Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology. / The paradigm shift from administrative to strategic Human Resource Management (HRM) has, arguably, necessitated the need for a more objective and quantitative HRM that shows how HRM interlinks with strategic organisational outcomes. Consequently, HR metrics, measurements and analytics can be tools, which can give HRM a status and position that is similar to other functional departments in organisations that provide numerical data. The purpose of this study was to explore HRM factors that are critical to determine strategic HR metrics. The purpose arose owing to documented scholarship, which argues that the current regime of HR metrics has no appeal to top management; is composed of too many metrics that are confusing; is suitable for traditional HRM; and does not give HRM a strategic status. The objective of the study was, therefore, to provide HR factors that link with strategic or organisational level outcomes and based on these factors, determine a metric that HR practitioners and top management can adopt as standard. The literature review had to be merged in a systems theory framework to develop the conceptual framework to start a grounded theory methodology. Within this methodology both secondary and primary data was collected and analysed. As part of its summary, the literature review included a meta study of prominent research on the HRM-firm performance relationship. The mini meta-analysis involved 27 studies whose mean coefficient of determination was calculated to show the strength of the variability in firm performance for which HRM accounted. This analysis revealed that HRM, on average, accounted for 31% of the variability in firm performance in the models that were used to investigate the relationship. An analysis was conducted of documents as part of a content analysis to collect secondary data, while questionnaires were used to collect primary data. The key finding was that the strategic HR factors are the HRM outcomes, namely employee engagement, commitment, satisfaction and embeddedness, while the HR metric that connects the HR factors and strategic outcomes is given as p=kH+c, where p is organisational performance, H are the HR factors, k is a constant of proportionality, and c is basic employee performance. It was also found that employee engagement had the most impact on organisational performance, relative to the other HR factors. As a result, the key recommendation made in this study is that organisations should use employee commitment, engagement, satisfaction and embeddedness to boost performance with special attention on employee engagement. The metric p=kH+c can be used to measure the level at which HR factors boost performance.

Thesis (MTech (Construction Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016. / This research was carried out to assess the extent to which supervisory motivational strategies can transform construction workers to perform higher levels of productivity. While worker motivation has been proven to improve productivity globally, motivation was rarely implemented in South African conditions. This study gauges the construction workers’ viewpoint on how supervisory motivational strategies can improve worker productivity. A pilot study was conducted in the initial stage of the study to gain more insight into the study. A qualitative research approach was employed using a semi-structured questionnaire to interview construction workers including bricklayers, plumbers, concrete workers, electricians and earthworks workers. The interviews were done in Bellville in the Western Cape at two conveniently selected construction companies. The data was analysed using content data analysis. Most prevalent in the findings of this study is the fact that the workers agreed that a lack of supervisory motivational techniques negatively impact their productivity. This information was helpful in setting up the questionnaires for the main study.

Thesis (DTech (Human Resource Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / In attempting to contribute to social transformation, South African Higher Education has undergone considerable changes, taking on greater student enrollment, increasing curriculum responsiveness, and prioritising pass- and graduation rates, all of which have put universities’ resources, specifically their human resources, under considerable pressure and stress (Rensburg, 2013: 5). Paradoxically, there has been no meaningful attempt to address the negative effects of these pressures and stress on the wellness of those who are expected to cope with the enormous changes. In addition, Higher Education Institutions’ (HEIs’) mergers, although honourable in intention, have resulted in negative, unintended consequences for staff. Previous research studies have highlighted the growing occupational stressors experienced by HEIs’ staff; however, limited sustainable solutions have been forthcoming. It is on this premise that this research study aimed to develop a holistic employee wellness programme model that would provide a support system for university staff. This model would alleviate the impact of challenges experienced in staff daily work and on their personal lives, and ultimately aid in promoting quality of work life and balance within the institution. The intention was to prevent university staff from experiencing job burnout and health-related problems, thereby promoting their optimal wellness and performance at work. A mixed methods research design was adopted involving a case study and a quasi-experimental research design. Purposive sampling was applied within the case study unit which included both academic and non-academic staff, as they shared similar attributes and wellness experiences within a university. Triangulation mixed methods that was applied combined, with equal importance, both quantitative and qualitative data which were brought together for comparison. This research study identified thirteen employee wellness factors that formed the foundation of a holistic employee wellness programme. Each employee wellness factor was allocated according to three types of interventions, namely primary – prevention, secondary – reduction, and tertiary – treatment, in order to promote employee-organisational health and wellness. The prevention intervention firstly promotes quality of work life and balance through a number of wellness factors, namely, Wellness working environment, Organisational intervention expectations, Organisational wellness support, Organisational culture, Human relations, and Social support; and, secondly, workplace health is promoted through the wellness factors, Physical health and wellness, and Lifestyle. The reduction intervention builds psychological capital through Psychological health and wellness, Resourcefulness, Resilience, and Basic work life skills.

Orientador: Olivio Novaski / Dissertação (mestrado profissional) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecanica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-07T00:42:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Orsi_JoseAntonioDonizeti_M.pdf: 6142367 bytes, checksum: 1f5852217f37223e812bc80aacf3758f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: Neste trabalho procurou analisar o desenvolvimento de grupos semi-autônomos para as atividades de caldeiraria no ambiente produtivo de bens de capital sob encomenda, caracterizando o ambiente produtivo e as características do trabalhador desta atividade. A pesquisa foi desenvolvida com um estudo de simples caso motivado pela dificuldade de encontrar organizações que disponham desta forma de organização do trabalho e pela profundidade necessária ao estudo. Nove empresas foram pesquisadas as quais permitiram desenvolver os objetivos de caracterização do ambiente e do trabalhador. A análise dos resultados constatou a eficiência na aplicação da organização do trabalho em grupos semi-autônomos tendo como base de sucesso o aproveitamento da mão de obra com polivalência de funções e a manutenção de uma tensão positiva nos participantes proveniente das interações entre as características desta forma de autonomia e os fatores motivacionais que são desenvolvidos / Abstract: This research has tried to analyze the progress for semi-self work team on steel fabrication built by order activities, hereby pointing out the production environment and the worker's characteristics. Due the difficulties to find organizations which have such kind of work administration and also from the depth needed to consolidate this type of study a single case was applied. In order to achieve the objectives, nine companies have been studied and gave the basis to describe the worker' s characteristics and the production environment. The results allow us to understand how semi-self work team works and how it creates the interaction between the properties and the motivation factors. The success is based on the empowerment developed by taking advantages in not exchanging workers for different tasks, the resultant synergy that comes from the motivation created by application ofthe self-work / Mestrado / Planejamento e Gestão Estrategica da Manufatura / Mestre Profissional em Engenharia Mecanica

The aim of this study was to compare motivational techniques used in analytical laboratories in South Africa from. The three different size laboratories selected were: Those in large corporations, those in smaller companies and contract laboratories located in Gauteng. The researcher attempted to find an underlying lack of motivational techniques being applied in this particular industry. This was achieved through a qualitative interpretation of data gathered during interviews with the laboratory managers. The interviews investigated the motivational techniques being applied in accordance with well known theories on what motivates employees. The three laboratories selected were chosen because of their unique circumstances and to be able to ascertain if the motivational techniques being applied differed between laboratories as a result of the size of their environments. A literature review was conducted detailing the findings of well known authors and their theories on what motivates people. The research of Hertzberg, McClelland, Maslow and others mentioned in the review gave evidence to support the concept of motivation in terms of: What motivates employees and evidence that motivated employees work better improving productivity. The research methodology was a qualitative analysis of responses to semi-structured interviews with the laboratory managers of the selected laboratories. The questions were divided into three sections. The first section dealt with the interviewee’s demographics. The second section focussed on the environment within the laboratory. The third section dealt with laboratory motivators being applied relative to the theories discussed in the literature review. From the results it was apparent that motivators were generally well applied in all three laboratories within the constraints of the organisations size and opportunities available. The research was successful in demonstrating the influence of the work environment on motivators being applied as well as recognising common motivational techniques used between laboratories and organisations. Future studies should focus on the effectiveness of motivators being applied from the perspective of an analyst. Following this their views should be compared with the opportunities made available by the organisation and the way in which they are applied by the laboratory managers from different laboratories. / Dr. D. J. Theron

M.A. (Social Work) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The point of departure of this study is that there is a need to successfully integrate and identify the relationship between employees’ perceptions of employment equity and black economic empowerment, the influence thereof on the various factors associated with employee commitment as well as the role of the mentor and union commitment. Thus, the development of a predictive model becomes an important tool to be used by organisations in future. Literature research The primary objective of the study is to provide research evidence for a predictive model of employee commitment. The secondary objectives focus on outlining the concept of commitment; describing comprehensively the antecedents of employee commitment; describing the relationship between employee commitment and union commitment; describing the perceptions of the Employment Equity Act; describing the perceptions of the Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment Act; and describing the concept of mentorship. Lastly, the role of a mentor as a moderator of organisation commitment, the perceptions of employment equity and the perceptions of black economic empowerment are described. A review of the relevant literature reveals that the construct of organisation commitment as characterised by the relevant literature includes a large number of explanatory and descriptive concepts without an attempt to integrate these concepts and therefore there is a lack of parsimony (Roodt, 1991, 1992). Organisation commitment has not developed in an evolutionary way with regard to meaning and relationships with other commitment concepts (Morrow, 1983). Knoop (1986); Morrow and McElroy (1986); O’Reilly and Chatman (1986); Rabinowitz and Hall (1977) and Roodt (2004) also support this idea. The relevant literature also confirms the lack of the integration of all the variables correlated with commitment and differences in opinion about dual commitment (organisation and union commitment). Employment equity and mentorship research are also fragmented and little research has been conducted on black economic empowerment. This emphasises the need for an integrated predictive model of employee commitment. Empirical research objective The primary objective of the study was to investigate key relationships between variables in the model in order to propose a predictive model of employee commitment. Other objectives were defined as follows: • Determine the interactive relationship between organisation-related commitment (dependent variable) and race, gender, age, tenure, marital status, level of education, home language and job levels (independent variables). • Determine the interactive relationship between union commitment (dependent variable) and race, gender, age, tenure, marital status, level of education, home language and job levels (independent variables). • Determine the interactive relationship between the perceptions of employment equity (dependent variable) and race, gender, age, tenure, marital status, level of education, home language and job levels (independent variables). • Determine the interactive relationship between the perceptions of black economic empowerment (dependent variable) and race, gender, age, tenure, marital status, level of education, home language and job levels (independent variables). • Determine the relationship between organisation-related commitment and union commitment. • Determine how the relationship between background variables and organisation-related commitment is mediated by the perceptions of employment equity. • Determine how the relationship between background variables and organisation-related commitment is mediated by the perceptions of black economic empowerment. • Determine whether the perceptions of the mentor’s role mediate the relationship between the perceptions of employment equity and organisation-related commitment. • Determine whether the perceptions of the mentor’s role mediate the relationship between the perceptions of black economic empowerment and organisation-related commitment. • Determine whether employees with positive perceptions of the mentor’s role are more committed to the organisation. • Determine how the relationship between background variables and union commitment is mediated by the perceptions of employment equity. • Determine how the relationship between background variables and union commitment is mediated by the perceptions of black economic empowerment. • Determine whether the perceptions of the mentor’s role mediate the relationship between the perceptions of employment equity and union commitment. • Determine whether the perceptions of the mentor’s role mediate the relationship between the perceptions of black economic empowerment and union commitment. • Determine whether employees with positive perceptions of the mentor’s role are more committed to the union. Participants A primary data set was used. The primary data was obtained from a sample drawn from a large transport organisation. A convenience sample was drawn from a sampling frame of 1 200 employees and yielded 637 completed questionnaires. A response rate of 53% was obtained. Only completed records were used for the data analyses. The respondents were predominantly Afrikaans-speaking, white males, 36 years and older, with 10 years of service or longer, who are married with a standard 10 or higher qualification. The participants were predominantly drawn from the junior officer group and belonged to a union. The majority did not have a mentor. The measuring instrument The Employee Commitment Questionnaire, the data-gathering tool of this study, consists of five questionnaires, namely Organisation-related Commitment, Union Commitment, Perceptions of Employment Equity, Perceptions of Black Economic Empowerment and Perceptions of the Mentor’s Role Questionnaires. The combined total items of the questionnaire consisted of 103 items. The research procedure The primary data set was obtained from a sample drawn from a transport organisation. In order to have an inclusive approach, the researcher used the intranet and sent hard copies of the survey to employees. Participation was voluntary, and confidentiality and anonymity were guaranteed. Statistical analysis The particular statistical procedures used were selected based on their suitability to test the research hypotheses of the study. These procedures include descriptive statistics, factor analyses, analyses of variance and covariance and a General Linear Modelling (GLM). In respect of the factor analyses, a procedure developed by Schepers (1992) was followed. This procedure includes first and second level factor analyses. A General Linear Modelling (GLM) was used to evaluate the predictive model of employee commitment. The Statistical Consultation Service of the Rand Afrikaans University conducted the analyses. All the calculations were done by means of the SPSS Windows program of SPSS International. Conclusions and recommendations An empirical predictive model of organisation-related commitment and union commitment was developed. This model indicates that organisation-related commitment and union commitment are mainly predicted by perceptions of employment equity and perceptions of black economic empowerment. These perceptions have a strong bearing on people’s beliefs, values and needs. This could be a possible reason for the large amount of variance that is explained. The theoretical model proposed initially was amended to reflect the findings. The study has little nomothetic value, as it was limited to a single organisation. Further research needs to be conducted across organisations in similar contexts to establish the external validity of the findings. The findings have some theoretical value as the perceptions of employment equity and the perceptions of black economic empowerment were for the first time included as predictors of employee commitment. Furthermore, a more sophisticated multi-variate General Linear Modelling (GLM) was used for the prediction of employee commitment. Isolating predictors that explain the variance in the criterion provided a parsimonious predictive model. The model also illustrates possible significant interaction effects between the different predictor variables. The model serves as a good point of departure for understanding and explaining employee commitment in a diverse workforce setting where the perceptions of employment equity and the perceptions of black economic empowerment are applied. / Prof. Gert Roodt

Most organisations depend on their sales consultants to generate revenue. Sales consultants across industries normally work for commission, determined by the amount of business they bring in. A group of security companies are currently spending a considerable amount of money and other resources on the recruitment, selection and development of sales consultants. In the past 18 months, 39 sales consultants left the company after being employed on average for no longer than five months. Keeping the above in mind, it was necessary to establish exactly what caused the high turnover rate among sales consultants. By identifying these factors it would be possible for the organisation to eliminate the causes for high employee turnover and work towards promoting factors which would retain the sales consultants. An overview of different motivation theories was considered. Most of the theories consider motivation from a personal need satisfaction perspective, while Herzberg also considers the motivation through restructuring of the work environment. For this reason, Herzberg’s theory was found to be the more appropriate one for this study . Herzberg’s Motivation Hygiene (MH) Theory and other current literature on employee retention were used as a basis to investigate the high turnover rate of sales consultants at a group of security companies. ii The nominal group technique was used to determine whether certain intrinsic and extrinsic factors are influencing the retention of sales consultants. A study of the relevant literature revealed that employee motivation is at the heart of retention. Literature on employee retention state that retention should be seen as a process, which starts even before an employee joins the organisation. Organisations need to focus on scientific recruitment and selection in order to employ the right person for the position. Retention should then be managed by developing employees and by introducing the intrinsic and extrinsic factors as formulated in the Herzberg MH theory. The outcome of such an employee retention process will result in cost savings over a wide spectrum. The literature on retention is summarised in an employee retention model, which was used to make recommendations to the organisation. The findings indicate that various factors such as company policies on remuneration, and administration, remuneration structure, working conditions and job security are playing a role in the retention of the sales consultant. Based on the results of the empirical study, recommendations are made to the organisation in terms of retaining their sales consultants. This includes a commitment to retention from top management, creating attractive sales positions; improve opportunities for training and development and a revised remuneration structure for sales consultants. The problem areas were identified and should be addressed satisfactorily by following the proposed recommendations. / Prof. W. Backer

M.Cur. (Nursing Management) / Motivation is a process that influence and directs behaviour in order to satisfy a need. Motivation of nurses is important in the primary health care environment since low levels of motivation among Primary Health Care (PHC) nurses; who are in a critical position in health service delivery; could have a negative impact on the achievement of high standards in the nursing profession. This situation is also relevant in a mine clinic setting. The main factor in motivating nurses may be a sense of success. However, levels of stimulation and individual requirements also significantly influence the motivation of a person. As a manager at a mine clinic setting, the researcher became aware; by means of staff progress reports and performance appraisals; that PHC nurses (professional nurses) were demotivated. The research questions were therefore posed: - What are the motivational needs of PHC nurses in the workplace at mine clinic settings? - What should be done to assist these nurses to acquire motivation in the work place? Therefore, it was imperative to explore and describe the motivational needs of PHC nurses in their work place and to describe recommendations for nurse managers at a mine clinic setting to motivate PHC nurses. The study was conducted within the theoretical framework of McClelland’s Acquired Motivation Theory that consists of three basic needs, i.e. the need for achievement, the need for power, and the need for affiliation. A quantitative, explorative, descriptive design was followed and the researcher used a structured questionnaire to explore the perceptions of PHC nurses about their needs to acquire motivation in their workplace. The accessible population in this study was PHC nurses (N = 30) working at the 13 mine clinics. The accessible population served as the total sample.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of motivation on job satisfaction (dissatisfaction) of journalistic employees employed by the national public broadcaster. The idea was to profile factors causing high motivation and job satisfaction and also to profile those factors that contribute low motivation and dissatisfaction at work. The rationale for the study was simply an observation that some employees seem better adjusted and happy at work and are able to cope well with the demands of the working environment while others are not. Another observation is that management seem not to be aware of what motivates their subordinates and to strategically utilize those motivational tools to maintain high levels of job satisfaction (or at least low levels of job dissatisfaction), high productivity and morale. The target sample was all journalistic staff working in the television and radio news rooms of the national public broadcaster in South Africa. The profile of the respondents included a variety of ages, gender, races, educational backgrounds, different work locations, different marital statuses and managers and non-managers. Data was collected using a questionnaire that was randomly distributed at Head Office in Auckland Park and to all the nine regional offices of the SABC. The major findings of this investigation was that three motivational factors, namely achievement, recognition and work itself cause 88% job satisfaction; while hygiene factors cause 12% job satisfaction. At the same time the research also found that three hygiene factors, namely supervision, company policy and administration and interpersonal relations with supervisors cause 60% job dissatisfaction; while motivational factors, namely achievement and recognition cause 40% job dissatisfaction. These results reflect the work attitudes of employees at the time of this research. The study illustrates that when employees are happy and satisfied in their jobs, their level of motivation is high and they perform at peak all the time. On the other hand, when employees are unhappy and dissatisfied at work, their level of motivation is low and they don’t perform at peak level. The study recommends strategies of how management can utilize achievement, recognition and work itself as a tool to keep employees motivated and satisfied in their jobs. It also recommends ways by which management can eliminate low motivation and job dissatisfaction amongst employees by improving management skills, knowledge and competencies of managers, building relations between managers and subordinates and also improving the quality of internal communication with employees especially on policy and administrative matters. / Prof. Wolhuter Backer