Thesis (MBA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of training and development on employee performance at Mamelodi Clinics, Gauteng Province. This study was guided by the following objectives. To determine the perceived effect of training and development courses on skills development of professional nurses in the Mamelodi clinics, Gauteng Province. To explore the perceived effect of training and development courses on the performance of professional nurses in the Mamelodi clinics, Gauteng Province. To examine which of the attended short courses are more effective in improving the skills of professional nurses. To find out which short courses, according to the professional nurses in the study, were found to be ineffective and unnecessary. The study was of importance to future researchers and academicians as it added new insight into the existing information with regards to employee training and development. It also provided the department of health, both nationally and provincially with an understanding of successes and challenges inherent to training and development and their corresponding effect on employee performance. As a result, this had a contribution towards how training and development are carried out within the organisation. A qualitative research design was deployed in this study to allow investigation of the possible relationship between training and development as well as to establish a comparison between the two. The study population was 45 staff of Mamelodi Clinics which were approved for this study. The data was collected through a questionnaire. Percentages, means, cross-tabulation were used as means of data analysis. The findings were presented using tables and figures. In terms of training and development, the study was able to show that all Mamelodi Clinics under department of health Gauteng Province, has a range of training programmes for different staff of their clinics, and are of high quality standard and very effective. As a result, employee skills, overall performance of staff, and general competence of the employee has sharply increased due to training and development v methods and strategies put in place by department of health, both provincially and nationally. The study showed that in terms of employee performance and motivation, training and development programmes help in increasing employee motivation and thus performance. Employees are thus able to successfully be aligned with the goals, aims and missions of the clinics and the department of health, as well as the Batho Pele principles. The study concludes that training and development have positive effects on employees. The study was able to find that within the clinics, employees are given adequate chance to engage in training and development courses. The study concludes further that more training and development programmes should be undertaken. The study recommends that there should be regularly assessments on employees and their subsequent need for further training and development courses in order to increase employee satisfaction and performance.

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Enabled by advanced information technologies, the distributed work environment has become a choice of organizations. When employees and supervisors work in geographically separate locations, management challenges emerge. Performance improvement may become an issue. Performance may be improved by identifying, studying, and improving factors that affect work performance. Two factors–feedback and goal setting–were chosen for this study because of the strong evidence of the effects of these components. Positive effects of feedback and goal setting are commonly accepted in the literature concerning the traditional work environment. This study focused only on knowledge work because most work in the distributed work environment may be knowledge work. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of feedback and goal setting on knowledge work performance in the distributed work environment. A laboratory experiment was conducted using 36 student subjects. The experimental design was a 3 X 2 factorial design consisting of three levels of feedback (i.e., no feedback, task feedback, and task feedback with comparisons with others) and two levels of goal setting (i.e., no goal setting and goal setting). Subjects were randomly assigned to various combinations of these two variables. The evidence did not outright support the claim that feedback and goal setting improve task performance; task performance of the subjects was improved only under certain conditions. Task feedback did not improve task performance because of its added pressure, especially in the presence of goals. Task performance was higher for the subjects who received both task feedback and information about others’ performance than for the subjects who received task feedback only. Overall, feedback was not found to improve task performance. The study did not support the hypothesis that specific and difficult goals improve task performance. The added pressure of having difficult goals was found to have demotivating effects. The notion that the co-presence of feedback and goals is necessary to improve task performance was not supported because of the combined pressure that both components created. The subjects who had feedback and/or goals did not perform better than those who had neither feedback nor goals. / Ph. D.

Few studies have examined whether performance feedback on a given task can have implications for motivational processes on an altogether distinct task. The present study proposes and tests a model for motivational spillover in a goal-setting context. Participants (N = 201) were provided with goal-performance discrepancy feedback (GPD) on a creativity task (CT) and were subsequently asked to complete an unrelated stock-predicting task (SPT). Results indicate that GPD feedback on the CTs was positively associated with positive affect such that negative GPDs resulted in low levels of positive affect and positive GPDs resulted in high levels of positive affect. This positive affect was in turn positively related to self-efficacy for the SPT. Self-efficacy was positively associated with personal goals, and goals were positively related to performance on the SPT. These findings provide initial evidence for the occurrence of positive and negative motivational spillover in a natural performance setting. / Ph. D.

Current goal setting studies are working in two directions. The first direction is to identify the cognitive processes of goal setting and the second direction is to examine the moderating effect of task complexity on the goal-performance relationship. The objective of this paper is to integrate the two current directions by examining the moderating effects of two types of task complexity, component complexity and coordinative complexity, on the cognitive processes of goal setting. Two hundred and sixty-seven undergraduates who were taking upper level management courses participated in the study and 226 subjects were included in the final analysis. Subjects performed a stock prices prediction task on computer. Goals were assigned after the subjects have finished the pretest and the subjects were asked to answer questions on their specific self efficacy and performance valence perceptions. Subjects were also asked to set personal goals before performing the test. The cognitive processes models of goal setting for different task groups were compared with the multi-sample analysis of LISREL VII. It was found that subjects who performed the task with low component - low coordinative complexity used a simple motivation mechanism. They motivated their behaviors directly with specific self-efficacy. On the other hand, subjects who performed the more complex tasks used a more rational motivation mechanism that required more cognitive processing. The subjects set personal goals by considering performance valence and specific self efficacy, and they used personal goals to motivate their behaviors. Unlike the simple task for which specific self-efficacy directly affected performance, personal goals were found to mediate the effect of specific self-efficacy on performance for the complex tasks. / Ph. D.

The present study evaluated a brief intervention targeting reduction of heavy drinking in college females. Within the context of this brief intervention outcome study Bandura’s (1986) model of self-regulation was tested. Seventy-six heavy drinking college females (minimum of four drinking occasions during past month with Blood Alcohol Concentration estimated at .08% or greater) participated in the intervention. Subjects participated in brief individual assessment sessions and all subjects were provided with drinking reduction information and strategies. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three goal-setting conditions (no goal; proximal drinking reduction goal, distal drinking reduction goal). Within each of these three goal conditions subjects were randomly assigned to receive feedback on their drinking behavior or to not receive drinking behavior feedback. Subjects were reassessed one month and two months later on measures of drinking behavior and self-regulation variables (commitment to not drinking heavily, efficacy for not drinking heavily and discrepancy/discomfort relative to drinking heavily). Contrary to hypotheses, goal-setting, the provision of feedback, or the combination of goal-setting and feedback was not superior to assessment and information in the reduction of heavy drinking. However, all conditions revealed a significant decrease in drinking across time. Although the self-regulation variables of efficacy and commitment related negatively to future drinking behavior in univariate correlational analyses, the interaction of the self-regulation variables (efficacy, commitment and discrepancy) failed to add to the prediction of future drinking beyond that accounted for by current drinking and the main effects of the self-regulation variables. The theoretically derived hypotheses were not supported by the present study. Procedural and theoretical limitations of self-regulation relative to reduction of heavy drinking in college females, as well as the difficulties involved in changing college student drinking given strong contextual influences are discussed. / Ph. D.

Yes / All successful programmes share goal-setting as a standard practice, and many write their goal statements to satisfy the S.M.A.R.T. criteria. To be SMART, objective statements should be constructed to specify four components: Outcome, Indicator, Target-level and Timeframe (O.I.T.T.). This study reviewed the goal framework of published objective statements to determine the extent to which they are SMART. The statements of 17 published examples of SMART objectives found in literature of mainly four major health organisations: CDC, WHO, NHS and Save the Children, were structurally analysed to measure the completeness of their goal framework according to the OITT components. Only four examples are outcome objectives. 13 (76%) are process or task oriented. The structure of two thirds of the statements shows the similar objective-writing templates used within CDC. All objective statements have an incomplete set of OITT components. The commonest framework has 3 components of indicator, target and timeframe (75% completeness) in 12 statements. Almost all statements specify a timeframe; three-quarter of them mention a target and three-fifth an indicator, but less than 1 in 5 state an outcome. Thus, none of the objective statement is really SMART, and goal-setters are significantly less likely to specify an outcome, than indicator, target or timeframe in their objectives. A high prevalence of non-SMART objectives with low potential for goal attainment in healthcare projects is proposed.

Yes / Goal-setting is fundamental to organisational management, yet not every manager knows how do it well. A narrative literature review was done to explore current knowledge of definitions and classifications of goals, and principles of goal-setting in the health sector. Online databases generated 65 relevant articles. Additional literature sources were snowballed from referenced articles, and textbooks. Most academic authors define ‘goal’ synonymously as ‘aim’ or ‘objective’, but with evidence of hermeneutical confusion in general literature. Goal classifications are diverse, differing according to their contextual, structural, functional and temporal characteristics. Many authors agree that goal-setting is problem-based, change-oriented and can effectively motivate attainment, if the goal statement is formulated with a specific and challenging or SMART framework. However, recent authors report varying defining attributes for SMART, and evidence of past studies that have empirically examined the nature and efficacy of frameworks currently used for formulating goal statements for health programmes is lacking.