There is a growing awareness that informal supports such as family-supportive supervision are critical in assuring the success of work-life policies and benefits. Furthermore, it is believed that family-supportive supervision may have positive effects regardless of the number or quality of work-life polices and benefits an organization has in place. Given this recognition, work-life experts have emphasized the need for supervisor training to increase family-supportive supervision. To date however, there has been a paucity of research on the predictors of family-supportive supervision which could be used as the target of such a training intervention. This dissertation had three major aims: 1) to investigate which supervisor-level (e.g., reward system, productivity maintenance, salience of changing workforce, belief in business case, awareness of organizational policies and benefits, role-modeling) and employee-level (e.g., support sought) factors are most strongly related to family-supportive supervision; 2) to explore whether supervisor factors moderate the relationship between support sought and family-supportive supervision; 3) and to use a multilevel design to confirm the association between family-supportive supervision and work-family conflict. This study used a cross-sectional, two-level (e.g., supervisor, and employee) hierarchical design. The data were collected from supervisors (Nurse Managers N=67) and employees (Nurses N=757) at five hospitals in the Pacific Northwest. All of the major analyses were conducted using multi-level regression in HLM. The results indicated that family-supportive supervision was higher for employees who worked for managers with a stronger belief in the business case and for employees who sought support. None of the other supervisor-level factors were found to be significant predictors of family supportive supervision. There was no evidence that supervisor-level factors moderated that relationship between support sought and family-supportive supervision. Higher levels of family-supportive supervision were related to lower work-to-family conflict. These findings suggest that organizations seeking to reduce work-family conflict and increase family supportive supervision should consider intervening at multiple levels. This dissertation reviews a rich body of evidence demonstrating the business case for offering work-life supports that could serve as a starting point for developing a training to increase supervisors' belief in the business case. In addition, strategies for organizations to increase support seeking, which has been shown to be an important coping mechanism, are discussed. The multi-level design of this dissertation also contributes to the literature by demonstrating that the largest proportion of variability in family-supportive supervision is at the employee-level. This finding suggests the importance of measuring family-supportive supervision at the employee-level and suggests that future research should focus on the employee-level predictors of family-supportive supervision.

The objective of the study was to determine whether any relationships exist between personality and the performance of sales staff in a call centre environment. Personality type (measured by the Jung Type Indicator [JTI]) and sales personality type (measured by the Sales Preference Indicator [SPI]) were correlated with sales staff performance in an insurance call centre environment. A quantitative survey was conducted using a sample of N = 146. Correlational and inferential statistical analyses revealed statistically significant positive, although weak, relationships between personality type and the performance of call centre sales staff while statistically significant positive and negative correlations, although weak, were found between sales personality type and the performance of call centre sales staff. More female and black sales staff members were found in the higher performing clusters than in the average and poorer performing clusters. The best subset of personality scales from the JTI that predicted univariate measures of performance were the extroversion-introversion scale and the judging-perceiving scale while the best subset of predictors from the SPI personality scale were the consistent-adaptive scale and the cooperative-competitive scale. Call centre performance criteria are based mainly on quantitative performance criteria. It emerged from the literature review that the call centre sales position is synonymous with emotional labour and it is, thus, recommended that future research should emphasise the importance of emotionally intensive labour and its measurement combined with quantitative performance measures. / Industrial & Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The objective of the study was to determine whether any relationships exist between personality and the performance of sales staff in a call centre environment. Personality type (measured by the Jung Type Indicator [JTI]) and sales personality type (measured by the Sales Preference Indicator [SPI]) were correlated with sales staff performance in an insurance call centre environment. A quantitative survey was conducted using a sample of N = 146. Correlational and inferential statistical analyses revealed statistically significant positive, although weak, relationships between personality type and the performance of call centre sales staff while statistically significant positive and negative correlations, although weak, were found between sales personality type and the performance of call centre sales staff. More female and black sales staff members were found in the higher performing clusters than in the average and poorer performing clusters. The best subset of personality scales from the JTI that predicted univariate measures of performance were the extroversion-introversion scale and the judging-perceiving scale while the best subset of predictors from the SPI personality scale were the consistent-adaptive scale and the cooperative-competitive scale. Call centre performance criteria are based mainly on quantitative performance criteria. It emerged from the literature review that the call centre sales position is synonymous with emotional labour and it is, thus, recommended that future research should emphasise the importance of emotionally intensive labour and its measurement combined with quantitative performance measures. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The inextricable ties between work and family have been extensively studied, however, with both societal and organizational change there is a continuing need for organizational research to elucidate the effects work can have on family, individual, and job well-being. Through three studies, this body of work demonstrates the role of supervisors, psychological contextual factors, and workplace work-family resources for improving employee and spouse family well-being and employee psychological and job well-being. This dissertation drew upon data from the Study for Employment Retention of Veterans (SERVe) and the Work-family Health Network (WFHN). Study 1 investigated the link between a supportive supervisor training and employee and spouse ratings of spouse and parent-child relationship quality at 3 and 9 months, while examining the moderating effects of baseline stress. Results revealed that the supportive supervisor training is associated with improved spouse reports of spousal relationship quality 3 months following the training. Additionally, results suggested that the training protects against employee and spouse declines in relationship quality under conditions of higher baseline employee stress. Study 2 examined the daily within and between-person link between work-to-family conflict (WFC) and affective well-being for employees and their spouses, with a focus on how daily family supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB) can protect against WFC associated declines in mood. Findings from Study 2 revealed that daily WFC is related to declines in both employee and spouse mood at the within and between-person levels, however the associations between WFC and spouse mood are nuanced. Specifically, employee WFC was associated with spouse positive mood at the within-person level, but with spouse negative mood at the between-person level. Furthermore, FSSB protected against daily within-person WFC associated declines in employee positive mood. Study 3 utilized a novel theoretical integration of COR theory and climate framework, multi-level methodology, and a time-lagged design in order to elucidate the relationships between supervisor work-family views, unit-level work-family resources (e.g., FSSB and schedule control), and individual well-being. Results revealed that positive supervisor views about flexible work arrangements (FWA) for employees was associated with higher unit levels of FSSB, and that unit level FSSB and schedule control were both strongly related to subsequent employee burnout. Additionally, supervisor FWA was indirectly associated with job-burnout via FSSB. These three studies drew upon multi-level, multi-time points, and multi-source data to further work-family literature and theory, and demonstrate the importance of work-family resources for protecting employees and their families from stress related resource loss. The unique contributions of this dissertation and future directions are discussed.

M. Tech. Organisational Leadership / The aim of this research to investigate the key factors impacting on retention of skilled employees in the public sector using the psychological contract as a framework in an emerging economy context. The focus of the study was on employees perspectives regarding elements of the employment relationship they consider valuable and how these inducements affect their commitment and loyalty to the organization.

One hundred and twenty six undergraduates were cast into a supervisory role in which they worked with a subordinate (confederate) for two twenty minute work sessions. Subjects were placed into one of nine conditions. Subordinate reaction (positive, negative, or none) and subsequent performance (increased, decreased, or same) were manipulated by the confederate. Both reaction conditions were predicted to influence a leniency bias in the supervisor's rating behavior, and either increase (negative reaction), or decrease (positive reaction) amount of supervision. Also, supervisors exposed to the positive reaction were hypothesized to provide more self attributions, while supervisors in the negative reaction group should tend toward greater self-serving attributions. In addition, supervisor response to interpersonal attraction, conflict avoidance, and uncertainty scales were obtained. Both ratings and amount of supervision measures failed to yield significant results. Partial support was found for the attribution hypothesis, and differences on the interpersonal attraction scales were obtained for the experimental reaction conditions. Implications of the results and suggestions for possible research are discussed. / Master of Science

Thesis (MA (Industrial Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Constructs in this study are explored from a positive organisational scholarship paradigm, which is largely concerned with the investigation of positive outcomes, processes and attributes of organisations and their employees. The aim of the study is to investigate the respective relationships that exist between the positive organisational psychological constructs, namely servant leadership, emotional intelligence and trust in the immediate supervisor, and the influence of these variables on the meaning in life experienced by individuals. Based on literature, a model depicting a sequential process of interrelationships amongst the constructs is proposed in the study. Both survey and statistical modelling methodologies were employed to guide the investigation. Standardised questionnaires were used for the four different constructs, using the responses of 154 employees on a composite questionnaire. To determine the applicability of the factor structures of these instruments on the current sample, exploratory factor analysis was conducted. The suggested factor structures were confirmed through confirmatory factor analysis with acceptable levels of fit. The revalidated instruments provided better levels of fit than the original instruments. The configurations of the measurement instruments were found to be different in a South African cultural organisational setting for the Servant Leadership Questionnaire, the Emotional Intelligence Index and the Life Regard Index. However, the configuration of measurement on trust in the immediate supervisor, when applied to the respondents in this study, appeared to be similar to those found in different cultural settings. The results of a Pearson correlation analysis, stepwise multiple regression and structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis indicated significant relationships between servant leadership, emotional intelligence and trust. The relationship of these constructs with meaning did not show significant relationships. The contribution of this study to the existing theory and literature is the exploration of the portability of the measurement instruments to a South African context. A further contribution is the findings with regard to the interrelationships between servant leadership, emotional intelligence and trust in the immediate supervisor. Some recommendations for further research and some suggestions regarding servant leadership development interventions are also made.

People effectiveness has become a key differentiator of competitive advantage in the knowledge economy and the need for a valid and reliable measure of people effectiveneness has become paramount for success. The research positions the psychological work immersion scale (PWIS) as a relevant measure of people effectiveness and explores the relationship between the PWIS variables (psychological attachment and people effectiveness enablers) and perceptions of business performance. Furthermore the research explores whether higher levels of psychological work immersion leads to increased business performance over time in an attempt to position the value of organisational development interventions aimed at increasing psychological work immersion levels in the work place. The setting for this research was a not-for-profit organisation in South Africa. The sample for the study was measured at two defined points in time over a 14-month period and consisted of n = 414 (T1) and n = 551 (T2). The study showed that the PWIS factor structure is a valid measure of the psychological work immersion construct across time (T1 and T2). The results provided evidence of convergent, intra-discriminant and external discriminant validity (construct validity) of the PWIS within (T1 and T2) and over time (T1 vs T2). The results showed that the PWIS has acceptable internal consistency reliability within and across time (T1 and T2) as well as demonstrating test-retest reliability across time. The results provided evidence that the people effectiveness enablers and psychological attachment variables significantly predict perception of business performance indicators (profit/loss, costs, and cash flow related to operating activities), and that strong perceptions of people effectiveness enablers relate to strong individual perceptions of business performance through a high sense of psychological attachment. The mediation results confirmed the test-retest reliability and validity of the PWIS in predicting perceptions of business performance within and over time. This finding shows that psychological attachment is an important factor in terms of iv influencing the individual perceptions of business performance which is related to improvements in actual business performance. The study also showed evidence of a positive relationship between psychological work immersion and business performance and demonstrated improvements in psychological work immersion coincided with year on year improvements in business performance. The study contributes towards the current literature on organisational development and specifically on the measurement of people effectiveness within knowledge economy organisations. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D. Com.