Job satisfaction and organizational commitment are important for determining both individual and organizational outcomes. Quantity surveyors are important players in the Hong Kong construction industry in providing professional services to developers and contractors. Despite their importance, limited job satisfaction and organizational commitment research has been conducted in the profession, which underlines the basis for the study. Within the quantity surveying profession, quantity surveyors are assigned into work group for handling construction projects. Cooperation and collaboration are common in quantity surveyor’s daily working practice. Given cooperative working arrangement, “work group identification” and “propensity to trust” are regarded as important antecedents for determining job satisfaction and organizational commitment. On the other hand, it is argued that “length of employment within the organization” may have both positive and negative influence on job satisfaction and organizational commitment due to the quantity surveyor’s standardized working duties. Negative perception about the job duties also constitutes a mediation influence on the effect that the antecedents place on organizational commitment. Thus, this research is intended to find out the effect of the three antecedents – “length of employment within the organization”, “work group identification” and “propensity to trust” on job satisfaction and organizational commitment, as well as to investigate the role played by job satisfaction in affecting the relationship between the antecedents and organizational commitment. Based on previous literatures, the relationships between the antecedents, job satisfaction and organizational commitment are examined and a research model is developed for hypotheses testing. Hypotheses 1 and 2 postulate that the three antecedents positively affect job satisfaction and organizational commitment respectively. Each sub-hypothesis under hypotheses 1 and 2 postulates a positive bivariate relationship between one antecedent and one outcome (job satisfaction or organizational commitment). Hypothesis 3 depicts the mediation effect of job satisfaction on the association stated in Hypothesis 2. Questionnaire survey is used to collect primary data for analysis. Bivariate correlation and multiple regression analysis are applied for hypotheses testing. The data analysis results provide full support for the relationships between work group identification and job satisfaction. The results also provide some supports for the positive relationship between other antecedents and job satisfaction / organizational commitment. Mediation effects of job satisfaction on the relationships between the three antecedents and organizational commitment are found in some relationships. This study has both theoretical and practical contributions. A new research theme in construction context is initiated with the use of social exchange theory in examining job satisfaction and organizational commitment within the quantity surveying profession. The research model to explain the relationships between the three antecedents and job satisfaction and organizational commitment is tested. The data analysis results provide a better understanding about job satisfaction and organizational commitment amongst chartered quantity surveyors working in the construction industry. Based on the research findings, it is suggested that senior managers should attempt to improve “work group identification” and “propensity to trust” amongst quantity surveyors so as to enhance job satisfaction and organizational commitment within the profession. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Estimates indicate that by 2010 RN demand will exceed supply by over 400,000 full-time equivalents and by 2020 the RN shortage will increase to over 1 million. Turnover is a major contributor to the nursing shortage and job dissatisfaction is a well-established cause of nursing turnover. Understanding RN job satisfaction is an objective that is critical to keeping experienced nurses working in nursing and minimizing RN turnover. Many facets of RN job satisfaction have been examined in previous studies; however, much of the variance in job satisfaction remains unexplained. The purpose of this study was to explore job strain, body mass index, and background information variables (age, education, ethnicity, number of years in nursing, and perceived general health) as possible predictors of job satisfaction among hospital staff nurses. Resilience was examined for its mediating and moderating effects on the relationships between job strain and job satisfaction and body mass index and job satisfaction. The research design was cross-sectional and correlational. Surveys were mailed to RNs across the state of Texas. Reliable instruments were used to measure hospital staff RN job satisfaction, job strain, and resilience. Body mass index was calculated based on self-reported height and weight. From a sampling frame of full-time, hospital staff RNs purchased from the Texas Board of Nursing, a random sample of 556 RNs was obtained. The response rate was 27.6% (n = 147). Results showed that 25.2% of the RNs sampled reported high job strain. Job strain was significantly related to body mass index, and high job strain was significantly negatively related to job satisfaction. High job strain explained 24.7% of the variance in job satisfaction. None of the background information variables were significantly related to job satisfaction. Resilience had a moderating effect on the relationship between job strain and job satisfaction. Resilience did not mediate or moderate the relationship between body mass index and job satisfaction. Future research should focus on creating a nurse-specific instrument that measures job strain in hospital staff RNs. Intervention studies that investigate the effects of resilience training on the job satisfaction of hospital staff RNs should also be conducted. / text

ABSTRACT This study empirically evaluates the theoretical impact of a telecommuting or online work environment on employee loyalty. While the concept of employee loyalty has been extensively researched, the concept of the impact of the work environment on employee loyalty is fairly new. Specifically, this study operationally defines the work environment characteristics that contribute to employee loyalty and examines the impact of the online or telecommuting work environment on employee loyalty. A survey instrument is utilized to collect perceptual data about the psychological components of the work environment and their impact on employee loyalty from the employee's perspective. Multiple linear regression analysis is used to analyze the data from one hundred and three respondents to determine correlation between the work environment characteristics and employee loyalty. Additional statistics utilized in the analysis of the data include: factor analysis, t-test, K-S test, and Cronbach's Alpha. While the study's findings confirm that the three work environment factors (job satisfaction, social interaction, and trust) contribute to employee loyalty as represented by the surrogate, intent to turnover, the dynamics underlying the perceptions of telecommuting and traditional collocated employees is complex. Telecommuting employees, as hypothesized, demonstrate higher levels of intention to turnover, the key construct in the study, than do traditional onsite employees. Similarly, job satisfaction is much lower for telecommuters. No statistically significant differences were found in trust or social interaction. When exploring casual impacts of satisfaction, social interaction and trust on intention to turnover, very different dynamics emerged between the telecommuting and traditional. In particular, job satisfaction, while very important to the traditional workers, was insignificant to intention to turnover to telecommuter employees. In addition, telecommuters apparently had derived alternative mechanisms to allow for social interactions, other than face-to-face ones. Trust, in both groups, is an overriding factor in ameliorating intention to turnover. This research adds to current perspectives on the effects of the work environment on employee loyalty. This research will enhance insights into this increasingly prevalent work environment, and organization researchers and managers will be able to use these results to enhance understanding of the impact on work environment. These contributions may help to decrease turnover and enhance the satisfaction derived in telecommuting work environments. The study ends with a discussion of limitations and suggestions for future research.

A primary function of the pediatric oncology nurse is to provide symptom management to children with cancer. Symptom management strategies have been published, but there is scarce literature examining neither the actual use of these nursing interventions, nor the effects of using these interventions on the nurses' perceived work environment. The purpose of this study was to examine the nursing interventions used in treating pediatric oncology patients' symptoms, as well as the emotional sequelae from providing this care. Phase One of this study examined the content validity of the newly developed Nurses Distress and Interventions for Symptoms Survey (NDISS) utilizing content experts. Phase Two of this study involved both the reliability testing of the NDISS by test-retest and served as a pilot for Phase Three. In Phase Three, a national sample of pediatric oncology nurses was surveyed about their patients' symptoms, the nurses' distress from the symptoms, the nursing interventions used to treat the symptoms, the perceived efficacy of the nursing interventions, and their job satisfaction. The response rate was 53%, and analysis of study hypotheses were evaluated using Pearson's correlation and multiple regression analyses. The main study variables were not related in the hypothesized direction; therefore four of the six hypotheses were not supported. However, quantity and perceived effectiveness of nursing interventions were both found to act as mediators in the study model, and as a result, these two hypotheses were retained. The results of the survey demonstrated a high frequency of distressing patient symptoms as perceived by nurses (mean 6, range 0-7); nurses rated their distress from these symptoms as moderate (mean 2.9, range 0-4); nurses used an average of 12.7 nursing interventions per symptom (range 0-38); nurses found the nursing interventions moderately effective (mean 2.5, range 0-4); and nurses had moderately high overall job satisfaction (mean 3.9, range 1-5). Although many of the hypotheses were not supported, interesting trends in the data were found. In addition, the findings provided elucidation of specific nursing interventions used by pediatric oncology nurses as well as a description of the effects of providing patients' symptom management, including nurses' distress, perceived effectiveness of nursing interventions, and job satisfaction.

The basic purpose of the research is to understand the significance of internal marketing in influencing frontline employees'job-related attitudes and service quality. Since rewards are considered to be an important compqnent of internal marketing, this research investigates relationships among frontline employee perceptions of rewards (extrinsic and intrinsic), attitudes (three components of organisational commitment viz. affective, normative and continuance, and job satisfaction), and service quality, in banking call centres. In this context, a conceptual model is presented comprising rewards as the antecedentsa, ttitudes as the mediating variables, and service quality of the frontline employees as the outcome variable. The model is empirically tested through a large sample study that is conducted among 4 call centres of a major retail bank in the UK. Following certain qualitative in-depth interviews at the exploratory stage, structural equation modelling (using AMOS) is carried out on 342 useable questionnaires (response rate of more than 50%), to empirically test the proposed framework for the study. The measurement and structural models, after validation and purification, provided satisfactory fit estimates across absolute, incremental and parsimonious measures. The results highlight the importance of rewards, as part of internal marketing, in maintaining employee attitudes, and improving service quality. Intrinsic rewards (like role clarity, training and skill variety) emerged as the most significant of all, as they were found to impact on service quality directly. Extrinsic social rewards (like supervision and team support) were not found to be significant, while the finding regarding extrinsic organisational rewards-service quality relationship was surprising. Although assumed important for perfon-nance, some had no direct effect (pay, and benefits satisfaction, extrinsic exchange), while others (working conditions and promotional opportunities) exerted a negative direct effect on service quality, although the indirect effect of most of these rewards was found to be positive. However, these rewards were considered important for influencing employee attitudes, which in turn influence service quality. In this context, the importance of employee attitudes like affective commitment and job satisfaction is emphasisedfor service quality. The empirical results of the study also reveal that it is the nature of commitment that matters in commitment-service quality relationship. Affective commitment emerged as the only attitude variable to bear a significant positive relationship with service quality. Job satisfaction was not found to impact on service quality directly, although the indirect effect was found to be positive. Normative commitment impacted on service quality indirectly, while continuance commitment was not found to be effective at all. Besides theoretical and methodological contributions, the thesis also provides strong managerial implications and directions for future research in applying internal marketing for improving service quality of frontline employees in call centres. Keywords: internal marketing, rewards, service quality, commitment, job satisfaction, UK banks, call centres, frontline employees.

M. Tech. Business Administration / In many developing countries, including South Africa, the banking sector is highly concentrated resulting in intense competition among the big four banks in South Africa (e.g. Standard Bank, Nedbank, First National Bank and Absa, and one emerging bank Capitec). In favourable economic conditions, the banking sector plays an essential role in the economic growth of the country. However, the global financial crisis of late 2007 changed the outlook for an already slowing economy, and South Africa was not immune to the impact of the global financial crisis-induced economic slowdown. The banks have been faced with increasing competition and rising costs as a result of regulatory, financial and technological innovation, entry of the foreign banks in the retail banking environment, local competitors who are introducing new and innovative product offering and the challenges of the recent financial crisis. These changes have had a dramatic impact on the performance in sales for commercial banks. Retail banking offers a comprehensive suite of products (e.g. Home Loans, Vehicle Finance, Sales and Investments and Cheques) to customers. It also provides these products through extensive branch networks. Over a period of six months, certain branches of Absa Bank have not been able to meet set targets in sales of the banking products and have caused under-performance in sales for the relevant branches. There are 47 branches in the Gauteng East Region and, among these, six branches were randomly selected under-performing branches in terms of sales targets. This research aims to determine the causes behind under-performance in these East Gauteng branches, as such information would provide management with useful information. The aim of the study is to tests the influence of employee satisfaction, service quality, and customer satisfaction on sales performance, i.e., how these variables impact on sales performance at the branch level.

M. Tech. Business Administration / The purpose of the study was to establish the relationship between job satisfaction and productivity at the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS), given the fact that the organisation has been characterised by various people issues since inception, and suffered three employee strikes during a period of five year. Many challenges, ranging from disruptions emanating from labour disputes, and financial challenges which adversely affected the organisation's overall performance, were experienced. Given the critical role that job satisfaction and productivity play in determining the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of organisations, it was paramount to understand what motivates them and to what extent they are satisfied by the organisations and other contextual variables.

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The purpose of this study was to analyze the direct effects of distributed leadership on teacher professionalism and the mediating effects of collective teacher efficacy, professional learning community, and teacher job satisfaction by using teacher data from the Korea Educational Longitudinal Study (KELS) of 2007, conducted by the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI). After scrutinizing theoretical foundations and reported evidence on the relationships between research factors, the research constructed a structural equation model. The research questions that guided this analysis are as follows: 1) Does the model of this research fit the observed data?; 2) Does distributed leadership practice directly influence teacher professionalism?; and 3) Does distributed leadership practice indirectly influence teacher professionalism mediated by collective teacher efficacy, professional learning community, and teacher job satisfaction? As a result, the initial hypothesized research model shows an inadequate fit to the data. The researcher revised the initial research model by using the results of modification indices provided by the output result of the AMOS program. The results of the study revealed that 1) the research model successfully accounted for the KELS data, 2) distributed leadership negatively influenced teacher professionalism, and 3) distributed leadership indirectly and significantly influenced teacher professionalism, mediated by collective teacher efficacy, professional learning community, and teacher job satisfaction. Additionally, the effects of these mediators also indicated significant relationships between study variables. Public schools cannot achieve their goals and sustain fundamental reform without considering the day-to-day lives of educators, leadership practice, and educators’ workload, and sometimes even re-culturing of schools. School organization should be a place where school members all collaborate with each other to achieve organizational goals and where teachers and students are learning through reciprocal cooperation. When we consider that teacher professionalism can be directly associated with student and parent satisfaction and student achievement, this study contributes to the creation of a model that improves teacher professionalism, and by implication student achievement and satisfaction. / text

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration