Change is a constant factor in today's society and an important factor in the success of organizations. As a result, it is highly important that organizations learn to manage change in order to stay competitive and keep up with the rapidly changing market conditions. Change Management has therefore been a highly emphasized area within Business Administration. As new trends arise on the global market, it is important for organizations to be able to adapt. One of these trends is the implementation of the Activity-Based Flexible Office (A-FO). An Activity-Based Flexible Office consists of different areas with closed, half-open or open zones. The areas are created in order to match employee needs and the requirements of each work activity that needs to be conducted. As a result, no one is assigned a personal workstation, instead the employees move between different areas depending on what type of work activity they need to accomplish. Even though Change Management has been thoroughly investigated and A-FOs have been researched to some extent, no previous research has been found regarding the change process of implementing an A-FO. The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate the difference in managers’ and employees’ perceptions regarding the change process towards an A-FO. As a result, a deeper understanding of change management as well as of the effects of the A-FO will be provided from the viewpoints of managers and employees. This leads to the research questions: “How does the perception of the change process concerning activity-based flexible offices differ between managers and employees? What do managers and employees perceive as essential factors of the change process and A-FO implementation and how do these perceptions differ?”. The Theoretical Framework mainly consist of previous research models and theories regarding change management literature, work environment and activity-based flexible offices as well as employee satisfaction. Communication has also been chosen as an important factor as it has been stated to be vital in both change management and within the A-FO. Furthermore, in order to fulfil the purpose of the thesis and answer the research questions, the chosen research method for this study is qualitative with an exploratory research design and an inductive approach. Therefore, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven respondents from a department at Skellefteå municipality who were chosen based on a combination of a purposive and snowball sampling method. After the interviews were transcribed, the empirical findings were analyzed and presented by using a thematic analysis. The findings show that when conducting an A-FO change process, managers’ and employees’ perceptions often differ. Managers often focus on the practical aspects of a change, while employees emphasized on “soft values”. Employees were also more skeptical towards the change in the beginning, compared to managers, and seemed more aware of possible disturbances in the A-FO. Furthermore, both managers and employees were highly satisfied with the change process and the implementation of the A-FO, but emphasized on different factors resulting in increased satisfaction. To conclude, since managers’ and employees’ perception regarding the A-FO change process often differ, but can also coincide, it is important to take both aspects into consideration when conducting this type of change. By involving everyone in the change process, it is more likely to be successful.

Work breaks during an individual's shift can be a powerful motivational tool for management; however, not all individuals receive breaks during their shifts. The purpose of this phenomenological, qualitative study was to explore how work breaks affect employee morale and satisfaction in the casual and fine dining restaurant industry. The questions explored in this study were related to the breaks effect employee satisfaction and morale in the casual and fine dining restaurant industry. Thirteen participants with a minimum of 5 years' experience as wait staff who worked more than 6 hours per day were interviewed using semi structured interviews. The results were analyzed using a modified version of van Kaam's method and MAXqda software. The results suggested that breaks did not directly affect employee satisfaction and morale; however, management style directly affected employee satisfaction and morale. The results from this study may help managers have a better understanding of how their interactions and dealings with employees affect employee satisfaction and morale. This research may spur a field-changing management training, which could promote positive social change for employees.

Retention of key employees protects a firm's investment in its human resources. Employee retention is an issue in the insurance sector, particularly among sales employees. The purpose of this descriptive study was to explore leadership strategies used by insurance sales managers to retain key employees. Herzberg's dual factor theory and Adams's equity theory were used to explore insurance sales managers' insights into leadership strategies. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 15 insurance sales managers in southern California to elicit the strategies they used to maintain their key salespeople. Data were analyzed using the modified Van Kaam method. Seven themes emerged from data analysis: coach/mentorship, management style, unmet job expectations, pay, cost to the company, personal growth/realization of goals, and work environment. The findings from this study might contribute to positive change by providing company managers with strategies to retain key employees through improved stakeholder engagement, the longevity of workers in their communities, and enhanced corporate social responsibility encouraging companies to support local communities.

Organisations are always confronted with the need to transform in order to adapt to environmental changes and have a competitive advantage. The concern is that when an organisation embarks on a transformation process, its individual employees are affected either positively or negatively. Employees can respond to transformation change by either being satisfied or dissatisfied in the organisation. The main aim of this research was to develop a diagnostic model for measuring employee satisfaction during organisational transformation. The first construct of organisational transformation was conceptualised using the open system paradigm, theoretical definitions and models of organisational change. In this study, organisational transformation is second order and drastic in the sense that it alters the way in which the organisation functions and relates to the external environment focusing on the vision, processes, systems, structure and culture. It is the fundamental and constant change at all levels of the organisation caused by external factors posing as risks for organisational survival. vi The second construct of employee satisfaction was conceptualised focusing on the humanistic paradigm, theoretical definitions and models. Employee satisfaction in this study is the individual’s positive emotional state of contentment stemming from the organisation’s ability to meet his or her needs and expectations based on his or her experience and evaluation of various organisational processes and practices. It influences employees’ performance and commitment to the organisation. A theoretical model was developed as a framework to enable organisations to diagnose or assess their employees’ satisfaction during organisational transformation. The model highlighted dimensions essential to diagnose employee satisfaction such as organisational strategy, policies and processes and outcomes, in order to determine employees’ contentment and fulfilment in the organisation. The main aim of the empirical research was to conduct a three year longitudinal study of employee satisfaction during organisational transformation; to operationalise the conceptually developed diagnostic model of employee satisfaction during transformation; and develop a structural equation model (SEM) in order to test the theoretical model. The Employee Satisfaction Survey (ESS) was used in 2003, 2007 and 2008 to measure employee satisfaction. The initial year of the study (2003) comprised 1 140 participants who voluntarily completed the measuring instrument. The second year of the study (2007) involved 920 participants, while the final year of the study (2008) included 759 participants. In terms of the reliability and validity of the ESS, it was determined that in the three years of the study, most of the dimensions had acceptable internal consistency reliability based on the results of the Cronbach alpha test. The SEM investigated the impact of organisational strategy, policies and procedures and outcomes as the three domains of employee satisfaction during organisational transformation. The confirmatory factor analysis of the latent variables was conducted, and the path coefficients of the latent variables of organisational strategy, policies and processes and outcomes indicated a satisfactory fit for all these variables. The goodness-of-fit measure of the model indicated both absolute and incremental goodness-of-fit. The SEM confirmed the causal relationships between the latent and manifest variables, indicating that the latent variables, organisational vii strategy, policies and procedures and outcomes are the main indicators of employee satisfaction. This research adds to the field of organisational behaviour by proposing a model of employee satisfaction during organisational transformation. The domains of this model should enable organisations to identify developmental areas based on employees’ dissatisfaction or areas of strengths based on employees’ satisfaction. The diagnostic model will also enable organisations and practitioners to initiative interventions aimed at addressing areas of dissatisfaction as developmental areas and to leverage on its strengths as areas of satisfaction in the organisation. / Industrial & Organisational Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology

Submitted by JOSIANE SANTOS DE OLIVEIRA (josianeso) on 2018-12-14T12:22:34Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Débora Nardelli_.pdf: 4898439 bytes, checksum: 907a2956a3838c5a0006e0c33c92c6fa (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-12-14T12:22:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Débora Nardelli_.pdf: 4898439 bytes, checksum: 907a2956a3838c5a0006e0c33c92c6fa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-08-10 / Nenhuma / É sabido que a maioria das pessoas investe grande parte de seu tempo em ambientes internos, como escritórios, empresas, fábricas etc. Com o surgimento de novas teorias sobre produtividade relacionadas ao ambiente de trabalho e em decorrência de grandes avanços tecnológicos, novos formatos de trabalho surgiram, e, em consequência, novas demandas ligadas ao trabalho se refletiram em necessidade de mudança em novos ambientes e espaços físicos. Com demandas cada vez maiores e com a preocupação com o bem-estar do funcionário, a busca por ambientes flexíveis e por mais escritórios abertos vem se tornando comum com o passar do tempo. Pesquisas mais recentes evidenciam a importância de um ambiente de trabalho flexível e preocupado com o design relacionado ao funcionário, o qual proporciona melhor desempenho, produtividade e satisfação. Assim, constitui-se como objetivo deste trabalho analisar a percepção dos trabalhadores em relação aos escritórios abertos e flexíveis e como esse tipo de escritório pode influenciar a satisfação do usuário. Para tanto, foram selecionadas duas empresas que foram reformuladas de escritórios fechados para escritórios abertos a fim de se analisar a satisfação do funcionário após a reformulação. Posteriormente, realizou-se uma pesquisa qualitativa exploratória em cada empresa e foram realizados questionamentos individuais com oito funcionários de cada empresa, totalizando dezesseis entrevistados, para se analisarem questões relacionadas à satisfação baseada em elementos como desempenho, bem-estar, ruído, interação e autonomia. A pesquisa realizada aponta, com base nas opiniões dos funcionários, que os aspectos positivos e negativos são percebidos de maneiras diferentes entre os funcionários. Alguns percebem as mudanças e as consequências da transição como algo positivo, enquanto outros percebem o contrário. Dessa forma, impossibilita-se uma conclusão clara referente à satisfação. As contribuições que prevalecem desta pesquisa são o aumento do campo de visão, dado pelas informações e pelas análises aqui trazidas, referente à teoria e à prática da satisfação dos funcionários na transição de escritórios fechados para escritórios abertos. / It is known that most people spend the majority of their time in indoor settings, like offices, companies, factories, etc. With the emergence of news theories about productivity related to indoor settings and big technological advances, new formats of work activity emerged and, consequently, new work-related demands reflected that changes of indoor settings and physical spaces is needed. With demands getting bigger and bigger and the concern of the well-being of the employee, the search for flexible and open settings are becoming common with time. Recent studies show that, the importance of a flexible workspace and with design that attends to his need, can improve his productivity, performance and satisfaction. The objective of this work is to analyze the perception of the workers in relation with their newly renovated, open-plan office environment. For that, it was selected two companies that were renovated from a closed-plan office to an open plan office and the employee satisfaction analyzed. After that, an exploratory qualitative research was made in each company, individual questioning was made with eight employee each, totalizing sixteen people interviewed, of which were analyzed questions about their satisfaction based on elements like performance, well-being, noise, interaction and autonomy. The research points out, taking in account the opinions of the employees, that positive or negative aspects can be perceived differently by them. Some perceive that the changes and consequences that occurred in the office by the transition as something positive, and others feel the opposite. And so, making a clear conclusion about the satisfaction impossible. The contributions that prevail from this research it’s the widening of the field of view about this topic, granting it more information and analyses that the research provided relating to the theory and practice of the employees on the transition to closed-plan offices to open-plane ones.

My thesis is based on the possibilities of career growth in the field of banking. I will study the development of careers in two different but comparable financial institutions. The theoretical part of my thesis will focus on four types of career structures: full-time, part-time, full-time with management track, and irregular. In the following part of my thesis, I will show how these four types search for employment, develop their careers, and negotiate payment and benefits. In this thesis, I will compare the working conditions of two banks. Based on personal interviews, surveys, and observation, I have ascertained and graded the each bank for self-realization, work-study opportunities, business culture, and job satisfaction, relations between management and employees and company communications. I also studied the average length of an assignment, which is a good general indicator.

This thesis deals with the analysis of systems of communication and motivation in a particular business entity. The aim of the thesis entitled: communication and motivation of internal change, the analysis of internal climate in a particular business entity with a focus on motivation and communication systems. A sub-goal is to assess the impact of these systems for the creation of internal change and evaluation of corporate culture. The thesis includes a survey focusing on internal climate with a closer focus on the communication and motivation.

This thesis aims to evaluate the corporate culture, and related communications in the company. In the theoretical section first explains the basic concepts related to corporate culture, internal communications and human resources management. Subsequently, on the basis of the survey, the practical part of the work. It analyzes the current state of corporate culture, communication and overall satisfaction of employees in the company. Each of the identified problem area is individually defined and described, and a key element of the thesis is the recommendation of such remedial measures through which will improve corporate culture and communication, and thus to greater employee satisfaction.

The aim of this study has been to develop a model from the attributes of existing management teams within a financial organisation, which can be used as a selection strategy to select more effective management teams in future. The observed attributes were linked to the managers’ work performance and behaviour. It is imperative to continuously search for valid and reliable methods to establish and improve effective combinations of selection instruments and criteria for best employment practices. Systems theory is used as a framework for this study to analyse and describe middle management teams as sub-systems of the financial organisation as a larger system. The identification of effective management teams is an attempt to combat entropy in a search for order, and to support the organisation’s survival during a period of transformation and disorder. The independent variables for the purpose of this study are divided in three themes, namely demographic attributes (job experience and academic qualifications), work performance, and personality and competencies. Work performance is described as the outcome of two measurements, namely the performance management evaluation, as well as an evaluation of their behaviour by their superiors using the Inventory of Management Competencies. Their personality and competencies were evaluated by means of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Occupational Personality Questionnaire Concept Model 4.2. Their team role preferences, as identified by Belbin, were calculated using the results of the Occupational Personality Questionnaire. The requirements of the managers’ positions were obtained by means of the Work Profiling System. The match of the profiles of the managers to the requirements of their positions was obtained by means of a computerized fit between their Occupational Personality Questionnaire profiles and the desired personality profiles as a product of the Work Profiling System. The success criteria of the research design are based on the employee-client-profit-chain model. The amount of job satisfaction experienced by employees, the satisfaction which clients experience with regard to the service they received, as well as the extent of financial growth, is identified as the dependent variables. Descriptive statistics revealed certain patterns in the data. Principal component analysis was used to condense the number of independent variables in the study. Canonical correlations were executed to determine which combinations of independent variables were associated with the dependent variables, but the correlations tended to be low. Multiple regression analysis was then utilised with respect to the three distinct dependent variables. The results culminated in the four selection models for the four manager positions in the team. / Thesis (PhD (Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Psychology / unrestricted

Organisations are always confronted with the need to transform in order to adapt to environmental changes and have a competitive advantage. The concern is that when an organisation embarks on a transformation process, its individual employees are affected either positively or negatively. Employees can respond to transformation change by either being satisfied or dissatisfied in the organisation. The main aim of this research was to develop a diagnostic model for measuring employee satisfaction during organisational transformation. The first construct of organisational transformation was conceptualised using the open system paradigm, theoretical definitions and models of organisational change. In this study, organisational transformation is second order and drastic in the sense that it alters the way in which the organisation functions and relates to the external environment focusing on the vision, processes, systems, structure and culture. It is the fundamental and constant change at all levels of the organisation caused by external factors posing as risks for organisational survival. vi The second construct of employee satisfaction was conceptualised focusing on the humanistic paradigm, theoretical definitions and models. Employee satisfaction in this study is the individual’s positive emotional state of contentment stemming from the organisation’s ability to meet his or her needs and expectations based on his or her experience and evaluation of various organisational processes and practices. It influences employees’ performance and commitment to the organisation. A theoretical model was developed as a framework to enable organisations to diagnose or assess their employees’ satisfaction during organisational transformation. The model highlighted dimensions essential to diagnose employee satisfaction such as organisational strategy, policies and processes and outcomes, in order to determine employees’ contentment and fulfilment in the organisation. The main aim of the empirical research was to conduct a three year longitudinal study of employee satisfaction during organisational transformation; to operationalise the conceptually developed diagnostic model of employee satisfaction during transformation; and develop a structural equation model (SEM) in order to test the theoretical model. The Employee Satisfaction Survey (ESS) was used in 2003, 2007 and 2008 to measure employee satisfaction. The initial year of the study (2003) comprised 1 140 participants who voluntarily completed the measuring instrument. The second year of the study (2007) involved 920 participants, while the final year of the study (2008) included 759 participants. In terms of the reliability and validity of the ESS, it was determined that in the three years of the study, most of the dimensions had acceptable internal consistency reliability based on the results of the Cronbach alpha test. The SEM investigated the impact of organisational strategy, policies and procedures and outcomes as the three domains of employee satisfaction during organisational transformation. The confirmatory factor analysis of the latent variables was conducted, and the path coefficients of the latent variables of organisational strategy, policies and processes and outcomes indicated a satisfactory fit for all these variables. The goodness-of-fit measure of the model indicated both absolute and incremental goodness-of-fit. The SEM confirmed the causal relationships between the latent and manifest variables, indicating that the latent variables, organisational vii strategy, policies and procedures and outcomes are the main indicators of employee satisfaction. This research adds to the field of organisational behaviour by proposing a model of employee satisfaction during organisational transformation. The domains of this model should enable organisations to identify developmental areas based on employees’ dissatisfaction or areas of strengths based on employees’ satisfaction. The diagnostic model will also enable organisations and practitioners to initiative interventions aimed at addressing areas of dissatisfaction as developmental areas and to leverage on its strengths as areas of satisfaction in the organisation. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology