To date, there has been little, if any, holistic evaluation of one of the BankSETA programmes that bank employees are nominated to attend, the Certificate in Management Development (CMD). The programme began in 2010 with the aim of increasing the pool of skills in entry-level management occupations in the banking and micro-finance sector (BankSETA, 2016). In order to verify whether the CMD programme has achieved the purpose for which it was instituted by the BankSETA, it is important that a programme evaluation be conducted. The main aim of this study was to undertake a holistic evaluation of the CMD programme to determine students’ perceptions, their increase in knowledge, their ability to apply on-the-job learning and the impact of the programme on the organisation. It also aimed to identify any barriers or obstacles and to provide recommendations to the BankSETA. Kirkpatrick’s (1996) four-level model of reaction, learning, behaviour and results was used as the theoretical framework for this study. A convergent parallel design was used to gather and analyse the data. The convergent design allowed the researcher to use quantitative and qualitative data-collection methods simultaneously, prioritising the methods equally and keeping each phase independent during analysis, and to then mix the results during the overall interpretation of the findings. The findings of this study highlight the importance of programme evaluation and how indispensable this practice is to the success of any programme. Even though positive results were conveyed at every phase of the study, there are certain areas that can be improved upon in order to maximise the outcomes of the CMD programme. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

The objective of this study was: (1) to determine the relationship between job embeddedness (measured by the Job Embeddedness Scale), work engagement (measured by the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale), and turnover intention (measured by the Turnover Intention Scale); and (2) to determine whether employees from different groups, namely age, race, gender, marital status and tenure differ significantly in their levels of job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention. A quantitative survey was conducted on a non-probability purposive sample (N = 153) of staff in a higher education institution. Correlational analyses revealed significant relationships between job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention. Multiple regression analyses showed that organisation links and dedication negatively predicted the participants’ turnover intention. Significant differences between age, race, gender, marital status and tenure were also found. The findings contribute valuable knowledge to the field of Career Psychology and can be applied in the retention of employees in the higher education institution. The study concludes with recommendations for future research and practice. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

Defence organisations have now significantly developed and in the process they have applied various measures to sustain their progresses and encourage innovation. One of those measures is by embarking on KM programs. KM in military is seen as a strategic approach to achieving defense objectives by leveraging the value of collective knowledge through the process of creating, gathering, organizing, sharing and transferring knowledge into action. It is through proper knowledge management practices that an organisation embraces and manages its knowledge generation, knowledge acquisition, knowledge organisation, knowledge storage, transfer, knowledge sharing, and knowledge retention. The purpose of this study was to investigate knowledge management practices in the Department of Defence (RSA). The objective of the study was to find out how the department appreciates, understands, interprets and handles its knowledge. This study employed triangulation method to present trustworthiness of both qualitative and quantitative research approaches using positivist research design. Questionnaires, interviews and document analysis were employed to collect data. In order to arrive at the number of participants who received the questionnaires, a probability sampling method called stratified random sampling was used as well as purposive sampling. When setting up a study, it was essential to review the research identified in the literature review and to determine whether there is anything relevant to the research design of the proposed study. The study found that knowledge management was hardly understood generally in the department and was not an approach used and institutionalised for the benefit of the organisation. However there was embedded knowledge management appreciation from a few staff members in the department, only managing their own knowledge regarding learning, capturing and storage. Additionally there is a significant number of staff members who believe knowledge management is a way to go in the future and strongly believe their Defence Department needs to adopt a comprehensive and inclusive KM approach. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)

This study is concerned with what is happening within a mentorship interaction between engineers aimed at knowledge transfer. The practice of knowledge transfer is contextualised within the knowledge economy that ideologically positions Western economies as knowledge holders and advanced, while positioning developing countries as knowledge deficient and backwards. The prevailing literature regards knowledge transfer as difficult to achieve and is primarily focused on factors that hinder its success, looking to causal relational factors between and within the participants, in particular the qualities of knowledge receivers. Constructing the relationship and the individuals engaged in knowledge transfer as problematic brings about certain types of relations between individuals and between groups. These bring into play the positioning of role players within knowledge transfer that is not neutral, creating asymmetrical power relations and impacting identity construction. Studies in knowledge transfer have examined the factors that inhibit successful knowledge transfer extensively and do not consider its discursive context or considerations of power relations. Based on the assumption that discourse produces social practices and individual identities within social, historical and cultural contexts, this study adopted a social constructionist perspective and suggests that the ways in which identities are constructed in a mentorship interaction affect how participants experience and make sense of their worlds, which has implications for the practice of knowledge transfer. Viewing power as embedded in relations, a Foucauldian Discourse Analysis was conducted of discursive constructions generated from 17 interviews of participants engaged in a multinational knowledge transfer project between South African and Saudi Arabian engineers. The analysis showed that the construction of self and other does have an impact on knowledge transfer between Saudi Arabian and South African engineers. The multiple identity constructions of the participants within the knowledge transfer relationship were resourced from dominant discourses that reveal different meanings attributed to the participants’ mentorship experience and showed the systematic setting up of self and other within unequal power relations that favour the self. The study suggests that deeper consideration should be given to the effects of othering and power within social interactions between individuals located in divergent contexts such as those that characterise knowledge transfer. / Psychology / Ph. D. (Consulting Psychology)

This qualitative study investigated the influences of psychosocial meta-capacities on learning capacity development in a foreign government agency that is undergoing extensive organisational change. The data was obtained through semi-structured interviews with seven participants, who are employees of a foreign visa-processing unit based in South Africa. The participants shared their experiences during the organisational change process, and how different aspects impacted on their learning capacity development. The study highlighted self-efficacy and emotional intelligence as key meta-capacities that can be enhanced to aid learning capacity development. Furthermore, the study recommended that organisations intending to introduce significant changes should be aware of the psychosocial meta-capacities that can be exploited to enhance employee learning capacity development, thereby ultimately ensuring organisational success. This study seems to suggest that the positive influences on learning capacity development are: self-efficacy in the form of self- beliefs about one’s performance ability; the ability to take initiative; and learning orientation - for example, a sense of exploration; emotional intelligence in the form of self-awareness in relation to what needs to happen, and the positive impact of social support systems, for example, supervisors, role models and fellow colleagues. Negative influences on learning capacity development seem to include the following: the inability to manage performance anxiety; high levels of self-doubt, the lack of technical expertise, and learning paralysis in the form of procrastination and the lack of self-motivation. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)