Στην παρούσα εργασία - η οποία αποτελεί μέρος μιας πανελλαδικής έρευνας - διερευνήθηκε η εργασιακή ικανοποίηση των καθηγητών του Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών. Το θεωρητικό υπόβαθρο της έρευνας αποτέλεσαν οι θεωρίες του Abraham Maslow και Frederick Herzberg. Επίσης, διερευνήθηκε η συνολική εργασιακή ικανοποίηση των διδασκόντων και τα αποτελέσματα της έρευνας συγκρίθηκαν με ανάλογα ευρήματα ερευνών που προηγήθηκαν της παρούσης έρευνας. / Στην παρούσα εργασία - η οποία αποτελεί μέρος μιας πανελλαδικής έρευνας - διερευνήθηκε η εργασιακή ικανοποίηση των καθηγητών του Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών. Το θεωρητικό υπόβαθρο της έρευνας αποτέλεσαν οι θεωρίες του Abraham Maslow και Frederick Herzberg. Επίσης, διερευνήθηκε η συνολική εργασιακή ικανοποίηση των διδασκόντων και τα αποτελέσματα της έρευνας συγκρίθηκαν με ανάλογα ευρήματα ερευνών που προηγήθηκαν της παρούσης έρευνας

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / Academe is no longer a low stress profession caused by the changing nature of academic work. Academics in health professions perceived a considerable degree of pressure related to the many roles they need to assume such as, teaching, administration, research, and community service. In addition, they are expected to continue practicing in their profession. Research has identified the key stressors experienced by academics, have recorded the debilitating effects of occupational stress and have emphasised that stress left unmanaged can result in burnout. However, such studies on academic well-being and occupational stress are lacking within the South African context. Similarly, studies into the coping strategies used by academic staff and the impact of emotional intelligence on stress and coping remain a focus for further research. Therefore, the overall aim of this study was to determine the relationship between occupational stress, coping and emotional intelligence among academic staff in health professions at a historically disadvantaged university. The study used an online survey design and the sampling frame comprised of all academic staff in a Faculty of Community and Health Sciences at a historically disadvantaged university. Descriptive statistics, correlation matrices and multiple regressions were used to analyse the data. Ethics clearance was obtained from the relevant university committee, and consent to conduct the study at the identified institution was given by the Registrar. As evidenced by the results, significant associations emerged between occupational stress, coping and emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence was identified as an essential factor that can predict the subjective well-being among academics.

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / Turnover intention among non-academic staff at business schools has become a cause for concern. This can be attributed to inadequate professional development of non-academic staff, as well as the lack of comprehension of the true scope of the role of non-academic staff within the academic institutions. The purpose of the current study was to answer the research-initiating question: “what is the influence of psychological capital and job autonomy on the turnover intention of support staff at a Business School in the Western Cape?

Magister Educationis - MEd / This study investigates the factors that conditioned the establishment of, and responses to, a centrally coordinated, institution wide change initiative aimed at promoting equity in the academic workplace in an historically white South African university. It is examined by presenting two kinds of analyses, firstly, an institutional analysis that explores the environmental and managerial conditionalities that influenced the reception, interpretation and responses to the national policy framework. Secondly, a bottom-up analysis that explores the distinctive disciplinary contexts that conditioned the responses of the participants. The study reveals that top-down approaches to managing change have limited capacity to influence the nature and pace of change on the ground, despite the best intentions of institutional managers. The study illustrates that the distinctive disciplinary context conditioned the responses to, and outcomes of the change initiative. In this study, the authority of the academic project powerfully trumps the legitimacy and credibility of the institutional transformation initiative.

This thesis explored the academic staff working conditions, organizational commitment and performance of Nigerian universities. There is a general thinking that there has been a decline on the motivation of the average academic staff in Nigerian university system leading to brain drain situation and a decline in quality of performance of the universities. Incidentally, there is limited empirical evidence comprehensive enough to serve as a framework of what the academics need at work to make them more inclined to remain in their universities, including university performance. This thesis explored the topic in a comprehensive way with academics from six Nigerian universities. It answers the question what and how did the perceived obstacles to academic staff organizational commitment and university performance in Nigeria evolve, and what can be done to improve it? The research design was cross-sectional. Qualitative and quantitative information were gathered to uncover the historical origin of the problems; satisfaction with current working conditions, issues of personal growth, organizational commitment, and university performance. A sample of 248 academics participated in the study. Historically, both structural and managerial issues, internal and external factors, were implicated in the evolution of the problems in the university system. Satisfaction with teaching resources and facilities was poorest. Factors important for personal growth were the same as those that would make the academics more inclined to stay, though, concern with basic salary and welfare were more prominent in decision to stay. Reference to comparable situations with colleagues elsewhere was basis for need to improve on some work factors like salary. The thesis concludes that, deficiency-growth factors, intrinsic-extrinsic factors, and equity issues are important in dealing with the organizational commitment and performance problems in the Nigerian universities studied. Sugestions and limitations of the study are provided.

The psychological contract provides a framework for understanding the relationship between employees and employers. The objective of the research was to determine the type of psychological contract developed by higher education academics. In addition, the research objective was to examine the effect of employees’ perception of the human resource practices of their employers on their psychological contract. There have been a number of conceptual and empirical studies on the psychological contract of employees and its relationships to other organisational variables such as human resource practices. However, there has been minimal research on the psychological contracts of academics in higher education and the effect of human resource practices on their psychological contracts. The research was based on a cross-sectional survey that comprised the Psychological Contract Inventory (Rousseau, 2000), the Human Resource Practice Scale (Geringer et al., 2002), and questions on the demographic and job characteristics of academics as employees in the higher education sector in Canada. The research involved 405 academics from Canadian higher education institutions. The response rate was 70%. The research found that employees’ perception of the recruitment and selection, training and development and compensation and benefits HR practices had significant and positive effects on the relational and balanced psychological contracts of academics, thereby building commitment, loyalty and the desire for professional and career development. The training and development HR practices were found to have the strongest positive effect on the relational and balanced types of psychological contracts. The research indicated that the psychological contract theory should be researched using newer and a combination of approaches. The research made several theoretical and practical contributions to the psychological contract theory and human resource management in the higher education sector.

The professional practice of educational design normally involves collaborating with a subject matter expert on a one-to-one basis and is only occasionally undertaken in teams. This thesis argues that a team-based approach to educational design is powerful and particularly so when transdisciplinary collaborations are facilitated. Transdisciplinary educational design is the process of standing outside one’s discipline to collaborate with colleagues from the technical sphere, the library and other disciplines. The common ground shared by the transdisciplinary teams in this research was student assessment.The core data collection for this research was completed between July 2002 and June 2005. Using an overarching action research methodology, three cycles of data collection were completed by action learning sets. Suitable members of the sets were identified through a series of online staff development workshops that were designed and facilitated by the researcher. Two supplementary data collection activities were also undertaken. The first of these was a Web survey that broadly mapped design practices for online assessment in four Australian regional universities. Three rounds of telephone interviews then followed up on survey responses. The second supplementary data collection was undertaken between the second and third action learning cycles to contextualise the online assessment design activities at Southern Cross University within the broader framework provided by the other three regional universities in the original sample. It included focus groups with educational designers and face-to-face interviews with three academics at each of these universities. The entire series of data collection activities was reflectively managed to heighten its effectiveness. This management included screening of suitable participants, negotiation of manageable session times and duration, and establishment of ground rules for attendance and interactions, as well as drawing out a commitment to observe silences as creative spaces in the design process.In keeping with the action research paradigm, an extensive examination of the literature not only provides a background for the research questions but also continues to be threaded throughout the thesis as data collection cycles directed further literature review. The thesis narrative is given an original form through the use of a gardening metaphor that serves to highlight the rewarding, delicate and transitional nature of this kind of educational design. Such transitional aspects of educational design allow for innovation and creativity not evident in the systems-based approaches to designing instruction. This research also supports current initiatives in Australian higher education concerning the first year experience, embedding graduate attributes in the curriculum, and blending on-campus and off-campus learners into one class. The transdisciplinary approach to educational design explored through this research responds effectively to the varied issues in designing online assessment and developing innovative approaches by academic staff

This qualitative study identified the formal and informal performance management (PM) practices in use in Australian public universities for academic staff Levels A, B and C. It asked the following research questions. • What PM practices are currently in use in these universities? • What are the similarities in approach and what issues does PM raise? • How do academic staff who take part in these practices (as either staff or management) experience them? • What cultural and contextual factors (if any) contribute to this experience? • What are the perceived effects of these practices on the performance of individuals, teams and the organisation? • Which system elements do academic staff and academic managers perceive to be most effective in academic cultures and why? The context of substantive change within Australian universities was outlined and literature pertaining to the field of PM in general, and in educational organisations in particular, was explored. The existence, structure, purposes and other factual details of formal PM systems were identified, although the study focused on the opinions, perceptions and attitudes of the respondents. Findings suggested that current PM practice in Australian public universities did little to meet the needs of any of the key stakeholders and remained fundamentally unsatisfying to all concerned. Furthermore, the failure to clearly articulate the purposes and to consider the implementation and ongoing costs of a formal PM system typically resulted in widespread cynicism and a ritual dance of compliance that demonstrated palpably low engagement with systems. Formal PM systems helped to clarify objectives and workload allocation for some staff, but were found to be poorly linked to organisational planning processes, poor at differentiating levels of performance, not valued by academic staff as a vehicle for meaningful feedback, failing to follow through on development outcomes and thus did little to build team, individual or organisational capability. Study recommendations suggested that developmental models of PM were more appropriate and acceptable in academia and that considerable work would be required to incorporate evaluative links such as performance-related pay successfully. More rigorous evaluation, consultation processes regarding user preferences, piloting of PM systems prior to full implementation, and dedicated resources for the PM function and its outcomes (such as staff development), would be required as a part of a comprehensive change management strategy to overcome historical resistance. A thorough capability analysis of the people management skills for Heads of School and above was seen as a priority, given that feedback skill and the management of under-performance were consistently identified as problematic. The costs of under-performance warranted this expenditure. A national evaluation study of PM practice in higher education was recommended to assess the real outcomes, costs and benefits and determine whether continued investment in PM systems was actually merited. Alternative models and approaches such as modular PM systems for the different stages of an academic career, promotion portfolios, reflective practice or peer learning groups were suggested as potentially more successful in enhancing the accountability and performance of academic staff than mandated hierarchical PM.

Universities worldwide are developing a disturbing imbalance with their environments. In recent years, academic working conditions in South African universities have changed dramatically as a result of the country's post-apartheid policies and the accelerating globalisation of knowledge. Academic staff are continually confronted with an overload of job demands without corresponding increases in job resources. These prolonged job stressors that academic staff are subjected to over lengthy periods of time coupled with inadequate job resources can lead to the development of a pathogenically defined construct, namely burnout. The objective of this research was to investigate the relationships between burnout, strain, job characteristics and dispositional optimism in universities in the North-West Province. A cross-sectional design was used. The study population (N = 279) consisted of academic staff of universities in the North-West Province. The Maslach Burnout Inventory - General Survey (MBI-GS), The Life Orientation Test - Revised (LOT-R), Job Characteristics Scale (JCS) and General Health Questionnaire (GHQI9) were used as measuring instruments. Descriptive statistics (e.g. means, standard deviations and kurtosis) were used to analyse the data. Exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were used to confirm the structure of the measuring instruments and to test theoretical models. The results showed that the stressors of overload was associated with high levels of exhaustion and low professional efficacy. Job resources (i.e. social support, task characteristics) were related to low levels of exhaustion and cynicism and higher levels of professional efficacy. Exhaustion and low professional efficacy were significantly related to physical and psychological health problems. Exhaustion and cynicism were negatively related to optimism, whereas professional efficacy were positively related to the latter. Optimism moderated the effects of a lack of resources on exhaustion and the effects of job resources on professional efficacy. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Universities worldwide are developing a disturbing imbalance with their environments. In recent years, academic working conditions in South African universities have changed dramatically as a result of the country's post-apartheid policies and the accelerating globalisation of knowledge. Academic staff are continually confronted with an overload of job demands without corresponding increases in job resources. These prolonged job stressors that academic staff are subjected to over lengthy periods of time coupled with inadequate job resources can lead to the development of a pathogenically defined construct, namely burnout. The objective of this research was to investigate the relationships between burnout, strain, job characteristics and dispositional optimism in universities in the North-West Province. A cross-sectional design was used. The study population (N = 279) consisted of academic staff of universities in the North-West Province. The Maslach Burnout Inventory - General Survey (MBI-GS), The Life Orientation Test - Revised (LOT-R), Job Characteristics Scale (JCS) and General Health Questionnaire (GHQI9) were used as measuring instruments. Descriptive statistics (e.g. means, standard deviations and kurtosis) were used to analyse the data. Exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were used to confirm the structure of the measuring instruments and to test theoretical models. The results showed that the stressors of overload was associated with high levels of exhaustion and low professional efficacy. Job resources (i.e. social support, task characteristics) were related to low levels of exhaustion and cynicism and higher levels of professional efficacy. Exhaustion and low professional efficacy were significantly related to physical and psychological health problems. Exhaustion and cynicism were negatively related to optimism, whereas professional efficacy were positively related to the latter. Optimism moderated the effects of a lack of resources on exhaustion and the effects of job resources on professional efficacy. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.