage relaxation and increase threshold. 

Therefore the study examined how effective music therapy was in the 

psychosocial management of patients with Spinal Cord Injury. The 

study was carried out among 120 registered members of the Spinal 

Cord Injury Association of Nigeria Rehabilitation Center located in 

Amuwo-Odofin in Lagos. The participants were purposively 

selected. Pre-test/post-test quasi experimental research design was 

adopted for the study. The participants received music therapy 

sessions in groups twice in a week for eight consecutive weeks. 

Goals included reducing pain, increasing mood and spiritual well-



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AJSW, Volume 5, Number 1, 2015                                                       Editorial Note 

African Journal of Social Work, 5(1), June 2015                                                iv 

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being, as well as improving their overall quality of life. Pain, 

physical well-being, social well-being, emotional well-being, mental 

well-being and spiritual well-being were assessed at the end of the 

8th week. Five hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance, 

using One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Findings from the 

study established that music therapy significantly reduced the pain 

experienced by spinal cord injury patients. It was also established 

that music therapy significantly enhanced physical, social, and 

spiritual well-beings of the spinal cord injury patients. However, 

music therapy did not significantly enhance the psychological well-

being of the spinal cord injury patients; though the result was 

positive. The study recommended that medical social workers should 

incorporate music therapy into array of social services rendered to 

patients and relatives. Also, administrators of hospitals, hospices 

and rehabilitation homes should establish Music Units for the 

benefits of patients and relatives. 

Majekodunmi Ajala provided the fourth paper on organisational 

justice. Majekodunmi contents that economic institutionalisation of 

work with its attended problematic side effects like ineffectiveness, 

straitjacketing of workers and reduced innovation makes 

management look for the corollary points of sense of duty 

(organisational justice) as operation parameters in the workplace 

for greater benefits of trust and commitment of staffers. It is against 

this background that this study investigated the influence of 

organisational justice on organisational commitment in 

manufacturing firms in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. The descriptive 

survey research design of   ex-post facto type was used for the study. 

Two hundred and fifty (250) employees were randomly selected from 

five manufacturing firms from Industrial Estates in Ibadan, Oyo 

States. The respondents span across the four major job levels from 

senior management, middle management, supervisory and junior 

staff. The main instrument used for the study was a questionnaire 

tagged “Organisational Justice and Organisational Commitment 



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AJSW, Volume 5, Number 1, 2015                                                       Editorial Note 

African Journal of Social Work, 5(1), June 2015                                                v 

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Questionnaire - OJOCQ” with five sub-sections. Frequency counts 

and percentages were used to analyse the demographic 

characteristics of the respondents while Pearson Product Moment 

Correlation and Multiple Regression Analysis were used to analyse 

the research questions and hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. 

Findings from the study showed that the joint contribution of the 

independent variables to the dependent variable was significant (F 

= 163.165). It was found that there was significant and positive 

relationship between distributive justice and organisational 

commitment. (r = .697) Furthermore, there was significant positive 

relationship between procedural justice and organisational 

commitment (r = .739) and that there was significant positive 

relationship between interactional justice and organisational 

commitment (r = .715). It was recommended that industrial social 

workers should advocate on behalf of employees and ensure that 

management of organisations give room for fair and just procedures 

(procedural justice and distributive justice) coupled with proper 

interaction (interactional justice) so that employees will be able to 

give better response to the organisation in terms of commitment, 

positive behaviour and increased productivity. 

This issue has a brief communication from Liberia. March 2015 

marked Liberia’s Social Work Month which was celebrated under 

the global theme: “Promoting the Dignity and Worth of All Peoples. 

In celebrating this month, Sam Togba Slewion wrote this brief 

communication to give recognition to an effort which has manifested 

into giving a unified voice to older people in Liberia. 

Lastly, I want to inform you that AJSW has initiated the process of 

finding a substantive editor. It is expected that the Editor will start 

this role in 2016 and will serve for two years.  



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AJSW, Volume 5, Number 1, 2015                                                       Editorial Note 

African Journal of Social Work, 5(1), June 2015                                                vi 

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Enjoy reading papers in this issue as well as our previous issues 

available on the website. Looking ahead to receiving more papers 

from all corners of Africa and of course, the Africa diaspora. 

 

Jacob Mugumbate  

Acting Editor 

Email: editor@ida.co.zw 


