Student Number: 0316733E Master of Arts (Industrial Psychology) Faculty of Humanities / The aim of this research project was to investigate final year university students’ attitudes towards affirmative action. In particular the current research investigated the final year students’ justice perceptions and attitudes towards affirmative action as well as their perceptions of job opportunities. The study also incorporated the role of locus of control in relation to the above mentioned variables. Prior research indicated that affirmative action is perceived as controversial in nature and has been accused of promoting inherent unfairness of practices and procedures that give preferential treatment to certain groups of people based on gender, race and ethnicity (Parker, Baltes and Christiansen, 1997). In addition affirmative action has been accused of reducing job opportunities for non-beneficiaries, as well as stigmatising those it aims to assist (Kravits and Plantainia, 1992). Therefore there arises a need to examine and explore affirmative action within South Africa, as much research has been conducted in the United States and is not applicable to South Africa. The present research was conducted using a quantitative, non-experimental cross sectional research design. The sample consisted of fourth year bachelor of accounting students. Five hypotheses were tested. The results indicted that support was found for three of the hypotheses, indicating that attitudes towards affirmative action differ between beneficiaries and non – beneficiaries. There is a relationship between perceptions of job opportunities and attitudes towards affirmative action as well as a relationship between justice perceptions of affirmative action and attitudes towards affirmative action in both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research. The implications of the research and the limitations of the study are outlined in the research report.

The primary purpose of this study was to observe the dynamics between sexual harassment (SH), social identity theory, and justice perceptions. Furthermore, participants’ past experience with SH may have created conspiracy mentalities to explain outgroup members (e.g., males) behavior towards women. From a social identity perspective, women who strongly identify with being female should be more prone to view lower justice perceptions when a male investigator denies an SH claim, but equally high levels of justice perceptions when male or female investigators confirm SH and when a female investigator denies SH. Four scenarios were created where female participants (N = 283) were randomly assigned to one of four scenarios: Scenario 1 involved a female investigator who confirmed an SH claim; Scenario 2 involved a female investigator who denied an SH claim; Scenario 3 involved a male investigator who confirmed an SH claim; and Scenario 4 involved a male investigator who denied an SH claim. Regression analyses revealed that social identity (i.e., gender identity) had no predictive value regarding justice perceptions, but that the decision of the investigators influenced justice perceptions. Furthermore, an ANOVA was utilized and discovered significant mean differences between the four scenarios, suggesting that there were differences when the investigator confirmed SH (both male and female) or denied SH (both male and female), but there was no significant interaction. Participants had low justice perceptions when SH was denied and higher justice perceptions when SH was confirmed. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed, as well as directions for future research.

This case is based on a semiconductor equipment supplier which was a branch in Taiwan. The research is about analyzing how the influence of compensation system reform on employees¡¦ pay satisfaction & organizational commitment through by employees¡¦ pay-for-performance perceptions and justice perceptions on reformed compensation system. By doing that, we can understand the performance of the new system. The result of the research could be provided to the company for reference for next compensation system reformed. The result of the research is summarized as below: 1. Employees¡¦ pay-for-performance perceptions of reformed compensation system has positive impact on value commitment and commitment-to-stay. For justice perceptions has positive impact on value commitment. 2. Employees¡¦ justice perceptions of reformed compensation system has positive impact on pay satisfaction. 3. Employees¡¦ pay satisfaction of reformed compensation system has positive impact on value commitment and commitment-to-stay. 4. Pay-for-performance perceptions and justice perceptions of reformed compensation system will impact on value commitment and commitment-to-stay through pay satisfaction.

Organizational justice theory suggests employees are more likely to accept appraisal outcomes if they believe the process to be fair. As an increasing percentage of the workforce is made up of knowledge workers with job characteristics that are less structured and more autonomous, the shift in appraisal research from measurement accuracy to perceptions on fairness is fitting. This research investigates the relationships between justice perceptions and performance appraisal satisfaction by knowledge workers. The study extends previous research with the creation of composite measures to examine whether perceptions of fairness vary according to the characteristics of work performed. The research was conducted at a medium-sized, niche consultancy that specializes in data analytics and data science. Interviews served as an initial pilot study to obtain contextual data to identify relevant justice measures in the procedural and informational justice domains. A questionnaire survey was selected to analyze whether knowledge work characteristics moderate the relationship between justice perceptions on appraisal satisfaction. Results support the underlying premise that positive justice perceptions lead to greater overall appraisal satisfaction. Median regressions were used to model the significant effect of procedural justice and informational justice on appraisal satisfaction. Consistent with prior research, the most autonomous workers reported the lowest levels of appraisal satisfaction. This may be explained by the heightened challenge in evaluating autonomous work that is not observed directly and may be difficult to measure. However, the moderating effect of knowledge work components produced some puzzling results. As expected, the knowledge work component of autonomy correlated negatively with the knowledge work components related to structure. Yet, autonomy and structure had similar moderating effects on the relationship between procedural justice and appraisal satisfaction. Although it was speculated that more autonomous workers would place less importance on procedural justice, the results indicated greater levels of autonomy strengthened the effects between the justice perceptions and appraisal satisfaction. Justice theory as it is applied to appraisal satisfaction is limited without considering the impacts on other constructs such as job satisfaction and motivation. Herzberg’s two-factor (hygiene) theory provides an example of how knowledge work components and procedural justice might be viewed as job “satisfiers” versus job “dissatisfiers”. The theory posits there are factors that contribute to job satisfaction that are separate and distinct from factors that contribute to dissatisfaction. "Satisfiers” include factors such as autonomy and achievement. In contrast, performance appraisals represent administrative processes within the category of “dissatisfiers”, or hygiene factors. When absent, these processes cause frustration and result in dissatisfaction. Practical implications from this study include the creation of composite measures for describing the abstract nature of latent measures such as justice perceptions and knowledge work. These measures serve as a heuristic to facilitate the analysis of human resource processes such as performance management.

In the extant literature, it is possible to find many studies focusing on antecedents of OCB, both cognitive factors and affective factors. However, previous research made limited contribution to the literature, since it did not focus on an integrative model covering both cognitive and affective factors. In this study it was aimed to search an integrative relationship among OCB, cognitive factors and affective factors. Following previous literature, justice perceptions and mood states of employees were taken as cognitive and affective factors respectively. Main purpose of this study is to see the individual influence of justice perceptions and positive mood states on OCB, while also testing a possible mediating role of justice perceptions between positive mood states and OCB. A Turkish public bank was chosen for conducting the survey. After missing value and outlier analysis 210 participants were left. Employees of the bank were asked to rate the items measuring OCB, justice perceptions and mood states. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test suggested propositions. In line with literature, both aggregate variable of justice perceptions and positive mood states were found to be positively associated with OCB. However, justice perceptions

Magister Commercii - MCom / In modern organisations, diversity management is seen as an important factor for success. If diversity is not managed correctly, it could impact how and if organisations meet their goals. The purpose of diversity management is to get to a point of utilisation of skills of individuals. Research (Erasmus, 2007) suggests that diversity management success is highly dependent on perceptions of employees. The main intent of the current research was to gain an insight into employee perceptions around workforce diversity. These perceptions were evaluated using the Workplace Diversity Survey with a sample of public sector employees to ascertain whether there are statistically significant differences in employee perceptions based on age, gender, population group and directorate. Informed consent was sought from the HR manager in the public service department where the research was undertaken. A cross sectional study was conducted and based on a convenience sample of 200 voluntary participants within the public sector. Data was captured and analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21. The results indicate that there are statistically significant differences with respect to gender, age, population group and , respectively, and perceptions of diversity. These findings suggest, that, despite 20 years of democracy within South Africa, on-going training and development of employees is required, along with frequent surveys to determine how individuals react to a heterogeneous workforce.

This study investigated the relationships among the sex of respondents, the age of depicted perpetrators, the sex of depicted victims and perpetrators, and various respondent attributions toward hypothetical sexual abuse vignettes, in which a depicted 15-year old victim neither resisted nor encouraged a perpetrator's actions. The study also investigated the relationships of respondent sexual and gender-role attitudes and the aforementioned respondent attributions, Respondents (N = 262, 136 males and 126 females) were each presented with six (3 X 2) written vignettes in which the age of the perpetrator (15-, 25-, and 35-years old) and the sex of the perpetrator (male or female; only heterosexual interactions were used) were manipulated. Results suggested that there were significant respondent sex differences, with female respondents being more pro-victim and perceiving the depicted interactions as more abusive and more representative of child sexual abuse, Further, the age of the perpetrator was a significant factor for male respondent attributions, with more culpability and responsibility being attributed to older perpetrators. For male and female respondents, the age of the perpetrator was a significant factor in the ratings of abusiveness and the vignette's representativeness of , child sexual abuse, with the ratings of vignettes with older perpetrators being perceived as more abusive and more representative of child sexual abuse. The sex of the depicted perpetrator also was a significant factor for male respondent attributions, with more culpability and responsibility being attributed to depicted male perpetrators. For male and female respondents, the sex of the depicted perpetrator was a significant factor in the ratings of abusiveness and the vignette's representativeness of child sexual abuse, with the ratings of vignettes with male perpetrators being perceived as more abusive and more representative of child sexual abuse. Finally, gender-role attitudes and various sexual attitudes did not correlate consistently with respondent attributions of child sexual abuse in these scenarios. These findings emphasize the need to educate the general public about child sexual abuse and unwanted sexual contact involving individuals under the age of consent.

The use of various types of individualized pay setting has increased dramatically in Sweden. In order for individualized pay to work as an incentive, the pay system has to be perceived as fair. This thesis focuses on the various subjective perceptions that arise in relation to individualized pay setting, since such perceptions may have consequences for employee attitudes and behavior. Using survey data from Swedish human service workers (Study I and II) as well as other public employees (Study III), the general aim was to shed more light on employees’ pay attitudes and fairness perceptions in connection with individualized pay setting. Study I examined some of the explanatory factors behind employee pay attitudes. The results showed that perceiving a clear connection between work results and pay, and perceiving a sound working climate, were both related to more positive attitudes towards the pay distribution process. Study II examined factors potentially associated with pay-related justice perceptions. The results demonstrated that perceptions of having sufficient feedback, proper information on pay criteria, gender equality, and lower workloads were connected with more favorable views of pay justice. Pay justice perceptions, in turn, appeared only to be marginally connected with employees’ work-related attitudes and behavior. Study III investigated whether women’s and men’s perceptions of the individualized pay-setting process differed. The results showed that both genders had a similar awareness of the organizational policies and goals. The women, however, reported much lower levels of pay-related gender equality than the men and perceived that men, overall, benefited more from individualized pay setting. In conclusion, employees’ perceptions of a well-functioning working climate, apparent links between work effort and pay, as well as perceived equal opportunities contribute to individualized pay systems being viewed as more fair.

This research addressed the influence employee age has on organizational justice perceptions (OJPs) and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) through conscientiousness. Given the valuable contributions of older employees in the workforce, the aim of this study was to investigate the processes by which age affects justice perceptions, the expression of conscientiousness traits, and workplace behaviors. Additionally, a theoretical framework was provided where the conservation of resource, equity, fairness, socioemotional selectivity, and conscientiousness at work theorieshelp explain the linkages from the integrative model. A total of 179 MTurk workers participated in this study, which required participants to answer questions about their workplace perceptions and behaviors. The primary scales used in this study measuring OJPs, conscientiousness, and OCBs were obtained from previous studies that found these measures to be reliable and valid. Using those scales, three main hypotheses were tested: Hypothesis 1 predicted age would moderate the relationship between OJPs and OCBs; Hypotheses 2 predicted conscientiousness would mediate the relationship between OJPs and OCBs; and Hypothesis 3 predicted employee age (moderating variable) would interact with justice perceptions (independent variable) and predict organizational citizenship behaviors (dependent variable), through conscientiousness (mediating variable). Results suggested that age does not moderate the relationship between OJPs and OCBs; however, conscientiousness mediates the relationship between OJPs and OCBs; and employee age only moderates the mediating effects of conscientiousness in the relationship between distributive justice perceptions and OCBs. Overall, this research provides preliminary findings to a model that had never been researched before, provides theoretical and practical implications, as well as directions for future research.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T16:34:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RAFAEL MARCUS CHIUZI.pdf: 450833 bytes, checksum: 5d9602b9c06d7f45f15a7cbc4801adbe (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-06-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Organizational characteristics have been studied recently under a different point of view. Today, more emphasis has been given to the positive aspects that make it possible for employees to have positive feelings towards their employer organization and towards the work itself. The current imposed challenges refer to the identification of positive organizational characteristics that allow such growth of the worker. Such characteristics are postulated as beneficial to the organizations, for resulting in greater productivity and profitability, as well as for promoting the well-being of the employees. The objective of this study was to analyze the impacts that the dimensions of the positive organization have over the well-being of the employees. The well-being of the employees was divided into two areas: subjective well-being (composed by general satisfaction with life, positive and negative affects) and well-being at work (composed by three dimensions: job satisfaction, job involvement and affective organizational commitment). Positive organization was conceived as a construct composed by three dimensions: perceived organizational support, perceived organizational justice (distributive and procedural justice) and trust of the employee to the organization. The sample was composed by 200 employees of diverse companies in the State of São Paulo, being 55 of them male, and 145 female, both single and married, with scholar level distributed from complete elementary and middle school up to complete post-graduation. The instrument used to collect data was a self-administered questionnaire composed by nine scales that measured the variables of the study. The results of this research revealed that subjective wellbeing and well-being at work are interrelated. Multiple regression analysis presented that the positive organization dimensions had greater impacts on the well-being at work in relation to the subjective well-being, with special attention to the capability of trust of the employee to the organization when it comes to explaining the well-being of the employees, either in their personal life domains or in their context of work. According to these results, trust of the employee to the organization, perception of organizational justice and perceived organizational support could be pointed out as important dimensions of the positive organization to promote and protect the wellbeing of the employees. Further research should include other positive organizational characteristics to broaden the explanation of the variance of the employee s well-being / Atualmente, características organizacionais vêm sendo estudadas sob um prisma diferenciado. Hoje, são pesquisados com maior ênfase os aspectos positivos que possam prover a possibilidade dos trabalhadores nutrirem sentimentos positivos para com suas organizações empregadoras e ao seu trabalho propriamente dito. Os desafios impostos atualmente giram em torno de se buscar identificar características organizacionais positivas que permitam o florescimento do trabalhador. Tais características são postuladas como benéficas tanto às organizações, por resultar em maior produtividade e lucratividade, assim como para promover o bem-estar dos trabalhadores. O objetivo deste estudo foi analisar os impactos que as dimensões da organização positiva exercem sobre o bem-estar dos trabalhadores. O bem-estar dos trabalhadores foi dividido em duas áreas, bem-estar subjetivo (composto por satisfação geral com a vida, afetos positivos e afetos negativos) e bem-estar no trabalho, composto por três dimensões: satisfação no trabalho, envolvimento com o trabalho e comprometimento organizacional afetivo. Organização positiva foi concebida como um construto composto por três dimensões: percepção de suporte organizacional, percepções de justiça organizacional (distributiva e de procedimentos) e confiança do empregado na organização. A amostra foi composta por 200 trabalhadores de diversas empresas do Estado de São Paulo, sendo 55 do sexo masculino e 145 do sexo feminino, solteiros e casados com escolaridade distribuída desde o ensino fundamental completo até pósgraduação completa. O instrumento de coleta de dados foi um questionário auto-aplicável composto por nove escalas que mediram as variáveis do estudo. Os resultados deste trabalho revelaram que bem-estar subjetivo e bem-estar no trabalho guardam relações entre si. Análises de regressão múltipla informaram que as dimensões da organização positiva tiveram impactos maiores sobre bem-estar no trabalho do que bem-estar subjetivo, destacando-se a capacidade de confiança do empregado na organização de prover explicações para o bem-estar de trabalhadores, seja nos domínios da vida pessoal ou no contexto de trabalho. Conforme tais resultados, confiança do empregado na organização, percepções de justiça e de suporte organizacional poderiam ser apontadas como importantes dimensões da organização positiva para promover e proteger o bem-estar dos trabalhadores. Futuros estudos deveriam incluir outras características organizacionais positivas para aumentar a explicação da variância do bem-estar dos trabalhadores