Abstract not available.

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / Universities worldwide have to contend with a changing landscape due to the massification of education, additional pressure being placed on academia with respect to research outputs, teaching a transforming student base, along with political and social pressures. In South Africa, in particular, there has been increasing pressure on government to effect socio-political and legislative changes to ensure that those that were previously disadvantaged are granted free educational opportunities. Within an academic milieu, talent retention of staff at higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Africa has become a challenge. Research highlights many changes in the nature of work over the past few decades, including an increasingly prevalent culture of long working hours and increasing work intensity across many sectors. Within academia, recent research indicates a culture of increasing work intensity over time often combined with decreasing resources and competing demands. Once assumed to be a low-pressure job, research reports that significant mind set shifts have been needed within academia in order to cope with the heavy workloads, administrative, teaching, community outreach and publishing requirements and expectations within this group of employees. These additional expectations are likely to result in burnout, which is defined as a prolonged response or “‘psychological syndrome’” in response to chronic interpersonal stressors on the job. Burnout affects all professions but tends to be more pervasive in human service occupations such as education. Despite this evident recognition, there is a paucity of research on burnout among South African academics. Amongst the studies conducted, however, evidence suggests that burnout is escalating, and consequently academic careers are becoming less attractive. The extant research reveals that the repercussions of burnout are accompanied by declines in mental and physical health, low morale, substance abuse, weakening of interpersonal relationships, deterioration in teaching and research performance, increased absenteeism and ultimately considerations of leaving the profession. This is likely to be exacerbated in those academics who display a propensity towards workaholism. Workaholism has become a prevalent phenomenon within organisations, which needs to be managed more effectively to offset its damaging effects on employee health and productivity. Associations have been established between workaholism, absenteeism, psychological ill -health, physical ill ill-health, stress and burnout. Faced with increasing professional and operational challenges, academics may develop the resultant impact and be inclined to intend to quit. The main objective of the research study was to determine the relationship between workaholism and burnout on the intention to quit amongst academic employees at a uUniversity in the Western Cape. A quantitative method was used to generate the result by means of survey distribution to the targeted population. Convenience sampling was used to select academic staff in the study. Questionnaires were sent electronically and an additional one hundred and fifty 150 hardcopy questionnaires were administered. Fifty-three responses were received electronically, and fifty-three53 hardcopy completed questionnaires. In total, one hundred and six106 questionnaires were completed, of which one hundred 100 questionnaires were used for the study. The surveys included a biographical questionnaire, Workaholism Analysis Questionnaire (WAQ) (2013), the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) (1981) and the Turnover Intentions Questionnaire (TIQ) (2008). The results indicated that there is a significant positive relationship between Eemotional Eexhaustion and turnover, Eemotional Eexhaustion and workaholism, Ddepersonalisation and workaholism, and workaholism and turnover intention. In addition, the results further indicated a strong negative relationship between Ppersonal Aaccomplishment and Tturnover Iintention. The results further showed that a medium positive relationship between Ddepersonalisation and turnover intention exists. The regression analysis indicated that a significant proportion of the variance in turnover intention is explained by Eemotional Eexhaustion. Conclusions were drawn, and recommendations are made to the uUniversity in order to address this potential problem. / 2021-04-30

Cette thèse porte sur les pratiques de jugement en sciences humaines et sociales à l’Agence d’évaluation de la recherche et de l’enseignement supérieur, créée en 2007. Au moyen d’entretiens, d’observations et d’un travail sur archives, cette enquête approche l’élaboration et les usages des instruments d’évaluation au plus près des acteurs qui les conçoivent et les mettent en œuvre. Au croisement de la sociologie de l’action publique, de la sociologie des sciences, et de la sociologie des professions, cette thèse montre que la définition des « bonnes pratiques » scientifiques se façonne au gré d’alliances et de conflits intra-professionnels, plutôt qu’elle ne serait le produit de réformes imposées par le haut à la profession. Étudier une activité routinière au sein de la communauté académique -l’évaluation scientifique- dans les moments critiques où ses règles se reconfigurent, permet d’appréhender les réformes contemporaines qui affectent le monde académique. Si ces réformes peuvent affaiblir le pouvoir professionnel, dans notre cas, les scientifiques restent centraux dans le dispositif d’évaluation. L’AERES apparaît alors comme un microcosme où se jouent des conflits qui traversent la communauté académique elle-même. En effet, l’élaboration des instruments encadrant le jugement est innervée par des savoirs scientifiques en concurrence, et ces instruments peuvent être abandonnés face aux controverses qu’ils suscitent dans la profession. C’est alors la position de l’AERES vis-vis des autres instances scientifiques qu’il convient d’interroger, pour comprendre à quelles conditions ces instruments s’institutionnalisent et redéfinissent les pratiques de recherche légitimes. / This dissertation studies research assessment in the Humanities and Social Sciences, in a French evaluation agency (AERES) created in 2007. Based on interviews, ethnographic observations and archives, it approaches the elaboration and the uses of evaluative instruments close to the actors who conceive and implement them. At the crossroad of public policy analysis, sociology of science and sociology of professions, I show that the definition of scientific “good practices” is manufactured through intra-professional alliances and conflicts, rather than it would reflect top down reforms imposed to the profession. Studying a routine activity in the academic world – the scientific assessment – in the critical moments when its rules are reshaped, allows apprehending the contemporary reforms that affect the scientific sector. If those reforms might erode the professional power, in the case I study, the scientists remain at the heart of the evaluative system. The AERES appears then as a microcosm where conflicts within the academic profession can be seized. The construction of the evaluative instruments is nourished by competing scientific knowledge, and those instruments might be abandoned when they become controversial in the profession. Hence, the position of the AERES with respect to the other academic institution has to be questioned, in order to understand under what conditions those instruments redefine the legitimate research and assessment practices.

Poussées par les changements majeurs de l’environnement de l’enseignement supérieur, les universités françaises se sont engagées dans un mouvement de modernisation de leur gestion. Ces changements, engendrés par de nombreux facteurs sociaux économiques et technologiques, ont amené des gouvernements successifs à entreprendre des réformes importantes pour faire face à ces évolutions. De nombreuses publications scientifiques anglo-saxonnes et françaises soutiennent que le prix à payer pour les améliorations apportées par ces réformes est très élevé, dénaturant parfois l’idée de base de l’institution universitaire. Ainsi, la présente recherche s’inscrit dans une thématique qui se trouve au cœur des débats publics et scientifiques suscités par l’évolution de la gouvernance des universités en France. Notre recherche vise à répondre à la question de la nature de l’impact du « managérialisme » croissant sur l’identité universitaire. L’importation d’outils et de concepts développés dans la sphère du privé, permet-elle de meilleures efficacité et efficience des organisations universitaires sans toucher fondamentalement à la nature de celles-ci ? Ou à l’inverse, l’identité universitaire, vue comme un ensemble complexe de valeurs, de missions, de modes opératoires, est modifiée par la « modernisation de la gestion » ?La recherche s’appuie sur une étude approfondie du cas de trois universités françaises à périmètre disciplinaire différencié : université pluridisciplinaire, université scientifique et université de lettres et sciences sociales. L’analyse thématique de contenu du discours des universitaires révèle une modification identitaire importante due aux différents facteurs. Notre objectif est d’étudier dans quelles mesures cette modification est imputée au managérialisme. Notre recherche met en évidence des tensions entre les normes, les valeurs et les pratiques traditionnels de l’université française et les objectifs de nouvelle structure institutionnelle et le nouveau management émergeants. / Driven by major changes in the higher education environment, French universities have engaged themselves in a comprehensive process of management modernization. In parallel, governments have undertaken number of reforms to face up important socio-economic and technological evolutions. These reforms aroused a vague of criticism in English and French scientific literature, stating namely, that the price to pay for the improvements proposed by these reforms is very high, sometimes even distorting the basic idea of what is university.Thus, the present research is part of the scientific and public debates incited by the changes in the governance of universities in France. It aims to analyse the nature of the impact of growing “managerialism” on the university identity. Does the introduction of private sector management tools and concepts allow improved efficiency and effectiveness of universities without altering its fundamental nature? Or, on the contrary, this “modernisation of management” transforms the university identity, which is a complex set of values, missions, operating mode… To answer these questions the research proposes a multiple case study of three French public universities with diverse academic profiles: multidisciplinary, scientific and social sciences universities. The contents analysis of the interviewed academics’ discourse reveals important identity modification due to different factors. Our aim is to see in what extent this modification is attributed to managerialism. In so doing, our research exposes number of tensions between traditional norms, values and practices, on the one hand, and the objectives of the emerging formal institutional structure and management, on the other hand.