The climate in which communication occurs is a result of how employees in an organization perceive and react to such factors as rewards, support, trust, openness, decision making, and leadership. The purpose of this case study is to identify and describe communication climate factors in a health care organization which are negatively influencing employee productivity and morale. A literature review provides information which describes research in areas of health care communication, communication climate, and leadership. A multi-method approach is used to gather information from the twelve employees and the manager of this organization. / Graduation date: 1992

The environment in South Africa has changed dramatically with regard to health services during the past five years especially for state-funded hospitals in the public sector. At the Johannesburg Hospital the admittance of chronic patients has increased considerably over the past five years, thus increasing the workload for the physiotherapists. In spite of the increased workload the staff complement of the Physiotherapy Department has decreased from forty-one to eighteen staff members due to the severe budget constraints. This investigation was initiated to determine whether the department was operating optimally under present conditions, and what the major problem areas were. This document describes the methods used and results obtained during the investigation. Several known techniques such as the brainstorming and nominal group technique were used during the facilitation of workshops. Timesheets were completed over a six-month period and interviews were held with the personnel in the department. The approach followed with the statistical analysis of the timesheets was to use confidence intervals to compare the standard treatment times with the actual treatment times. Hypotheses testing were used to determine whether it would be possible to standardise on similar treatments in different treatment areas. The required capacity was calculated based on the amount of time spent on direct patient care by the physiotherapists during the six-month period of the investigation. Several major issues were identified during the workshops that need to be addressed. Important conclusions drawn were that there was indeed a shortage of staff in the physiotherapy department. It also became clear that standardisation of treatments in different treatment areas is not possible. There is a need for a recognition system and teambuilding exercises, which should have a favourable impact on the motivation of employees. A maintenance plan for equipment needs to be implemented and interdepartmental communication needs to improve. / Dissertation (MEng (Industrial Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Industrial and Systems Engineering / unrestricted

INTRODUCTION The high staff turnover and high rates of absenteeism in health professionals poses an alarming challenge in the Public Health Facilities in the Nkangala Health District of Mpumalanga province. This could lead to the quality of care to patients being compromised. The Human Resource Directorate within the Department of Health has introduced a formal induction and orientation process in the health facilities for new staff which should assist with the retention of staff and enhance their productivity. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of this research study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Human Resource Management unit in implementing the induction and orientation programme for newly appointed health professionals at the Nkangala Health District of Mpumalanga Province. METHODS The study method is quantitative in nature using an observational descriptive design with the minor qualitative component for detailing the quantitative findings. Stratified random sampling was used to select the respondents from the Persal database of 2006-2007. Two hundred and three respondents participated in this study. The Persal database is the human resource database used for managing the personnel records of all permanent employees. A self-administered questionnaire was developed to collect data from the health care professionals at the Thembisile and JS Moroka health facilities in the Nkangala Health District in Mpumalanga. The exposure variable was the implementation of the induction and orientation programme. The outcome variable was the measurement of the effective implementation of the induction and orientation programme. The questionnaire consisted of open- and closed-ended questions covering demographic data and organisational characteristics related to the objectives of the study. The validation of the questionnaire was done in consultation with the Human Resource Development unit of the Nkangala Health District through a pilot study. The data was collected using Microsoft Excel and analysed using SPSS statistical software. RESULTS The data was categorised and interpreted according to the respondents’ views. The findings were presented using categorical variables of medical doctors, allied health professionals, nursing staff and health facility managers. The site questionnaire was based on the Departmental Transformation Unit tool to assess the 6 variables being purpose, empowerment, relationships and communications, flexibility, optimal productivity, recognition and morale relating to the performance of health facilities. MS Excel was used to consolidate the views of the respondents in relation to the implementation of induction and orientation programme which did not benefit the medical doctors and allied health professionals as they were not assigned with mentors. DISCUSSION This study identified the most important interventions and support that newly employed health professionals expected in their career development. The induction and orientation programmes are used interchangeably by the Human Resource Department - hence, there was no formal induction process conducted. The induction and orientation process is not being evaluated to review the programme. The facility managers’ participation in the study assisted with their supportive roles in the career development of the health professionals. CONCLUSION It is hoped that the findings of this study will be of benefit to the Health Professionals in the Department of Health, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. In addition, the study assessed the Management of Career Development programme which is used by the Department of Health in Mpumalanga Province to strengthen the induction and orientation programme of health professionals. / Thesis (M.Med.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

Globally, there is a shortage of professional nurses, which compromises the rendering of Health Care performance worldwide. South Africa has the added challenge of a dual Health Care system where there is a large disparity in financial resources, service levels and workload between private and public hospitals, which leads to public hospitals in rural areas failing to attract and retain professional nurses. The purpose of this study is to determine the relationships between three variables from the Positive Organisational Scholarship paradigm namely Workplace Trust, Organisational Citizenship Behaviour and Workplace Well-being which is researched amongst professional nurses in the private and public sectors in both the rural and urban areas in two districts in the Eastern Cape Province. The ultimate aim of the study is to propose interventions of how hospitals can improve the work environment in order to attract and to retain professional nurses. It is also anticipated that the results of the research will contribute to the body of research about Positive Organisational Scholarship (POS). The Workplace Trust Survey (WTS), Organisational Citizenship Level Scale (OCLS) and the Workplace Well-being Questionnaire (WWQ) were integrated into a single selfadministered questionnaire to measure the existence of the variables. The questionnaire also included questions relating to demographic factors. In order to confirm the reliability of the measuring instruments, an Exploratory Analysis was done, a Scree test was applied and a Principal Axis Factor Analysis was conducted. Finally, an Item-reliability Analysis on each factor was administered. The WTS and WWQ revealed sound factorial validity and was considered to be compatible with a South African sample, but the OCLS indicated poor construct validity. Relationships between the variables were analysed by applying a Pearson Productmoment Correlation Analysis in SPSS. T-tests, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and the Tukey HSD test was utilized to determine the potential influence of demographic characteristics on the variables. Several interesting relationships between variables and sub-variables were identified. The study concludes with proposed interventions needed to retain professional nurses in hospitals. The limitations of the study as well as recommendations for further research is briefly noted.

The problem of this study was the identification of ways and means of reducing paraprofessional turnover in mental health and mental retardation facilities. The high turnover rate of mental health and mental retardation paraprofessionals has major implications for the quality and cost of client services. Several researchers have suggested that adequately trained supervisors can influence the turnover rate among employees as well as their motivation and production. A six-month study of the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation released in March, 1980 by a blue ribbon audit team blamed bad management practices, not low pay and poor working conditions, for the high rate of employee turnover. However, few studies have investigated the effect of supervisory training on turnover and researchers have called for additional studies in the area. The purpose of this study was to employ two specific intervention techniques with supervisory personnel in order to determine their effectiveness in reducing the rate of paraprofessional employee turnover in mental health and mental retardation facilities.