This study explored both the relationship between coping resources (as measured by the Coping Resources Inventory) and psychological career resources (as measured by the Psychological Career Resources Inventory) and also whether individuals from different gender and employment status groups (part-time work experience versus no work experience) differ significantly regarding their coping resources and psychological career resources. A cross-sectional survey design and quantitative statistical procedures were used to analyse the data which was obtained from a purposive non-probability sample of N = 197 early career unemployed, black graduates. The results showed significant positive associations between psychological career resources and coping resources. It also emerged that the male and female participants differed significantly with regard to their emotional, spiritual and physical coping resources and the psychological career resources of career harmonisers and career drivers. In addition, it was found that those participants who had part-time work experience displayed a significantly higher need for career venturing and also manifested higher behavioural adaptability than those who had no work experience. Recommendations for future research and practice were made. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The postmodern organisation and its leaders are faced with relentless turbulence and change and a compelling economic drive for success. The recent exponential rise in the popularity of coaching can be ascribed to the business need for the development of leadership bench-strength. Appreciative inquiry (AI) claims to be a source of untapped strength for organisations in the postmodern world and a source of sustainable solutions and genesis for energy. However, the scarcity of evidence of coaching linked to a postmodern stance, incorporating AI principles, as well as using group-based coaching methods, provided an opportunity for this study to respond to the challenges and contribute to the theory and practice of leadership coaching in the organisational setting by investigating the transformative effects of a postmodern group-based leadership coaching programme (LCP) on leaders’ personal and professional perspectives. The premises suggest that postmodern group-based coaching is a practical and cost-effective methodology in multi-cultural international organisations. Furthermore, postmodern coaching in groups can transform the personal and professional perspectives of leaders, specifically in transforming future plans, goal-directedness, confidence, resilience, hope, subjective well-being and empowerment as a leader, as well as broadening life outlooks. Key transformative themes were identified: self-knowledge, appreciation of others, broader vision, self-control and work-life integration. This applied study has made a valuable contribution to the body of research in the area of postmodern and group-based coaching. Replication of the study in other industries, setting and with different levels of leadership, training of postmodern coaches and robust follow-up coaching were identified as opportunities for further exploration. / Industrial & Organisational Psychology / D.Lit. et Phil. (Industrial Psychology)

The general objective of this research was to do a comparative study of the Trust Audit results - obtained during 2000 - of three Business Units of a South African Company in order to determine whether there are any significant differences between them regarding the ”Big Five” personality dimensions and the ”Managerial Practices” dimensions. Trust has been found to be an essential ingredient in all organisations, providing the impetus for employers to gain a better understanding of the building blocks of organisational trust and to restore eroded trust. The intensity of any trust relationship will depend on certain facilitators of trustworthiness which may facilitate or impede the flow of trust. Research studies indicate that organisations with high levels of trust will be more successful, adaptive, and innovative than organisations with low levels of trust or pervasive mistrust. Positive results were indicated for all Business Units regarding the personality aspects. The most positive ”Big Five” dimensions were conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness while the lowest dimension was resourcefulness. Overall results regarding managerial practices indicated that not enough information sharing took place and that this had a negative effect within the work environment. The credibility dimension, being lower than the others, indicated that better credibility of persons that are reported to, could improve trust and optimal functioning within the working environment. Team management, work support and trust relationship were viewed positively by all Business Units. One of the main conclusions of this research was that managers/leaders have a pivotal role to play in creating high-trust organisations and engendering trusting relationships. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.Comm. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The aim of the study was to determine the impact of transformational leadership styles of managers on subordinates' job satisfaction, in a steel and mining company. Leadership was conceptualised from the trait, behavioural, contingency and neocharismatic theories. Job satisfaction was derived from content and process theories.The literature highlighted leadership and job satisfaction theories, the changing context of leadership and research of both transformational leadership and job satisfaction. The study was exploratory and a random sample (N=126) was used. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire was used to measure transformational leadership and the Job Satisfaction Survey was used to measure subordinate job satisfaction. The results indicated that there was a significant impact of transformational leadership styles of managers on subordinates' job satisfaction, more specifically, in terms of fringe benefits and pay dimensions of job satisfaction, as well as the biographical variable, age. Future research may include transformational leadership styles and other variables such as performance and productivity in the steel and mining industry as well as the biographical variable, age. uture research may include transformational leadership styles and other ariables such as performance and productivity in the steel and mining ndustry. / Industrial Psychology / M.Adm. (Industrial Psychology)

This research explores the relationship between the organisational culture and financial performance of a South African investment bank by means of quantitative research. The Denison Organizational Culture Survey was used to measure the organisational culture of the investment bank and was administered to a sample of 327 employees. Income statement ratio analysis was selected as a means to assess the financial performance. The results indicate that very few of the financial measures selected could be shown to be correlated with the organisational cultural traits or subscales. Correlations between the cultural dimensions of team orientation, agreement, customer focus and vision were found with certain financial measures. Although these correlations were above the 0.50 level, the levels of significance were not sufficient in all cases to draw conclusions with confidence. The only cultural trait that was found to be correlated with financial measures was the consistency trait. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The postmodern organisation and its leaders are faced with relentless turbulence and change and a compelling economic drive for success. The recent exponential rise in the popularity of coaching can be ascribed to the business need for the development of leadership bench-strength. Appreciative inquiry (AI) claims to be a source of untapped strength for organisations in the postmodern world and a source of sustainable solutions and genesis for energy. However, the scarcity of evidence of coaching linked to a postmodern stance, incorporating AI principles, as well as using group-based coaching methods, provided an opportunity for this study to respond to the challenges and contribute to the theory and practice of leadership coaching in the organisational setting by investigating the transformative effects of a postmodern group-based leadership coaching programme (LCP) on leaders’ personal and professional perspectives. The premises suggest that postmodern group-based coaching is a practical and cost-effective methodology in multi-cultural international organisations. Furthermore, postmodern coaching in groups can transform the personal and professional perspectives of leaders, specifically in transforming future plans, goal-directedness, confidence, resilience, hope, subjective well-being and empowerment as a leader, as well as broadening life outlooks. Key transformative themes were identified: self-knowledge, appreciation of others, broader vision, self-control and work-life integration. This applied study has made a valuable contribution to the body of research in the area of postmodern and group-based coaching. Replication of the study in other industries, setting and with different levels of leadership, training of postmodern coaches and robust follow-up coaching were identified as opportunities for further exploration. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D.Lit. et Phil. (Industrial Psychology)

Global and South African business challenges necessitate an increased focus on the need for effective leadership. The leaders of South African public listed organisations need to investigate new business solutions to enhance and sustain organisational effectiveness. Public listed South African organisations on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) were selected as the organisation type for this study. This study was motivated by the need for public listed South African organisations to explore organisational leadership as a means to assist in differentiating their organisations from competitors, thereby enhancing organisational competitiveness. The primary research objective of this study was to investigate and establish an organisational leadership brand concept model for public listed South African organisations. The discussion of the literature covered the global and South African business context, the concepts of the nature of organisational leadership, brand and organisational leadership brand, and emminated in an exploratory conceptualisation of organisational leadership brand for public listed South African organisations. The pragmatic paradigm was used as the foundation of this study. The study adopted an exploratory, sequential mixed methods research approach, combining a qualitative emphasis and supportive quantitative research approach to conduct the exploratory research. The qualitative findings proposed the concepts: the nature of organisational leadership and organisational leadership brand, including stakeholders and these concepts served as the basis for designing the quantitative survey questionnaire. The quantitative results indicated reliable questionnaire items, and based on the exploratory statistical analysis of the multivariate linear regression equation, described the organisational leadership brand (OLB) concept exploratory model with the best fit. An integration of the qualitative findings and quantitative results provided the empirical support to achieve the primary research objective. The OLB concept model integrates the concepts of organisational leadership and organisational leadership brand. The study contributed across the methodological, theoretical and practical domains as follows: the nature of organisational leadership for South African public listed organisations was conceptualised; the elements comprising the concept of OLB for public listed South African organisations was described; the OLB concept model for public listed South African organisations describes the development of organisational leadership brand equity through four levels of organisational leadership brand equity development; and the OLB concept model for public listed South African organisations may assist by providing guidance for the senior leadership of organisations in establishing organisational leadership brand equity. Furthermore, the study’s research approach provides support for the use of a mixed methods research approach in the study of organisational leadership within the pragmatic context of business organisations / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Consulting Psychology)

Emergent change is a pervasive force in modern organisations. However, the subjective experiences of emergent change for frontline individuals and teams have not been explored in organisational change literature. The integrative field of applied neurosciences offers valuable insights into the underlying neural mechanisms that shape these experiences and drive responses in order to meet basic psychological needs. Using interactive qualitative analysis (IQA), this study involved a focus group and follow-up interviews with nine participants at a South African software development company to explore the experiences of emergent change at work. System dynamics reflected that these experiences are significantly more complex than literature and practice currently account for, and that individuals and teams find their experiences of emergent change to threaten their sense of safety and basic psychological needs. The physiological and emotional experiences were found to be driving elements. Peak performance state and the relational environment were found to be salient outcomes. Findings present the opportunity for the reconceptualisation of emergent change, a shift in focus from change itself to the human experiences thereof and the importance of embracing new possibilities, tools and practices for meeting needs and thriving in an ever-changing world. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

This study explored both the relationship between coping resources (as measured by the Coping Resources Inventory) and psychological career resources (as measured by the Psychological Career Resources Inventory) and also whether individuals from different gender and employment status groups (part-time work experience versus no work experience) differ significantly regarding their coping resources and psychological career resources. A cross-sectional survey design and quantitative statistical procedures were used to analyse the data which was obtained from a purposive non-probability sample of N = 197 early career unemployed, black graduates. The results showed significant positive associations between psychological career resources and coping resources. It also emerged that the male and female participants differed significantly with regard to their emotional, spiritual and physical coping resources and the psychological career resources of career harmonisers and career drivers. In addition, it was found that those participants who had part-time work experience displayed a significantly higher need for career venturing and also manifested higher behavioural adaptability than those who had no work experience. Recommendations for future research and practice were made. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

This study explored the lived experiences of foreign academics’ wellbeing and adjustment and the impact thereof on their job performance in a South African higher education (HE) institution. The qualitative interpretive study reviewed the literature on wellbeing, adjustment and job performance. It explored the impact of wellbeing and adjustment factors on performance, both personally and professionally. The job demands-resources (JD-R) model was applied in the study to demonstrate that when job resources are high, employee wellbeing, adjustment and job performance is enhanced. Purposive sampling was used to draw a sample of five foreign academics who were employed at the HE institution for more than one year and originated from different countries. Online video calling was used to gather data from the participants using semi-structured interviews. Content analysis was used to create themes and sub-themes from which the study findings were derived and conclusions, as well as recommendations, were made. The study revealed that the wellbeing and adjustment of foreign academics have a significant impact on their job performance. Recommendations were made to the HR managers, I/O psychologists, foreign academics as well as line managers on how to improve the wellbeing and adjustment of foreign academics at the HE institution. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Comm. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)