The condition of the high-tech industry changes rapidly and the competition of the globe becomes sharp, we truly believe that the R&D professionals¡¦ innovation and technology will be the key factor of the business¡¦ expansion. To understand the R&D professionals¡¦ characteristic and requirement and to provide enough attraction to attract and retain them is the important topic in HRM. This study focuses on the relationship with motivation, job satisfaction, family support, intention to stay and professional commitment. The survey adopted questionnaire as investigating method, and a total of 480 questionnaires are delivered to the high-tech R&D professionals. 304 of them are valid, so the response rate is 63.3%. The survey responses were analyzed by the Spss statistical software. The findings are summarized as follows: 1.The motivation factor that the R&D professionals respect most is enjoyment, and they care less about the compensation. Generally speaking they are satisfied with their job, intrinsic satisfaction especially. In the all factors of the motivation, challenge, enjoyment, and outward positive correlated with job satisfaction. All of them can improve the job satisfaction, but compensation negative with the job satisfaction. 2.A significant positive correlation was identified between job satisfaction and intention to stay. 3.A significant positive correlation was identified between job satisfaction and professional commitment. 4.Job satisfaction was found to have full mediating effect between motivation factor and intention to stay. 5.Job satisfaction was found to have partial mediating effect between motivation factor and professional commitment. 6.Family support was found to have significant moderating effect between job satisfaction and intention to stay. In the moderating effect, family support in higher-grades groups influenced intention to stay more significantly than lower-grades groups. 7.Family support was found to have no moderating effect between job satisfaction and professional commitment.

Education in South Africa plays an important role in the economy and in the future of the people of our country. There is a major shortage of suitably qualified teachers, not only in South Africa but worldwide. Other problems that exist within the teaching profession are teacher strikes, large number of learners in classes, violence, depression, anxiety, to name a few. Many teachers leave the profession as they are faced with all these different problems. It is therefore necessary to recruit and retain qualified teachers. Some teachers find pleasure from all these stressors and they can be described as engaged in their work. Hence, a shift towards a positive psychology mind-set is needed for teachers to stay in the teaching profession. Social support can be regarded as a positive mechanism between co-workers to show concern for each other's fee lings and to encourage good work performance. Social support is therefore a key factor in retaining teachers. The psychological conditions (psychological meaningfulness, psychological safety and psychological availability) are included in this study to examine how teachers experience themselves at the school and how psychological conditions influence their work engagement. The more social support colleagues receive, and the more engaged they are in their work, the more likely they are to stay in the profession. The general objective of this study was to investigate teachers' intention to stay in the teaching profession. A cross-sectional survey design was used in this study. A quantitative approach was followed by selecting a convenience sample of participants (N=233) in the Gauteng East di strict. The measuring instruments that were administered include the Work Experiences Scale and the Work Engagement Scale (May, Gilson & Harter, 2004), and the Intention to Stay Scale (Mayfield & Mayfield, 2007). The statistical analysis was carried out by using the SPSS programme (SPSS, 2009). Statistically significant relationships were found between social support, psychological conditions, work engagement and intention to stay. The results confirmed that social support and work engagement were significant predictors of intention to stay. The relationship between social support and work engagement was mediated by psychological conditions. Some of the recommendations include that schools should implement formal or informal support groups to maintain productivity as well as to create an environment that is safe. These support groups will make teachers more available to each other in order to discuss different challenges and initiatives. Regarding the recommendations for future research it came about that qualitative research would show the potential to identify vital factors that have not been recognised by this study where only certain questionnaires were used to find data amongst teachers. To conclude, this study suggests that social support and work engagement are vital constructs to consider when conducting research on the intention to stay of employees, and that psychological conditions plays a role in the relationship between social support and work engagement. Therefore, these dimensions also seem to have an influence on teachers' work and their intention to stay in the teaching profession. / M.Com, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2011

Students’ intention to stay within the higher education system is decreasing by the year, and even though more students are enrolling at universities annually, the percentage of students completing their studies is not satisfactory. The low completion rate is a concern not only in South Africa, but worldwide. Trends are identified as to why students do not complete their studies. This study seeks to focus on perceived social support, the students’ academic fit, the psychological conditions of meaningfulness and availability as well as the students’ engagement levels, and then to investigate if these constructs will influence their intention to stay. The proposed engagement model of May, Gilson, and Harter (2004) originally designed by George Kahn (1990), was used to determine whether social support and academic fit correlates positively with the psychological conditions, which may lead to engagement and increase a student’s intention to stay. A quantitative research design was used to investigate the universal challenge at hand, and it was descriptive in nature in order to gather specific information from the first-year students. A crossectional design was used. The research method consists of a literature review and an empirical study, presented in one research article. A convenience sample was used, and a total of 304 students completed the questionnaires. These questionnaires were based on the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, the Psychological Conditions Scale, Academic Fit Scale, the Work Engagement Scale and the Intent to Leave Scale. Structural equation modelling methods were used, and implemented in AMOS to test the measurement and structural models. The fit-indices used to test if the model fit the data included the absolute fit indices such as Chi-square statistic, the Standardized Root Mean Residual (SRMR), and the Root-Means-Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA). The incremental fit indices which were used included the Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) and the Comparative Fit Index. It was found that social support did not have an impact on the psychological conditions of meaningfulness and availability, but it had a direct and indirect (via academic fit) effect on intention to stay. This implies that the amount of support students receive has an influence on their intention to stay, and also increased their sense of belonging in their field of study. Academic fit was positively associated with the psychological conditions of meaning and availability, which means that if the student’s personality and field of study is aligned the student will feel that the course is meaningful to him, and he will invest more energy in his studies. Academic fit had direct effects on students’ intention to stay, which means that students who feel they belong in their field of study will also be more likely to stay at the educational institution. It was also found that if students experience a sense of psychological meaningfulness and availability they will be more engaged in their studies, which impact their intention to stay / MCom, Industrial Psychology, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2012

The study applied for a social network analysis tool and HLM method to analysis cross level dataset which will specify an integrated ¡¥meso¡¦ framework of linking diversified relationships and employees¡¦ attitudes and behavior within the work group settings. The effective sample size of this study collected by whole completed survey involved 317 employees within 26 different workgroups representing diversified industries in Taiwan. This study provided evidence that density of informal development network (informal network, advice network, and mentoring network) are related to both employees¡¦ intention to stay and individual job performance. As hypothesized, both In-degree centrality of advice network was positively related to individual job performance. Perceived career success was positively related to in-degree centrality of advice network. In-degree centrality of friendship network was negatively related to intention to stay. Furthermore, Density of mentoring network will be positively related to intention to stay and individual job performance. Density of advice network was related negatively to individual job performance and density of friendship was related positively to individual job performance. The effect of in-degree centrality of advice network on individual job performance will be partially mediated by mediating variable - perceived career success as well as the effect of in-degree centrality of friendship network will be partially mediated by mediating variable - perceived career success.

Abstract After the Mainland China¡¦s opening policy, more and more enterprises invested in this giant business market, which is full of adventures and opportunities . In earlier days, only few people wanted to be assigned for working in Mainland China. Nowadays, much more people volunteer to develop their careers in Mainland China for a longer period. The thesis is trying to study the expartiate¡¦s personal characters, career orientations, expatriate motivation and expatriate adjustment, and further understanding the impacts of these four facters on the intention to stay in Mainland China. The results of this study indicate that: 1.The more voluntary expatriate have to work in Mainland China, the higher intention expatriate have to stay in Mainland China. 2.The expatriates who live with their families will have higher intention to stay in Mainland China. 3.People whose career orientation indicates ¡§getting ahead¡¨ have positive correlation with the expatriate motivations, which indicate self-fulfilling, self-esteem and security. The ¡§getting secure¡¨ people have negative correlation with the self- fulfilling motivation. 4.People whose personal characters indicate high ¡§interpersonal skills¡¨ will positively affect the expatriates¡¦ ¡§getting high¡¨ and ¡§getting ahead¡¨ career orientations, but negatively affect¡§getting balance¡¨ career orientation. Expatriates¡¦ high ¡§ability of conflict solving¡¨ will negaitively influent the ¡§getting ahead¡¨ career orientation. Furthermore obvious, their highly ¡§optimistic tendency¡¨ will negaitively influent the ¡§getting secure¡¨ career orientation. 5.People whose personal characters indicate high ¡§interpersonal skills¡¨, ¡¨ability of culture adjustment and ¡§optimistic tendency¡¨ will positively influent the expatriate whose expatriate motivation indicates ¡§self-actualization¡¨.Their high ¡§ability of conflict solvingl¡¨ will negaitively affect the ¡§secure¡¨ expatriate motivation. Expatriates¡¦ high ¡§ambiguous tolerance¡¨ will negaitively influent their ¡§social¡¨ expatriate motivation 6.People whose career orientation indicates ¡§getting free¡¨ have negaitive impact on their intention to stay in Mainland China. 7.People whose expatriate motivation are showing ¡§self- actualization¡¨ and ¡§social¡¨ have positively influence to their intention to stay in Mainland China. 8. People whose personal characters are showing high ¡¨ability of culture adjustment and interpersonal skills¡¨ positively influenceing their intention to stay in Mainland China. The expatriate¡¦ adjustment is a mediating factor between personal characters and the intention to stay in Mainland China.

People are always the most precious assets and very hard to be replaced in the enterprises. Therefore, how to retain talented and experienced auditors and keep them in accounting firms is a very important issue that every accounting firm has to face. In this study, we want to understand: (1) If different auditors in accounting firms have influence on career orientation, achievement motivation, job satisfaction and their intention to stay. (2) Whether the career orientation, achievement motivation and job satisfaction of auditors in accounting firms affect their intention to stay. (3) To use job satisfaction as a mediator, analyze if achievement motivation passes through job satisfaction and then affects auditor¡¦s intention to stay. The results show that auditors with higher degrees of achievement motivation have higher degrees of job satisfaction. And if auditors with higher degrees of job satisfaction, their intentions to stay in accounting firms will also be stronger. Therefore, if accounting firms want to keep auditors to stay in accounting firms, first of all, they should recruit employees with higher degrees of achievement motivation. Then, they should try to increase auditors¡¦ degrees of job satisfaction. If these things can be done, auditors¡¦ intention to stay in accounting firms will be higher. If accounting firms can completely understand this point and try to raise auditors¡¦ welfares and improve their working environments, this study believes that auditors are willing to stay in the accounting firms and try their best to do their jobs.

Education in South Africa plays an important role in the economy and in the future of the people of our country. There is a major shortage of suitably qualified teachers, not only in South Africa but worldwide. Other problems that exist within the teaching profession are teacher strikes, large number of learners in classes, violence, depression, anxiety, to name a few. Many teachers leave the profession as they are faced with all these different problems. It is therefore necessary to recruit and retain qualified teachers. Some teachers find pleasure from all these stressors and they can be described as engaged in their work. Hence, a shift towards a positive psychology mind-set is needed for teachers to stay in the teaching profession. Social support can be regarded as a positive mechanism between co-workers to show concern for each other's fee lings and to encourage good work performance. Social support is therefore a key factor in retaining teachers. The psychological conditions (psychological meaningfulness, psychological safety and psychological availability) are included in this study to examine how teachers experience themselves at the school and how psychological conditions influence their work engagement. The more social support colleagues receive, and the more engaged they are in their work, the more likely they are to stay in the profession. The general objective of this study was to investigate teachers' intention to stay in the teaching profession. A cross-sectional survey design was used in this study. A quantitative approach was followed by selecting a convenience sample of participants (N=233) in the Gauteng East di strict. The measuring instruments that were administered include the Work Experiences Scale and the Work Engagement Scale (May, Gilson & Harter, 2004), and the Intention to Stay Scale (Mayfield & Mayfield, 2007). The statistical analysis was carried out by using the SPSS programme (SPSS, 2009). Statistically significant relationships were found between social support, psychological conditions, work engagement and intention to stay. The results confirmed that social support and work engagement were significant predictors of intention to stay. The relationship between social support and work engagement was mediated by psychological conditions. Some of the recommendations include that schools should implement formal or informal support groups to maintain productivity as well as to create an environment that is safe. These support groups will make teachers more available to each other in order to discuss different challenges and initiatives. Regarding the recommendations for future research it came about that qualitative research would show the potential to identify vital factors that have not been recognised by this study where only certain questionnaires were used to find data amongst teachers. To conclude, this study suggests that social support and work engagement are vital constructs to consider when conducting research on the intention to stay of employees, and that psychological conditions plays a role in the relationship between social support and work engagement. Therefore, these dimensions also seem to have an influence on teachers' work and their intention to stay in the teaching profession. / M.Com, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2011

Students’ intention to stay within the higher education system is decreasing by the year, and even though more students are enrolling at universities annually, the percentage of students completing their studies is not satisfactory. The low completion rate is a concern not only in South Africa, but worldwide. Trends are identified as to why students do not complete their studies. This study seeks to focus on perceived social support, the students’ academic fit, the psychological conditions of meaningfulness and availability as well as the students’ engagement levels, and then to investigate if these constructs will influence their intention to stay. The proposed engagement model of May, Gilson, and Harter (2004) originally designed by George Kahn (1990), was used to determine whether social support and academic fit correlates positively with the psychological conditions, which may lead to engagement and increase a student’s intention to stay. A quantitative research design was used to investigate the universal challenge at hand, and it was descriptive in nature in order to gather specific information from the first-year students. A crossectional design was used. The research method consists of a literature review and an empirical study, presented in one research article. A convenience sample was used, and a total of 304 students completed the questionnaires. These questionnaires were based on the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, the Psychological Conditions Scale, Academic Fit Scale, the Work Engagement Scale and the Intent to Leave Scale. Structural equation modelling methods were used, and implemented in AMOS to test the measurement and structural models. The fit-indices used to test if the model fit the data included the absolute fit indices such as Chi-square statistic, the Standardized Root Mean Residual (SRMR), and the Root-Means-Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA). The incremental fit indices which were used included the Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) and the Comparative Fit Index. It was found that social support did not have an impact on the psychological conditions of meaningfulness and availability, but it had a direct and indirect (via academic fit) effect on intention to stay. This implies that the amount of support students receive has an influence on their intention to stay, and also increased their sense of belonging in their field of study. Academic fit was positively associated with the psychological conditions of meaning and availability, which means that if the student’s personality and field of study is aligned the student will feel that the course is meaningful to him, and he will invest more energy in his studies. Academic fit had direct effects on students’ intention to stay, which means that students who feel they belong in their field of study will also be more likely to stay at the educational institution. It was also found that if students experience a sense of psychological meaningfulness and availability they will be more engaged in their studies, which impact their intention to stay / MCom, Industrial Psychology, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2012

Organisations of today demand efficiency, rationality and personal sacrifice to achieve company goals and profit margins. The integral part that leader relations play in organisations is becoming more evident in the current economic climate. It is therefore vital that organisations focus on good relations in order to achieve engagement, resulting in lower levels of turnover intention. Organisations can be viewed as positive when leaders focus on the importance of people to enhance performance and employee wellness. The general objective of this study was to determine the relationship between leader member-exchange, role clarity, psychological empowerment, engagement and turnover intention. A specific financial institution within the Gauteng province was selected and regional managers, branch managers and consultants participated in the research. A cross-sectional survey design was used to collect data. The Leader-Member Exchange questionnaire, Role Conflict and Ambiguity Questionnaire, Measuring Empowerment Questionnaire, Engagement Questionnaire and Intention to- leave Scale were administered. Statistical analysis was carried out by means of SPSS and AMOS. Factor analysis indicated a one factor structure for LMX7, MRCAQ, WEQ, TIS and a four factors structure for MEQ. The scales all showed acceptable reliabilities. The results showed that LMX, role clarity, psychological empowerment, work engagement, and turnover intention were related. Role clarity mediated the relationship between LMX and psychological empowerment, while psychological empowerment mediated the relationship between role clarity and work engagement as well as turnover intention. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2011

Organisations of today demand efficiency, rationality and personal sacrifice to achieve company goals and profit margins. The integral part that leader relations play in organisations is becoming more evident in the current economic climate. It is therefore vital that organisations focus on good relations in order to achieve engagement, resulting in lower levels of turnover intention. Organisations can be viewed as positive when leaders focus on the importance of people to enhance performance and employee wellness. The general objective of this study was to determine the relationship between leader member-exchange, role clarity, psychological empowerment, engagement and turnover intention. A specific financial institution within the Gauteng province was selected and regional managers, branch managers and consultants participated in the research. A cross-sectional survey design was used to collect data. The Leader-Member Exchange questionnaire, Role Conflict and Ambiguity Questionnaire, Measuring Empowerment Questionnaire, Engagement Questionnaire and Intention to- leave Scale were administered. Statistical analysis was carried out by means of SPSS and AMOS. Factor analysis indicated a one factor structure for LMX7, MRCAQ, WEQ, TIS and a four factors structure for MEQ. The scales all showed acceptable reliabilities. The results showed that LMX, role clarity, psychological empowerment, work engagement, and turnover intention were related. Role clarity mediated the relationship between LMX and psychological empowerment, while psychological empowerment mediated the relationship between role clarity and work engagement as well as turnover intention. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2011