Thesis (M.B.A.)-Business Studies Unit, Durban Institute of Technology, 2005 xix, 147 leaves / There is a lack of commitment and participation in productivity initiatives at shop floor level in South Africa and companies are faced with competitive challenges of promoting innovativeness relating to productivity improvement amongst employees. South Africa’s labour productivity in the manufacturing sector is low when compared to Korea, United States of America, Taiwan, Japan, France and the United Kingdom. It has increasingly been recognised in industry that by introducing a carefully crafted incentive scheme, it may be possible to induce South African workers to work both harder and smarter and use existing technologies in new and better ways that enhance their productivity. The study proposes to evaluate to what extent gainsharing can be a solution. / M

Thesis (M.B.A.)-Business Studies Unit, Durban Institute of Technology, 2005 xix, 147 leaves / There is a lack of commitment and participation in productivity initiatives at shop floor level in South Africa and companies are faced with competitive challenges of promoting innovativeness relating to productivity improvement amongst employees. South Africa’s labour productivity in the manufacturing sector is low when compared to Korea, United States of America, Taiwan, Japan, France and the United Kingdom. It has increasingly been recognised in industry that by introducing a carefully crafted incentive scheme, it may be possible to induce South African workers to work both harder and smarter and use existing technologies in new and better ways that enhance their productivity. The study proposes to evaluate to what extent gainsharing can be a solution.

In this economically challenging era, companies have got to find the best system that can help to enhance productivity. A very important method is by encouraging takeholders through various forms of incentives. The gain-sharing incentive has been adopted by many organisations today to enhance staff loyalty and productivity. A gain-sharing programme ensures that both the organisation and team members benefit from the expected performances, rather than an individual or group incentive which is given based on a specific finite goal which could be achieved at the cost of other key critical business need. A couple of years ago Autocast Aluminium decided to enhance employee performance by initiating the gain-sharing incentive programme. After the programme was rolled out, the organisation is yet to examine the extent to which it enhances job satisfaction in the organisation. The primary objective or aim of the study is to examine the extent to which gain-sharing at Autocast meets the purpose for which it was created. The sample of the study was 176 of the employees at Autocast Aluminium; however 130 questionnaires were distributed. A total of 88 questionnaires were returned, of which 80 were usable, whilst eight were scrapped due to more half of the questionnaire having missing data. This resulted in a 68 % response rate. A framework has been developed to measure to what extent does the programme enable employees to feel satisfied with their jobs. The empirical results revealed that out of six independent variables tested: fair payment, involvement, personal growth, communication, job security and leadership style, only three that plays significant role on employee job satisfaction. These are fair payment, communication and leadership style.