The theoretical part is focused on upbringing and education as health determinants in an individual. It observes upbringing and education as they create conditions for sustaining and support of health and healthy lifestyle. Historical connections and particular educational schools from antiquity up to present day are compared. Current state of affairs at schools in the Czech Republic and abroad is surveyed. Different contemporary perspectives are brought into focus, as well as attitudes in society and ensuing educational goals and competence. The empirical part is based on research designed as questionnaire survey and related analysis. The respondents are divided according to the evaluating criterion: What is your evaluation of the client-worker relationship? Particular responses: a) The worker is advantaged. b) The worker and the client are equally matched. c) The client is advantaged. The responses represent the workers' subjective sense of well-being in the workplace. The groups are then analysed with regard to their education. The survey explores whether respondents self-study, attend one-day or regular training courses, or are not educated at all. Subsequently, the relation between the extent of education and workplace evaluation is assessed. The results indicate connection between the extent...

Stress and mental health issues are now the most common cause of workplace absence. Increasing evidence points to the need for organisations to take steps to enhance well-being at work for employees. Social support has been identified as one key factor affecting employee psychological well-being, however, the definition and conceptualisation of the term continues to be debated. To date, research examining the relationship between social support and well-being at work tends to be predominantly quantitative and to prioritise work-based sources of support above other sources of support. Few workplace interventions aimed at improving employee well-being appear to have a specific focus on enhancing social support. This thesis presents findings from a mixed-methods case study of a large, public sector organisation in Scotland. The study had four phases: an online survey (n=158), semi-structured interviews (n=31), a diary phase (n=11) and a final interview (n=11). Higher levels of social support were associated with a higher level of psychological well-being. Findings highlighted the importance of various work and non-work based sources of social support, such as peer support and support from friends, and various dimensions of support too, such as ‘distant vs. proximal’ support. Potential negative effects of social support were also identified, for example, when perceived as interfering. Women reported higher levels of support and of positive mental well-being than did men. Interview and diary data revealed a range of contextual, organisational and individual factors that affected both access to and availability of social support, and the relationship between social support and employee well-being. Recent organisational changes appeared to be particularly influential. Employee opinion regarding existing organisational well-being initiatives varied on the basis of whether the support was formal or informal and in terms of perceived versus received support. Social support was valued highly by respondents with regard to improving employee well-being. Open and honest communication, physical presence of support and familiarity with context-specific knowledge were of particular pertinence. This thesis contributes to knowledge in three ways. Substantively, the importance of examining social support more holistically is highlighted in order to better understand the relationship between social support and employee well-being. Methodologically, this mixed methods approach proved fruitful in generating a richness and depth of data largely untapped by previous, predominantly quantitative, studies. Finally, the findings have practical implications for HR personnel and policy makers as they offer an insight into the contribution of various sources and dimensions of social support to employee well-being, as understood by employees.

The general purpose of this study was to explore the perception of discrimination under the middle managers in a selected South African mining company, as well as the associated impacts thereof on the individual and organisation. Although discrimination is a global phenomenon with a vast amount of scientific studies conducted on this topic, literature remains rather silent on the prevalence of discrimination among middle managers; especially within the South African mining industry. Organisational discrimination is defined as actions within an organisation which are biased towards certain individuals or groups. Literature suggests that discrimination is still very prevalent within organisations, both locally and internationally. It is typically influenced by aspects such as culture, and human resources practices and systems. The impacts are widespread with specific impacts on the individual’s mental or physical health, as well as productivity. South Africa however implemented a plethora of legislative measures to redress past inequalities and eliminate discrimination in its current form. This study followed a qualitative approach by means of a survey conducted through an open-ended questionnaire. The results indicated a high personal experience of discrimination within the specific mining company amongst the middle management team members. Their perception of discrimination towards their colleagues was also measured as above average. This exposure to discrimination impacted on their productivity and to a lesser extent on their personal well-being. Their perception of the potential impacts of this discrimination was reportedly higher than their actual experience thereof. The main discriminatory actions associated with this perception was centred on the notion, namely that middle managers were not recognised nor rewarded within this company. General benefits were withheld and expected promotions denied. The study’s results also confirm the perception that discrimination towards the middle management team will ultimately impact on the company’s overall performance. The study suggests that this high level, as well as the specific types of discrimination within this mining company, is related to a company specific culture. It further suggests that it is also exacerbated by the current socio-political reforms within the South African mining industry. The study concludes by suggesting that the perception of discrimination within a company is as harmful as the event itself, and should therefore form an integral part of any internal programme aimed at addressing this issue. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The general purpose of this study was to explore the perception of discrimination under the middle managers in a selected South African mining company, as well as the associated impacts thereof on the individual and organisation. Although discrimination is a global phenomenon with a vast amount of scientific studies conducted on this topic, literature remains rather silent on the prevalence of discrimination among middle managers; especially within the South African mining industry. Organisational discrimination is defined as actions within an organisation which are biased towards certain individuals or groups. Literature suggests that discrimination is still very prevalent within organisations, both locally and internationally. It is typically influenced by aspects such as culture, and human resources practices and systems. The impacts are widespread with specific impacts on the individual’s mental or physical health, as well as productivity. South Africa however implemented a plethora of legislative measures to redress past inequalities and eliminate discrimination in its current form. This study followed a qualitative approach by means of a survey conducted through an open-ended questionnaire. The results indicated a high personal experience of discrimination within the specific mining company amongst the middle management team members. Their perception of discrimination towards their colleagues was also measured as above average. This exposure to discrimination impacted on their productivity and to a lesser extent on their personal well-being. Their perception of the potential impacts of this discrimination was reportedly higher than their actual experience thereof. The main discriminatory actions associated with this perception was centred on the notion, namely that middle managers were not recognised nor rewarded within this company. General benefits were withheld and expected promotions denied. The study’s results also confirm the perception that discrimination towards the middle management team will ultimately impact on the company’s overall performance. The study suggests that this high level, as well as the specific types of discrimination within this mining company, is related to a company specific culture. It further suggests that it is also exacerbated by the current socio-political reforms within the South African mining industry. The study concludes by suggesting that the perception of discrimination within a company is as harmful as the event itself, and should therefore form an integral part of any internal programme aimed at addressing this issue. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Despite the vast research on the productive aspect of rewards, little is known on how the changes in employees’ behaviour, made to enhance their chances of achieving a reward, influence employee well-being. Previous work has failed to address the process of reward-seeking behaviour from an employee’s point of view as the focus was on the motivational aspect of rewards. This thesis uses the case of Malta’s financial institutions to examine the relationship between reward-seeking behaviour from bonuses and promotions and employee well-being by drawing on expectancy theory and self-determination theory. To achieve its aims, this study adopts a qualitative approach, wherein 42 semi-structured interviews with employees and four interviews with human resources managers are conducted at financial institutions in Malta – two of which are small and medium-sized enterprises and one is a large-sized institution. Memos and diary notes are also used to complement the data collected from the semi-structured interviews. Overall, the results strongly support the idea that while almost everyone values rewards, employees differ in their willingness to engage in reward-seeking behaviour and its influence on well-being. This thesis contributes to knowledge through the development of a theoretical model – the four quadrant reward-seeking behaviour – well-being model. This typology based model classifies employees into four main categories, namely, highly motivated, apathetic, work-life balanced and work-life imbalanced. This two by two matrix also led to another model that depicts reward-seeking behaviour and well-being as a non-sequential process. The findings have practical implications for human resources practitioners as they now have the capacity to visualise the actual employee mix according to the categories of the model and act on any significant gaps.

This study used Zohar‟s (2000) multi-level model of climate to examine the extent to which shared perceptions of workplace civility climate relate to teacher job satisfaction, affective commitment, and counterproductive work behaviors (CWB-abuse) towards other teachers. Workplace civility climate is defined as employee perceptions of how management uses policies, procedures, and practices to maintain a civil workplace. An online-survey was used to assess a cross-sectional sample of K-12 teachers (N = 2222) nested in 207 schools in a large US school district. There was adequate agreement among teacher perceptions of school civility climate for aggregation and between-group variance of civility climate among schools. The results of hierarchical linear models revealed school-level civility climate perceptions were significantly negatively associated with lower levels of teacher experienced incivility, CWB-abuse and associated with higher levels job satisfaction and affective commitment, thus supporting four out of five hypotheses. However, school-level civility climate did not function as a moderator of the relationship between a teacher‟s experience of incivility and acts of CWB-abuse towards other teachers. The findings of this study provide evidence that shared perceptions of civility climate are associated with higher levels of individual-level employee well-being.

Organizations across the United States and in many parts of the globe are increasingly focused on providing their customers with an excellent service experience by implementing organizational emotion display rules (Hochschild, 1983). These display rules dictate the requisite employee emotions for a particular encounter (Ekman, 1973). However, over the course of a work day display rules may call for expressions that contradict an employee's genuine emotions, thus prompting a discrepancy between felt emotions and required emotions -- emotional dissonance (Hochschild, 1983). Emotional labor involves employee efforts to reduce emotional dissonance in order to adhere to organizational display rules (Hochschild, 1983; Grandey, 2000). Hochschild (1983) identified two emotional labor strategies that may be used by employees -- surface acting (managing observable expressions to obey display rules) and deep acting (corresponds to managing feelings in order to actually feel the emotion required by the display rules). This study examined emotional intelligence, affectivity and gender as potential antecedents of an employee's choice of emotional labor strategy in order to meet organizational display rules. I also investigated the differential impact of the emotional labor strategies on the individual outcomes of emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction, and service performance.Correlation and moderated regression analyses as well as structural equation modeling were employed to test the proposed hypotheses. Two hundred and twenty-three employee-supervisor pairs completed surveys to examine the research hypotheses. Correlation results indicate that emotional intelligence, affectivity and gender related to the emotional labor strategies in the expected directions. Similarly, deep acting and surface acting displayed differential relationships with emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction and service performance. Moderated regression analyses suggest that females were more likely to report negative outcomes when engaging in surface acting. Structural equation modeling results indicate that affectivity predicted choice of the emotional labor strategies, which in turn predicted the outcomes of emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction and service performance.

Thesis (MComm (Industrial Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Social anxiety symptoms are common within the community. They are often unrecognised in many organisations, with resultant significant work impairments. The aim of the study was to explore to what extent the social anxiety spectrum of symptoms influences the performance of management employees and how the disorder should be managed in the workplace. The study includes the following constructs: social anxiety spectrum, job characteristics, work limitations and perceived performance difficulties. A nonexperimental research design was used to explore the relationships between the four constructs. A convenience sample of 250 managerial employees was approached from two large organizations, one in the private, and the other in the public sector. One hundred and eighteen (118) respondents completed and returned their questionnaires. The descriptive statistics reflected a mean age of 32 years (range 20 to 56 years), with 50% males and 50% females, and a race distribution of 64% White, 29% Coloured, 4% Black and 3% Indian for the sample. The majority of the participants had been working for 0 to 5 years (37.29%). The mean years worked was 10.81 and the median 9.5 (range 0.5 to 40 years worked). A high percentage of participants (11%) were found to have social anxiety symptoms above the cut off score for a diagnosis of the disorder. The results of the present study indicated that social anxiety affects all areas of work. These symptoms were associated with several areas of work limitations and performance difficulties not restricted to social interaction or presentation. It was also found that job insecurity increases social anxiety symptoms, work limitations and perceived performance difficulties. On the other hand, it was found that organisational support may act as a buffer against demands and may decrease work limitations and perceived performance difficulties. Whilst no moderating effect was found for growth opportunities in the relationship between social anxiety and work limitations, support was found for a negative relationship with both social anxiety and work limitations. No moderating effect was found for job insecurity in the relationship between social anxiety and work limitations. However, growth opportunities as a resource were found to moderate the relationship between social anxiety symptoms and perceived performance difficulties. Evidence was also found for the moderating effect of job insecurity in the relationship between social anxiety symptoms and perceived performance difficulties. The limitations of the current study and recommendations for organisations are discussed. This study highlights the importance of social anxiety symptoms as a barrier to effective work performance. Given the fact that interventions can potentially improve social anxiety and thereby performance, this area deserves much greater research attention. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Sosiale angssimptome kom algemeen in die gemeenskap voor. Die simptome word nie alledaags in organisaies herken nie, en mag tot merkbaar verlaagde prestasie lei. Die doel van die studie was om die mate waartoe sosiale angsspektrum-simptome die prestasie van bestuursvlak-werknemers beïnvloed te bepaal en ondersoek in te stel na wyses waarop die simptome in organisasies bestuur moet word. Die studie het die volgende konstrukte ingesluit: sosiale angsspektrum-simptome, werkseienskappe, werksbeperkinge en waargenome prestasie-uitdagings. Daar is van ’n nie-eksperimentele navorsingsontwerp gebruik gemaak om die verhoudings tussen die vier konstrukte te bestudeer. ’n Gerieflikheidsteekproef van 250 bestuursvlak-werknemers van beide ’n privaatsektor en publieke sektor organisasie is genader. Eenhonderd en agtien voltooide vraelyste is ingedien. Die beskrywende statistiek het ’n gemiddelde ouderdom van 32 jaar getoon (versprei oor 20 tot 56 jaar), met 50% manlik, 50% vroulik, en ’n rasverspreiding van 64% wit, 29% kleurling, 4% swart en 3% Indiër respondente in die steekproef. Die meerderheid van die deelnemers het vorige werkservaring van 0 tot 5 jaar (37.29%) aangedui. Die gemiddelde aantal jare van werk was 10.81 en die mediaan 9.5 (versprei oor 0.5 tot 40 jaar gewerk). ‘n Hoë voorkomssyfer (11%) van sosiale angs is in die studie gevind, bo die afsnypunt vir die diagnose van die versteuring. Die resultate van die huidige studie dui aan dat sosiale angs alle aspekte van werk beïnvloed. Hierdie simptome was geassosieer met vele areas van werksbeperkings en waargenome prestasie-uitdagings en was nie slegs tot take wat sosiale interaksie en voordragte insluit, beperk nie. Die studie het ook gevind dat werksonsekerheid sosiale angssimptome, werksbeperkings en waargenome prestasie-uitdagings verhoog. Organisasieondersteuning is aangedui as ‘n moontlike buffer teen werkseise en mag werksbeperkings en waargenome prestasie-uitdagings verminder. Geen modereringseffek is vir groeigeleenthede gevind in die verhouding tussen sosiale angs en werksbeperkings nie, maar daar is wel gevind dat groeigeleenthede ’n negatiewe verband met beide sosiale angs en werksbeperkings het. Geen modereringseffek vir werksonsekerheid in die verhouding tussen sosiale angs en werksbeperkinge is gevind nie. Die rol van groeigeleenthede as hulpbron om die verhouding tussen sosiale angssimptome en waargenome prestasie-uitdagings te modereer, is bevestig. Getuienis is ook vir die modereringseffek van werksonsekerheid in die verhouding tussen sosiale angssimptome en waargenome prestasie-uitdagings gevind. Die beperkinge van die huidige studie en voorstelle vir organisasies word bespreek. Hierdie studie bekemtoon die belangrikheid van sosiale angssimptome as ’n hindernis met betrekking tot effektiewe werksprestasie. Ingrepe kan potensiaal sosiale angs verminder en daardeur prestasie verhoog. Hierdie aspek behoort heelwat meer navorsingsaandag in die toekoms te geniet.

The topic of what HRM (Human Resource Management) responsibilities are devolved from the HRM department to line managers has attracted much interest in recent years. We report findings from a study on the devolution of HRM practices in four POCs (Project-Oriented Companies) and argue that although HRM practices are carried out beyond the HRM department, they are also carried out beyond the line. While the literature on devolving HRM responsibilities to line management is burgeoning, the HRM responsibilities of managers beyond the line organization are neglected. We make two contributions to the literature. Firstly, our study reveals that some HRM practices are the domain of the project manager rather than either the line manager or the HRM department. The complex interplay of the roles of the HRM department, line management and project management creates challenges and pitfalls where people are managed across the boundaries of the permanent and temporary organization. We identify a potentially powerful role for the HRM department in both monitoring and guiding the different players from the line and project organizations, and in protecting the well-being of employees whose work traverses these organizational boundaries. Our second contribution is that we map the diversity of practices in different POCs for managing the interplay between the three main parties delivering HRM practices and offer project-orientation as a contextual indicator that contributes to diversity in HRM practices.

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / The modern working environment is characterised by global competitiveness, digitisation, and a greater need to employ and retain the knowledge worker. With increased pressure to sustain a competitive advantage, organisations must shift management strategies and focus on fostering positive work outcomes to mitigate high turnover costs and enhance organisational effectiveness. In the South African environment, organisations are confronted with challenges such as skills shortages and high turnover, impacting the ability to attract, develop, and retain highly skilled Information Technology (IT) professionals.