Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 265-286). Also available on microfiche.

This study examines the major difficulties experienced by a small sample of Old Age Pensioners in their daily living, and the manner in which these problems are resolved. The method was to interview these persons personally, and to draw from the facts obtained, a word picture of their situations and needs. The first section (Chapter I), describes generally, the major exigencies of elderly people in modern urban society, as known from current writing on the subject. The middle sections (Chapters II and III) depict (a) the housing situation, living conditions and health circumstances, (b) the personal life and social contacts of the persons interviewed. On the basis of these "case histories," conclusions are drawn as to existing needs for certain services for the aged, which are not sufficiently recognized at present, or would enhance those already provided, in significant ways. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This study describes the meaning of fracturing a hip for elderly community-dwelling women. To provide collaborative, individualized and meaningful care for patients, it is imperative that nurses understand what the experience of fracturing a hip is like for the elderly individual. Giorgi's phenomenological approach was used to explore the hip fracture experience from the women's perspective. Data were collected through fourteen unstructured audiotaped interviews with six women who had fractured their hip. Analysis occurred concurrently with data collection. The findings indicate that the overall experience of fracturing a hip is characterized by a sense of loss of control. The loss of control threatens the elderly individual's self-esteem and causes her to reevaluate her self-perceptions, beliefs about aging and expectations for the future. The elderly women used various coping behaviours in an attempt to establish some control over their situation including attempting to make sense of the fall event, taking action, thinking positively and maintaining a positive attitude. The findings emphasize the need for nurses to assist elderly individuals to develop a variety of coping behaviours aimed at regaining elements of control and reaffirming self-esteem. Implications for nursing practice, education and research were identified and recommendations presented. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Nursing, School of / Graduate

Considering the increasing shortage of newly qualified chartered accountants in South Africa, this study focused on investigating factors that influence newly qualified chartered accountants to either leave or stay with their employing organisation. This study was conducted at a financial services organisation situated in Cape Town, which like all other financial institutions, would like to decrease the exit of newly qualified accounting professionals and ensure that skilled employees remain within the organisation. • Participants in this study completed an open ended written questionnaire (N =19) and were then interviewed (N = 19) about the factors that determine whether or not they would leave the organisation. The following five reasons were identfied as the most important: bureaucracy (lack of autonomy); career possibilities; good line management; organisational culture; work-life balance. Retention strategy policies that were meant to assist with employee attrition were not effective in achieving the retention of the newly qualified chartered accountants. The main reason for the lack of graduate retention was that the policies were not properly communicated to the employees. The findings of this study indicate the necessity for the financial services organisation to do a rigorous reassessment of their retention policies and to put processes in place to decrease the exits of talented and knowledgeable employees.

Globalisation and the skills shortage worldwide has increased the mobility of employees, and in turn, given employees access to more job opportunities globally. The mobility of employees makes employee retention more challenging than ever before. The topic of employee retention has been vastly researched over the years and human resource practitioners have identified multiple factors which influence employees’ intention to stay. This study focuses on six variables which were found to influence an employee’s intention to stay: job satisfaction, supervisor support, compensation, career advancement, work-life balance and affective commitment. The study assessed whether the factors which influence employees’ intention to stay differed between the locations of an international financial-technology organisation, Prodigy Finance. There are 98 participants in the sample. The data was collected via a selfadministered online survey. Results show that whilst the six variables do influence the employees’ intention to stay within the organisation as expected, the employees’ perception of work-life balance and compensation differed between locations. The employees’ perception of work-life balance in London and the employees’ perception of compensation in New York had more of on influence on their intention to stay, compared to the other locations. Suggestions for future research, limitations and other implications are discussed.

This study aims to explore how human resource management (HRM) practices are implemented in small organisations in the event and exhibition industry in Cape Town, and to examine to what extent these practices influence these organisations' organisational performance. The researcher followed a qualitative case study research design and utilised a semi-structured interview and Likert scale survey. A review of current academic literature has revealed that small organisations, functioning within a highly pressurised environment, focus more on operational survival than on the organisational management of human resources (HR). The event and exhibition industry in Cape Town is characterised by short bursts of high pressurised projects, with fixed deadlines, high profile clients and intense, irregular work periods. Taking into account the aforementioned factors, it is therefore paramount to examine how these small organisations understand HRM practices, as well as how said practices are implemented amidst the challenges experienced in this industry. Overall, the results suggest a positive association between the prioritisation of HRM practices, the alignment of HRM practices to the business plan and the successful implementation of HRM practices in the ten organisations that participated in this study.

Orientation : The current global scarcity of highly skilled employees has forced employers to better understand what attracts these kinds of employees, as they are vital to ensure organisational competitiveness and for the continued success of organisations. In the so- called war for talent, small companies believe they are at a disadvantage compared to large corporates in the battle to attract talented employees given limiting or constraining factors associated with being a smaller sized organisation. Research purpose : The purpose of this study was to investigate the relative importance of various reward elements or reward factors that Small or Medium Enterprises (SMEs) can manipulate in order to compile compelling job offers that are attractive to top talent. An ideal total rewards offering for the attraction of skilled employees that capitalises on the strengths that smaller companies possess, will be proposed. Motivation for the study : Retaining highly performing employees is one of the most important factors that contribute to organisational competitiveness. Companies need to understand how they can attract scarce human resources and specifically in the South African context, understand how to attract even scarcer employees from designated demographic groups in order to meet employment equity targets. Small companies find it difficult to compete with large corporations, for example when it comes to employer branding and so feel at a disadvantage when attempting to attract from the same group of employees that corporates also endeavour to attract. Research design : A quantitative research approach was adopted. Convenience and snowball sampling approaches were employed to gather data by means of three different questionnaires. Firstly, employees that recently moved from large corporate positions to positions within SMEs were asked what was offered to them in order for them to accept the job offer at a small company (n=11). These results were used to develop the second questionnaire (i.e. to develop the attributes and levels used in the conjoint tasks). The second and third questionnaires (the conjoint task and total reward questionnaires, respectively) were distributed to working adults in South Africa (n=105). Conjoint analysis was used to identify an ideal talent attraction mix and to assess how employer branding compares to traditional reward elements in talent attraction. Data from the third questionnaire was analysed using descriptive statistics and t-tests. Main findings : The results of the conjoint analysis revealed that respondents valued the possibility of career advancement most, specifically referring to promotion opportunities or overseas assignments. Significant differences in preference between demographic groups were found when considering performance and recognition, remuneration and benefits, and work culture. Work-life balance were ranked second last by all respondents, while employer brand was consistently viewed as the least attractive factor in talent attraction. Practical and/or managerial implications : Conjoint analysis enables the unique identification of both the combination and quantum of elements that make a job attractive for various demographic groups. Companies can utilise these findings when crafting job offers in order to attract different cohorts of candidates. Contribution and/ or value-add : Limited research exists in South Africa that can assist small companies in attracting top talent. The current study succeeded in identifying that small companies can attract top talent by capitalising on strengths they possess and furthermore assist SMEs to craft compelling job offers for different cohorts of candidates.

Background There has been slow employment equity (EE) transformation in the South African mining industry, particularly within middle and executive management levels. The number of black Africans in management positions remains low and more needs to be done to bring about the desired levels of representation. If meaningful progress is to be made, it is imperative for the Government and mining companies to implement policies and strategies that aim to improve the representation of EE candidates within management levels. In the present study, management teams were chosen as the focus because they constitute the strategic leadership of the mining companies and are also the individuals that have the positional authority to design, initiate and manage transformation policies and strategies. It is argued that if management teams embrace and champion EE transformation, organisations are most likely to achieve EE targets. When the EE statistics of mines in the South African mining industry are compared with one another, it is apparent that certain mines have been more successful in bringing about equity transformation within their middle and executive management teams, than others. The reasons for their success, however, are not apparent and present an opportunity for mining companies to learn from those that have been able to achieve more desired levels of equity representation. Aim of the study The aim of the present research study was to investigate mines that have been successful in bringing about equity transformation within their middle- and executive management teams (success cases) to identify possible reasons that explain their success, while also investigating mines that have not been able to bring about meaningful transformation (non-success cases) to so understand what the barriers were that they experience. Method An exploratory research design and a qualitative approach to data collection, was utilised for the purposes of the present study. Purposive non-probability or judgement sampling was used to identify nine mining organisations and their EE statistics obtained from the Employment Equity Report (2015/2016). The nine mines were ranked according to equity representation at management levels, using a weighted average. The three success cases, in other words the three mines that had achieved the highest weighted average and three non-success cases (that achieved the lowest weighted averages) constituted a convenient sample of six mines. The human resources (HR) managers for each of these six mines were contacted and asked to participate in the research study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with each of the six human resources practitioners. The focus of the interviews with the HR managers from the success case mines was to identify reasons or factors that they believe explain why their mines were able to bring about greater levels of equity in their management teams. In the interviews with the three HR managers from the non-success mines, the focus was on identifying what they believed to be the barriers that are hampering them from achieving there EE targets. Results It was found that leadership played the single most important role in promoting and achieving successful EE transformation within management levels. Leaders provide strategic leadership and are able to align transformation to the strategic objectives of the organisation; design and successfully implement change management process; ensure compliance with labour laws; and put EE monitoring and evaluation systems in place. Within the success cases HR practices, including recruitment and selection, training and development, job rotation, mentoring and coaching, succession planning and talent management policies and practices were effectively implemented and managed. There was further strategic (vertical) alignment between HR practices and policies and the business strategy, as well as horizontal alignment between the HR functions. Although non-success cases had implemented some of the HR policies and practices stated above, the findings revealed that they were less effective and various obstacles that impeded the attainment of EE targets were present, including a lack of effective change management processes, poor recruitment practices, lack of qualified and experienced human resource practitioners, nepotism and favouritism, an ineffective EE committee, poor monitoring and evaluation of transformation, a lack of succession planning, no or small graduate programmes, lack of job rotation, poor facilities, weak retention and/or performance management, no leadership development programmes, and an organisational culture that does not support transformation. Contribution The findings of the present study hopefully provided new insights on the success factors that cause some mines to have success cases of EE representation within management levels, as well as identifying the barriers to effective implementation of EE reforms in non-success mines. Managers in non-success mines are expected to learn about ways to stimulate substantial change to achieve EE targets. Hopefully by effectively implementing the critical success factors these managers will yield better EE targets. It is imperative for managers and EE consultants to adopt suitable measures such as 1) adopting EE reforms as corporate strategy embrace by the entire organisation; 2) providing effective and committed leadership to champion the implementation of the EE strategy; 3) establishing an EE committee with a mandate to develop a clear EE plan, monitor and oversee the effective implementation of the plan; 4) intertwining the EE plan and employment policies and practices; and 5) providing tangible incentives aligned to the EE targets to ensure success of EE reforms.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Indiana University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 196-218).