Working in groups is a ubiquitous feature of daily life. For this reason, finding ways to maximise group outputs is of utmost importance. Efforts to enhance group outputs have typically focused on socially relevant interventions, often designed to increase rapport or motivation. Moreover, such interventions are usually implemented and measured at the level of the individual, thereby designating the group to being nothing more than the simple sum of its parts. Although long acknowledged as a key component of group performance, the role of coordination is relatively under-researched. The present thesis focused on understanding whether interpersonal coordination, as viewed through the theoretical lens of coordination dynamics, is able to shed further insight into the relationship between teamwork and productivity. A novel object movement task well-suited for investigating the effects of both social and physical parameters on group productivity was developed and validated. Different extensions of the task were explored across five studies. Shifting the unit of analysis from the individual to the group yielded novel insight into the issue of group productivity. The nature of the dependencies between participants (i.e., positive vs. negative) were seen to change patterns of coordination both within and between teams. Cooperating pairs were also more coordinated and accurate than competing pairs. When interdependence was high, stable modes of coordination enhanced accuracy, but not overall productivity. More broadly speaking, participants spontaneously adopted modes of coordination that were both functionally consistent with the task demands and conformed to the characteristic patterns inherent to self-organised coordination dynamics. The implications of this work are discussed with respect to extant theories of interpersonal coordination and suggestions are made for future research.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2008. / Title from title screen (site viewed Mar. 31, 2009). PDF text: 193 p. : ill. ; 3 Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3336555. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

When employees become dissatisfied at an organization, they may develop negative behaviors that can impede profits and productivity. The purpose of this single case study was to explore what strategies are essential for organizational leaders to improve workplace performance. Maslow's hierarchy of needs served as the conceptual framework for this study. Data collection involved face-to-face, semistructured interviews of 20 managers, floor employees, and clerical staff from a business organization in Southwest Georgia. Participant selection was based on employees' tenure of at least 1 year of experience within the organization. Interviews were transcribed and then coded for common patterns and themes. Five themes emerged: (a) workplace environment, focusing on the level of flexibility given to employees in the organization; (b) feedback sources in organizations, centering on measurable standards such as written evaluations and other resources provided to employees; (c) management relationships, focusing on managers' influence on the performance of employees; (d) barriers in the workplace, examining internal and external sources that impede performance; and (e) recruitment/promotion strategies, centering on the organization's compensation incentives. Study outcomes suggest that organizational leaders may increase employee work performance by enhancing strategies that provide a positive assortment of abilities, motivational tools, and opportunities. In addition, these findings suggest that collaborative decision making between management and employees has a positive relationship with work attitudes and the engagement of employees. Leaders in organizations may apply these findings to develop an enriched workplace environment, one that could improve employee retention rates and organizational commitment.

M.Tech. (Operations Management) / For any organisation to be effective and efficient in achieving its goals, its employees must maintain a shared vision of what they are striving to achieve, as well as clear aims and objectives of the organisation. Employees may be grouped into teams with which play important roles in an organisation. Companies have discovered that the introduction of teams to the production process, leads to innovative and goal oriented performance, with new products generated at a faster pace. Teams become a force of change when interaction within the group is dynamic. Similarly, effective teams may influence productivity and improve quality. In this context, a study was conducted at the Ferrosilicon Plant of Dense Media Separation (DMS) Pty Ltd located in Meyerton, South Africa, where a sink float process for the separation of mineral particles, involving suspension of dense powders in water is used. The study focuses on team structures, which are currently experiencing job dissatisfaction. It attempted to establish the problem areas that may be at the core of team ineffectiveness and offered suggestions for resolution. At the root of the study is an attempt by management to resolve job dissatisfaction by facilitating team development, establishing explicit team norms and expectations, fostering a collaborative team climate, exercising leadership skills in pursuit of team goals and encouraging open and candid communication within the production section. The study argues that if decisive action is not taken to address these issues, it would be difficult for any organisation to function and would in turn inhibit management’s control of the organisation, ultimately leading to a loss of productivity.

Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The research study investigates the impact of different leadership styles on group performance and group cohesiveness within a highly technical environment. A secondary study is conducted to assess the relationship between group performance and group cohesiveness. The literature provides information on the three main topics, namely leadership, performance and cohesiveness. The statistical information was gathered using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, the Teamness Index Questionnaire and the 2008 performance ratings of the technical company. A sample of 16 leaders and 173 raters were used to complete the questionnaires. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire was used to determine the transformational and transactional leadership dimensions of each leader, while the Teamness Index was used to assess the group cohesiveness. The group performance ratings were obtained from the managers of the respective groups. All the data was statistically analysed to determine the relationships between the dependent variables (performance and cohesiveness) and the independent variables (transformational leadership, transactional leadership and cohesiveness). The research revealed that there is a positive correlation between performance and the leadership styles, as well as between group cohesiveness and the leadership styles. The strongest positive correlation was found between performance and group cohesiveness. Although these positive correlations were present, the research found a single significant positive linear relationship through regression analysis between cohesiveness and the transformational leadership style. No other significant relationships could be established through hypotheses testing. This research adds a new dimension to group performance, leadership and group cohesiveness. This research is significant in that no similar research exists within the South African context and it thus adds to the body of leadership knowledge. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die impak van verskillende leierskapstyle op groepprestasie en groepsamehang in 'n hoogs tegniese omgewing. 'n Sekondere ondersoek is gedoen om die verhouding tussen groepprestasie en groepsamehang te bepaal. Die literatuurstudie werp lig op die drie hoofonderwerpe, naamlik leierskap, prestasie en samehang. Die statistiese inligting is ingesamel deur die gebruik van die "Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire", "Teamness Index Questionnaire" en die 2008-prestasiebeoordelings van die tegniese maatskappy. 'n Steekproef van 16 leiers en 173 beoordelaars is gebruik om die vraelys te beantwoord. Die "Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire" is gebruik om vas te stel wat die transformasionele en transaksionele leierskapsdimensies van elke leier is, terwyl die "Teamness Index" die groepsamehang bepaal het. Die groepprestasiebeoordelings is van die bestuurders van die onderskeie groepe verkry. Al die data is op 'n statistiese wyse geanaliseer om die verhoudings tussen die afhanklike veranderlikes (prestasie en samehang) en die onafhanklike veranderlikes (transformasionele leierskap, transaksionele leierskap en samehang) te bepaal. Hierdie studie het bevind dat daar 'n positiewe korrelasie bestaan tussen prestasie en leierskapstyle, en ook tussen groepsamehang en leierskapstyle. Die sterkste positiewe korrelasie is tussen prestasie en groepsamehang bespeur. Selfs al is hierdie positiewe korrelasies geidentifiseer, kon slegs 'n enkele betekenisvolle positiewe liniêre verhouding vasgestel word tussen groep samehang en transformasionele leierskapstyl. Geen ander betekenisvolle verhoudings kon deur die toetsing van die hipotese vasgestel word nie. Die ondersoek voeg 'n nuwe dimensie tot groepprestasie, leierskap en groepsamehang. Die studie is betekenisvol omdat daar geen ander soortgelyke studie in 'n Suid Afrikaanse raamwerk bestaan nie, en dus dra dit by tot die leierskapskennisgebied.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / The fundamental purpose of this research was to establish whether there was a link between the work performance of individual employees within a technical division and their own levels of job satisfaction. The degree of work performance was ascertained from individual scores achieved in the biannual performance appraisal. The levels of job satisfaction were ascertained by means of completed job satisfaction questionnaires. All the respondents to the job satisfaction questionnaire did so on a voluntary basis and with the condition of anonymity. The outcomes of these questionnaires were analysed and one of the conclusions that could be drawn was that although the performance scores were positively skewed, there was a tendency that those individuals did not experience similar levels of job satisfaction. The results also indicated that despite higher levels of work performance, the respondents experienced high levels of dissatisfaction in relation to their jobs. This outcome should be further researched and appropriate interventions made.

The leadership style found in government is usually diverse in nature, with the chain of command being top-down and focused on bureaucracy. There are some leadership styles that can adversely impact or vastly improve workplace performance. This descriptive phenomenological study was used to understand employee perceptions of leadership styles that affect their workplace performance. Bass's transformational leadership theory guided this study to explore how a supervisor's leadership style impacts an employee's workplace performance. The primary research question focused on positive and negative perceptions employees held related to supervisors' leadership behaviors and characteristics. The data collection was derived from in-depth interviews with 10 mid-level management employees aged 27 to 55 years of age, who are currently or were previously employed with a local government agency. Using Moustakas's method of data analysis, four primary themes were disclosed: (a) perceptions of three leadership styles, (b) insights on workplace performance, (c) observations of leader behaviors and characteristics, and (d) work ethics, indicating that a supervisor's leadership behaviors and characteristics do impact employees' workplace performance. The 4 primary themes indicated that participants preferred leader characteristics and behaviors associated with transformational leaders than they did with transactional or laissez-faire leaders. An organization's culture is influenced by leadership style, and consequently, leadership style affects an employee's workplace performance. The social change implications, as related to the findings, enable a leader to evaluate the perceptions of an employee's view of appropriate leadership styles that increases their workplace performance.

For decades, there has been substantial research showing that ability tests effectively predict what people can do, but it is only in the last fifteen years that it has come to be generally accepted that personality is a useful predictor of what they will do. Much of this change in appreciation of the role of personality in predicting performance has been attributed to the application of the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality to personality-performance research. The FFM was developed on the basis of the lexical hypothesis, which states that it is advantageous for people to be able to accurately describe the behaviour of others, and therefore the most important dimensions of personality will be encoded in natural languages. An associated premise is that natural language descriptors refer to an individual's surface appearance or reputation (i.e., their observable behaviours), rather than the underlying processes or genotype of personality (i.e., people's cognitive and affective processing). This reasoning was used as the basis for most of the factor-analytical studies of personality descriptors within the English language, and one of the most robust factor solutions was the FFM. The FFM contains the personality dimensions Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience and Emotional Stability. Although the FFM continues to evolve, particularly in response to cross-cultural research, the five basic dimensions appear to be remarkably consistent, and at least the core of each of these has been identified in the first six or seven factors found in every language considered to date. Of the five factors, Conscientiousness has been the one most reliably associated with workplace performance. Workplace performance itself has undergone a major reconsideration over the last fifteen to twenty years. Prior to that time, formal job roles and responsibilities were typically considered the start and finish of performance, but formal job requirements are now recognised as only one aspect of performance, which is increasingly referred to as Task Performance. Task Performance tends to change substantially from job to job, but there are other aspects of job performance, most notably Citizenship Performance, which appear to be consistent in most jobs. Citizenship Performance includes activities undertaken by an employee which facilitate Task Performance, such as making greater effort, complying with rules and procedures, and assisting others. Whereas Task Performance appears to be closely related to an individual's abilities, Citizenship Performance was originally proposed as an aspect of performance which is influenced by attitudinal and personality variables. Thus it has been proposed that Citizenship Performance largely mediates the relationship between personality variables, such as Conscientiousness, and Task Performance. However, this predictors of performance model has previously only been investigated in workplace settings. Yet performance is a relevant construct not only within workplace settings, but also within academic settings. In addition, the FFM dimension of Conscientiousness has been observed to be a reliable predictor of academic performance, just as it is a reliable predictor of workplace performance. Within educational settings, performance is typically tied to assessment measures, such as marks and GPA, which appear to measure academic Task Performance. However, no previous research appears to have considered whether Citizenship Performance mediates the relationship between Conscientiousness and Task Performance within an academic setting. Study One of this dissertation was designed to test this proposition. Participants in this study were 175 students enrolled within an introductory management subject. Participants provided assessments of their own personality using the Mini-Markers (Saucier, 1994), while Citizenship Performance ratings were provided by students' peers, at the end of a three-week group project. The hand-scored version of the Computerised Adaptive Rating Scales (CARS: Borman, 1999; Coleman & Borman, 2000) was used to assess Citizenship, but unfortunately the three scales of the CARS did not demonstrate good internal reliability. Consequently, a factor analysis was conducted to establish a new scale using the CARS items. This new scale, which was labelled Active Support, used six of the twelve CARS items and had satisfactory internal reliability. It was observed that the resulting scores on this Citizenship Performance scale were positively correlated with both Conscientiousness and academic Task Performance (as measured by grades). As predicted, Citizenship Performance entirely mediated the relationship between Conscientiousness and academic Task Performance. Therefore, the results of Study One were consistent with the predictors of performance model. It was concluded that Citizenship Performance is an important component of performance within academic settings, just as it is within workplace settings. Despite the fact that the relationship between both workplace and academic performance, and Conscientiousness, is reliable and well-established, correlations between Conscientiousness and performance tend to be moderate at best. Previous research has observed that other-rated measures of Conscientiousness have higher correlations with academic performance than do self-rated measures. Consequently, Study Two explored whether other-rated Conscientiousness improved the prediction of academic Citizenship and Task Performance, using a similar design to that utilised in Study One. One hundred and twenty-two students participated in Study Two while undertaking the same course as the students who had participated in Study One. Most of the results of Study Two were consistent with expectations, but there were some unexpected outcomes. Other-rated Conscientiousness was found to be a significantly better predictor of both academic Task and Citizenship Performance than was self-rated Conscientiousness. However, contrary to previous ideas, the relationship between other-rated Conscientiousness and Task Performance was not mediated by Citizenship Performance. In contrast, it was observed that the correlation between other-rated Conscientiousness and other-rated Citizenship Performance was .61 if both ratings were obtained from the same raters, and .44 if the two ratings were obtained from independent raters. When corrected for measurement unreliability, these estimates approached unity, which is consistent with the idea that, for the other-raters, Conscientiousness and Citizenship Performance were measuring the same construct. However, this study had several limitations, including its small sample size, the use of an unusual measure for Citizenship Performance, and the fact that it had been conducted in an academic setting. Therefore, there was a need to replicate Study Two before accepting that Conscientiousness and Citizenship Performance are actually much more strongly associated than previous research has indicated. In order to replicate Study Two, while addressing some of its limitations, a third study was conducted within a workplace setting. In Study Three, general staff supervisors within a public university were asked to rate their staff on measures of both personality and Citizenship Performance. In addition to Active Support, the measure used in Studies One and Two, two additional measures were included, which assessed the aspects of Citizenship Performance referred to as Individual Initiative and Helping Behaviour. The FFM dimension of Agreeableness was also added, because previous research indicates that, while Conscientiousness may be a better predictor of Individual Initiative, Helping Behaviour should be more closely associated with the FFM dimension of Agreeableness. However, using multiple ratings derived from the same raters can create common method bias in correlations, and so, in line with previous recommendations (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003), Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to control for this. The resulting correlations confirmed that there were strong relationships between the measures of Citizenship Performance and personality. Helping Behaviour had a strong relationship with supervisor-rated Agreeableness (.81), while Individual Initiative was significantly correlated with supervisor-rated Agreeableness (.44) and supervisor-rated Conscientiousness (.32). Active Support had strong correlations with these measures of personality (.57 and .55 respectively). The results of Study Three indicate that, for the participating supervisors, the Helping Behaviour dimension of Citizenship Performance is largely the same as the Agreeableness dimension of personality. Unlike Study Two, Active Support appeared to be not so closely associated with Conscientiousness, but instead seemed to occupy a position halfway between other-rated Conscientiousness and other-rated Agreeableness. Individual Initiative occupies a similar position, but is not so closely linked to these other-rated personality variables. Although these results suggest that, when compared with the students in Study Two, the supervisors in Study Three had a slightly different view of Active Support, it remains clear that much or most of the variance in each of these measures of Citizenship Performance is accounted for by these other-rated measures of personality. In order to understand why the strength of the relationship between the other-rated personality dimensions of Conscientiousness and Agreeableness, and the performance construct of Citizenship Performance, has been overlooked by previous researchers, it was necessary to reconsider the basic reasons for disagreement in ratings. Agreement between raters tends to vary considerably, depending on who is rating whom. Self-other agreement on ratings is typically modest, other-other agreement tends to be higher, but alternate-form and test-retest agreement are typically higher still. The reasons for this appear to be related to the extent to which ratings are produced using similar observations, and integrating these in similar ways, as well as the extent to which ratings are affected by specific aspects of individual rater-ratee relationships. Previous research has provided estimates for these effects which can be used to correct correlations for resulting biases. When these are applied to correlations between ratings of measures, such as performance or personality, which are provided by different other-raters, these correlations approximate unity. This includes the correlations, reported in this dissertation, between other-rated personality and other-rated Citizenship Performance. In conclusion, the results of the research reported in this dissertation are consistent with the idea that measures of Citizenship Performance are largely accounted for by other-rated measures of Conscientiousness and Agreeableness. It is argued that this conclusion is consistent with the lexical hypothesis which underlay the development of the FFM, as well as with the theoretical basis for the construct of performance. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the implications of this conclusion, for a range of fields, including understanding the relationship between personality and performance, methodological consequences for future research, and practical implications for staff selection and performance appraisal systems.

The past twenty years have seen a paradigm shift in the management of government owned and leased office accommodation. This research project examines the economic changes that led to a market based approach to the provision of public services and the introduction of competitive tendering to most non-core public sector services. While government reforms focused on a market based approach, the underlying democratic principles that the delivery of public services should be transparent, accountable, efficient and effective, while acting in the best interest of the community, remain as a measure of their success. The enabling services that support the delivery of government initiatives have become one of the primary areas of reform. This reform is clearly illustrated in the changes that have occurred in the delivery of commercial office space by State, Territory and Federal Governments to accommodate their departments of state. This changing nature of property provision leads to the formulation of the research question, namely to determine whether there can exist a theoretical best practice model for the delivery of commercial office accommodation to government, which meets the objectives of efficiency and effectiveness while maintaining transparency and accountability. The theoretical model should then, through empirical data collection, be evaluated against current State, Territory and Federal Government procurement and management practices to determine to what extent the Australian public sector is achieving best practice. The project develops such a model of procurement based on an exhaustive literature review of both public and private sector best practice from around the world. The model is then developed to extract five key issues, which indicate the extent to which each State and Territory Government is approaching the suggested best practice. The issues are analysed in terms of a series of questions and measures of performance and are addressed through a qualitative case study of each State and Territory. Data in respect of each jurisdiction are gathered from a variety of sources, including archive materials, survey questionnaires and a series of structured interviews. The result is an evaluation of each government body, its past and current strategic management systems and a measure of its performance against the best practice model. Considerable work has been undertaken by each government jurisdiction in an attempt to provide quality workplaces at lowest cost to the public. Also apparent is a wide divergence in practice from fully contracted to the largely internal provision and management of services. The authorities investigated exhibit the full spectrum of procurement opportunities from freehold ownership to leasing strategies and private public partnerships in the decision processes which inform procurement decisions. In applying a best practice model to evaluate each government jurisdiction the extent of active strategic management is assessed. The results indicate that positive progress has been made and that most of the case studies show not only an understanding of the need to further develop strategic property plans, but also reveal the limited extent to which most jurisdictions have been able successfully to apply these best practice principles. They highlight the need for a strong Intelligent Client role to link the property procurement skills with whole-of-government policy, to inform government on property procurement options and to integrate departmental strategic planning into a holistic asset strategy. The findings also point out areas where strategies have been revised and provide insight into the probable future for public sector asset management in Australia. The thesis is thus put as follows: a theoretical best practice model can be developed to answer the research question in terms of efficient and effective delivery of commercial office accommodation to the public sector. It can further be applied to evaluate the seven administrations at State, Territory and Federal Government level and show a diversity of approaches and development toward procurement and property management practices. There remains a substantial gap between the best practice model and the procurement behaviour of most governments, with few exhibiting more than a basic level of strategic asset and portfolio planning. Queensland and New South Wales, while adopting differing procurement methodologies have developed furthest in strategically managing their assets and are currently leading in their ability to deliver whole-of-government strategies to ensure the efficient and effective use of public funds in the provision of the office workplace of the future.

Thesis (M. Comm. (Economic and business science))-University of Pretoria, 2004. / Summaries in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.