The objectives of the study were: (1) to determine the relationship between organisational commitment (measured by the Organisational Commitment Scale), retention factors (measured the Retention Factor Scale) and job embeddedness (measured by the Job Embeddedness Questionnaire), and (2) to determine whether employees from different gender, age, race, marital status, tenure and job level groups differ significantly in their levels of organisational commitment, retention factors and perceived job embeddedness. A quantitative survey was conducted on a purposive sample (N = 206) of medical and IT service staff in the South African client service sector. Correlational and inferential statistical analyses revealed significant relationships between organisational commitment, retention factors and perceived job embeddedness. Significant differences between gender, age, race, marital status, tenure and job level groups were also found. The findings contribute valuable insight and knowledge to the field of Career Psychology that can be applied in the retention of employees in the medical and IT industry. The study concludes with recommendations for future research and practice. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / (M.Comm. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology))

The contributions of this research are a scalable formulation and solution method for decentralized unit commitment, experimental results comparing decentralized unit commitment solution times to conventional unit commitment methods, a demonstration of the benefits of faster unit commitment computation time, and extensions of decentralized unit commitment to handle system network security constraints. We begin with a discussion motivating the shift from centralized power system control architectures to decentralized architectures and describe the characteristics of such an architecture. We then develop a formulation and solution method to solve decentralized unit commitment by adapting an existing approach for separable convex optimization problems to the nonconvex domain of unit commitment. The potential computational speed benefits of the novel decentralized unit commitment approach are then further investigated through a rolling-horizon framework that represents how system operators make decisions and adjustments online as new information is revealed. Finally, the decentralized unit commitment approach is extended to include network contingency constraints, a crucial function for the maintenance of system security. The results indicate decentralized unit commitment holds promise as a way of coordinating system operations in a future decentralized grid and also may provide a way to leverage parallel computing resources to solve large-scale unit commitment problems with greater speed and model fidelity than is possible with conventional methods.

No description available.

The literature pertaining to the effects of attitude on the learning and retention of controversial information was reviewed, and other variables which were thought to interact with attitude in its effect on memory were examined. No firm conclusions could be drawn because of the inconsistent results in past studies. The variable of commitment was singled out as a likely candidate for further study because of its possible crucial role in determining whether subjects would be open-minded in processing new information or whether they would react defensively to inconsistent material. Using Kiesler's (1971) work as a point of departure, it was hypothesized that the higher the subject's degree of commitment to a stand, the more difficult it would be for him to retain inconsistent information as compared to consistent material. Furthermore, it was expected that this effect would grow in strength as the retention interval increased in length. A final hypothesis predicted a positive correlation between the amount of inconsistent material retained and the degree of attitude change toward the position advocated in a counter -attitudinal speech. An attempt was made to develop new ways of examining more than just the quantity of a subject's recall. Accordingly, objective measures were developed of the types and amount of distortion present in recall and of the importance of the ideas recalled. The experimental design involved variation of three factors; degree of commitment (three levels), consistency of information with the subject's own position (two levels), and time of recall (two levels). Subjects were recruited from the Duke University subject pool, and a total of 120 subjects (10 per condition x 12 conditions) were used in the final analysis. Only subjects who indicated a stand definitely for or against capital punishment in a survey prior to the experiment were recruited. Commitment was manipulated by varying the public nature of a speech which subjects thought they would have to tape-record. Subjects in both the high and low commitment condition were given their choice of reading a speech either supporting or opposing capital punishment. Any subject who did not pick the side corresponding to his pre -measured attitude was dropped from the experiment. High commitment subjects thought that the tape recording would be made public and they would be identified as the speaker, while low commitment subjects thought that they would remain anonymous. A control condition, or no commitment condition, was created by offering some subjects the choice of reading one of two speeches unrelated to capital punishment. All subjects heard a speech either for or against capital punishment which was either consistent or inconsistent with their own beliefs on the issue ^ Half the subjects were tested for recall immediately after hearing the speech, and the other half were tested only after a delay of one week. Measures were also taken of subjects' recall ability, the degree of commitment they felt, and their attitude change. The results of the study showed that the commitment manipulation was executed successfully, but that none of the hypotheses were supported by the data. Higher degrees of commitment did not differentially affect subjects' recall of consistent and inconsistent information. Furthermore, the hypothesized positive relationship of attitude change to retention was rendered untenable because a significant correlation in the opposite direction was found. Two further hypotheses were developed to explain this negative correlation. A significant interaction between degree of commitment and time of recall was obtained for the amount of material recalled. This complex interaction was interpreted as the result of a combination of different anxiety levels and different amounts of rehearsal between conditions. Several small effects of dubious reliability involving the newly developed recall variables were found, but these findings need to be replicated because of the large number of significance tests conducted. / This thesis was digitized as part of a project begun in 2014 to increase the number of Duke psychology theses available online. The digitization project was spearheaded by Ciara Healy.

M.Phil. ( Industrial Psychology) / Orientation: The aim of this study was to frame psychological testing in a specific and clear manner that is grounded in beneficence. This could potentially be used to positively contribute toward the development, control, and use of psychological testing in South Africa. This was attained by looking at psychological testing through a beneficence lens, so that it is grounded beyond the preventative stance of regulation, in beneficence. The principle of beneficence was explained to the participants, who were then encouraged to approach psychological testing from a beneficence perspective. Research purpose: Despite considerable literature existing on the moral principle of beneficence in various contexts, there is restricted research on its association with psychological testing. Hence, this study explored how to ground psychological testing in the moral principle of beneficence, for application in the South African workplace. This was formulated to explore the essence of beneficence as positively contributing to the welfare of others, from which actions were identified to promote understanding in grounding psychological testing in this regard.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Recent studies indicate that employees distinguish between commitments to interpersonal foci within the organization, such as supervisors and coworkers. Often, these commitments account for variance in outcomes incremental to organizational commitment (e.g., Becker, 1992). Unfortunately, research has tended to focus on affective forms of commitment to foci, while ignoring normative and continuance commitment. To address this gap, the current study proposed and tested models of commitment to foci which incorporate normative and continuance commitment in addition to affective commitment. Results showed some parallels with findings concerning organizational commitment. Much like organizational commitment, support from a focus relates to affective commitment to that focus, while expectations from a focus predict normative commitment to the focus. Additionally, both affective and normative commitment to supervisors and coworkers predicted favorable outcomes, but continuance commitment did not. In line with researchers recommendations (e.g., Johnson, Groff & Taing, in press), interactions among different bases and foci of commitment were also examined. Exploratory analyses suggested a three-way interaction between affective organizational, supervisor, and coworker commitment for predicting in-role performance.

<p>Den rådande högkonjunkturen medför att det finns utrymme som arbetstagare att vara kräsen vad gäller arbetssituation. Som arbetsgivare innebär detta att man bör tillhandahålla en attraktiv arbetsplats. Samtidigt ska arbetsgivaren kunna begära ett commitment från arbetstagaren. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vilka faktorer som bidrar till att en arbetsplats upplevs som attraktiv. Resultatet baserades på tolv semistrukturerade intervjuer, dessa analyserades genom en kombination av induktiv tematisk metod och deduktiv tematisk metod. Resultatet visade framförallt att det undersökta företagets värdegrund var en betydande faktor för den goda arbetssituationen. Studiens resultat är användbart för framtida forskning inom området då arbetstagaren är och kommer förbli kräsen i sitt val av arbetsgivare. Därmed måste arbetsgivaren säkerställa att en attraktiv arbetsplats tillhandahålls för att kunna behålla den committade personalen inom företaget.</p>

Den rådande högkonjunkturen medför att det finns utrymme som arbetstagare att vara kräsen vad gäller arbetssituation. Som arbetsgivare innebär detta att man bör tillhandahålla en attraktiv arbetsplats. Samtidigt ska arbetsgivaren kunna begära ett commitment från arbetstagaren. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vilka faktorer som bidrar till att en arbetsplats upplevs som attraktiv. Resultatet baserades på tolv semistrukturerade intervjuer, dessa analyserades genom en kombination av induktiv tematisk metod och deduktiv tematisk metod. Resultatet visade framförallt att det undersökta företagets värdegrund var en betydande faktor för den goda arbetssituationen. Studiens resultat är användbart för framtida forskning inom området då arbetstagaren är och kommer förbli kräsen i sitt val av arbetsgivare. Därmed måste arbetsgivaren säkerställa att en attraktiv arbetsplats tillhandahålls för att kunna behålla den committade personalen inom företaget.

I denna uppsats undersöks samspelet mellan ersättningsnivå i arbetslöshetsförsäkringen och investeringar i aktiv arbetsmarknadspolitik och hur detta är kopplat till arbetsvilja i ett urval om 21 länder. Metoden som används är en beskrivning av arbetsmarknadspolitik i olika länder samt analys baserad på flernivåregression. Data är hämtad från ISSP och OECD. Uppsatsens slutsats är att en hög arbetsvilja har en tydlig koppling till ett lands kombination av arbetsmarknadspolitik och att denna koppling antar olika former med samspelet mellan ersättningsnivå i arbetslöshetsförsäkringen och ett lands investeringar i aktiv arbetsmarknadspolitik. Detta är relevant för diskussionen om hur välfärdsstaten kan överleva på längre sikt genom motverkande av de negativa incitament som skapas av vissa av dess beståndsdelar.