No description available.

No description available.

No abstract available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1996.

In this current hypercompetitive environment organisations are forced to become more efficient and effective. In this respect, one of the most popular tools used to streamline and improve service delivery is the application of performance appraisal systems. The objective of this study is to determine the extent to which the current performance appraisal system of BCS-Net Pty Ltd complies with the requirements and guidelines for performance appraisal as stipulated in the literature, in other words how effective is the current performance appraisal system utilised by BCSNet Pty Ltd. A quantitative research method was used to seek answers to the research questions. Survey questionnaires were sent to various respondents for data collection. The questions in the survey questionnaire were grouped into various criteria for an effective performance appraisal. All employees that were previously evaluated by the organisation were allowed to participate. A literature review was conducted to determine what criteria constituted an effective performance appraisal system. After analysing the relevant information from the organisation's employees it became apparent that the current performance appraisal system of the organisation was ineffective and it did not meet all the requirements for the criteria for a successful and effective performance appraisal system. Secondly, there was a clear indication that not all the supervisors/managers were adequately trained to conduct a performance appraisal and there was no consistency with regards to the implementation of the current performance appraisal system across the organisation. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

Human resource management as practiced today within organisations carries a century of history. Focus has shifted from its simple origins as a welfare concern for the lot of workers by certain enlightened employers in Great Britain to the current human resource management which is an integral part of the management of an organisation. It has moved from being a peripheral to an essential service. This shift has been accompanied by an ongoing attempt to achieve professional recognition for human resource practitioners whose occupation it is to implement the principles and practices of human resource management. The study endeavours to present and analyse the history of the professionalisation of human resource management in South Africa. It is a story which has not been previously researched, other than in a passing manner by a few authors in South Africa in text books on the theories and practices of human resource management. This study is therefore a first detailed investigation into the subject of the professionalisation of human resource management in this country. The study focuses on a period from 1945 to 1995 which represents the most formative years of professionalisation in South Africa. Appropriate background contextual material is included to enable an informed assessment to be made ofthe South African experience, which covers the concept of professionalisation, experience in Great Britain and the United States of America together with relevant references to South African history. Human resource management is not practiced in isolation and the historical process of professionalisation needs to be assessed both contextually and conceptually. The fifty year period of the study allows for an understanding of the nature of human resource management to emerge and to assess whether professional status has been achieved. The research period commences with the establishment of the Institute of Personnel Management in 1945 and traces developments from then up to a unique Institute convention in 1995 where a symbolic reconciliation takes place between black and white practitioners. South African racial history had an effect on the process of professionalisation and the study reveals th.e implications. The process of professionalisation is observed to be ongoing and continued attempts at achieving statutory recognition for the profession are noted in the study and assessed. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

The focus of this study revolved around the importance of internal corporate communication to employees within Durban organisations. The research objectives were to measure the importance of internal corporate communication to employees within Durban organisations; ascertain the reasons why employees attributed the identified levels of importance to internal corporate communication; and identify the methods of internal corporate communication that were most preferred by Durban employees. The study analysed the data received from 165 respondents, who as a prerequisite, were employed within the Durban area. The sample was attained with the use of the snowballing sampling technique. A self-completion questionnaire, which was quantitative in nature, was distributed to the participants and a two week data collection period was allotted. The collected data was analysed using SPSS statistical software, the results of which revealed that internal corporate communication was of significant importance to Durban employees. It further revealed that there was a direct relationship between a manager’s communication skills and the confidence that subordinates place in the manager. Other positive relationships that evidently existed were between internal corporate communication and job performance; internal corporate communication and employee decision making ability; and internal corporate communication and team work. The findings revealed that by improving the effectiveness of the communication, employers would be able to improve employee morale, commitment, job performance and decision making. The research further revealed that email, face-to-face communication, and the sms were the most preferred mediums for internal corporate communication. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2011.

The study which was presented in this thesis was an attempt by the administrators at a state institution for the mentally retarded to determine the effects of providing staff with performance feedback in order to increase the staff's implementation of assigned duties, which were defined as implementing the training programs and writing of weekly progress notes relative to the training objectives for assigned residents. During the course of the study additional interventions were introduced which compounded or appeared to intensify the effects of the pro-vision of performance feedback to the staff. Prior to the discussion of the afore mentioned study, the thesis presents a brief historical view of the development of institutions for the mentally retarded in the U. S.

Two groups of employees who worked in a residential institution were subjects in an experiment testing the effects of an incentive program designed to improve attendance. Each employee in the experimental group who attended work on a scheduled day received one poker card from a standard deck of 52 playing cards. At the end of each week, the employee holding the best poker hand was awarded $25 by the manager of the facility and was commended for his or her attendance. Employees in the comparison group received no special treatment and were maintained under the previously established attendance policy. Results of the study indicated that absenteeism for the experimental group decreased by approximately 50% during the poker phases of the experiment. Inferences based on the data, however, were difficult because the scientific reasoning used in the study was undermined due to similar changes in the comparison group's absenteeism. Implications of the results were discussed in terms of improvements and suggestions for future research.

Based on Bayer and Gerstein's (1988a) Bystander-Equity Model of Supervisory Helping Behavior, this study examined the relationship between characteristics of Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), supervisors, workers, and the EAP referral process. These theorists suggest that individual and environmental variables interact in a dynamic fashion and that one result of this process is a management-initiated EAP referral. Specifically, it was hypothesized that managerial status, type of troubled worker, and EAP location would affect supervisors' likelihood to refer hypothetical impaired employees to an EAP.Graduate students (N = 222) were asked to imagine themselves as supervisors (upper, middle, or front-line) employed by a fictitious manufacturing firm. They were also asked to imagine that they were responsible for some hypothetical workers described in a set of scenarios. Each participant received one of three sets of scenarios (cocaine abuser, alcohol abuser, or job-impaired worker). Additionally, half of the participants were told that their EAP was corporately owned and company-based, and that the personnel were employees of the firm. The other half were told that their EAP was contracted-out to independent practitioners (i.e., not employees of the company), and that the program was community-based. Upon review of each scenario, respondents were asked to indicate their likelihood (OZ-100%) of referring a particular hypothetical employee to their fictitious EAP.Results of an ANOVA revealed no significant interactions. As expected, however, two main effects for type of substance abuse and managerial level were found. Participants were more likely to refer cocaine abusers to an EAP than alcohol or non-substance abusing hypothetical employees. Referral rates were also found to be higher for alcohol abusing workers as compared to non-substance abusers. Additionally, it was discovered that front-line managers were more likely to make referrals as contrasted with upper-level managers. There was no effect found for the location of the EAP.Based on these findings a number of theoretical explanations were offered as were empirical and programmitic implications. Limitations of this project were discussed in terms of the analogue methodology, the single dependent measure (i.e., likelihood to refer), the stimulus materials, and the sample population used. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.