Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The integration of spirituality into the workplace is leading to a change in the lives of business leaders and employees. It is becoming evident that spirituality in the workplace is not only having an effect on a personal level through dimensions such as improved well-being, greater connectedness, self-awareness and wholeness, but also improving organisational performance and giving organisations a competitive edge. The objective of this research document is to illustrate the relationship between Spiritual Leadership and positive Organisational Performance. Employees are coming to work for more than just economic prosperity; they are searching for meaning in their work and spiritual leaders need to transform business to enhance not only the well-being of employees and help them with their search for meaning, but also increase their performance excellence. One of the most important new strategic drives for leaders is to be spiritual leaders and therefore create a place of work which provides both a challenging work environment and a work environment which provides a sense of meaning for employees. Spiritual leadership leads to the transformation of the workplace into an environment which incorporates productivity, wholeness, meaning, creativity and connectedness. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die integrasie van spiritualiteit in die werksplek lei tans tot 'n verandering in die lewens van besigheidsleiers en werkememers. Dit is besig om duidelik te word dat spiritualiteit in die werksplek nie net 'n invloed het op 'n persoonlike vlak deur faktore soos verbeterde gesondheid, groter verbondenheid, self-bewustheid en heelheid het nie, maar dat dit ook lei tot 'n verbetering in besigheids prestasie en dat dit besighede 'n kompeterende voordeel kan bied. Die oogmerk van hierdie studie is om die verhouding tussen spirituele leierskap en verbeterde besigheids prestasie toe te lig. Werknemers gaan werk toe op soek na meer as net ekonomiese vooruitgang; hulle is op soek na betekenis in hul werk en die spirituele leier moet besigheid vervorm om nie net die welstand van die werknemer te verbeter en hulle met hul soektog na betekenis te help nie, maar ook werksprestasie verbeter. Een van die belangriskte nuwe strategiese rigtings vir beisgheidsleiers is om spirituele leiers te wees en daardeur 'n werksplek te skep wat beide 'n uitdagende werksomgewing is, sowel as 'n werksomgewing waarin die werknemer betekenis kan vind. Spirituele leierskap lei tot die transformasie van die werksplek tot 'n omgewing wat produktiwiteit, heelheid, betekenis, kreatiwiteit en verbondenheid insluit.

Organizations have had difficulty managing the performance of their knowledge work teams. Many of these troubles have been linked to antiquated or inadequate performance management systems along with a scarcity of empirical research on this important human resource initiative. These problems are magnified when managing the performance of research and development teams because greater ambiguity and uncertainty exists in these environments, while projects are unique and continually evolving. In addition, performance management in R&D has only recently been accepted as important while individuals in these settings are often resistant to teams. This study represented the first step in the process of understanding relationships between performance management practices and perceptions of performance in R&D work teams. Participants were 132 R&D team leaders representing 20 organizations that agreed to complete a survey via the Internet. The survey instrument was designed to examine the relationships between performance measurement, feedback, and reward processes utilized by teams in relation to measures of customer satisfaction, psychological and team effectiveness, and resource utilization and development. The most important level of performance measurement occurred at the business unit level followed next by the individual level while team level measurement was unrelated to team performance. A simple measurement system with three to seven performance measures focused on objective results, outcomes, and customer satisfaction appeared ideal. Team participation in the performance management process, most notably the process of setting performance measures, goals, and objectives was also important. The use of multiple raters, frequent performance appraisals, and frequent feedback were identified as meaningful. Specific types of rewards were unrelated to performance although some evidence suggested that business unit rewards were superior to team and individual rewards. It was speculated that R&D teams function more like working groups rather than real teams. The focus in R&D seems to be on business unit projects, products, or designs where the aggregate of individual and team contributions determine larger project outcomes.

Workplace violence infects many organizations. This descriptive study assesses the extent to which Texas park and recreation departments institute policies and procedures for preventing worker-initiated violence. Thirty directors from local park and recreation departments were interviewed by telephone and asked to identify whether their departments used specific prevention strategies to thwart instances of worker-initiated violence. The findings reveal few prevention strategies being used and suggest a need for park and recreation managers to increase their awareness and take a more proactive approach to violence prevention.

66 Summary The topic of my work is workplace injury. The goal of this work is comparison of two main approaches to this topic that have been discussed over the past years, namely - the employer`s responsibility versus accidental insurance of employees. The first one mentioned is effective in Czech republic and the second was meant to be effective from 1st January 2008 but it was postponed three times (last time to 1st January 2015) and it is now considered to be canceled. The goal is to understand why and to determine which of the systems better suits the purposes of a workplace injury regulation in Czech Republic. At the beginning I start with a brief historical background (from the year 1989) of the regulation for better understanding of the need for new legislation. Next I am going to achieve the goal of this work by describing the first system by detailed analysis of the effective regulation - explaining terms such as liability, workplace injury, exemptions from liability, types of compensation and also present few a court decisions on the matter. Then I am going to describe the second system by explaining the differences that the accidental insurance of employees act (266/2006 Coll.) would bring if it ever becomes effective. For a more detailed description I would also present the regulation of a...

Syftet med denna forskningsöversikt var att undersöka vad aktuell forskning säger om hur en kompetensutveckling kan införas i en organisation för att få resultat/effekter för medarbetare på individ, grupp- och organisationsnivå. Detta utifrån den föränderliga värld vi lever i idag där organisationer står inför ständiga förändringar. Forskningsöversikten gjordes utefter 10 vetenskapliga artiklar. Resultaten visade att det är viktigt att inventera kompetensen i organisationen och göra en planering. Även kommunikation och reflektion sågs som framgångsfaktorer.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-03T18:33:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sergio_Burdelis.pdf: 488535 bytes, checksum: 02099c73b993e649454923c5fd157c3c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-04-26 / Teams, in the contemporary world, have become the basic form of work. Companies realized that work teams are more flexible and reacts faster to changes than others permanents organizations forms. In the present moment, this flexibility may be a distinct marketing competition factor, manly in service business. The misunderstanding of working team concept makes organizations not succeed on the implementation of this form of work organization. The goal of this study is analyze the main characteristics that could be related to successful use of multifunctional teams work in implementing strategic plans. The first step done, in order to reach this goal, was to perform a theoretic study in order to select preliminaries characteristics that could be related to successful utilization of teams. The results obtained from the theoretic study were utilized as bases for an analytic study of a successful practical experiment involving a project that took place on a telecom service company. The analyses indicated some characteristics that could be, in advance, related to the success of a practical experiment. Than a research through the wide company was made involving samples of employees that had participated before in similar projects, in order to evaluate the importance of the characteristics previously selected. The characteristics chosen as more important to successful use of multifunctional work teams are: to check if the work proposed should really be done by a work team; existence of clearly defined parameters for final results evaluations of the work done by the work team; work teams personnel selected in accordance of the project's characteristics; to inform the personnel about the real importance of the project that will be performed by the team; the previous knowledge of areas and processes involved with the project; autonomy given to work team personnel in order to permit them to plan their job in the seeking for the proposed results; to settle measurable indicators in order to permit the tasks follow-up; sponsors' feed back in order to inform the team components about the impact of their job in the company performance. The employees that took part of the research considered the following characteristics/dimensions as minor importance: group integration via previous event in order to promote people involvement to the project's objectives; group integration via periodic informal events along the duration of the project; selection of the largest possible number of flexible and cooperative people for participating of the team work; external coordination of a leader in order to follow-up the tasks performance in accordance to the established program; diversity of opinions in between the team personnel about the way to perform the tasks needed to reach the objectives of the project. Because of the method adopted, the present study doesn't intend to propose conclusions beyond the interpretation of the data obtained from the specific research made. The sample shows a situation in a specific moment and is restrict to a specific company. But it can be adopted as a base for similar studies. / Cada vez mais as equipes t??m se tornado a forma b??sica de trabalho no mundo contempor??neo. As empresas descobriram que as equipes s??o mais flex??veis e reagem melhor ??s mudan??as do que outras formas de agrupamentos organizacionais permanentes. No mercado atual, esta flexibilidade pode ser um fator diferencial de competitividade, notadamente na presta????o de servi??os. O n??o entendimento do que vem a ser o trabalho em equipe geralmente faz com que as organiza????es n??o consigam implementar essa forma de trabalho de maneira satisfat??ria. O objetivo deste estudo foi analisar as caracter??sticas que podem estar relacionadas com o sucesso do uso de equipes multifuncionais na implementa????o de estrat??gias empresariais. Buscando este objetivo foi realizado um estudo te??rico para selecionar as caracter??sticas preliminares de sucesso na utiliza????o de equipes. Com base nos resultados da pesquisa te??rica foi analisada uma experi??ncia pr??tica de sucesso, de um projeto realizado numa empresa prestadora de servi??os de telecomunica????es. A partir da an??lise foram selecionadas caracter??sticas que poderiam estar relacionadas com o sucesso da experi??ncia. A seguir, foi efetuada uma pesquisa na empresa envolvendo os empregados que participaram de projetos semelhantes para avaliar a import??ncia das caracter??sticas previamente selecionadas. As caracter??sticas/dimens??es consideradas como mais importantes pelos participantes foram: possibilidade real de o trabalho proposto ser feito em equipe; exist??ncia de indicadores precisos e claros para a avalia????o dos resultados obtidos ao final dos trabalhos da equipe; sele????o dos componentes da equipe de acordo com as caracter??sticas do projeto; divulga????o da import??ncia do projeto que ser?? realizado pela equipe; conhecimento dos processos e as ??reas da empresa afetadas pelo projeto que a equipe ir?? desenvolver; autonomia para a equipe planejar as tarefas visando obter os resultados propostos; estabelecer indicadores mensur??veis para acompanhamento das tarefas a serem executadas; feed back dos patrocinadores aos componentes da equipe sobre o impacto dos resultados obtidos, nos resultados da empresa. Os participantes atribuem uma import??ncia menor ??s seguintes caracter??sticas/dimens??es: integra????o da equipe via evento pr??vio de sensibiliza????o; integra????o da equipe via eventos informais peri??dicos ao longo do trabalho; integra????o da equipe com eventos especializados para tratar conflitos ao longo do trabalho; sele????o um maior n??mero poss??vel de pessoas flex??veis e cooperativas para o trabalho em equipe; coordena????o externa de um l??der para acompanhar a evolu????o das tarefas programadas; a diversidade de opini??o entre os indiv??duos da equipe sobre a melhor forma de executar as tarefas necess??rias para atender os objetivos do projeto. O presente estudo n??o pode se propor conclus??es al??m interpreta????o dos dados levantados, em virtude do m??todo utilizado. A amostra retrata uma situa????o pontual no tempo e se restringe ?? empresa pesquisada. No entanto, pode servir como base inicial para estudos semelhantes.

Kwok, Yan Yuen. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 23-25). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese.

This study examines the factors that are important for team success by exploring the best possible criteria for selecting members for teamwork. Two models of team composition were proposed, productivty and synergy. The findings are discussed for their implications for team satisfaction and productivity.

Workplace aggression has been associated with a number of detrimental employee and organizational outcomes, both at work and away from work. This dissertation includes three studies that expand our knowledge of the implications of workplace aggression in the work and nonwork domains. Further, this research illuminates the processes through which this relationship occurs by utilizing various sources of data from employees in a variety of contexts including universities, long term health care, and the USDA Forest Service. In Study 1, which was published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, multi-source data are utilized to identify the indirect effects of coworker-reported workplace aggression on self and significant-other reported work-family conflict via self-reported psychological detachment from work. Study 2 identifies an indirect effect of workplace aggression on parental warmth via increased perceived stress utilizing longitudinal data from the Work, Family, and Health Network. Finally, Study 3 utilizes data from the USDA Forest Service to examine associations between workplace aggression and safety outcomes. Workplace aggression was found to be associated with increased resource depletion (i.e., rumination, cognitive failure) and decreased workplace safety (i.e., increased workplace accidents, decreased safety compliance). Workplace aggression was indirectly associated with safety participation and workplace injuries via cognitive failure and rumination, respectively. Safety climate, an organizational resource, moderated the relationship between rumination and safety behaviors. Finally, the indirect effect of coworker aggression on safety compliance via rumination was found to be conditional on low levels of safety climate, while the indirect effect of supervisor aggression on safety participation via rumination was also found to be conditional on low levels of safety climate. The current body of work provides implications for developing workplace interventions to reduce negative outcomes of workplace aggression, such as general stress management and recovery from work interventions. Several avenues for future research are suggested as well, including examining objective health outcomes of workplace aggression, utilizing longitudinal designs, and identifying additional moderators of the association between workplace aggression and employee outcomes.

<p>The focus of the study is the teacher in the under-resourced schools in the townships of the Western Cape. The purpose is to discover how teachers learn to cope under adverse working conditions.</p>