Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Orientation: The high unemployment level in South Africa has caused even graduates to be unemployed and yet they hold university degrees. This has increased pressure on the job seeking students to develop factors that influence employability, hence the study seeks to identify whether personality and self-esteem act as predictors of employability among final year university students. Research purpose: The objectives of this investigation were to examine whether personality, as is typically found in personality type research tool such as the, (Myers Briggs personality indicator) and self-esteem positively predict employability among final year university students. Secondly, to determine the personality types that significantly predict employability among final year university students. The last objective was to determine whether self-esteem significantly predicts employability among final year university students. Motivation for the study: This investigation is particularly important because it looks at the non-academic attributes that make job-seeking students able to attain a job and also sustain that job. The 21st century workplace is ever changing, and students are required to build proactive personalities that help them increase their employability level and stand a higher chance of getting employed. Research design, approach and method: A quantitative survey research design was used and a questionnaire was self-administered to a stratified simple random sample consisting of 238 Management and Commerce final year students at the university of Fort Hare. The study used quantitative approach and a positivism paradigm. To measure personality, TIPI scale was used and had 10 items. Employability was measured using the student self-perceived employability scale and self-esteem was measured using the Rosenberg self-esteem scale. Main findings: The results of this study showed a similarity with others obtained in prior studies. The results drawn from the statistical analysis of this study showed that there is a significant relationship between personality types such as perceiving, extraversion and feeling with employability among final year management and commerce students at the university of Fort Hare. However, the results showed that there is no positive relationship that exists between self-esteem and employability among final year job-seeking students. Practical implications: The research findings provided evidence that personality had a positive relationship with employability in an academic context. This makes it clear that student career exploration process can only be successful when special attention is given to developing individual’s human capital skills and proactive personalities. Institutions of higher learning should take advantage of some career experts in their countries and in their universities to provide students with employability lessons and guidelines. Contribution: The most important contribution of this study is that it helps to extend knowledge and understanding on the issues concerning the relationship between personality, self-esteem and employability in an academic setting. The research magnified the frame of information in the area personality in relation to employability in academic contexts. It makes available more literature that looks into these two variables (personality and self-esteem) in an African context.

Ph.D. / Most people‘s future aspiration and dreams are closely linked to the work activities that they engage in on a daily basis. Work is a central theme in human evolution and plays a key role in the social and economic spheres of human existence (Blustein, 2006; Donkin, 2001; Fouad & Bynner, 2008). However, the vocational landscape has undergone prolific changes in recent times and the way in which work is organised and performed has changed dramatically from preceding eras (Chipunza & Berry, 2010). These changes have contributed to the production of highly stressful and pressured working conditions that adversely impact employees‘ overall wellness (Blouin, Chopra, & Van der Hoeven, 2009; Marmot, Siegrist, & Theorell, 2006). Organisational responses to employee stress have historically been embedded in the pathogenic paradigm, which aims to minimise the direct financial cost of distressed and vulnerable employees through providing some form of prevention-based employee therapy (Wright, 2003). However, as organisations become increasingly dependent on employees who are willing to conduct multiple in-role and extra-role work activities they are shifting their focus towards the total wellbeing of their workers. Clearly, key organisational goals will not be achieved with a workforce that is simply healthy in the traditional sense of the word, implying that employees are symptom-free and do not suffer from physical illness (Ulrich, 1997). Instead, organisational goals will most likely only be achieved through the promotion of workforce wellness, which refers to not only counteracting the adverse impact of highly demanding work environments on employee health but also promoting engagement and flourishing at work. Research on occupational wellness has a rich tradition of describing and measuring the ways in which job characteristics external to the person (e.g. job design, technology, and organisational structure) impact on employees‘ well-being (Briner, Harris, & Daniels, 2004; Mark & Smith, 2010). Although occupational wellness has largely been associated with organisational and environmental factors recent research suggests that perceptions of work wellness are equally influenced by employees‘ individual cognitive-affective tendencies (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007; Bakker & Derks, 2009). Work wellness can therefore be viewed as a function of the dynamic interaction between job characteristics and personal attributes, with personality potentially moderating the relationship between stressor and strain outcomes (Swider & Zimmerman, 2010; Van den Heuvel, Demerouti, Bakker, & Schaufeli, 2010).

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the relationship between personality type and leadership focus. Personality type is studied from the perspective of Jungian Theory and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator instrument, and leadership focus is explored through the development and application of a Leadership Focus Questionnaire. South African executives form the target population for this research. The overall research problem concerns how best to address the challenges of optimising focus and managing risk that is inherent in strategic leadership. Both functionalist and interpretive approaches were applied to produce a rounded understanding of what constitutes leadership focus. The application of a functionalist approach resulted in three primary theoretical hypotheses being derived from the literature, namely, that leadership focus is a function of (1) optimising the balance of focus between external and internal priorities, (2) the fit between the leadership personality type and the organisation type, and (3) the capacity to manage a multiple focus. The interpretation of the responses from the sample of executives participating in the research study yielded a related set of first and second order factors relating to leadership focus that revolve around the level of comfort experienced by executives in managing focus in the leadership role. The approach to this research was one of methodological triangulation. A survey-based methodology was employed, containing both quantitative and qualitative questions. The results of the quantitative analysis of the relationship between personality type and leadership focus were contrasted and extended by a qualitative content analysis of the qualitative survey responses. The propositions were tested on a sample of South African executives attending management development programmes run by Wits Business School, University of Witwatersrand, in both Johannesburg and Cape Town. The findings show that Extraverted personality types are more comfortable with the challenges of focus in the leadership role than are Introverted types. In addition, Extraverted, Sensing, Thinking and Judging types experience a greater degree of fit with their organisations than do Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling and Perceiving types. The implications are that in a business environment of ongoing change, market innovation and increasing stakeholder expectations, organisation leaders of all personality types need to develop a greater consciousness of their preferred and less preferred behaviours, and a greater ability to complement their preferred leadership behaviours with less preferred behaviours when necessary, to optimise their leadership focus over time. / Dr. Loius Carstens

M.Ed. (Psychology of Education) / Education is fundamentally an imaginative act of hope” (Purkey and Novak, 1996, p.1) and this hope is dependent on one’s ability to care enough to develop each child to his or her full potential. The intention of this study is to determine the dispositions of fourth year Foundation Phase students at a local higher education institute, and to establish how these dispositions influence their practice during their scheduled teaching practicals. The findings from this study will be used to propose a strategy for Initial Professional Education and Training (IPET) programmes in order to explicitly develop invitational dispositions in Foundation Phase teachers in training. The study is supported by a theoretical framework which investigates the notion of dispositions and the development of these through the lenses of structuration theory, social cognitive theory and attribution-based theory of motivation, and leading to the application of the Invitational Education approach. Self concept theory and perceptual theory are encompassed within this approach, and form an integral part of the study. From this theoretical framework, an invitational dispositional framework is developed to represent the inter-connected nature of the five invitational dispositions of care, intentionality, trust, respect and optimism. The research design and methodology of the study is located in the interpretivist paradigm, using a case study design within a qualitative approach. A survey is used to collect data relating to fourth year Foundation Phase students’ opinions regarding the essential dispositions required by Foundation Phase teachers in order to establish positive teaching and learning environments. Further data is gathered from two nested cases of fourth year Foundation Phase students during both their first and second teaching practicals, through the means of observations, interviews and document analysis. Each data source is analysed through content analysis in an attempt to identify the common patterns that emerge, followed by the coding of the data according to the invitational dispositions of care, intentionality, trust, respect and optimism. The opinions of the students, as determined from the analysis of the survey, are then compared to their actions as demonstrated through their practice, with a final consideration of the developmental trajectory of these dispositions. From this study, it was found that the dispositional ability to care is of paramount importance in Foundation Phase teaching and that this dispositional ability is determined in three inter- iii connected areas. A reduced ability to care in one of the interactional areas of self, others and the profession results in a decreased ability to care in the other areas as well. Upon analysis of the data, it was discovered that low levels of self confidence and limited care for the learning taking place in classrooms results in inconsistent invitational interactions between the student and the children. Lower levels of care further impacts upon the students’ ability to act with intentionality in each of the three interactional areas. Students would greatly benefit from explicit development in their reflective practice and in their self confidence, as “caring is an ethic that guides action” (Purkey and Novak, 1996, p.9). In this way students would be able to be Intentionally Inviting more consistently, and purposefully engage with children in the teaching and learning process.

The foundational principles of Holland’s (1985b, 1992, 1997) vocational theory state that career choice is an expression of personality, in that individuals with specific personality types seek out work or learning environments that match their personality types. Furthermore, interest inventories such as the Self-Directed Search (Holland, Powell, & Fritzsche, 1994) can be regarded as personality inventories and used to ensure that individuals find themselves in a working environment that is best suited to their interests and personality type. In addition to instruments that measure interests, Holland also developed dictionaries of occupations coded according to the characteristics and interests of different occupations and working environments, such as the Dictionary of Holland occupational codes (Gottfredson & Holland, 1996). The level of congruence between personality types and occupational types is linked to career satisfaction, stability and achievement. This premise only holds true, however, if the codes for the occupational environment suggested by Holland (1985c) are, in fact, valid. In other words, do the codes suggested by Holland match the personality types of individuals entering or who are already employed in a particular work or learning environment? There have been many studies conducted with regard to the validity of Holland’s prescribed interest typology codes. Spokane, Meier and Catalano (2000) located a large number of empirical studies published since 1985 that relate directly to the validity of Holland’s codes, many of which have suggested that the existing codes may not be valid. There is a scarcity of such research in South Africa, especially with regard to vital and growing occupational fields, such as the ecotourism industry, that are so important to the economic well-being of the country. Consequently, the overall aim of the present study was to explore and describe the interest codes of male and female South African student and working field guides in order to discuss the appropriateness of the occupational codes prescribed by Holland for the field guiding profession. The quantitative design of the study was exploratory-descriptive in nature and made use of the Self-Directed Search Questionnaire (Holland, Fritzsche, & Powell, 1994). The total sample consisted of 100 participants (68 male and 32 female), constituting 40 working field guides and 60 field guide students. Descriptive analyses were conducted with the use of frequency tables, charts, means and standard ix deviations. In addition, Independent sample t-tests were computed in order to describe and compare the mean scores of the interests for males and females, and to compare the mean scores of the interests for student and working field guides. The results of this study suggest that the prescribed occupational code (SRI; Social, Realistic, Investigative) for South African field guides may not be appropriate and that an interest profile such as SREI AC may be more appropriate. These results, in combination with the findings of the research review, suggest the need for a more extensive, cross-cultural study to determine the appropriateness of Holland’s occupational codes for South African occupations, which may lead to a revision of the South African Dictionary of Occupations (Taljaard & von Mollendorf, 1987).

The general purpose of this study is to investigate and identify the relationship between transformational and leadership personality preferences. The aim of the study is therefore to establish an empirical link between transformational leadership and certain aspects of personality preferences in order to verify if these leaders can be distinguished from others by means of their personality preferences. The transformational leaders’ ratings as identified by use of the Multifactor questionnaire are compared with personality preferences indicated on the scales of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator®. Given the research literature an expectation exists that a statistically significant difference will be found between aspects of personality preferences of transformational and non-transformational leaders. Therefore transformational leaders will be identifiable from non-transformational leaders by their personality preferences. The research group was a convenience sample that consisted of 66 leaders chosen from two organisations in the financial and entertainment industries at the level of team leader or in a supervisory capacity. The statistical procedures utilised in the analysis of the data included analysis of frequencies, ttests and cross tabulations. Firstly, the transformational leaders in the selected organisations were identified successfully. As far as determining the personality preferences of the identified transformational leaders and establishing any possible links between the transformational leadership style and chosen personality preferences, the only significant difference was found between the introversion and extroversion preferences. A significant difference between introversion and extroversion in terms of the Intellectual Stimulation rating on the MLQ was found as well as in terms of the Average and Inspirational Motivation ratings. No other statistically significant differences or interdependencies were found between the personality preferences as identified by the MBTI® and any of the ratings on the MLQ. The third objective of determining whether personality preference can be utilised to predict transformational leadership is therefore answered. From the findings of this study it seems as if personality preferences cannot be utilised to predict transformational leadership in for instance a selection process in a company. As this research group was highly selected and not representative of the general population, it is not possible to generalise the findings of this study. Although the research group was not representative, the findings of this study matched with those of other studies, and the deduction is therefore made that if this study was to be repeated, similar results would be found. / Prof. S. Kruger

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to seek an understanding of the problem of low morale among Catholic priests based on the principles of Individual Psychology. The relationship of Adlerian life-style and social interest to job satisfaction among 210 pastors randomly selected from 13 of the 14 Catholic dioceses in Texas was investigated. The Life-style Personality Inventory (LSPI) was used to measure the Adlerian life-style. The Social Interest Scale (SIS) was used to measure the Adlerian concept of social interest. The Job Descriptive Index (JDI) was used to measure job satisfaction.

by Kenneth, Kai-cheong, Luk. / Quenstionnaire in Chinese. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-84). / ABSTRACT --- p.i / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.v / ACKNOWLEDGMENT --- p.vii / Chapter / Chapter I. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Background of the Study --- p.1 / Theoretical Framework --- p.2 / Research Questions and its Significant --- p.5 / Chapter II. --- Literature Review --- p.9 / Pay Level and Gender --- p.10 / Pay Level and Academic Achievement --- p.13 / Pay focus and Achievement Motivation --- p.14 / Pay Base and Locus of Control --- p.18 / Pay Structure and Machiavellianism --- p.20 / Chapter III --- Hypotheses of the Study --- p.22 / Chapter IV --- Methodology --- p.25 / Sample --- p.25 / Measurement --- p.25 / Independent Variables --- p.25 / Dependent Variables --- p.28 / Controlling Variables --- p.29 / Dummy Variables --- p.31 / Questionnaire Design --- p.31 / Pilot Testing --- p.32 / Statistical Power --- p.33 / Statistical Analysis --- p.34 / Chapter V --- Result of the Study --- p.38 / Hypotheses Testing --- p.55 / Chapter VI --- Discussion and Conclusion --- p.58 / Limitation --- p.65 / Implication --- p.67 / Further Research Suggestion --- p.69 / Conclusion --- p.71 / Chapter Appendix 1 --- The Questionnaire --- p.73 / Bibliography --- p.78