Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology: Information Technology In the Faculty of Informatics and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology / Dealing with information quality issues remains a serious concern for organisations. With the fact that modern organisations generate much higher volumes of information than they did in the past, with more variety and at a higher velocity, this concern is only expected to increase. Information quality is a complex topic and there is no single view shared by stakeholders on the quality of information within an organisation’s value chain and information quality issues experienced by stakeholders are also different. In this study, the topic of information quality is addressed through the following research questions: How do information stakeholders view the quality of information throughout the information value chain of a retail organisation? What kind of information quality issues do business stakeholders experience throughout the information value chain of a retail organisation? And how are stakeholder decisions affected by information quality when producing or consuming information at the different touch points of the information value chain? An interpretive research approach was chosen for this study to explore this complex topic. The research was conducted in two phases. A literature review in which different concepts related to information quality were investigated was the first phase. In the second phase, a specific business case was investigated before findings from the two phases were analysed and discussed In response to the main research questions, the findings of the research indicated that information quality is complex and there is no single view shared by all stakeholders involved in an information value chain.

<p>In the current recessionary cycle in which individuals finds themselves, it is interesting to see whether organisations and individuals have changed their strategies or whether they pursued their tried and tested inherent mechanisms of recruitment/work selection. In recessionary times, organisations would usually have a bigger pool to select from whilst employees, in turn, would try to position themselves in a stable work environment. From an organisational perspective, organisations have also undergone major transitions such as downsizing, merges and acquisitions, right sizing, restructuring, and reengineering. These changes have a direct impact on employees&rsquo / level of motivation and job satisfaction (Ellison &amp / Schreuder, 2000). The concept of a traditional career that an employee occupies for a lifetime performing one type of work in an organisation no longer exists. Instead, employees now work for more than one organisation in their lifetime. These changes entail that employees need to be flexible and adaptive in making career decisions (Schreuder &amp / Coetzee, 2006). Career anchors can be operationalized as a representation of self- perceived talents, motives, values and abilities that guide employees to make career decisions. Schreuder and Coetzee (2006), are of the opinion that if employees are not familiar with their&nbsp / career anchors, they could find themselves trapped in work environments that are not satisfactory and would continually be questioning themselves. Suutari and Taka (2004) emphasize the fact that there needs to be a fit between the careers of employees and the work environment. If there is no fit between the career anchors of employees and the work environment then employees are likely to become dissatisfied which may result in a high turnover of staff with a corresponding low productivity rate. This study investigates and explores the phenomenon of career anchors based&nbsp / on Schein&rsquo / s 1978 career anchor theory and how these career anchors affect employees level of job satisfaction. The Career Anchor Inventory and the Job Descriptive Index were administered to a sample of 154 employees at a leading retail organisation who completed the questionnaires. The results of this research study indicate that there are significant relationships between biographical factors and career anchors as well as between biographical factors and job satisfaction and similarly between typology of career anchors and dimensions of job satisfaction.</p>

<p>In the current recessionary cycle in which individuals finds themselves, it is interesting to see whether organisations and individuals have changed their strategies or whether they pursued their tried and tested inherent mechanisms of recruitment/work selection. In recessionary times, organisations would usually have a bigger pool to select from whilst employees, in turn, would try to position themselves in a stable work environment. From an organisational perspective, organisations have also undergone major transitions such as downsizing, merges and acquisitions, right sizing, restructuring, and reengineering. These changes have a direct impact on employees&rsquo / level of motivation and job satisfaction (Ellison &amp / Schreuder, 2000). The concept of a traditional career that an employee occupies for a lifetime performing one type of work in an organisation no longer exists. Instead, employees now work for more than one organisation in their lifetime. These changes entail that employees need to be flexible and adaptive in making career decisions (Schreuder &amp / Coetzee, 2006). Career anchors can be operationalized as a representation of self- perceived talents, motives, values and abilities that guide employees to make career decisions. Schreuder and Coetzee (2006), are of the opinion that if employees are not familiar with their&nbsp / career anchors, they could find themselves trapped in work environments that are not satisfactory and would continually be questioning themselves. Suutari and Taka (2004) emphasize the fact that there needs to be a fit between the careers of employees and the work environment. If there is no fit between the career anchors of employees and the work environment then employees are likely to become dissatisfied which may result in a high turnover of staff with a corresponding low productivity rate. This study investigates and explores the phenomenon of career anchors based&nbsp / on Schein&rsquo / s 1978 career anchor theory and how these career anchors affect employees level of job satisfaction. The Career Anchor Inventory and the Job Descriptive Index were administered to a sample of 154 employees at a leading retail organisation who completed the questionnaires. The results of this research study indicate that there are significant relationships between biographical factors and career anchors as well as between biographical factors and job satisfaction and similarly between typology of career anchors and dimensions of job satisfaction.</p>

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / In the current recessionary cycle in which individuals finds themselves, it is interesting to see whether organisations and individuals have changed their strategies or whether they pursued their tried and tested inherent mechanisms of recruitment/work selection. In recessionary times, organisations would usually have a bigger pool to select from whilst employees, in turn, would try to position themselves in a stable work environment. From an organisational perspective, organisations have also undergone major transitions such as downsizing, merges and acquisitions, right sizing, restructuring, and reengineering. These changes have a direct impact on employees level of motivation and job satisfaction (Ellison Schreuder, 2000). The concept of a traditional career that an employee occupies for a lifetime performing one type of work in an organisation no longer exists. Instead, employees now work for more than one organisation in their lifetime. These changes entail that employees need to be flexible and adaptive in making career decisions (Schreuder Coetzee, 2006). Career anchors can be operationalized as a representation of self- perceived talents, motives, values and abilities that guide employees to make career decisions. Schreuder and Coetzee (2006), are of the opinion that if employees are not familiar with their career anchors, they could find themselves trapped in work environments that are not satisfactory and would continually be questioning themselves. Suutari and Taka (2004) emphasize the fact that there needs to be a fit between the careers of employees and the work environment. If there is no fit between the career anchors of employees and the work environment then employees are likely to become dissatisfied which may result in a high turnover of staff with a corresponding low productivity rate. This study investigates and explores the phenomenon of career anchors based on Scheins 1978 career anchor theory and how these career anchors affect employees level of job satisfaction. The Career Anchor Inventory and the Job Descriptive Index were administered to a sample of 154 employees at a leading retail organisation who completed the questionnaires. The results of this research study indicate that there are significant relationships between biographical factors and career anchors as well as between biographical factors and job satisfaction and similarly between typology of career anchors and dimensions of job satisfaction. / South Africa

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / In the current recessionary cycle in which individuals finds themselves, it is interesting to see whether organisations and individuals have changed their strategies or whether they pursued their tried and tested inherent mechanisms of recruitment/work selection. In recessionary times, organisations would usually have a bigger pool to select from whilst employees, in turn, would try to position themselves in a stable work environment. From an organisational perspective, organisations have also undergone major transitions such as downsizing, merges and acquisitions, right sizing, restructuring, and reengineering. These changes have a direct impact on employees' level of motivation and job satisfaction (Ellison & Schreuder, 2000). The concept of a traditional career that an employee occupies for a lifetime performing one type of work in an organisation no longer exists. Instead, employees now work for more than one organisation in their lifetime. These changes entail that employees need to be flexible and adaptive in making career decisions (Schreuder & Coetzee, 2006). Career anchorscan be operationalized as a representation of self- perceived talents, motives, values and abilities that guide employees to make career decisions. Schreuder and Coetzee (2006), are of the opinion that if employees are not familiar with their career anchors, they could find themselves trapped in work environments that are not satisfactory and would continually be questioning themselves. Suutari and Taka (2004) emphasize the fact that there needs to be a fit between the careers of employees and the work environment. If there is no fit between the career anchors of employees and the work environment then employees are likely to become dissatisfied which may result in a high turnover of staff with a corresponding low productivity rate. This study investigates and explores the phenomenon of career anchors based on Schein's 1978 career anchor theory and how these career anchors affect employees level of job satisfaction. The Career Anchor Inventory and the Job Descriptive Index were administered to a sample of 154 employees at a leading retail organisation who completed the questionnaires. The results of this research study indicate that there are significant relationships between biographical factors and career anchors as well as between biographical factors and job satisfaction and similarly between typology of career anchors and dimensions of job satisfaction.

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / The South African employment industry is facing exhaustion as the demand for talented workers is higher than supply (Bakos, 2005) and it has become imperative that the employer no longer simply focus on the commitment of employees, but more so on the extra efforts that are exerted by these employees in order to ensure their sustainability (Netswera, Rankhumise & Mavundla, 2005). Extensive research has been conducted on organisational commitment because of its importance in predicting individuals' behaviour outcomes such as absenteeism and turnover (Popoola, 2005). Findings of studies conducted by Bolon (1997) and Maharaj (2006) indicate that there is a positive relationship between organisational commitment (OC) and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB). Bolino and Turnley (2003) posit that it is important for organisations and managers to have a better understanding of the factors that make employees willing to go the extra mile in order to enhance organisational performance and sustain a competitive edge. The alms of the study are to investigate the relationship between organisational commitment, organisational citizenship behaviour and turnover intentions. Furthermore, it also investigated the relationship between biographical variables (namely, gender, age, tenure and race) and organisational commitment as well as that of organisational citizenship of human resource professionals A sample of 138 human resource professionals employed at a retail organisation completed a self-developed biographical questionnaire, the Organisational Commitment Questionnaire, the Citizenship Behaviour Questionnaire and the Turnover Intention Questionnaire. Results of the study indicate the existence of a significant relationship between organisational commitment and organisational citizenship and turnover intentions for human resource professionals. The statistical analysis suggests that organisational commitment has a significant relationship with organisational citizenship, whilst turnover intentions did not have a significant impact on organisational commitment. The biographical variables (namely, gender, age, tenure and race) appear to have a significant impact on organisational commitment, with gender having the strongest relationship with organisational commitment. The biographical variables (namely, gender, age, tenure and race) appear to have a significant impact on organisational citizenship behaviour, whilst race appeared to be unrelated to citizenship behaviour. Previous studies were reviewed to support the findings of the current study. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research were put forth in addition to recommendations for the organisation.