Gold mining in South Africa has played a significant role in the economic development of the country over the past 120 years. The continued focus on productivity, recruitment and consolidation in the South African gold mining industry will result in a decline in production. Much of the decline can be attributed to natural attrition as the industry has moved from a mass employer of limited, contract, unskilled labour, to an employer of more permanent, mostly semi-skilled or skilled labour. The objective of this research was to investigate the reliability of measuring instruments of social support, role overload (qualitative and quantitative), job satisfaction and turnover intention for employees in the mining industry. Further objectives included empirically determining whether social support has a moderating effect on the relation between role overload and job satisfaction and turnover intention. A cross-sectional survey design was used. A random sample was taken from a South African mining company (N=250). Gender and age were included as control variables. Individuals on Paterson grading E band to C Upper (managers) were part of the sample. Five measuring instruments were administrated. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. The results obtained for the five scales proved the measuring instruments to be reliable. The results show that when an employee feels that his/her work is more than he/she can accomplish in the time available (quantitative role overload), the employee will most probably also feel that his/her work requires skills, abilities and knowledge beyond that of their own (qualitative role overload). It is also indicated that social support from the supervisor increases the employee's positive attitude or pleasurable emotional state towards his/her job or job experience (job satisfaction), as well as heightens the probability of social support from colleagues. Furthermore, the more positive the employee's attitude towards the job, the less the intention to stop working will be (turnover intention). This intention to stop working will also be less when social support from the supervisor is more and/or when the employee experiences less feelings that his/her work is more than he/she can accomplish in the time available. Turnover intention was predicted by social support from supervisor. Job satisfaction was predicted by role overload (quantitative) and social support from supervisor. By way of conclusion, recommendations for future research are made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

The present era in South Africa is one that is marked by substantial change due to unparalleled advancement in the field of technology, globalisation and competitive markets. These changes have placed new demands on the education sector in South Africa, especially further education. In 2000/1 South Africa's Further Education and Training (FET) sector has been rejuvenated through a process of transformation when 152 former Technical Colleges and Colleges of Education merged to form 50 multi-campus FET Colleges. The rationale behind this merging process is to curb the serious skills shortage which is threatening economic growth in this country through offering vocational education and training; and to raise quality in the education sector. This re-engineering process in education is founded on principles of equity, human rights, democracy and sustainable development. Change, however, is also about people and their ideas, fears, capacity and ability to stand and work together towards a more prosperous future for all. Transformation or change such as with mergers is dependent on employees' total commitment towards realising the organisation's objectives. High levels of organisational commitment tend to encourage loyalty, higher levels of productiveness and general job satisfaction. For change initiatives to be successful though, communication across all hierarchical levels is of the utmost importance. Management is expected to provide employees with just treatment, provide acceptable working conditions, clearly communicate what is regarded as a fair day's work, and give feedback on how well the employee is doing. Employees, in return, are expected to clearly show a good attitude, follow directions and be loyal towards x the organisation. The psychological contract is utilised to investigate the scope of change in an employment relationship. The psychological contract is a contract setting out mutual expectations between employer and employee - a contract that forms the backbone of any new relationship such as with a merger. The researcher makes use of the psychological contract (by utilising the Tilburgse Psychologisch Contract Vragenlijst (TPC)) to explain employer obligations; violation of employer obligations; employee obligations; relational/transactional contract values; commitment; intention to leave; and change perceptions. Should either employment party not fulfill its contractual terms in any way, the psychological contract will be breached or violated and the employee might attempt to balance the situation by reducing his or her job efforts, badmouthing the organisation, resorting to absenteeism or even petty theft. The worst case scenario in this destructive process is that the employee might leave the organisation. The purpose of this research study is to determine the effect (if any) that the mergers might have had on the psychological- and employment contracts in the four FET Colleges that have remained in the Free State Province. A cross-sectional survey design was used to reach the objective of this research and an English translation of the aforementioned questionnaire (TPC) was randomly distributed amongst the total population of 375 employees at the Free State FET Colleges involved in this study. A response rate of 53% (n = 200) was achieved. Results from other authors who have used the TPC Questionnaire in their research offer support for the validity and reliability of the scales used. The statistical analysis was carried out with the SPSS program (SPSS, 2006), a program that is used to conduct statistical analysis regarding reliability and validity of the measuring instruments, descriptive statistics, t-tests, analysis of variance, correlation coefficients and multiple regression analysis. XI In Article 1 the researcher focused on the effect of mergers with regard to the influence of communication on the psychological contract as a possible factor affecting the intention to qUit. A multiple regression analysis (with intention to quit as dependent variable; and employer obligations, employee obligations, and communication as independent variables) was performed and 22.2% of the variance in intention to quit is predicted by communication and employee obligations (F = 28.07, p< 0.01). A practically significant correlation coefficient (p < 0.01) of a medium effect (r > 0.30) exists between communication and relational/transactional values and between communication and intention to quit. In Article 2 the effect of mergers, workplace changes and the violation of employer obligations on the psychological contract were evaluated, with special reference to job satisfaction and organisational commitment. In the above article a practically significant correlation coefficient (p < 0.01) of a medium effect (r> 0.30) was found between • change and job satisfaction; • job satisfaction and: commitment, employer obligations, employer violations; • commitment and: employer obligations, employer violations; and • employee obligations and: employer obligations, employer violations. A multiple regression analysis (with job satisfaction as dependent variable; and employer violation, organisational commitment, and change as independent variables) was performed and 29.9% of the variance in job satisfaction is predicted by employer violations, change and commitment (F = 27.668, p< 0.01). Recommendations for the organisation as well as for future research were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Sociology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2008.

The significant change that organisations must endure in order to survive, let alone prosper, has grown tremendously in the past two decades. The lack of talent, especially amongst the previously disadvantaged groups, is one of numerous challenges South African organisations are confronted with. Organisations are therefore required to determine indicators of intention to leave as it is argued to be the single most important predictor of actual quitting behaviour. Variables found to relate to intention to leave include a sense of powerlessness and a lack of engagement. The objective of this study is to determine the relationship between leadership empowerment behaviour, job insecurity, engagement and intention to leave in a petrochemical laboratory. The research method consisted of a brief literature review and an empirical study. A cross - sectional survey design was used. The entire population of employees working in a business unit of a petrochemical organisation, namely the Laboratory, was targeted. The Leader Empowering Behaviour Questionnaire, Job Insecurity Inventory, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and two questions measuring intention to leave were used. In addition, a biographical questionnaire was administered. The statistical analysis was conducted with the aid of the SPSS programme. The statistical method employed in the study consisted of descriptive statistics, Cronbach alpha coefficients, Pearson product-moment correlation and a multiple regression analysis. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to determine the significance of differences between the experience of leadership empowerment behaviour, job insecurity, engagement and intention to leave of demograpbic groups. Results indicated that leadership empowerment behaviour was negatively correlated with cognitive job insecurity and that a negative relationship existed between leadership empowerment behaviour and intention to leave. Leadership empowerment behaviour was found to be positively correlated with engagement. A positive relationship existed between cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity, as well as between cognitive job insecurity and intention to leave. Cognitive job insecurity was found to be negatively correlated with engagement. A negative relationship was established between engagement and intention to leave. All these correlations were found to be statistically and practically significant with a medium to large effect. Regression analysis indicated that leadership empowerment behaviour and affective job insecurity did not show a significant amount of predictive value towards intention to leave. Cognitive job insecurity and engagement were found to be indicators of intention to leave. With regards to experiencing leadership empowerment behaviour, engagement and intention to leave, no significant differences were found between demographic groups. Participants in middle non -management positions, however, experienced higher levels of affective job insecurity than those in senior management positions. Conclusions and limitations of the current research were discussed and recommendations for future research were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2008.

The changes in the political landscape in South Africa have exacerbated major transformation of the society and all other aspects of life, including education. It is in this view that transformation of the education sector resulted in the changes within the employment relationship, as well as the psychological contract between educators and the Department of Education. This is further explained by the changes experienced in both the employer and employee's obligations. Furthermore, these changes have a tremendous influence on the degree of job satisfaction, organisational commitment, as well as an intention to quit among educators. The primary objective of this research is to investigate the employment-and psychological contract of educators in the Sedibeng West District of the Gauteng Department of Education. The measuring instruments, i.e. employer's obligations, employee's obligations, job satisfaction, organisational commitment, as well as intention to quit questionnaires, were used in the empirical study. A cross -sectional survey design was conducted among 298 educators (including school managers) in the Sedibeng West District. A response rate of 75% (224 respondents) was obtained. The results indicate a practically significant correlation coefficient of a medium effect between the employer and the employee's obligations, a negative correlation of medium effect between the employer's obligations and an employee's intention to quit, and no significant relationship between the employee's obligations and an employee's intention to quit. Furthermore, a practically significant correlation coefficient of medium effect was obtained between job satisfaction and an employee's intention to quit, and no significant relationship could be found between job satisfaction and organisational commitment. Lastly, a practically significant negative correlation of a medium effect was obtained between organisational commitment and an intention to quit. A multiple regression analysis indicates that 21% of the variance in the employee's intention to quit was predicted by both the employer and employee's obligations. Organisational commitment and job satisfaction predicted 33% of the total variance. Recommendations for the Department of Education, as well as future research were also made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Sociology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2008.

Social media such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and online communities plays an important role for knowledge production and diffusion as well as discussions among people. Among social media, online brand communities (OBCs) have recently received attention from both academics and practitioners due to the practical benefits of OBCs for consumers and companies. For consumers, knowledge sharing and its collective activities help them to make purchase decisions and to protect themselves against firms’ monopoly and oligopoly or collusion and anticompetitive actions. For companies, new ideas and feedback on brand products created by OBC members are useful input to develop new products and enhance existing product lines. Therefore, active content generation by community members is one of the critical success factors of OBCs. However, many scholars argue that only a few members who are more devoted to a community are tending to engage in OBC activities and many community members tend to remain in the periphery (sometimes called ‘lurkers') of the community by using OBCs merely for gathering information without any contributions. Therefore, it is important to make members in the periphery of the community transit to the core to increase members’ intentions and ‘devoted members’ to produce more valuable benefits for both consumers and firms. In spite of its importance, the literature is lacking in efforts to explain how and when community members in the periphery transit to the core of the community in a long-term perspective. This study aims to reveal how and why OBC members transit from the periphery to the core of the community and how to increase their intention to use OBC from a long-term perspective. OBC use behaviour is classified into, largely, two categories according to the purposes of an OBC: behaviour with a brand product consumption purpose; and behaviour with a social relationship building purpose. This study classifies OBC members as three clusters by social identity theory: tourists, minglers, and devoted members (devotees and insiders). The devoted members have valuable consumption knowledge of brand and strong social bonds in the OBC and the OBC members become a devoted member by accumulated brand knowledge and experiences through long-term OBC use. Therefore, from a socialisation aspect, this study adopts organisational socialisation theory as the theoretical lens to explain how and why the members evolve from novice members as tourist to devoted members in OBC contexts. Socialisation theories argue that there are usually three sequential stages for a member to gain full membership in a community: pre-entry, accommodation, and affiliation. In addition, this study adopts IS implementation theory to understand OBC user behaviours from an IS use behaviour perspective: acceptance in the pre-entry stage and routinisation in the accommodation stage and infusion in the affiliation stage. By reviewing socialisation theory and IS implementation theory, this study finds four significant motivations, those of information quality, trust, sense of belonging, and brand loyalty for intention of OBC use from the acceptance (pre-entry) to infusion (affiliation) stages. To integrate the socialisation perspective with the IS use perspective, this study adopts a technology acceptance model (TAM) as a theoretical framework to link to motivators in different OBC use behaviour from the acceptance to infusion stages. As a result, this study proposes a conceptual framework to explain the OBC members’ transition process from acceptance (pre-entry) to infusion (affiliation). The aim of this study is to predict and explain the transition of motivators for OBC use from pre-entry to affiliation and how to improve members’ intention of OBC use from a long-term perspective ultimately to foster ‘devoted members’. This study adopts an online survey targeting 518 participants who belong to 17 OBCs in South Korea and the conceptual framework is validated. The results show that all factors (i.e. information quality, trust, sense of belonging, brand loyalty) are significant determinants to increase intention to use OBCs and the factors have a causal relationship with each other to form a transition process from the acceptance (pre-entry) to infusion (affiliation) stages. This study also reveals that brand loyalty has a significant role to explain the transition process and directly influence user intention to use OBCs. The sense of belonging also directly affects members’ intention to use OBCs but has less impact than brand loyalty. In addition, the results indicate that TAM is an appropriate model to predict user behaviours in a long-term perspective to explain the change of OBC use behaviour from the acceptance to infusion stage and confirms that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use have significant impact on the intention to use OBCs as in other IS studies. Understanding the transition process within OBCs has theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, it will extend our understanding of how IS end users transit from acceptance behaviour to continued use and extended use of information systems in virtual community contexts. For managers, this study will provide them with insight on how to retain potential consumers in OBCs and facilitate their activities to gain consumer feedback on existing and new products.

This essay advances a libertarian theory of moral rights, which responds effectively to some serious objections that have been raised against libertarianism. I show how libertarianism can explain children’s rights to certain physical integrity and aid. I defend strong moral rights of human, pre-natal organisms, infants and children against all agents to certain non-interference with their physical integrity. I also argue that parents’ moral obligation to aid their offspring follows from a moral principle that prohibits agents to actively harm rights-bearers. Since this is the core principle of all versions of libertarianism, we gain simplicity and coherence. In chapter two, I explain my theory’s similarities and differences to a libertarian theory of moral rights advanced by Robert Nozick in his 1974 book Anarchy, State, and Utopia. I explain the structure and coherence of negative moral rights as advanced by Nozick. Then, I discuss what these negative rights are rights to, and the criteria for being a rights-bearer. In chapter three, I formulate a clear distinction between active and passive behaviour, and discuss the moral importance of foreseeing consequences of one’s active interventions. In chapter four, I claim that some pre-natal human organisms, human infants, and children, are rights-bearers. I formulate a morally relevant characterization of potentiality, and argue that possession of such potentiality is sufficient to have negative rights against all agents. In chapter five, I discuss whether potential moral subjects, in addition, have positive moral rights against all agents to means sufficient to develop into actual moral subjects. I argue that this suggestion brings some difficulties when applied to rights-conflicts. In chapter six, I argue that potential moral subjects’ rights to means necessary to develop into actual moral subjects can be defended in terms of merely negative rights. By adopting the view advanced in this chapter, we get a simple, coherent theory. It avoids the difficulties in the view advanced in chapter five, while keeping its intuitively plausible features. In chapter seven, I discuss whether the entitlement theory is contradictory and morally repugnant. I argue that my version of the entitlement theory is not.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

In this thesis, I answer the gamer's dilemma or the inability to find a moral distinction between virtual pedophilia and virtual murder. I expand virtual pedophilia to virtual rape to address increasing rates of sexual harassment and assault in virtual reality. In this thesis, I 1) explain what occurs when one engages in virtual rape; 2) identify relevant moral differences between physical rape and virtual rape; 3) challenge the existing relationship between committing harm and wrong in the case of rape; and 4) argue that virtual rape is morally reprehensible due to the agent’s intention to utilize a person as a mere tool for pleasure.

Background: Agricultural activities occupy a significant part of the world’s land area and the food systems are comprehensively reliant on fossil fuels, resulting in that the sector is responsible for a large percentage of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Changes are needed in order to meet the challenges of developing sustainable food systems. One change strategy would be to replace parts of animal proteins with greener plant substitutes. This thesis is part of a four-year transdisciplinary research project with the aim to, within four years, develop domestically produced products based on Swedish legumes. This paper will focus on exploring significant components affecting health-conscious consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions regarding legumes-based products. By the thesis, valuable information and insights regarding legumes as a protein substitute will be gathered amongst the growing consumer group of health-conscious consumers.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the attitudes regarding legumes, and underlying key components affecting health-conscious consumers purchase intentions towards legume-based products. Additionally, two research questions have been developed to reach valuable findings for this investigation.

Purpose: The aim of this thesis is to elaborate on if organisational culture has an impact on the intention to use a CRM system. Methodology: The data was collected by use of an online questionnaire, the questions used were created based on the literature review andmeasured according to a 5 point Likert-scale Conclusion: Organisational culture has no meaningful impact on intention touse CRM. This since each of the culture types produced results which were outside acceptable perimeters. Out of the three aspects of the technology acceptance model,attitude has the biggest impact on intention to use CRM. PEOU and PU were not within acceptable perimeters. Neither PU nor PEOU had a statistical significant impact on attitude, leaving attitude as a sole positive contributor to intentionto use CRM. K