The purpose of the research was to investigate the relationship between organisational commitment and work performance in an Agricultural company. Allen and Meyer's Organisational Commitment Questionnaire was used as well as the organisation's verbal performance rating tool. The Organisational Commitment Questionnaire was completed by a sample from the organisation and the performance ratings of the employees in the sample were used as comparison. A positive relationship between the two constructs was established while no statistically significant relationship could be established. Further research in this field is suggested in the South African context. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.A.(Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

This is a conceptual dissertation which addresses itself to the criticism that the social systems framework is highly abstract and theoretical, and as such relevant only to academics and specialists. The primary purpose of this paper is to operationalise the social system framework, to illustrate its application and to highlight its unique potential. It represents an attempt to enlarge, even redefine, the frameworks used for studying and transforming organisations. In order to best highlight the differences between the social systems framework and other models implicit in traditional approaches, a specific component of organisation reality is focused on, namely the performance appraisal. After discussing and illustrating the models behind most research on the topic, an alternative holistic framework for performance appraisal is sketched. Following this, an actual performance improvement intervention is described in a case study. This provides a practical illustration of the points made in the paper. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial Psychology)

The performance management and development system (PMDS) is a tool that is used by government to measure the performance of individuals in the organisation. PMDS was developmental in its nature in identifying the development of employees and training in case of poor performance. The main aim of the PMDS is to motivate officials in the organisation by rewarding a performance bonus at the end of the financial year. There are challenges that affect the PMDS: officials felt that the system did not motivate them; it is perceived as a 14th cheque and some of them felt the system should be terminated. The main aim of the study is to evaluate the performance management and development system at the Department of Safety and Liaison in the Eastern Cape. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected through questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaires were distributed to officials from levels 1 - 8 and interviews were conducted with assistant managers, managers and senior managers. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the questionnaires and transcriptions were used to interpret the interviews. The results of the study reflect that most officials in the Department are young and new to the public service. The findings show that the employees of the Department are average in their performance and the Department perceives that the PMDS is not used to identify poor performance and training. The system is not implemented effectively and efficiently. Based on the findings and recommendations made to management to facilitate the training on PMDS and also to allow the processes and procedures to be more efficient. Furthermore allowing performance from all staff to achieve the core objectives of the department.

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to assess the efficiency of 15 container terminals in Africa. The models proposed by Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes (1978) and Banker, Charnes and Cooper (1984) are used to determine and rank the efficiencies of the container terminals for 2013 and 2014. The results show that selected South African container terminals can improve on their operations relative to some of their neighbours to the North. Bootstrapping methods are used to investigate and clarify the results. The Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) model is used to track and explain changes in efficiency over the period of assessment.

The Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM) has been experiencing inappropriate job behaviour and performance from some of its workers. These inappropriate practices have been widely reported in the media, audit reports, parliamentary discussions, reports to parliament, municipal reports, and departmental reports. They include misappropriation of municipal resources, maladministration, mismanagement, lack of service delivery, fraud, and corruption. Since many BCMM workers have various levels of formal education, such practices are not expected, because the structural-functionalist assumption is that formal education is a solution to societal challenges. At the BCMM, however, formal education seemed to also serve a different purpose, that of realising the principle that says “[k]now the rules well, so you can break them effectively” (Dalai Lama 2013, 2). This study therefore hypothesises that the perpetual inappropriate job behaviour and performance at the BCMM is due to the paucity of broad skills. The concept of broad skills includes the various dimensions of knowledge (know that, know why, know how) as well as attitudes, ethics and values. Inappropriate job behaviour and performance practices thus indicate that current levels of broad skills are insufficient. This study acknowledges that labour (ability to work) is a product of multifarious forms of capital, hence this study amalgamates four forms of capital - human capital, social capital, cultural capital, and reputation capital – into a theoretical framework in order to get a broader explanation of the workers’ job behaviour and performance. The various forms of capital contribute to the formation of skill, hence the notion of broad skills. How workers discharge their responsibilities is determined by numerous factors such as cultural capital (the workers’ family background, race, ethnicity, personality, and geographical area) (Bourdieu 1977); reputation capital (the workers’ brand, public perceptions of trustworthiness, popularity, authority in the field, ethics, integrity and reputation) (Ingbretsen 2011); social capital (the workers’ social development, social relations, and social networks) (Blackmore 1997); and human capital (schooling) (Becker 1964). The value of adopting the broad skills approach lies in gaining a broader perspective on job performance as opposed to the dominant use of the human capital model alone which predominantly uses schooling to explain job performance. In practice, the human capital model is characterised by its association of job performance problems with lack of skills. However, investigation of the role of attitudes, ethics and values in the labour process reveals that the lack of will also contributes to job performance problems. In fact, the adoption of multiple perspectives for investigating the paradoxical co-existence of inappropriate job behaviour and performance with formal education reveals several factors that make this phenomenon possible, besides lack of skills. These include the job environment, ineffective performance management systems, compromised municipal effectiveness and efficiency due to the politicisation of municipal management, and manipulation of the labour process to suit the interests of the workers who want to engage in inappropriate practices.

We are living in a changing world. Performance management is becoming a major challenge for organisations. The aim of this study is to review the current status of the Performance Management and Development System at the Department of the Premier and to look into the reasons why it has become a pain rather than a gain to both the organisation and its employees. This document will also look at the possible causes of the failure of the performance management system and will then propose useful guidelines to overcome obstacles to the benefit of all the affected parties. To achieve this objective a comprehensive literature study was performed to the Department of the Premier to determine the views on performance, and on performance management programmes. The study also included an investigation into the extent to which a performance management programme should be aligned with Provincial Government Western Cape (PGWC) and individual goals. Questionnaires developed from the literature study, were distributed amongst randomly selected respondents, in order to determine the extent to which a specific directorate manages performance, in line with the guidelines provided by the literature study. The information obtained from the questionnaires were compared with the guidelines provided by the literature study in order to identify shortcomings in the influence that the performance management programme has on the achievement of Department and individual goals at the selected Directorates. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of the current performance management system, in the Department at Provincial Government Western Cape, as a facilitation tool in aiding or assisting management in achieving individual and departmental goals. To achieve this objective a comprehensive literature study was performed to determine the views on performance, and on performance management systems. A questionnaire was designed based on the guidelines in the literature study, in order to establish the extent to which the organisation manages performance. The completed questionnaires were returned and these were processed and analysed using Microsoft Office Excel 2003, running on the Windows XP suite of computer packages. The respondent’s opinion obtained from the questionnaires were compared with the guidelines provided by the literature study in order to identify shortcomings of the influence that the performance management system has on the achievement of individual and departmental goals at the selected organization. The research results indicate that the majority of staff supports and understands the process.

The Royal Canadian School of Mechanical Engineering at Camp Chilliwack, British Columbia, assesses officer cadets on a five point scale, in terms of 13 qualities which are considered by RCSME to be characteristic of a "good man". This research was undertaken for the purpose of critically examining this assessment method to suggest possible improvements to it. The assessment method was examined in two ways : (a) By carrying out a job analysis by means of the critical incident technique to derive Critical Requirements for COTC cadets and use these as a basis for judging whether or not the criteria of assessment at present in use are well formulated; (b) By obtaining peer ratings by the cadets themselves to serve as a basis for-examining the validity of assessments that have been made by the existing procedures. The Critical Incident Technique, as outlined by Flanagan, was used to obtain incidents from the entire cadet population and from the instructors who were currently involved with or were familiar with COTC training, There were three major differences between cadets and instructors in the incidents collected: (a) the rank orders of incidents showed marked differences for a few Critical Requirements but in general considerable similarity existed; (b) the number of incidents collected from certain locations differed, and (c) a disproportionately large number of ineffective incidents were contributed by instructors. A detailed comparison was made between the Critical Requirements isolated in this study and the categories employed at the RCSME in the assessment of cadets. There were 11 Critical Requirements for which no corresponding categories existed. Three main objections to tie RCSME categories were discussed. Peer ratings were obtained for the entire cadet population. These predicted future officer performance without being unduly affected by popularity. The peer ratings of First Phase cadets were found to be more accurate than those of Second Phase cadets. Peer ratings were scored by weighted and unweighted scoring techniques. Both methods yielded almost identical results. The unweighted scoring technique, however, requires fewer calculations and is less time consuming. The results of this study indicated that peer ratings can be used as an independent measure of officer cadet performance. Two improvement procedures were suggested. First, that the Critical Requirements isolated in this study be used as a basis for assessment in the form of a check list or other device and, second, that the employment of peer ratings be incorporated as one of the components of the assessment method. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

M.Com. (Industrial Psychology) / Behaviorally anchored performance appraisal research concentrates mainly on the development of a scientifically verifiable instrument. The recommendations made in these studies to enhance the effective and practical use of the systems are, however, normally neglected in further studies. Performance appraisal entails more than just the development of a superior psychometric system. Therefore more attention should be paid to the success of the total performance appraisal approach rather than the individual instrument.

No description available.

This study examined the relationship between an organization's culture and its performance appraisal (PA) system and process. The initial phase of this study involved examining an organization's culture and the properties of its performance appraisal system from organizational archival information. Information derived from this phase of the study was later utilized to formulate interview questions, guide the search for the organizational culture survey instrument, and to construct the performance appraisal perceptions measuring instrument. This latter instrument is a quantitative measure that was later employed in testing the primary hypothesis that stated the performance appraisal process had a positive effect on organizational culture. The results of the hypotheses testing revealed that the PA process, in terms of individual member perceptions thereof, had a significant positive effect on the selected organizational cultural elements. Further analysis of the data revealed that members of the organization that had been recently appraised had statistically stronger positive perceptions towards the PA process and, therefore, stronger inclination towards the espoused cultural values. These findings make a strong case for using the performance appraisal process for the purpose of not only evaluating individual performance for various administrative goals, but for other goals related to creating, maintaining, and perpetuating the desired organizational culture. This suggests that organizational leadership (through its management), when designing its PA system should pay attention to the value system, or the culture, it wants to prevail in its organization and include this information along with other relevant performance measures into the PA structure. Such a policy can lead to the existence of an appropriate culture for that organization if, as the results of this study show, the managers and supervisors at all levels timely perform such appraisals for all their subordinates. Performance appraisal, which itself is often considered a structural element designed for organizational control, has the potential to have as much impact on an organization's culture as any other mode of communication. In that regard, this study takes a step towards looking at PA as one more criteria to be examined during organizational cultural studies and organizational intervention