The issue of mergers and, in particular, the effect of mergers on employees is an important one due to the alarming number of mergers taking place at present both globally and in South Africa. Only recently have researchers begun to study the impact of mergers on employees. Many authors argue that this element is critical in determining the success or failure of a merger. The study examines a company, which recently experienced a merger and attempts to establish whether or not the merger had a detrimental effect on organisational climate. The study achieves it's aim by reviewing the literature and administering a self-completion questionnaire to the entire operational staff at three hierarchical levels, namely; store manager, sales administrator and sales person of the organisation in the KwaZulu Natal region. The study thus constitutes a census of all employees at the aforementioned three levels. The questionnaire administered includes both an organisational climate measuring instrument (an existing eighteen item scale was used) and an attitude to mergers measuring instrument, made up of twelve items, which was constructed for this study. The data was then analysed utilising both descriptive and inferential statistics. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

The purpose of this study was to assess whether Indiana's private applicator training program affects private pesticide applicators' attitudes toward personal safety. The theoretical framework for this study was Ajzen and Fishbein's Theory of Reasoned Action. The sample was created by recruiting the enrollees participating in four private applicator training sessions selected at random. Sixty private pesticide applicators participated in a year long longitudinal study. Results revealed no significant improvement in positive attitudes toward pesticide safety was noted as a result of training. However, differences in attitudes toward pesticide safety were observed among selected demographic groups. Attitudes were most positive ten months after training indicating factors other than training were affective in developing positive attitudes toward pesticide safety. Selected factors other than training are discussed in relationship to attitude development. / Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management

The recruitment, hiring, and retention of registered nurses (RNs) is of critical concern for nursing home administrators. Many times, nursing homes unsuccessfully compete with hospitals and staff relief agencies for available RNs (Braddy, Washburn, & Carroll, 1991). Understanding the factors that influence nurses to seek a particular employer is significant in recruitment and hiring. Factors related to nursing decisions to choose employment in nursing homes were identified in this descriptive study.Price and Mueller's (1981) Causal Model for Turnover (CMT) provided a conceptual framework for the study. The investigator used a revised form of an instrument developed by Price and Mueller for a 1981 study of hospital turnover. The instrument contained 67 items presented in a combination of 59 multiple choice items and 8 five-point Likert-type items. The reliability for each of the seven subscales was equal to or greater than .70.A sample of 300 full-time RNs with tenure of at least 6 months employment with a large for profit corporation was selected for this study. Questionnaires were mailed to participants with a letter of introduction from the investigator and the divisional vice president of the corporation. Subjects were provided with a self-addressed, stamped envelope to be used to return completed questionnaires. A follow-up call was done one week after the mailing requesting return of all completed questionnaires.There were no risks or ill effects from participating in this study. Respondents were free to ask any questions during the study. The agency and respondents were not identified in the sampling and the results of the study. Completion of the questionnaire was interpreted as the respondent's agreement to participate in the study.Results should help administrators understand the factors that influence registered nurses to seek employment in nursing homes. The results of the study should be utilized in reviewing current recruitment, hiring, and retention strategies. / School of Nursing

The main purpose of this study was to investigate whether a difference existed between attitudes, subjective norms, and behavioral intentions of employees regarding self reported use or nonuse of PHPD. The study also investigated if there was a difference between selected demographic variables and the attitudes, subjective norms, and behavioral intentions of employees regarding use or nonuse of PHPD. Fishbein and Ajzen's (1975) Theory of Reasoned Action was the theoretical framework for this study. A convenience sample of 250 employees at two automotive component manufacturing plants located in the Midwest completed the demographic sheet and Employee Use of PHPD questionnaire.Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to determine the internal consistency of the questionnaire subscales, and the alpha scores ranged from 0.66 to 0.81. Findings revealed a significant difference in attitudes between the self reported use and nonuse groups (F=93.34, df, 1, p<.0001). A significant difference in subjective norms between the use and nonuse groups (F=52.14, df, 1, p<.0001). Findings also revealed a significant difference in behavioral intentions between the self reported use and nonuse groups (F=128.54, df, 1, p<.001). A significant difference was found between age, gender, and self reported use or nonuse ofPHPD. Younger female respondents used PHPD more frequently than male middle aged respondents.Despite the fact that this study found evidence of positive attitudes and subjective norms, the findings did not support behavioral intentions. Most of the respondents (86.4%) supported the use of PHPD as an important part of responsible work safety, but their self reported use of PHPD was only 33.4%. More than half (65.6%) of the respondents reported never or almost never using PHPD. The findings were not consistent with the constructs of TRA, that attitudes and subjective norms are predictive of behavioral intention and thus behavior. / School of Nursing

The nursing home industry has low registered nurse retention rates. Low retention rates can be related to job satisfaction. The nursing home industry needs qualified registered nurses (RNs) who are satisfied with all aspects of their jobs. The purpose of this study was to examine factors affecting job satisfaction of RNs currently employed in nursing homes using Herzberg's (1968) Dual Factor Theory.Herzberg (1968) has identified internal factors that motivate employees on the job. If intrinsic factors are met, the employee is satisfied. Extrinsic factors, if present, will not satisfy the employee, but will prevent dissatisfaction (Herzberg, 1968). The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire - Short Form, was used to determine the intrinsic, extrinsic and general satisfaction scores of 48 (480) RNs currently employed in ten nursing homes from the midwest. Confidentiality and anonymity of the subjects were maintained as questionnaires contained no identifying information.Findings supported previous studies on job satisfaction of RNs employed in nursing homes. Participants did not identify intrinsic factors as being fully satisfactory, but responses were closer to satisfied than dissatisfied. Extrinsic factors were not sources of dissatisfaction, but responses were closer to dissatisfied than satisfied. General satisfaction scores determined respondents were not fully satisfied, but were closer to neutral scores. Responses were closer to being satisfied than not. Conclusions were that extrinsic and intrinsic factors influence job satisfaction.Implications call for examination of factors effecting job satisfaction. Managers should increase job security, social services, activites, independence and variety. Human relations, company policies and technical supervision should be open to input from staff as to how the extrinsic motivational factors can be improved. Recommendations include replication of this study with a large sample size; assuring nurses under 40 years of age participate in further studies and the need for nursing home administrators to address intrinsic and extrinsic factors that affect job satisfaction. / School of Nursing

A study was conducted to determine what attitudes Indiana religion editors and reporters hold toward religion news and what attitude patterns exist among them.Using Q Methodology, this study explored the attitudes of religion reporters and editors at 22 Indiana daily newspapers. Newspapers included in the study had a religion reporter or editor who covered local religion news.The concourse for the study was developed by using statements from Ranly's 1977 study and from articles from trade and scholarly journals. The Q-sample included a total of 54 statements related to personal religious beliefs, the state of religion news and working as a journalist.The subjects completed a questionnaire, which included questions about their professional and religious background, and interviews were conducted with the subjects.The typical Indiana religion reporter was: a Caucasian female who had worked as a journalist for less than 10 years, who had held the position of religion reporter for less than five years, who held a bachelor's degree in journalism or English, and who had at least one college religion course. She had exposure to religion while growing up, is now involved in religious activities, and attends church weekly.QMETHOD software was used to tabulate the Q-sorts, and the investigator determined that two factors could be drawn out from the results. Hypothetical reporter types were labeled as "moderate" and "traditional." There was a high correlation between the two factors. Moderates were more news-oriented in their approach. They believe that religion news should be covered like any other news topic. Traditionalists were more faith-oriented. They believe that their faith and their jobs are not conflicting. / Department of Journalism

This study explores the differences in attitude held by newspaper photographers and designers concerning the acceptability of digitally altering front-page photographs. It takes its findings from a summer 2006 survey that asked these two newsroom groups to rate their acceptance of certain common techniques used to change photographs from their original forms. Their answers revealed that designers are generally more accepting of altered photographs than their photographer colleagues. Also, photographers are more likely to find acceptable those photographs altered for technical reasons than for aesthetic ones. Least acceptable to photographers, this study finds, are alterations that affect a photograph's content. / Department of Journalism

Voice mail is a computer-aided telephone system which is capable of storing and forwarding spoken messages. The voice mail market has been and is still focused on larger companies since they comprise a sizable amount of the installed base of voice processing systems (Radisich, 1994). Consequently, all voice mail research has been centered on the large company and concentrates on advantages or disadvantages found in these substantial companies.This study focused on the implementation and diffusion of a relatively new communication technology and its consequences in an unresearched arena--the small company. Also a comparatively new methodology in the field of communications research, grounded theory, was used to explore the impact of a new technology, thus possibly advancing the credibility of this research methodology.The results of this pilot study on voice mail in a small company found diffusion to be extremely successful, even to the point of surprising some of the subjects with their total acceptance of the technology.The study results indicated that the small company can benefit from voice mail usage in similar ways to the large company, especially if the company has travelers or off-site locations. The results implied that there are some ways that voice mail can assist in the small company where it has not previously had a reported effect in the large company---as a negotiating, organizing, and delegating tool.The results of the study could provide insights for other small companies concerned with successful usage of the voice mail technology in similar environments. Several concepts on novel uses of voice mail surfaced as a result of this study. These concepts could provide hypothesis for empirical testing to further voice mail investigation.The study concluded that voice mail is a communication technology that is an accepted and beneficial tool which offered several major advantages that the subject small company was able to successfully utilize. / Department of Journalism

The incidence of suicide attempts and completions during academically gifted students' attendance at state-supported, residential high schools was the subject of this study. School personnel's perceptions of this environment, roles in identifying students at-risk for attempting suicide, and knowledge about suicide were also studied. Five schools participated in this study. Initial interviews were conducted with each school's director, measuring the incidence of suicide utilizing an adaptation of a survey developed by M. Hayes and R. Sloat (1990). Questionnaires distributed to personnel included questions about knowledge about the school's history concerning suicide, perceptions of the environment, and knowledge about suicide. The adaptation of Hayes and Stoat's survey was included in questionnaire materials, along with the School-Level Environment Questionnaire (Rentoul & Fraser, 1983) and 11 true/false statements measuring knowledge of suicide. A total of 83 questionnaires were completed. Telephone interviews were conducted with a random sample of 21 personnel who completed the questionnaire. These interviews consisted of open-ended questions measuring the environment of these schools and perceived roles of personnel in identifying students at-risk for suicide. Descriptive and qualitative analyses were conducted. Ten attempts and two completions occurred among 4899 students. Suicide attempts and completions were measured to be .20% and .04% respectively. These findings indicate that these schools need to be prepared in order to prevent suicide among this population. The environment of these schools was one of affiliation, autonomy, and innovativeness. However, affiliation predominately existed within specific departments and/or divisions. Personnel characterized their roles in suicide prevention as unofficial because of lack of time, academic priorities, and other individuals who were better equipped to respond to students. Even though personnel considered their roles unofficial, they attempted to meet students' emotional needs through support, observation, and involvement. Knowledge of suicide was observed in the areas of incidence of suicide among adolescents, importance of warning signs, factors increasing risk, and need for intervention. Respondents were less knowledgeable about the rate of suicide among adolescents, factors not increasing risk, and myths about suicide. / Department of Educational Psychology

The purpose was to assess the extent of use of Making Achievement Possible reports in aiding hall directors in making decisions for their hall in five areas: academic initiatives, hall activities, disciplinary proceedings, conversations with students, and assessing community. Current hall directors were surveyed during January 2002 regarding use of MAP reports in these areas. Two focus groups were held to gain more specific examples of report use, to determine possible changes, and to identify factors that affect use in decision-making. It was determined that the reports are used in academic initiatives, disciplinary proceedings, and in assessing community strengths, but are not used in other areas of job responsibility. Issues that affected use included time, training, and the amount of information found on the report. Training in basic research methodology and in applying results to practice could lead to better utilization of the MAPP reports in hall decision-making. / Department of Educational Studies