Employee engagement has been conceived as one of the “hottest topics in management” (De Cieri, Holmes, Abbott, & Pettit, 2002; Saks, 2006). Therefore, the need to further understand factors that enhance the level of employee engagement is of utmost importance if organisations are to successfully increase their competitive edge. The purpose of the present study was to develop a model of personality traits and work-life balance as determinants of employee engagement among employees in the various industries in South Africa. In particular, the present study investigated relationships between personality traits adapted by Martins (2000) which include five robust factors: agreeableness, extraversion, conscientiousness, resourcefulness and emotional stability and work-life balance as measured by the Survey Work-home Interaction/NijmeGen (SWING) which consists of four dimensions, namely, negative work-home interaction, positive work-home interaction negative home-work interaction and positive home-work interaction. The study utilised Schaufeli’s (2002) Utrecth Work Engagement Scale (UWES) which consists of three interrelated dimensions: vigour, dedication and absorption. A quantitative cross-sectional survey was followed and the data was collected from a population of 1 063 working adults through a Web-based survey. The results revealed significant relationships between the variables. Specifically, the results revealed that positive work-home interaction and positive home-work interaction appeared to be stronger correlated to engagement than the five dimensions of personality traits. For instance, a Pearson correlation analysis revealed that positive work-home interaction (r = .33) and positive home-work interaction (r = .30) had the highest correlation with employee engagement. In the same vein, the canonical correlation analysis revealed that positive work-home interaction, positive home-work interaction, agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability exhibited the highest correlation with the canonical employee engagement construct variate. The results of the structural equation modelling further confirmed that the interaction of three personality traits, namely, agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability and two of the work-life balance constructs, which are positive work-home interaction and positive home-work interaction, significantly and positively predicted employee engagement. The outcomes can be useful in informing employee engagement strategies, particularly in the recruitment, selection and retaining of highly skilful talents. Specifically, the study provided practical recommendations for employee engagement practices, based on the literature review and empirical results. This study highlighted the manner in which the personality traits and work-life balance variables impacted on employee engagement behavior. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D. Litt. et. Phil. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

Thèse réalisée grâce au soutien du Fonds Québécois de Recherche en Science et Culture (FQRSC) / La déviance organisationnelle ou encore les comportements contre-productifs au travail sont un sujet d’intérêt important pour les chercheurs en psychologie du travail. Que ce soit sur le plan individuel, organisationnel ou plus globalement sur toute l’économie, les impacts de ces comportements destructeurs suscitent l’intérêt des chercheurs en psychologie du travail et des organisations. De façon plus spécifique, la présente thèse s’intéresse aux comportements volontaires des membres d’une organisation et qui ont des conséquences négatives pour celle-ci (ci-après CAOT ou comportements anti-organisationnels au travail). Ainsi, nous mettrons l’accent sur les gestes qui portent une atteinte directe à l’organisation plutôt qu’à ses membres ou à ses clients. Les recherches précédentes ayant identifié des antécédents individuels, dont certains facteurs de personnalité, ainsi que différents antécédents liés à l’environnement organisationnel, la présente thèse vise à enrichir les connaissances dans le domaine en explorant certaines interactions entre ces variables. En d’autres mots, nous tenterons de déterminer si au-delà des prédispositions individuelles susceptibles d’accroître le risque de commettre des CAOT, la personnalité n’agirait pas comme un modérateur sur le lien entre différentes variables organisationnelles qui ont été identifiées comme de potentiels déclencheurs de CAOT. Le premier article de la thèse propose un modèle théorique intégrant différents mécanismes explicatifs des CAOT. Il identifie comme antécédents directs des CAOT les dimensions de personnalité amabilité et conscience ainsi que la justice organisationnelle, les normes perçues envers les CAOT et les mécanismes de contrôle et opportunités. Par ailleurs, trois interactions entre les dimensions de personnalité et différents antécédents organisationnels sont également suggérées en lien avec la documentation scientifique répertoriée. Le deuxième article consiste en la traduction, l’adaptation et la validation d’un instrument de mesure des CAOT. Une structure factorielle en quatre dimensions est identifiée suite à une analyse factorielle exploratoire. Une comparaison des dimensions retrouvées dans la mesure traduite et adaptée par rapport à la mesure originale ainsi que les implications pratiques de l’instrument mis à la disposition des chercheurs et des organisations sont discutées. Le troisième article vise principalement à vérifier les hypothèses des liens directs ainsi que des interactions qui ont été proposées dans le modèle théorique du premier article. Les liens directs entre la justice organisationnelle et la dimension de personnalité conscience avec les CAOT, pourtant largement supportés dans la littérature scientifique antérieure, ne sont pas confirmés, alors que les liens entre la dimension de personnalité amabilité, les normes perçues quant aux CAOT et les mécanismes de contrôle et opportunités avec les CAOT sont supportés. Aucune interaction significative n’a également pu être confirmée entre la personnalité et des variables organisationnelles. En somme, cette thèse met de l’avant un modèle théorique intégrant différents antécédents des CAOT qui agissent de façon additive pour expliquer une plus large portion de variance qu’un seul antécédent ne pourrait expliquer. Les différents mécanismes pouvant déclencher la manifestation des CAOT qui sont mis en lumière soulignent la complexité du phénomène. La présente thèse en appelle à poursuivre les recherches en gardant à l’esprit que les CAOT ne sont pas seulement le propre de certains individus, de certaines dynamiques de groupe ou de contextes organisationnels, mais d’une composition de tous ces facteurs. / Organizational deviance or counterproductive work behaviors are a subject of interest for work and organization psychologists. On the individual, organizational or economical levels, the impacts of these potentially destructive behaviors call the researchers to investigate. Specifically, this dissertation will address voluntary behaviors committed by organizational members that negatively impact the organization (hereafter AOWB for anti-organizational work behaviors). Henceforth, the focus is put on behaviors that directly target the organization rather than the behaviors that target its members or clients. Previous studies having identified individual predictors of AOWB, like personality factors, and work environment factors, this dissertation aims to further investigate the domain by exploring possible moderating relations between those variables. As such, we will examine the possibility that some individual dispositions can not only enhance the risk that an individual commit those behaviors, but that personality could act as a moderator on the relationship between different organizational variable that have been identified as triggers for AOWB. The first article of this dissertation propose a theoretical model integrating different mechanisms explaining AOWB. Agreeableness and conscientiousness personality factors are identified as individual predictors of AOWB. Organizational justice, perceived group norms regarding AOWB and control mechanism and opportunities are identified as organizational predictors of AOWB. Moreover, three interactions between personality dimensions and different organizational predictors are also suggested based on the review of the scientific documentation. The second article presents the translation, adaptation and validation of an instrument measuring the AOWB. A four dimensions’ structure is found following an exploratory factorial analysis. Comparison of the dimensions found in the translated and adapted measure with the original instrument are discussed. Practical implications regarding the instrument for researchers and organizations are also discussed. The main objective of third article is to test the direct relationships and moderating effects hypotheses presented in the theoretical model of the first article. Direct relationships between organizational justice and conscientiousness predicting AOWB were not supported event though the benefited from a large support from the previous scientific literature. Direct relationships between agreeableness, perceived group norms regarding AOWB, control mechanisms and opportunities as predictors of AOWB were supported. No moderating effect between personality and organizational variables could have been confirmed. Finally, this dissertation proposes a theoretical model integrating different predictors of AOWB that act in complementarity to explain a larger portion of variance that any single predictor could explain. The presented multiple mechanisms that can trigger AOWB underline the complexity of the phenomenon. This results of this dissertation invite the researchers to pursue the investigation while keeping in mind that AOWB can not be explained by individuals, work group dynamics or organizational contexts separately, but by a composition of those variables.

Обучение в течение всей жизни – пространство развития каждого человека, в связи с этим следует обратиться к данной теме с точки зрения психологических предпосылок. Обучение в разных формах понимается не только как социальная, профессионально-значимая функция, но и как атрибут личностного здоровья. Какая именно черта характера формирует потребность учиться у зрелого человека или препятствует этому? Изучается взаимосвязь выделенных переменных опросника «Оценка готовности к непрерывному обучению» со шкалами методик Баднера (толерантность к неопределенности) и Гослинга (открытость опыту, добросовестность, эмоциональная стабильность, экстравертность и дружелюбие). В онлайн-опросе приняли участие 65 человек в возрасте 40-55 лет со стажем работы не менее 10 лет. Магистерская диссертация состоит из введения, трех глав, заключения, списка литературы (104 источника) и приложений, включающих в себя бланки применявшихся методик, данные по ранним исследованиям. Объем магистерской диссертации без приложений составляет 97 страниц, на которых размещены 29 рисунков и 6 таблиц. Во введении раскрывается актуальность проблемы исследования, разработанность проблематики, ставятся цель и задачи исследования, определяются объект и предмет исследования, формулируется основная и конкретизирующие гипотезы, указываются методы и эмпирическая база. Первая глава включает в себя обзор иностранной и отечественной литературы по теме исследования: описание основных понятий и их характеристики. Выводы по первой главе представляют собой итоги по изучению теоретического материала. Вторая и третья главы посвящены эмпирической части исследования. В них представлено описание хода исследования и интерпретация полученных результатов. В заключении в обобщенном виде изложены результаты теоретической и эмпирической частей работы, а также выводы по выдвинутым гипотезам, обоснована практическая значимость исследования. В заключении показано, что наиболее тесно готовность к обучению в течение всей жизни связана с экстравертностью, открытостью опыту и дружелюбием. / Lifelong learning sustains an ongoing personal development and it should be analyzed with regard to its psychological premises. Any form of education not only enhances person's social and professional integration but also fosters his or her personal fulfillment and health. What personality trait forms or suppresses eagerness to learn at mature age? In this article we study the correlation between selected variables from «Life Long Learning Inventory» questionnaire and «Tolerance of ambiguity scale» developed by S.Budner (tolerance of ambiguity – novelty, complexity, or insolubility) and Ten-Item Personality Inventory-(TIPI) by S.D.Gosling (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, openness to experiences). 65 respondents at the age between 40 and 55 having over 10 years of work experience participated in the online questionnaire. The master's thesis consists of an introduction, three chapters, conclusion, a list of literature (104 sources) and applications, including forms of applied techniques, the classifier of associative connections, early research data. The volume of the master's thesis is 97 pages, on which are placed 29 figures and 6 tables. The introduction reveals the relevance of the research problem, the development of the problem, the purpose and objectives of the research, the object and subject of the research, the main hypothesis are formulated, the methods and the empirical base are specified. The first chapter include a review of foreign and domestic literature on the topic of the study: a description of the basic concepts and their characteristics. The first chapter include a review of foreign and domestic literature on the topic of the study. Conclusions on the first chapter are the results of the study of theoretical material. The two and three chapter is devoted to the empirical part of the study. On the basis of the obtained data, the developed models of intelligence and performance are demonstrated. In conclusion, the results of the theoretical and empirical parts of the work, as well as conclusions on the hypotheses put forward, the practical significance of the study. The results of our research demonstrate that readiness to acquire new knowledge at mature age is closely connected to extroversion, openness to experience and agreeableness.

No description available.

Social network development has been studied in the social sciences for the last several decades, but little work has applied social network theory to study-abroad research. This study seeks to quantitatively describe factors that predict social network formation among study-abroad students while in the host countries. Social networks were measured in terms of the number of friends the students made, the number of distinct social groups reported, and the number of friends within those groups. The Study Abroad Social Interaction Questionnaire was compared against these pre-trip factors: intercultural competence, target-language proficiency, prior missionary experience, gender, study-abroad program, neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness, openness to new experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Results showed that pre-trip oral proficiency in the target language was the strongest predictor of the number of friends made in-country. Certain programs showed stronger predictive statistics in terms of size of largest social group, number of social groups, and number of friends made. A distinction is made between total number of friends and number of friends who are more likely to be native speakers. Neither intercultural competence nor personality showed a significant correlation with the number of friendships made during study abroad.