To answer the research question of "What would a conceptual framework for spirituality in an employee assistance (EAP) context entail?" an exploratory-descriptive approach was followed. A literature study was conducted to understand the construct of spirituality and the importance thereof in human functioning. Further, spirituality in practical contexts was explored, both in the workplace and in the EAP contexts. The researcher concluded that spirituality is better situated in the EAP that in the workplace setting in general. To further explore spirituality in the EAP context, a quantitative approach was followed and a survey in the form of web-based questionnaire was distributed to a list of EAP practitioners and professionals, which was obtained form EAPA-SA. Survey links were distributed to 232 (valid) email addresses of the members on the EAPA-SA list, and an additional 25 survey links were distributed to other respondents using snowball sampling. Out of the total of 257 valid survey links distributed, a total of 57 completed responses were received, a response rate of 22%. The survey aimed to explore the knowledge, attitudes and practices in respect of spirituality in their respective employee assistance practices. The respondents rated spirituality quite highly in both their own and in their clients' lives, indicating strong positive attitudes towards spirituality and that they frequently deal with spiritual matters in practice. However, respondents indicated uncertainty regarding their own knowledge levels and the training they received to enable them to deal with these matters in practice. Incorporating the results of the literature and empirical studies, a conceptual framework and recommendations for spiritual interventions in EAP practice are proposed. / Mini Dissertation (MSocSci)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Social Work and Criminology / MSocSci / Unrestricted

In the late 1990's researchers began studying spirituality as a workplace phenomenon. In the year 2000 a distinction was made between individual spirituality and organisational spirituality. This meant that spirituality could be studied on more than one level and that it was no longer just a personal phenomenon, but rather that organisations (as non-human entities that are made-up of clusters of humans) could in fact also be spiritual entities. In 2004, Kinjerski and Skrypnek, identified a third dimension of spirituality distinct from individual spirituality and organisational spirituality the experience of spirit at work. The aim of this study was to gain insight into the functionality of spirituality by testing the relationship between these three spirituality constructs individual spirituality, organisational spirituality and the experience of spirit at work and the resultant impact of these constructs on two positive work outcomes work engagement and affective organisational commitment. A sequential mixed methods approach was utilised in this study and the research was conducted in two phases. The first phase of the research was quantitative. During the quantitative phase of the research an online survey was distributed to respondents across South Africa. The second phase of the research was qualitative and consisted of follow-up semi-structured personal interviews with selected respondents to the survey. It was found that the three spirituality constructs individual spirituality, organisational spirituality and the experience of spirit at work are independent constructs but that strong positive correlations exist between individual spirituality and spirit at work, between individual spirituality and organisational spirituality and between spirit at work and organisational spirituality; with the strongest correlation between spirit at work and organisational spirituality. From these correlations one can conclude that the experience of spirit at work has the greatest impact on work engagement and organisational commitment; followed by the level of organisational spirituality in the workplace. Therefore, organisations that are more spiritual seem to have employees who are more engaged in their work and more committed to their respective organisations. Spirit at work was found to be the strongest predictor of work engagement, meaning that when there is an increase in experiences of spirituality in the workplace, work engagement levels also increase. This means that the extent to which people feel engaged and immersed in their work, is dependent on the extent to which they experience spirit in their work. This finding highlights the critical importance of enabling employees to discover their strengths and passions and matching them to work that they both enjoy and are good at, for enhanced work engagement. Spirit at work was also found to be the strongest predictor of organisational commitment. As the experiences of spirit at work increase, the levels of affective organisational commitment in the organisation also increases. It could thus be argued that when people experience spirit at work or in their work, they tend to be more committed to their organisations. The current study has strengthened the business case for workplace spirituality. The findings of this study indicate that the organisational environment is the greatest predictor of whether employees will experience spirit at work or not and thus indirectly the greatest factor for predicting work engagement and organisational commitment levels. These findings substantiate the need for organisations to start playing a more active role in creating a work environment that is conducive for employees to experience spirit at work. There are a number of things that organisations can do to create more spiritual work environments and as a result reap the benefits of greater work engagement and greater organisational commitment. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Human Resource Management / PhD / Unrestricted

Background Pain during birth process is acknowledged for good progress of labour but severe, unbearable pain cause reduced effectiveness of contractions and lead to maternal exhaustion and fetal distress. Non pharmacological and pharmacological pain relief methods can be implemented to assist the women to cope with pain during labour. Non-pharmacological and pharmacological pain relief is available in the hospital, but it is not understood when and how labour pain is assessed and pain relief implemented. Research questions What is the current workplace culture relating to pain management during the first stage of labour? What alternative strategies can be implemented to address the current workplace culture relating to pain management during the first stage of labour? Research design and methods A qualitative design was followed. Convenience sampling was used and 18 observations on pain management during labour were done. Midwives taking care of women during labour took part in the research and their informed consent was obtained beforehand. Data was collected during unstructured observations of pain management during labour. Data was analysed by means of the creative hermeneutic data analysis method. Main findings Four themes were derived from the data: pain assessment, isolation, therapeutic environment and documentation. Based on these themes, strategies for improving pain management during labour were identified collaboratively. / Dissertation (MCur)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Nursing Science / PhD / Unrestricted

Approaches to workplace learning are continuously evolving to support business objectives but learning and development practitioners are not delivering on their mandate of developing relevant competencies which deliver on strategic objectives. Globally, the proportion of e-Learning to instructor led training is growing and the investment in e-Learning is steadily increasing. Executives expect to see better alignment of e-Learning initiatives and a proven return on investment. In order to earn their place at the executive boardroom, learning and development practitioners need to understand and align their programmes to the context of the business environment in order to positively influence business performance.This research set out to investigate the relationship between the corporate learning environment and e-Learning programme effectiveness using a self-administered questionnaire. The survey was completed by 50 corporate learning and development practitioners. It explored e-Learning programme effectiveness and the configuration of learning environments in relation to a corporate learning environment interconnectedness model proposed in this research. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and regression modelling were used to determine the relationship between the environment and e-Learning programme effectiveness. The strongest environmental predictors as well as the current perception of e-Learning programme effectiveness within these environments were also identified.The corporate learning environment was found to be significantly correlated with e-Learning programme effectiveness, specifically in driving higher order benefits of e-Learning programme effectiveness, behaviour change and return on investment. The two strongest predictors of e-Learning programme effectiveness in the corporate learning environment were found to be the definition of clear learning outcomes as well as the provision of opportunities for collaboration in the context of learning. The proposed model of corporate learning environment interconnectedness was also validated and found to be reliable. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The purpose of the study is to determine the influence of the Y-generation students’ preferences on office layout and how important the workplace is in attracting, recruiting and retaining Generation Y workers. The objectives of this study revolves around Generation Y’s preferences about their future workplace, what workspace design and technology they would like in the office, their travel preferences to work, how the workplace can contribute towards job satisfaction and other facilities they prefer to have access to on site. The research sample consisted of 334 students from the University of Pretoria. These participants were approached on a convenience basis as well as advertised via social networks to complete the survey online. A multi-dimensional data analysis to enable an accurate assessment of the specific objectives guided the study. This study enables a better understanding of Generation Y and what their workplace preferences entail. Businesses can gain an understanding of how they can use their real estate and facilities as strategic assets to attract and retain the Y-Generation talent pool. Social, demographic and economic changes are causing a severe skills shortage. People are attracted to workplaces where values are clearly communicated. Generation Y in particular is ready to engage with companies that provide the environments in which they will thrive. Workplace design is likely to become a strategic weapon in the battle to attract and retain scarce young talent in today’s increasingly competitive global economy. The results have shown that employers should keep up to the rapid technological growth and not fall behind. Companies should transform workplaces which allow for individual work, collaborative tasks and provide an environmentally green workplace – not only into its design, but also in the way employees work. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

The purpose of this study, which primarily focuses on spiritual values, was to develop a measurement for nine spiritual anchors – perfection, compassion, passion, inspiration, investigation, dedication, appreciation, determination and cooperation – as proposed by Karakas (2010). Through the development of such a measurement, the concept and construct of spiritual anchors was investigated and definitions were refined.After reviewing the literature on workplace spirituality and personal values, a Spiritual Value Compass Inventory was developed. The 350 responses received after distributing the inventory to a sample of South African MBA students was analysed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The findings from these analyses yielded a spiritual value compass model.The spiritual value compass model outlines the spiritual anchors held by this diverse group of businesspeople, which was shaped as “passion”, “compassion”, “investigation” and “determination”. These anchors bear relevance to Karakas’ (2010) original framework for spiritual anchors, however, they have been refined through empirical evidence.The Spiritual Value Compass Inventory and the Spiritual Value Compass model provide professionals and managers with tools to understanding their spirituality and value compasses, and could form part of an important step towards preparing these business leaders to manage and create a workforce that is motivated to perform optimally. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The purpose of this study was to conduct an evaluation on a workplace training program using the Community of Inquiry (COI) model as a guide for course construction. Given that online and blended learning programs have gained popularity in the past two decades, companies have struggled with how to prepare trainers in the areas of online teaching methods and instructional technology usage to create an effective and engaging learning environment. In this study, I utilized the COI model, created for use in higher ed settings, in a workplace setting as a curriculum framework to revamp an unsuccessful online learning program. The new curriculum and course logistics framed three presences contained in the COI model—cognitive, social, and teaching. The researcher conducted evaluations by surveying the learners, the training team, and by direct observations of the instructional designers. Results suggested that the COI model was a good foundation for building an online learning course in a workplace setting with slight variations. A recommendation for future use in this new setting was to divide the teaching presence into two presences and create a new design presence, which makes a clear delineation between instructional design and content delivery functions.

Purpose: This research sought to explore and systematically review the landscape of literature on the topics of workplace gossip and foreign nationals, in order to cre-ate an aerial shot of the areas of investigation favoured by researchers, the methods employed for inquiry, theories applied to the subject matter and finally openings in research for expansion and in-depth examination. Method: A total of 50 initial articles were drawn from elected databases. The data-bases included, Emeralds insight, Google scholar, Oxford, Taylor Francis, PubMed, Research gate, Sage, the South African journal of industrial psychology Springer link and Wiley online. Keyword searches were iteratively formulated, tracked and repli-cated for searches of each database. The yielded articles were originally pitted against predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria; this was done through a prelimi-nary review of the articles’ abstracts. The articles were subsequently grouped based on their research aims. The findings were written out in prose and presented a snap-shot of workplace gossip and foreign national research in the last decade. Findings: A number of themes were raised through the review process. Prosocial gossip works as an informal discipline system, though the processes of isolation and ostracism. Gossip is a viable tool for social control. Organisational identity and low power interact and also result in lower tendencies to gossip as a means of indirect aggression while high power and low organisational identity result in contrary effects. Greater employee identification with the organisation results in superior perceived cohesion. Job related gossip has an influence on employee cynicism and has a me-diating effect on the relationship between abusive supervisors and cynicism. Psycho-logical contract violation is a predictor of job-related gossip and employee cynicism while the presence of an abusive supervisor predicts both job-related and non-job related gossip. Furthermore, non-whites in white-dominated organisations, racial mi-norities and women experience gossip perpetrated by dominate groups. Dominant groups use gossip to discredit, undermine, exact group exclusion, communicate slurs, communicate subjective evaluations as truth, promote negative talk and opin-ions that minorities do not belong at the top of organisations. Minorities respond in two manners, by acquiescing or avoiding confrontation. Regarding immigrant eco-nomic assimilation, immigrants earn 34% less than their native counterparts. Immi-grants experience greater levels of unemployment than the country natives. Interestingly, immigrants seem to sort into low paying organisations. Moreover, longer re-ported occupation in a host country determines annual increases in pay of around 0.9%. Even more so, immigrants who work at majority native organisations report higher earnings. Residential location plays a role in earnings as the discrimination effect, means employers have biases about who they employ based on their residen-tial address. The relationship between immigrant-native isolation and exposure to immigrant neighbours is negative. Immigrants face barriers to integration through the non-recognition of their qualifications and perception of lower productivity. Employers favour local qualifications and accreditations over those held by immigrants. On the contrary, in some instances local qualifications seem to be considered sporadically and immigrants are put up against lesser qualified natives who are part of the organ-isations racial majorities when seeking career advancement. Immigrants assimilate through focusing on the following behaviours, work-related professional culture, un-derstanding workplace. Non-work related: higher exposure to natives in residential neighbourhoods and intermarrying with locals. Literature displayed that the words immigrant and expatriate are synonyms; however, in the existing international man-agement literature they describe two starkly different groups. Expatriates focused on in management literature are male, of Anglo-Saxon decent, hail from developed countries in North America or Western Europe. On the other hand, immigrants are male and female, hail from developing countries, are racial minorities, earn low wag-es and work in feminized roles that are unskilled and semiskilled. Regarding em-ployee wellness, findings showed that job satisfaction is an indicator of wellbeing. Furthermore, job satisfaction has been connected to organisational commitment in employees and has a negative relationship with employee absenteeism and employ-ee inclination to turnover. In general job satisfaction promotes positive behaviours and limits the negative. Environmental factors, job characteristics and work specific personal factors are just three referenced work-related factors linked to immigrant job satisfaction. Recommendations for future research: A definite need is an empirical enquiry into whether foreign nationals are targets of gossip. Though in light of the current study, this seems to be eminent that there is a need for evidence driven commentary re-search. Another suggestion is inquiry into how gossip influences the wellbeing of foreign nationals. Finally, I recommend exploring the question on what impact; gossip has on foreign national assimilation / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Human Resource Management / MCom / Unrestricted

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / In this research paper, I explore the relationship between learnerships and employability. Will I get a job after completing a learnership? This question is posed by many if not most learners participating in learnerships. Learnerships have been promoted as improving the skills level of the population as integral part of economic growth in South Africa. This is still in process as the impact of completed learnerships still has to be felt and seen in industry, especially in increased employment or improving the possibility of employment. In this paper I investigate the relationship between a learnership and employment.

Workplace violence can produce adverse financial outcomes for organizational shareholders, harms employees, and might create long-lasting mental health issues for survivors. Leaders of small businesses might lack the tools available to larger organizations to effectively address the growing incidence of violence in the workplace. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies some leaders of small businesses used to prevent workplace violence. The targeted population consisted of 3 leaders of small businesses from 3 different organizations in the government consulting industry in northern Virginia who successfully implemented workplace violence prevention programs. The general systems theory was the conceptual framework for this research. Data were collected from applicable company documents and semistructured interviews. The data were analyzed through a 5-phase qualitative analysis cycle. Emergent themes included effective workplace violence prevention policies and procedures and leaders’ role in creating a positive working environment. The implications of this study for positive social change include the potential to reduce work-related stress so that employees are healthy members of society. Leaders of small business who promote a positive work environment and understand the importance of an effective workplace violence prevention policy might be able to increase the performance of their businesses, which could allow them to be more involved in their communities.