The objective of this thesis is to investigate various factors that influence the job performance and promotion of DOD civilian workers. The data used in this study were drawn from the Department of Defense Civilian Personnel Data Files provided by the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC). The initial data was restricted to employees who were initially hired in 1995 and stayed in service until 2003 and were paid under the General Schedule (GS) pay system. Three general performance measures were used: compensation (salary), annual performance ratings and promotions. Multivariate models were specified and estimated for each of these performance measures. The results indicate that females receive lower annual and hourly compensation and are less likely to be promoted than men even though they receive better performance ratings. The results also indicate that minorities are paid less and are less likely to be promoted than majority workers while veterans are paid more, perform better, and are more likely to become supervisors. The models also reveal that performance rating is a weak measure of productivity and that more highly educated employees are paid more and more likely to be promoted more even if they are not always the best performers.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1959 T68

M.A. / The objective of this study is to estimate the productivity of labour in the South African textile industry. This was achieved by firstly looking at the theoretical background which will facilitate the calculation of labour productivity. The Cobb-Douglas production function was found to be most suitable to estimate labour productivity in the South African textile industry. Conditions necessary and sufficient for equilibrium to hold were explored which gave an indication on efficiency in the allocation of input factors , capital and labour. South African textile industry's performance over the years has been influenced by the changing trade policies brought about by the Uruguay round of talks of 15 December 1993. The talks concluded that countries should reduce tariffs and embark on export-led growth. Exporters should have free access to imported intermediate inputs and countries should do away with anti export bias associated with import protection. Inevitably the South African textiles industry was affected by the conclusions drawn at the Uruguay Round of talks. The textile industry which had enjoyed growth under high protection tariffs and other import duties had shed down the high tariffs and liberalise trade. But the tariff reductions had to happen over the period ranging between five and twelve years. This further implied that export incentive schemes will have to be eliminated as they were in contradiction with GATT Agreement so, R2 billion that the government had budgeted for the General Export Incentive Scheme will have to be dispensed with and according to GATT South Africa has been given three years to dispose of the export incentive scheme. ix The long term strategy for the textile industry was formulated as an industrial strategy to prepare the industry for the changing policies. The long term objectives emphasised on achieving international competitiveness, labour demanding growth to foster employment in the textile industry and lastly to supply local consumers with textiles at affordable prices. But it should be noted that trying to gain international competitiveness imply laying off workers as new technology comes in. This is in contradiction with the Industrial strategy which advocates for labour absorbing economic growth in the textile industry especially in the light of the fact that employment has been on the decline over the years and it is expected that the new industrial strategy, will be able to create more jobs.

M.A. (Economics) / The objective of this study is to highlight the problematic aspects regarding labour productivity in the South African motor vehicle industry. The perfomance of the South African motor vehicle industry in the national economy has not been as what was expected from the industry, purely because of the pressure of rising costs link to a lack of productivity. A study of labour productivity and any comparisons regarding labour productivity is very difficult and stays a problematic issue. The reason for this is two-fold in that firstly relevant and applicable data was not available until recently and secondly the data that is available is very diverse in the sense that it is applicable to the different levels of economic activity. The fact remains that the productivity levels of both labour and capital stays important indicators of the competetiveness of any nation. In this sense the South African motor industry could be a potential source of competitive advantage and economic growth for South Africa. The method used to study labour productivity in the South African motor vehicle industry was to look at the theory surrounding labour productivity, the South African labour market and the general trend of labour productivity in South Africa and the trend of labour productivity in the South African motor vehicle industry compared to international industry trends. The traditional micro economic theory consider labour as just another production factor and competition in the labour market is determined on the principles of demand and supply. The criticism against the traditional micro economic theory is based on the applicability of the theory on the modern business world. The macro economic theory surrounding labour productivity showed the importance of this variable as determinant of international competetive advantage. The theory further showed that there is a strong link between labour productivity and inflation. The most important characteristics of the South African labour market include a labourforce of thirteen million workers{which includes the informal sector and unemployed) against a total population of forty million, a population growth rate of 2,7% that is higher than the average economic growth rate and high levels of unemployment, illiteracy, inequalities and discrimination. Labour productivity in South Africa has been characterised by a drastic increase in the amount of strikes and work stoppages since the mid eighties. The international comparison of South Africa with its most important trade partners regarding labour productivity, was not positive for South Africa. On most of the variables like unit labour cost, real output in manufacturing, output per worker in manufacturing and gross domestic product per capita, South Africa did not compare favourable with its leading trading partners.

M.Com. (Economics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Comm. / South Africa had a stormy political past with the result that as a nation it needs peace and job opportunities. One of the methods of increasing job opportunities is to make use of more labourers and less machinery. But, according to The Mail and Guardian (1996a:1), South Africans have an obsession with capital-intensive projects instead of labour intensive projects.

M.Com. (Business Management) / The question of quality in the workplace is considered within a framework where structural and process variables, leadership, personal filters and behavioural patterns are addressed. Viewpoints regarding quality of work by Rosow, Piskurich, Bennet, Fulmer, Callahan and Drucker, amongst others, were examined. Problems associated with the feasibility of measuring quality is briefly analysed in the light of viewpoints of writers such as Tuttle and Romanowski...

Este trabalho teve por finalidade estudar o comportamento da produtividade brasileira entre 2002-2015 e identificar a influência de alguns determinantes para o seu desempenho. Este enfoque é importante porque a produtividade é considerada elemento fundamental do crescimento econômico e neste trabalho, especificamente, seu desempenho foi estudado por meio das medidas de produtividade do trabalho e total dos fatores, desagregadas por grandes setores econômicos e regiões geográficas, de modo a constatar quais regiões e setores mais contribuíram para a produtividade agregada do país. Ademais, após analisado o desempenho da produtividade, foram realizadas as decomposições do crescimento para verificar como decorreu a contribuição da produtividade para o crescimento econômico, e também como se decompôs o crescimento da produtividade setorial e regional. Por fim, considerado o comportamento da produtividade do trabalho no período, foi analisado como alguns determinantes a influenciaram, categorizados em criação, transmissão e absorção de conhecimento; educação, saúde e dimensão social; infraestrutura física; eficiência no mercado (de produção, financeiro e de mercado de trabalho) e economias de aglomeração; e instituições e integração comercial. A análise foi realizada utilizando a metodologia de regressão quantílica com efeitos fixos para dados em painel para as 27 unidades federativas brasileiras. Dentre os principais resultados, verificou-se a estagnação da PTF agregada, apesar da contribuição positiva do setor agropecuário. As medidas de produtividade do trabalho apresentaram certa consonância com as estimativas de PTF, novamente com destaque para o setor agropecuário. As regiões que obtiveram melhor desempenho foram a Norte e Centro- Oeste. Os exercícios de decomposição de crescimento destacaram as contribuições positivas dos fatores capital, capital humano e PTF para o setor agropecuário, e a absorção de mão de obra para os setores industrial e de serviços. Também foi constatado que o desempenho da produtividade setorial no país decorreu principalmente de variações na produtividade intrassetorial, em razão das vantagens locacionais e competitivas regionais. Por fim, a respeito da análise dos determinantes, os resultados mostram que a produtividade é mais sensível às variáveis estruturais de crescimento econômico como desenvolvimento humano, educação e infraestrutura física. / This study aimed to study the behavior of Brazilian productivity between 2002-2015 and to identify the influence of some determinants on its performance. This approach is important because productivity is considered a key element of economic growth. Its performance was studied through measures of labor productivity and total factors productivity, disaggregated by economy sectors and geographic regions of the country. The study also aimed to verify which regions and sectors most contributed to the aggregate productivity performance. In addition, productivity performance was verified, growth decomposition was performed to verify how the contribution of productivity to economic growth occurred, as well as how the sectoral and regional productivity growth was broken down. Finally, considering the labor productivity evolution in the period, it was analyzed how some determinants influenced it, categorized in creation, transmission and absorption of knowledge; education, health and social dimension; physical infrastructure; market efficiency (production, financial and labor market) and agglomeration economies; and institutions and trade integration. The empirical analysis was performed using a quantile regression methodology with fixed effects for panel data for the 27 Brazilian federative units. Among the results, there was stagnation of the aggregated TFP, despite the positive contribution of the agricultural sector. Labor productivity measures were in accord with TFP estimates, with emphasis on the agricultural sector. The regions that obtained the best performance were the North and Midwest. The growth decomposition exercises highlighted the positive contributions of the capital, human capital and TFP factors to the agricultural sector and the absorption of labor by the industrial and services sectors. It was also verified that the performance of the sectoral productivity in the country was mainly due to variations in the intrassetorial productivity and due to the regional competitive and locational advantages. Finally, regarding the analysis of determinants, the results demonstrate that productivity is more sensitive to the structural variables of economic growth such as human development, education and physical infrastructure.

Thesis (M.Com. (Management))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2016. / In an economic environment where knowledge based-work is the strategic component of value creation and competitive advantage, knowledge workers have become the engine that drives sustainability and profitability. Knowledge workers are described as workers with high degrees of education, expertise and whose primary task is to create, distribute and apply knowledge. With the increasing demand and number of knowledge workers in the work force, the productivity of knowledge workers has become an imperative management task as well as a decisive economic factor. Despite the continuous stream of research on knowledge worker productivity, knowledge worker productivity continues to be one of the greatest challenges facing managers today. Knowledge worker productivity refers to ability of knowledge workers to effectively collect, create and use inherent knowledge to produce goods and services. Inherent knowledge is highly personal and cannot be separated from the person who holds it. Further, inherent knowledge is closely related to the technical skills that an individual has and are only known to the person who possesses those skills. If organisations wish to leverage this inherent knowledge to their competitive advantage, they need to know how to engage and stimulate the deepest parts of the human mind. However, no two individuals are the same. Personnel psychology literature has long stressed that meaningful differences exist between people. These individual differences influence individual work performance and behaviour. Although several studies have addressed the issue of personality predicting job performance, there is a lack of knowledge of the relationship between personality, motivation and knowledge worker productivity, specifically in the South African context. This study attempts to address this lack of knowledge through a quantitative study of the relationship between personality, motivation and knowledge worker productivity. The study investigated whether the intrinsic personalities of knowledge workers and motivation predict knowledge worker productivity. Although several studies have directly addressed the issue of personality predicting job performance, few studies have directly investigated whether motivation mediates the relationship between personality and specifically knowledge worker productivity. Consequently, there is limited evidence to support the arguments of the present study. The theoretical and practical implications for knowledge worker productivity are discussed.

A Thesis Submitted to Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Johannesburg, August 2017 / This research investigates how on-site craft gangs adapt to the production environment on-site and how on-site learning is affected by prior learning in orders to optimise productivity. To achieve the aim of the study, previous experience of construction production process of craft gangs, site supervisors and the project managers working in Nigerian construction firms was evaluated. The researcher employed a mixed method research approach utilising qualitative and quantitative approaches. The research strategies used in this investigation included interviews and observation method. A face-to-face semi-structured interviews of (15) participants comprising of craft gangs, site supervisors and the project managers was used in the qualitative method of the data collection to explore the project specific constraints and the response mechanism used to resolve the various constraints. A standard observation data form was used in all the observed seven (7) gang’s blockwork craft gangs on the construction site. The interview transcript results collected were analysed using content analysis, an objective and systematic form of data analysis applicable to analysing interview data. In the application of the learning curve model to the blockwork craft gang’s, the straight-line model was used in the preliminary analysis of the application of learning curve theory to blockwork craft gang’s. In this study, the ordinary least squares technique, frequently referred to as linear regression was used for the data analysis. 0.05% significance level was used as a satisfactory degree of the inferences in the observation part of this study. Blockwork craft gang’s observed at the site shows approximately an overall average learning of 94.21%, resulting in 5.79% improvement in blockwork gang’s productivity. In addition, substantial impact on productivity of blockwork construction was achieved in wall construction. This research work is fundamental in construction management by way of developing an understanding into the changing aspects of on-site blockwork craft gangs learning and its impact on productivity. The repetitive nature of blockwork activities has an important influence on the optimisation of productivity. Construction craft gangs productivity constraints and response mechanism generated in this study provides a methodological instrument for addressing the major constraints influencing craft gangs productivity. This instrument will also permit future research on the project specific constraints and the response mechanisms used to resolve the constraints. / MT 2018