Bibliography: leaves 80-86. / South Africa is a country in transition from an oppressive past to a democratic dispensation. The democratic process began with the first democratic elections in 1994. Since then, a number of steps have been taken to democratize society and the workplace. ln terms of workplace democratization, certain measures have been implemented to provide opportunities for those who were previously disadvantaged. Among these are people with disabilities. Foreseeing the consequences of these measures to the organization in terms of increasing the number of employees with disabilities, this research sought to develop quality of work life (QWL) determinants from the perspective of skilled employees with congenital mobility disabilities, which would then be compared primarily with Walton's (1973) quality of work life determinants. In order to develop these determinants, ten (10) participants participated in the study. Three (3) of these were females and seven (7) males. The average age of the participants was 32.9 years and they had spent an average of 4.06 years in their respective organisations. None of the participants owned an organisation. In terms of ethnic origin, all participants were Africans or so-called Coloureds. For data collection, the Delphi technique was used. For data-analysis, content analysis was used. Using both these techniques, six (6) quality of work life determinants were developed. These were advancement opportunities, accommodation, integration, supportive work environment, recognition and job variety. When comparing the quality of work life determinants developed in this study and those developed by Walton (1973), the study concludes that with a few exceptions, there are no significant differences between the two groups of quality of work life determinants.

The present dissertation examines the antecedents and consequences of employees’ work-related email (WRE) use after work hours in a sample of administrative assistants and office workers. Several individual, job, and workplace factors were examined as predictors of WRE use after hours. The individual-level factors examined were telepressure (i.e., the urge to respond to digital messages) and conscientiousness. Perceptions of the usefulness of keeping up with WRE for job performance and the degree to which employees felt the use of WRE was relevant to their job were examined as job-related factors. Workplace factors revolved around organizational norms, which may form by employees’ perceptions of their supervisors’ or coworkers’ use of WRE after hours and their perceptions of the extent to which they were expected to keep up with their WRE after hours. All antecedents, except conscientiousness, had a positive relationship with WRE use after hours, and telepressure, job relevance, and perceived usefulness were found to predict unique variance in WRE use after hours. Burnout was examined as a consequence of WRE use after hours. Although positive relationships between WRE use after hours and burnout dimensions were hypothesized, results showed that emotional exhaustion did not significantly relate to WRE use after hours, and cynicism and reduced professional accomplishment had a negative relationship with WRE use after hours. These findings suggest that keeping up with WRE after hours may be a method to manage work demands rather that act as a source of additional work demands. Voluntariness was found to moderate WRE use after hours’ relationships with emotional exhaustion and reduced professional accomplishment, suggesting that if employees feel the use of WRE after hours is non-mandatory, they are likely to experience more positive wellbeing outcomes as a result of keeping up with their WRE after hours. The findings of the present dissertation make a unique contribution to an emerging area of literature, and allow researchers and practitioners to gain better insight into factors that can influence employees’ WRE use after hours, possible consequences of keeping up with WRE, and factors that can influence the relationship between WRE use after hours and burnout.

This dissertation consists of three independent studies, which study the nomological network of cultural intelligence (CI)—a relatively new construct within the fields of cross-cultural psychology and organizational psychology. Since the introduction of this construct, CI now has a generally accepted model comprised of four codependent subfactors. In addition, the focus of preliminary research within the field is on understanding the new construct’s correlates and outcomes. Thus, the goals for this dissertation were (a) to provide an additional evaluation of the factor structure of CI and (b) to examine further the correlates and outcomes that should theoretically be included in its nomological network. Specifically the model tests involved a one-factor, three-factor, and four-factor structure. The examined correlates of CI included the Big Five personality traits, core self-evaluation, social self-efficacy, self-monitoring, emotional intelligence, and cross-cultural experience. The examined outcomes also included overall performance, contextual performance, and cultural adaption in relation to CI. Thus, this dissertation has a series of 20 proposed and statistically evaluated hypotheses. The first study in this dissertation contained the summary of the extant CI literature via meta-analytic techniques. The outcomes of focus were significantly relevant to CI, while the CI correlates had more inconclusive results. The second and third studies contained original data collected from a sample of students and adult workers, respectively. In general, the results between these two studies were parallel. The four-factor structure of CI emerged as the best fit to the data, and several correlates and outcomes indicated significant relation to CI. In addition, the tested incremental validity of CI showed significant results emerging in both studies. Lastly, several exploratory analyses indicated the role of CI as a mediator between relevant antecedent and the outcome of cultural adaption, while the data supported the mediator role of CI. The final chapter includes a thorough discussion of practical implications as well as limitation to the research design.

Research into the dynamicity of job performance criteria has found evidence suggesting the presence of rank-order changes to job performance scores across time as well as intraindividual trajectories in job performance scores across time. These findings have influenced a large body of research into (a) the dynamicity of validities of individual differences predictors of job performance and (b) the relationship between individual differences predictors of job performance and intraindividual trajectories of job performance. In the present dissertation, I addressed these issues within the context of the Five Factor Model of personality. The Five Factor Model is arranged hierarchically, with five broad higher-order factors subsuming a number of more narrowly tailored personality facets. Research has debated the relative merits of broad versus narrow traits for predicting job performance, but the entire body of research has addressed the issue from a static perspective -- by examining the relative magnitude of validities of global factors versus their facets. While research along these lines has been enlightening, theoretical perspectives suggest that the validities of global factors versus their facets may differ in their stability across time. Thus, research is needed to not only compare the relative magnitude of validities of global factors versus their facets at a single point in time, but also to compare the relative stability of validities of global factors versus their facets across time. Also necessary to advance cumulative knowledge concerning intraindividual performance trajectories is research into broad vs. narrow traits for predicting such trajectories. In the present dissertation, I addressed these issues using a four-year longitudinal design. The results indicated that the validities of global conscientiousness were stable across time, while the validities of conscientiousness facets were more likely to fluctuate. However, the validities of emotional stability and extraversion facets were no more likely to fluctuate across time than those of the factors. Finally, while some personality factors and facets predicted performance intercepts (i.e., performance at the first measurement occasion), my results failed to indicate a significant effect of any personality variable on performance growth. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to develop a vocational interest inventory, using the "worker-oriented" job elements of Dr. Ernest J. McCormick and his associates, and to assess the reliability of the resulting instrument. The interest inventory was prepared, based on 191 of the questions from the Position Analysis Questionnaire, and the test-retest reliability was calculated for a sample of 71 high school students, over a three-week period. The mean correlation coefficient for the five over-all "job dimension" scores of the interest inventory was .80, and the average item reliability was .54. These coefficients were considered high enough to justify additional development and research on the instrument.

No description available.

Research over the last three decades has addressed the importance of integrity in leadership (e.g., Burns, 1978; Fairholm, 1991; Posner & Schmidt, 1984; Vitell & Davis, 1990). Research and application are stunted without adequate measures that assess the extent to which leaders demonstrate ethical or unethical behaviors. As business activities between countries increase (Stephens & Greer, 1995), having tests available in multiple languages can have various benefits (Zumbo, 2003). The availability of a measure in different languages can allow researchers and practitioners to facilitate assessment without having to build a new test, develop understandings of new cultural differences, and conduct comparative research. This study used the differential functioning of items and tests (DFIT; Raju, van der Linden, & Fleer, 1995) framework, based on item response theory (IRT), to assess the measurement equivalence between two language versions of the Perceived Leader Integrity Scale (PLIS; Craig & Gustafson, 1998) using samples collected from the United States, New Zealand, and Mexico. The U.S. and New Zealand samples formed the English speaking or US-NZ group and the Mexico sample formed the Spanish speaking group. Two indices of DFIT were used to determine item level (NCDIF) and test level (DTF) inequivalence between the comparison groups. Results showed 17.9% (5 out of 28) of the items to be differentially functioning. No significant DTF was identified at the test level. Post hoc explanations of the items with significant NCDIF in terms of possible cultural and linguistic influences provide information about the possible reasons why the items are functioning differentially (e.g. translation errors, cultural differences, or both). Practical implications of the current study are discussed.

The study of traits has re-emerged in the leadership literature despite its checkered past. There is now ample evidence that a variety of individual traits consistently relate to leadership effectiveness. Nonetheless, enormous ambiguity remains regarding the patterning of these traits within leaders and the implications of the various interactions among traits. A major contributor to these issues has been the failure to examine these traits within their founding theoretical context, as elements operating simultaneously as a configural system within the individual. Thus, this study examines the configurations of leadership traits in a sample of middle and upper-level managers. The main purposes of this paper are: 1) to describe clusters of within-person trait patterns in a sample of managers, and 2) to evaluate the extent to which these cluster profiles are related to performance ratings from a 360-degree feedback instrument and an assessment center. Results identified four stable clusters of managers based on the similarity of their leader trait patterns. The profile of each cluster was described and the following labels were provided: Action-Oriented Drivers, Interpersonal Achievers, Steadfast Introverts, and Apathetic Stoics. As hypothesized, these clustered displayed differences in both assessment center and multisource feedback ratings of leadership performance. For the most part, Interpersonal Achievers and Steadfast Introverts had the highest performance ratings across all dimensions and sources; however, a few interesting exceptions were revealed. Overall, results support the general premises of the person-oriented approach based on holistic interactionism theory. That is, a limited number of common trait patterns can be identified and used to describe individuals in leadership positions. In addition, based on the results of this study trait patterns assessed via a person-oriented approach are related to leadership performance and often provide a more precise explanation of leadership ratings than do individual or additive trait effects.

The detrimental impact of performance variation within the mechanics of an organizational process is well established within the field of Operations Management. Furthermore, determining the causes of and resolutions for variability in the performance of system mechanisms has become a key focus for improving organizational performance (Womack & Jones, 1996). This dissertation extends this research as it examines the prevalence and nature of human performance variability within organizations, its relationship with individual mean work performance, and its impact on individual- and group-level performance within a manufacturing context. Moreover, this study investigates the relationships between individual difference variables (conscientiousness, cognitive ability, and three facets of work ethic) and individual work performance variability. Results indicate that individual performance variability does exist in moderate to high levels within organizations. Additionally, the relationship between individual mean performance and within-person performance variability is not significant. Therefore, the two metrics may be providing different and important information about employee performance. Hierarchical regression results reveal that the average performance level of group members significantly predicts group level performance; however the relationship is moderated by the average level of individual performance variability of group members. Finally, though individual performance variability is apparent in the study, the hypothesized relationships between individual performance variability and the individual difference measures were not supported. However, post hoc analyses reveal a number of potential avenues to pursue in determining whether individual differences (e.g., Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Extraversion, etc.) may be related to individual performance variability. These findings provide a starting point for research into the impact of human performance variability on individual and group level performance. The implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed.