Recruitment strategies to promote gender diversity and equality seek to attract job applicants based on their sex. Individuals differ in terms of what they find attractive in jobs, called job attribute preferences (JAPs), and these preferences may vary according to sex. Job attribute preferences can include, for example, pay, type of work or flexible hours. Previous studies investigating differences in JAPs using biological sex as comparison variable have, however, provided contradictory findings. The focal research question of this study therefore investigates whether men and women, according to their biological sex, express different JAPs. Furthermore, this study interrogates the use of biological sex as the measured variable to differentiate applicants. Using gender self-schema theory, this study incorporates gender self identification as an additional operationalisation for sex. Gender self-identification is used to determine firstly, whether an individual's biological sex and gender self-identification align (measured using Bem's Sex Role Inventory (BSRI)). Secondly, this study investigates differences in JAPs using gender self-identification rather than biological sex to compare and contrast findings. In this cross-sectional study, a non-probability convenience sampling approach was used to survey 413 respondents across both a student and a field sample. Findings indicate that there were few significant differences in JAPs between men and women using biological sex. Moreover, interestingly, participants' gender self-identification (as per the BSRI) only partially aligned with their biological sex. Finally, JAPs found to be significantly different between males and females increased when gender self-identification was used as the variable to measure sex. These findings are useful for recruitment and selection as they reveal that job attributes could be more gender specific than found in past studies. The finding that gender self-identification did not align with biological sex is important as it challenges the conceptualisation of biological sex as a demographic variable. Furthermore, the results challenge findings from past studies on the link between JAPs and sex. The results suggest that gender, rather than biological sex, should be used – or at least interrogated further - in future research.

Bibliography: leaves 224-256. / For the purpose of this study, two criteria were utilised to identify a person as being unemployed: someone who is part of the economically active population by virtue of his or her age; but does not fully participate in the formal economic sector. It could be argued that such a definition of unemployment is far too broad, and would include the entire informal economy. But, firstly, this is a psychological study, and so it could be argued that a recognition criterion is appropriate. That is, psychologically speaking, if an individual perceives him or herself to be unemployed, but does not meet all the economic criteria to be defined as such, the case merits exploration, since his or her self-identification with the unemployed could lead to the same psychological response as that of the economically defined unemployed person. Consequently, more economically precise definitions, though informative, are not vital for this study. Secondly, as will be explained later, this study is exploratory in nature, examining the coping patterns of the unemployed. A broader definition would provide a larger research domain which could then include more unusual experiences of unemployment. These unusual cases may provide insights into how less effective copers could learn to cope more effectively with unemployment. This is the rationale for including some individuals who are involved in the informal economy. Someone employed on a regular, virtually full-time basis in the informal economy is more employed than unemployed and it would be difficult to justify his or her inclusion in an unemployed sample. On the other hand, those individuals who are active in the informal economy on an irregular, part-time basis, or on a small scale, and use this activity as a means of trying to cope with unemployment, could be included in such a sample. On the basis of regularity of payment by "employer", number of hours worked per day, and number of days worked per week, cut-off points were established to determine who in the informal economy would be included in this study. A series of questions were asked at the start of an interview, to establish that a prospective interviewee met certain criteria before being included in the sample.

Bibliography: leaves 160-183. / The purpose of this research was to examine whether transformational and transactional leadership would be identifiable amongst a diverse sample of HR specialists. Furthermore, the effects of these leadership styles on subordinates' perceptions, viz., willingness to exert extra effort, satisfaction with the leader and leadership effectiveness, and subordinates' performance ratings were investigated. Both self and subordinate ratings of leadership were obtained (n = 330) in order to overcome single-rater error and enhance rater accuracy. Self-rating and rater forms of Bass and Avolio's (1990b) MLQ (Form 5) were used to collect leadership data. The results of principal components factor analyses partially supported the factor structure identified in previous research. However, the four component factors comprising transformational leadership did not emerge. Descriptive analyses of composite leader and subordinate ratings showed that transformational leadership was more prevalent amongst HR specialists than transactional leadership. As found in previous research, self-ratings were inflated relative to subordinate ratings. Transformational factors of charisma, inspiration, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration were found to be significantly and positively correlated with the perceptual outcomes, as was the transactional factor of contingent reward. No similar relatedness was found between the transactional factor of management-by-exception and these outcomes. Nonleadership, or laissezfaire leadership, was found to be negatively correlated with all these measures. Charisma and contingent reward were found to be significantly related to subordinates' performance ratings in a positive direction.

The study investigated the job involvement of a sample of 125 graduate engineers in South Africa. In particular, whether gender differences existed in the level of job involvement, as well as in the factors influencing job involvement (N = 68 males; N = 57 females). The specific factors investigated were biographic variables and career anchors. The method used was the analytical survey method; three questionnaires were administered. These were: the Lodahl and Kejner (1965) Job Involvement Scale, Schein's (1982) Career Anchor Inventory and a biographic questionnaire. Questionnaires were sent to all female engineers who are registered with one of the professional engineering institutes, while the male sample was drawn from a variety of sources. Intercorrelation coefficients were calculated for all variables. Analyses of variance were performed to test for significant differences amongst male and females with respect to the variables and relationships measured and a stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to identify predictors of job involvement by career anchors. No gender differences in level of job involvement were found. However, significant gender differences were found in the relative strength of four out of the nine career anchors measured. Social conditioning and expectations were proposed as the reasons for this. Further, significant differences were found with respect to the degree to which career anchors are related to job involvement for males and females. Contrary to conventional wisdom, being married and having children did not affect the job involvement of female engineers, while married men were more job involved than unmarried men. The study did not contribute greatly to the understanding of the dynamics of female job involvement, inasmuch as career anchors were found to explain only 8, 8% of the variance in job involvement scores. In contrast, career anchors were found to be significant predictors of job involvement for males. (38,8% of the variance explained). Implications of the results are discussed in terms of the alleviation of the skills shortage and organisational strategies such as the development of technical or specialist career ladders, job design and career counselling and career management skills for both males and females, are proposed. Further areas for research, especially into the dynamics of female job involvement, are suggested.

Bibliography: pages 95-99. / The aim of this study was to determine the value of individual job evaluation factors as predictors of the total value of jobs to develop an abbreviated job evaluation scale in a large assurer in South Africa. This would enable the streamlining of the' organization's existing internally developed job evaluation system. A total of thirteen jobs, evaluated by three raters at two committee meetings were analyzed using Kendall's coefficient of concordance (W} and Pearson's product-moment coefficient of correlation (r) to determine interrater reliability. A total sample of 282 jobs at middle management was drawn from the organization's bank of 1200 job evaluation records and 188 jobs were analyzed. Firstly the intensity of the correlation between the individual factor scores and total job scores was measured and, using the Pearson product-moment coefficient .of correlation (r) it was found to be significant. Secondly, factor analysis determined three underlying factors in the system, Effort, Skill and Responsibility, which were used to form the basis for building a prediction model. Thirdly, stepwise regression, performed to determine at which point the addition of extra individual factor scores would not produce a significant difference to the coefficient of determination (R2 ), isolated Competence, Decision level and Interaction as optimum combination. Using multiple linear regression and the aspects, identified above, total job scores were predicted using the balance of the sample of 94 jobs.

The main objective of this research was to determine whether functional units (departments) in an industrial organization differed significantly with respect to their experience of the organizational climate. Two approaches to organizational theory were drawn from, namely, the systems and contingency approaches. Both emphasize the importance of the task environment and the need for the organization to adapt to its task environment. Systems theorists, Katz and Kahn (1978), have identified a number of organizational components or subsystems which enable the organization to function efficiently. Each component has a fairly specialized function; each develops a distinctive nucleus of operating procedures and values. Contingency theorists, Lawrence and Lorsch (1967, 1969), stated that different parts of the organization face different environments. Organizations therefore tend to become internally segmented into functional units. Organizational climate was highlighted as the general notion specifying the organizational identity or self-awareness of the organization; however, it may vary within the organization from work group to work group. The total number of 54 white employees in four units: marketing, personnel/public affairs, finance and production, at all levels - general employees, supervisory/foremen, middle management, senior management - completed a measure of their perceptions of the organizational climate of their individual units. The Organizational Climate Index for Profit Organizations developed by De Cock, Bouwen, de Witte and de Visch (1984), was used. The scale requires a forced choice on a scale with a scoring pattern of 4,3,2,1. Total scores on each of the 6 climate scales, grouped into 20 subscales, were obtained for each functional unit. One-way analysis of variance (the Kruskal-Wallis Test) was used for assessing the significance of differences between the four units on the different climate subscales. The results of the study supported the hypothesis that had been formulated. It was concluded that significant differences exist between the functional units marketing, personnel/public affairs, finance and production of the industrial organization concerned, with respect to the climate dimensions. It was concluded that, in order to achieve maximum integration between functional units and their members in an organization, business will need to concern itself with the differences in expression of human behaviour and motivation in units.

Bibliography: leaves 70-73 / Lateral thinking has become an important topic in business and one of the apparent solutions to the dilemma of acquiring more creativity in the organisation has been to train employees in lateral thinking. This study had three objectives. To determine whether delegates attending lateral thinking training acquired more lateral thinking skills and knowledge than those without this training. To determine whether lateral thinking training impacted on style of thinking and to determine whether preferred styles of thinking facilitated the acquisition of lateral thinking skills. An experimental group was trained in lateral thinking. Subjects were tested on their lateral thinking skills before and after training. Subjects were also tested to assess their cognitive style before training and six months thereafter. A control group was tested in a similar fashion.

Bibliography : leaves 114-125. / This research explored the relationship between role innovation and the perceived employee-organisational relationship. Role innovation is an inclusive perspective of individual innovation in the workplace. The design incorporated an qualitative preliminary phase and a quantitative survey format as suited to the exploratory nature of the research. The exploratory component elicited detailed information from eight R&D professionals. It focused on the construct of role innovation so as to ensure that the constructs and assessment methods were relevant and meaningful for the sample population. The sample of the subsequent survey research consisted of mid level (N = 51) employees from the administration, production and research and development departments of an electrical manufacturing firm in the Western Cape, South Africa. In the questionnaire role innovation was measured using Janssen's (2000) nine item scale of role innovation, which incorporates separate sub-scales for idea generation, idea promotion and idea realisation. The perceived employee-organisation relationship (PEOR) was assessed according to six factors; three forms of organisational commitment affective, continuance and normative as measured by Meyer, Allen and Smith's (1993) item scale, value congruence (measured using McDonald and Gantz's (1992) comparative values scale), perceived supervisory support (measured using the scale developed by Oldham and Cummins (1996) and perceived organisational support (measured using the Perceived Organisational Support Scale as developed by Eisenburger (2001)). The constructs of intrinsic motivation was incorporated as a moderating factor given the strong evidence of its influence on individual innovation. This was assessed using the Intrinsic/Extrisic Motivation Scale as developed by Amabile, Conti, Coon, Lazenby and Herron (1996). Few significant relationships were found, however those indicated through correlation proved statistically robust through ANOVA, regression analysis and the Kruder-Wallis test for non- parametric means. The role innovation instrument proved reliable for the South African sample, however the sub-scales of idea promotion and idea realisation were combined following strategic factor analysis. The most important finding was a negative relationship between normative commitment and role innovation (idea generation). A positive relationship was also found between intrinsic motivation and role innovation (idea generation and idea promotion and realisation). Subsequent discussion focused on the important of contextual factors as external variables moderating the importance of the PEOR factors in predicting role innovation. The primary limitations of this research are the lack of causal direction and the sample size, which limited the sophistication of the statistical analysis. The findings indicate promise for future innovation research linking affective variables with individual actions.

This study identified the trending domains and content themes found in the South African Journal of Industrial Psychology (SAJIP) from 2014 to 2017. These trends were then compared with those in the South African Journal of Human Resource Management (SAJHRM), Deloitte Human Capital Trends Reports, and related Google search data over the same period. This was done through a content analysis, documenting the frequencies and percentages of HPCSA domains and content themes that are present in each of the four sources, including across 218 studies in the two academic journals. Results revealed that while there were similar trends found in the SAJIP and SAJHRM, when these are compared to the Deloitte Human Capital Trends report and Google Trends results, it is concluded that much of the I-O Psychology research does not address the concerns of those operating as practitioners. The insights gathered through the study suggest that further efforts are required to understand and align research in the South African Journal of Industrial Psychology to the concerns of HR practitioners in South Africa.

Bibliography: leaves 108-129. / In the currently competitive business environment, organisations are placing an everincreasing emphasis on their employees as a source of competitive advantage. It is believed that they possess a level of skills, knowledge, attitudes or behaviours upon which the organisation can draw as it grows and develops. Paradoxically, employees cannot always sustain the competencies that dictate an organisation's success in the contemporary work environment due to the significant levels of change that exist. This research explores sustainability of behaviour in an organisational setting, and develops a conceptual framework for understanding this phenomenon. The research follows an exploratory, qualitative design. Data was collected through in-depth and semi-structured interviews with fourteen employees in a large financial services organisation in the Western Cape. The data was analysed using techniques of analysis provided by grounded theory. Results indicate a multi-dimensional relationship between certain causal conditions, intervening conditions, contextual conditions and action/interaction strategies which all influence whether or not behaviour is sustained in the workplace. These findings have implications for human resource practices in the contemporary organisation.