M.A. (Industrial Relations) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ed. / Educational organisations on the international front are being bombarded by a proliferation of in-vogue terminology such as participative management, collaboration, shared vision and decentralisation that are associated with the collegial management model. However, an in-depth critical analysis of international educational systems reveal that these new-age concepts associated with collegiality are more theoretical in nature and seldom translated into practice in schools (Sergiovanni and Starratt, 1988). There are still deep seated bureaucratic principles embedded in the management fibre of schools and this gives rise to a false type of working together namely “contrived collegiality”, in an effort to comply with the existing demands perpetuated by legislature and policy. According to Hargreaves (1994: 192) contrived collegiality, as opposed to genuine collegiality, arises through administrative control, and is imposed on the teachers regardless of their desires.

The main objective of this study was to assess the relationship between organisational climate and organisational commitment within the Information Technology department of a South African Telecommunications company. Firstly, the research considered the organisational climate from a qualitative perspective. Research interviews that were based on organisational climate literature were performed with 4 members of the relevant department. Qualitative data analysis revealed several themes. The themes highlighted include: perceived ineffective structure and decision-making; lack of mistake tolerance; risk aversion by employees; recognition and reward systems perceived to be inadequate; performance management is perceived to be ineffective and inadequate; Employee Share Options Program (ESOP) perceived to have a negative influence on employee behaviours; the nature of the social environment perceived to be unfriendly; low level of knowledge and skills sharing; inadequate human resource management practices; These findings highlight the importance of certain aspects within the environment that influence employee perceptions. Organisational climate literature suggests that organisational climate has various behavioral influences and its consideration is essential in the effective functioning of the organisation. Secondly, the research considered the relationship between organisational climate and organisational commitment within the relevant department. The Patterson et al. (2005) Organisational Climate Measure (OCM®) and Meyer and Allen (1991) Organisational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) were used to assess the relationship between organisational climate and organisational commitment, respectively. Significant correlations were found between integration, pressure to produce, innovation, supervisory support, reflexivity, clarity, involvement, autonomy, welfare and tradition, and both affective and normative commitment, Training was only significantly correlated to affective commitment. No significant correlations were found with continuance commitment.

Companies are facing unprecedented pressure from various stakeholders to behave as responsible corporate citizens. The issue of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has therefore gained prominence as a central facet of both social and business platforms in recent years. There is overwhelming evidence from research literature that CSR is an emerging and increasingly important driver of employee engagement and organisational commitment. Studies however also point out that businesses that have engaged in CSR have generally failed to embrace fully the fact that it can be an important driver of employee engagement and not many of them are using this potentially powerful tool to attract, engage and retain employees. The primary objective of the study is to investigate the perceived economic benefit, social impact and environmental impact of CSR on employee engagement and organisational commitment in business firms. Convenience sampling was used to select a stratified sample of 150 employees from six different industries in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolis. While 150 questionnaires were distributed, only 91 respondents eventually participated (response rate = 60.7 percent). The data analyses included the calculation of Cronbach alpha coefficients, descriptive statistics (percentages, means, standard deviation and frequency scores), multiple regression, Pearson correlations and Scheffé tests. The empirical results show, among others, that the economic benefit of CSR has the strongest effect on affective commitment of employees; that the environmental benefit of CSR plays a big role in employees wanting to stay with their firms (continuance commitment) and feeling obliged to stay with their firms (normative commitment); and that the social benefit of CSR has a strong effect on the level of employee engagement. The managerial implications of these findings are discussed. The shortcomings of the study and gaps for future research are also highlighted.

Employee engagement is emerging as a critical organisational issue especially as organisations are recovering from the trauma of the global recession and constant change. Employee engagement has been an area of interest among many researchers and it has received even greater recognition among consulting firms. Therefore, there is a need for academic research on this theory to ascertain the claims of the human resource consulting firms as well as to add to the existing knowledge of employee engagement in the literature. The main aim of the research was to establish whether there is a relationship between employee engagement and performance. The methodology was based on secondary research by means of statistics for employee engagement and performance scores obtained of permanent employees from the organisation under study. A structured survey for employee engagement was used and compared over a two year period as well as performance scores over a two year period. The empirical findings of this study in terms of the relationship between employee engagement and job performance were evident in that a relationship between the variables was proved; however findings from the qualitative research suggest direct and strong relationship between employee engagement and job performance, whereas the current study has not highlighted a very strong relationship based on the empirical findings.

M.Phil. / In an interview with Harvard Business review Gary Hamel (Allio, 2009) noted: “Management is the single largest constraint on business performance.” Current management models and practices need to be reviewed because managers do not seem to be able to add significant value to their organisations anymore. In 2007 the Hay group conducted a study and showed that middle managers in the United Kingdom cost the economy approximately £220 billion per annum (Paton, 2007). According to a Towers Perrin Global Workforce study (2007) it showed overall employee engagement in organisations across the world was 21% whilst disengaged employees was 38%. The Towers study further showed that managers are playing an enormous role in the statistics above. The present study focuses on the concept of creating a management value chain for management, to ensure consistent application of enabling management practices in order to contribute to the improvement of employee engagement and ultimately organisational performance.

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Organisationsförändringar är idag en stor del av samhällets utveckling och något som konstantsker runt omkring oss utan att vi tänker på det. Hur dessa förändringar ser ut kan variera frånsituation till situation, men oftast sker det i samband med att man upptäckerförbättringspotential inom organisationen. Vi har genom denna studie placerat enorganisationsförändring inom en turbulent kontext.Vården har under flera år varit väldigt ansträngt i samband med Covid-19-pandemin som brötut i slutet av 2019. Precis innan Covid-19 klassades som en pandemi så bestämde sig RegionVästerbottens Primärvård för att genomföra en stor organisationsförändring. I samband medden rådande pandemin var mycket av fokuset inom vården att hantera och klara av den ökandevårdkön. Detta har i sin tur gjort att delar av organisationsförändringen prioriterats bort förandra nödvändiga åtgärder.Vi formulerade följande forskningsfråga: Vad får en omorganisation under en turbulentomvärldsförändring för konsekvenser för medarbetarnas arbetsmiljö?Utifrån forskningsfrågan och det medföljande syftet samt delsyftet har vi kollat på kontextenav en turbulent omvärldsförändring och hur den kan tänkas påverka en normalt genomfördorganisationsförändring. Vidare har vi tittat på faktorer som kommunikation inom ledarskap,medarbetarnas upplevda organisationskultur och employee participation för att kolla hur dessakan påverka organisationsförändringen mot en positiv eller negativ riktning vidimplementerandet.Genom denna studie bidrar vi med nya insikter i den psykosociala arbetsmiljön och hur denpåverkas av att man initierar en organisationsförändring under en turbulent omvärldsförändringoch hur detta kan bidra till stress, oro och i värsta fall sjukskrivning. Vi har redovisat förrekommendationer för vad man bör göra som organisationsledning innan man hamnar i enliknande situation, samt hur man ska gå tillväga för att åtgärda det missnöjet som kan uppstå isamband med att man fullföljer en sådan organisationsförändring. Resultatet av studien visarpå att kommunikation och medarbetares möjlighet att delta i förändringen kan påverka hurmedarbetarna upplever sin psykosociala arbetsmiljö.

No description available.

Participative management practices between United States parent companies in the maquiladora industry and their Mexico assembly plants were investigated for this study. It was hypothesized that managers of parent maquiladora companies in the United States encouraged greater levels of worker participation than did expatriate managers in Mexican subsidiaries. However, the findings of this study indicate that expatriate managers in a number of the Mexico subsidiaries are currently implementing employee involvement approaches. In some instances, highly participative team-based approaches are being used.