The point of departure of this study is that there is a need to successfully integrate and identify the relationship between employees’ perceptions of employment equity and black economic empowerment, the influence thereof on the various factors associated with employee commitment as well as the role of the mentor and union commitment. Thus, the development of a predictive model becomes an important tool to be used by organisations in future. Literature research The primary objective of the study is to provide research evidence for a predictive model of employee commitment. The secondary objectives focus on outlining the concept of commitment; describing comprehensively the antecedents of employee commitment; describing the relationship between employee commitment and union commitment; describing the perceptions of the Employment Equity Act; describing the perceptions of the Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment Act; and describing the concept of mentorship. Lastly, the role of a mentor as a moderator of organisation commitment, the perceptions of employment equity and the perceptions of black economic empowerment are described. A review of the relevant literature reveals that the construct of organisation commitment as characterised by the relevant literature includes a large number of explanatory and descriptive concepts without an attempt to integrate these concepts and therefore there is a lack of parsimony (Roodt, 1991, 1992). Organisation commitment has not developed in an evolutionary way with regard to meaning and relationships with other commitment concepts (Morrow, 1983). Knoop (1986); Morrow and McElroy (1986); O’Reilly and Chatman (1986); Rabinowitz and Hall (1977) and Roodt (2004) also support this idea. The relevant literature also confirms the lack of the integration of all the variables correlated with commitment and differences in opinion about dual commitment (organisation and union commitment). Employment equity and mentorship research are also fragmented and little research has been conducted on black economic empowerment. This emphasises the need for an integrated predictive model of employee commitment. Empirical research objective The primary objective of the study was to investigate key relationships between variables in the model in order to propose a predictive model of employee commitment. Other objectives were defined as follows: • Determine the interactive relationship between organisation-related commitment (dependent variable) and race, gender, age, tenure, marital status, level of education, home language and job levels (independent variables). • Determine the interactive relationship between union commitment (dependent variable) and race, gender, age, tenure, marital status, level of education, home language and job levels (independent variables). • Determine the interactive relationship between the perceptions of employment equity (dependent variable) and race, gender, age, tenure, marital status, level of education, home language and job levels (independent variables). • Determine the interactive relationship between the perceptions of black economic empowerment (dependent variable) and race, gender, age, tenure, marital status, level of education, home language and job levels (independent variables). • Determine the relationship between organisation-related commitment and union commitment. • Determine how the relationship between background variables and organisation-related commitment is mediated by the perceptions of employment equity. • Determine how the relationship between background variables and organisation-related commitment is mediated by the perceptions of black economic empowerment. • Determine whether the perceptions of the mentor’s role mediate the relationship between the perceptions of employment equity and organisation-related commitment. • Determine whether the perceptions of the mentor’s role mediate the relationship between the perceptions of black economic empowerment and organisation-related commitment. • Determine whether employees with positive perceptions of the mentor’s role are more committed to the organisation. • Determine how the relationship between background variables and union commitment is mediated by the perceptions of employment equity. • Determine how the relationship between background variables and union commitment is mediated by the perceptions of black economic empowerment. • Determine whether the perceptions of the mentor’s role mediate the relationship between the perceptions of employment equity and union commitment. • Determine whether the perceptions of the mentor’s role mediate the relationship between the perceptions of black economic empowerment and union commitment. • Determine whether employees with positive perceptions of the mentor’s role are more committed to the union. Participants A primary data set was used. The primary data was obtained from a sample drawn from a large transport organisation. A convenience sample was drawn from a sampling frame of 1 200 employees and yielded 637 completed questionnaires. A response rate of 53% was obtained. Only completed records were used for the data analyses. The respondents were predominantly Afrikaans-speaking, white males, 36 years and older, with 10 years of service or longer, who are married with a standard 10 or higher qualification. The participants were predominantly drawn from the junior officer group and belonged to a union. The majority did not have a mentor. The measuring instrument The Employee Commitment Questionnaire, the data-gathering tool of this study, consists of five questionnaires, namely Organisation-related Commitment, Union Commitment, Perceptions of Employment Equity, Perceptions of Black Economic Empowerment and Perceptions of the Mentor’s Role Questionnaires. The combined total items of the questionnaire consisted of 103 items. The research procedure The primary data set was obtained from a sample drawn from a transport organisation. In order to have an inclusive approach, the researcher used the intranet and sent hard copies of the survey to employees. Participation was voluntary, and confidentiality and anonymity were guaranteed. Statistical analysis The particular statistical procedures used were selected based on their suitability to test the research hypotheses of the study. These procedures include descriptive statistics, factor analyses, analyses of variance and covariance and a General Linear Modelling (GLM). In respect of the factor analyses, a procedure developed by Schepers (1992) was followed. This procedure includes first and second level factor analyses. A General Linear Modelling (GLM) was used to evaluate the predictive model of employee commitment. The Statistical Consultation Service of the Rand Afrikaans University conducted the analyses. All the calculations were done by means of the SPSS Windows program of SPSS International. Conclusions and recommendations An empirical predictive model of organisation-related commitment and union commitment was developed. This model indicates that organisation-related commitment and union commitment are mainly predicted by perceptions of employment equity and perceptions of black economic empowerment. These perceptions have a strong bearing on people’s beliefs, values and needs. This could be a possible reason for the large amount of variance that is explained. The theoretical model proposed initially was amended to reflect the findings. The study has little nomothetic value, as it was limited to a single organisation. Further research needs to be conducted across organisations in similar contexts to establish the external validity of the findings. The findings have some theoretical value as the perceptions of employment equity and the perceptions of black economic empowerment were for the first time included as predictors of employee commitment. Furthermore, a more sophisticated multi-variate General Linear Modelling (GLM) was used for the prediction of employee commitment. Isolating predictors that explain the variance in the criterion provided a parsimonious predictive model. The model also illustrates possible significant interaction effects between the different predictor variables. The model serves as a good point of departure for understanding and explaining employee commitment in a diverse workforce setting where the perceptions of employment equity and the perceptions of black economic empowerment are applied. / Prof. Gert Roodt

Magister Commercii - MCom / Increasingly, organisations are realising that they have to establish an equitable balance between the employee’s contribution to the organisation and the organisation’s contribution to the employee. Establishing this balance is one of the main reasons to reward and recognise employees. Organisations that follow a strategic approach to creating this balance focus on the three main components of a reward system, which includes, compensation, benefits and recognition (Deeprose, 1994). Studies that have been conducted on the topic indicates that the most common problem in organisations today is that they miss the important component of recognition, which is the low-cost, high-return ingredient to a well-balanced reward system. A key focus of recognition is to make employees feel appreciated and valued (Sarvadi, 2005). Research has proven that employees who get recognised tend to have higher self-esteem, more confidence, more willingness to take on new challenges and more eagerness to be innovative (Mason, 2001). The aim of this study is to investigate whether rewards and recognition has an impact on employee motivation. A biographical and Work Motivation Questionnaire was administered to respondents (De Beer, 1987). The sample group (N= 184) consists of male and female employees on post-grade levels 5 to 12. The results of the research indicated that there is a positive relationship between rewards, recognition and motivation. The results also revealed that women, and employees from non-white racial backgrounds experienced lower levels of rewards, recognition and motivation. Future research on the latter issues could yield interesting insights into the different factors that motivate employees. Notwithstanding the insights derived from the current research, results need to be interpreted with caution since a convenience sample was used, thereby restricting the generalisability to the wider population. / South Africa

Magister Commercii - MCom / Motivation is considered to be the desired positive willingness that prompts a person to action. The factors that influence or lead to this positive willingness, are considered to be motivation factors, and include specific needs, wants, drives or impulses (Hersey & Blanchard, 1988). People are motivated by different things, both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. For some, it is power and money that motivate them while for others, it is flexibility or a social workplace. According to Herzberg’s theory, intrinsic factors are motivators or satisfiers and can be described as a person's relationship with what she or he does, many related to the tasks being performed (Buitendach & De Witte, 2005; Mehta, Anderson & Dubinsky, 2000). Extrinsic factors, also known as hygiene factors or dissatisfiers, have to do with a person's relationship to the context or environment in which she or he performs a job (Buitendach & De Witte, 2005; Mehta et al., 2000). Some individuals are highly motivated by both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. This is supported in a study amongst medical students (Beswick, 2002). In another study by Shim, Gehrt and Goldsberry (1999), it was found that students entering a career in retail viewed intrinsic aspects as the most important predictor of a retail career, followed by lifestyle flexibility aspects and then extrinsic aspects. Furthermore, research within a service organisation has indicated that various biographical factors have an influence on work motivation (Bezuidenhout, 2001). However, limited research has been conducted to determine whether biographical factors have an influence on work motivation within the retail industry.The aim of the study was to investigate the motivation of retail managers in a retail organisation in the Western Cape. Furthermore, it investigates whether the motivation levels of retail managers are influenced by their biographical variables. The Work Satisfaction and Motivation Questionnaire developed by De Beer (1987) and a self-developed biographical questionnaire was administered to elicit work content, promotion, supervision, reward and recognition in relation to work motivation. The questionnaires were distributed to the target population (n=236) of retail managers which were inclusive of store managers, store assistant managers and department managers. Convenience sampling was used to draw a sample (n=109) of male and female retail managers. Statistical analyses involved both descriptive and inferential statistics (ANOVA, Multiple Regression Analysis, Pearson’s Correlation Co-efficient and Scheffe’s test). The results revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between the investigated dimensions of work motivation and satisfaction. It was found that the investigated dimensions of motivation only account for 49.5% of the variance in total motivation experienced by retail managers. Furthermore, significant differences were found between the biographical variables and responses to the questionnaire. It is suggested, for future research that a proportionate stratified random sample be drawn which will allow the findings of the study to be reliably generalised to the population. Furthermore, it is also recommended that future research consider dimensions of motivation, such as, achievement, responsibility, security, autonomy, feedback and morale, which are not investigated in this study. / South Africa

Magister Commercii - MCom / The primary objective of this study was to gain an understanding of the impact of psychological empowerment and job satisfaction on organizational commitment amongst employees in a multi-national organization. For the purpose of this study a quantitative, non-probability convenience sampling design was used to assess the three variables. The sample consisted of (N = 120) permanent employees were employed in the following departments namely: Administration, Engineering, Production, Quality and Commercial. / South Africa

Research problem: The Port Elizabeth hospital complex is faced with many staff-related challenges including the difficulty of retaining staff. Factors such as salaries, work environment, work injury, work related stress, personal growth and development opportunities, advancement and promotion opportunities, relationships with supervisor(s), are among the issues that contribute and have been found to be some of the factors affecting employees’ perceptions and attitudes towards their work and ultimately to their intentions to stay or leave. Research objectives: To address the research problem, research objectives and questions were established. The main objective of the research was to investigate the perceptions and attitudes influencing the employees’ intention to quit their jobs within the hospital complex. The key perceptions and attitudes that were measured were; job satisfaction, perceived organisational support and organisational commitment. The secondary objective of the study was to determine, from a list of predetermined factors, which were related to job satisfaction, perceived organisational support and organisational commitment and the intention to quit. Research questions: Four research questions were established and these were: What are the employee perceptions and attitudes towards the organisation and their work in the organisation? In particular how satisfied are the employees with their jobs (job satisfaction), how committed are they to the organisation (organisational commitment), how do they perceive the support within the organisation (perceived organisational support) and do they intend to remain with the organisation (intention to quit measured as the intention to stay). What are the most important factors contributing to job satisfaction, perceived organisational support, organisational commitment and intention to quit? (Measured as the intention to stay). What is the relationship between the sub-groups, identified as gender, race, nationality, occupational level, age, hospital, and length of tenure and job satisfaction, perceived organisational support and organisational commitment? What is the relationship between the sub-groups, identified as gender, race, nationality, occupational level, age, hospital, and length of tenure and intention to quit (measured as the intention to stay)? Research design: The nature of this research was a descriptive study collecting quantitative data. A self-administered survey questionnaire was used to collect information regarding employee perceptions and attitudes towards various aspects of their working conditions, their perceptions and attitudes towards the organisation and their intention to remain with the organisation. Major findings: The result of the survey showed that organisational commitment and positive organizational support are practically significantly positively correlated with the intention to stay. However, it was discovered that job satisfaction was statistically significantly positively correlated to intention to stay. The nine factors that were measured were found to be antecedents for all the three constructs of job satisfaction, organizational commitment and perceived organizational support. However, the factors that were also correlated with the intention to stay were promotion opportunities, nature of the work, communication and leader-member exchange.

Depuis les années 1980, les investigations des chercheurs sur les comportements des individus en milieu de travail sont de plus en plus tournées vers les comportements plus spontanés et volontaires qui ont pour conséquence, l'amélioration du fonctionnement organisationnel. Connus sous plusieurs vocables tels que les comportements de citoyenneté organisationnelle (Organ, 1988 ; Paillé, 2006), comportements organisationnels prosociaux (Brief & Motowidlo, 1986 ; Desrumaux, Léoni, Bernaud, & Defrancq, 2012…), ces conduites ont été à l'origine définies comme « le comportement individuel qui est discrétionnaire, non directement ou explicitement reconnu par le système formel de récompense et qui, dans l'ensemble, promeut le fonctionnement efficace et effectif de l'organisation » (Organ, 1988, p4). Par ailleurs, les études empiriques en proposent différentes catégorisations. Une première est basée sur des groupes de comportements (Organ, 1988 ; Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Moorman, & Fetter, 1990) et la deuxième sur une division en deux grands dimensions selon qu'ils s'orientent vers une cible particulière (organisation vs individu), regroupant chacune des sous catégories (Williams & Anderson, 1991). En nous basant sur ces différentes catégorisations et en prenant appui sur la théorie de l'échange social, cette thèse de doctorat se propose d'examiner le rôle des variables aussi bien organisationnelles qu'individuelles dans la prosocialité des individus en milieu de travail. Concrètement, il s'agit d'analyser les influences des caractéristiques liées à l’organisation (la justice organisationnelle et le soutien de l'organisation), la satisfaction au travail, l'engagement organisationnel, la personnalité, les affects et l'empathie sur les CPST. Un modèle complet qui inclut toutes ces variables a, de ce fait, été proposé. Ce modèle suggère que les inducteurs organisationnels et individuels affectent les CPST par les médiations de la satisfaction au travail, les affects et l'empathie. Les résultats des analyses des études conduites à cet effet confortent certaines hypothèses relationnelles, et tendent à reproduire une catégorisation en deux dimensions.Ainsi, les études réalisées permettent de constater que la prosocialité des salariés est positivement liée à plusieurs critères tels que le soutien organisationnel perçu, les justices distributive, procédurale et interpersonnelle et l'engagement organisationnel. Les résultats obtenus soutiennent également le rôle médiateur de l'empathie et des affects dans la relation entre les justices distributive et procédurale, l'engagement affectif et les comportements prosociaux.En termes de contributions, cette thèse alimente la réflexion sur une base théorique solide à l'égard de la prosocialité organisationnelle des travailleurs. Ensuite, la recherche pallie certaines limites relatives aux études antérieures inhérentes à l'étude d'un nombre réduit des dimensions de prosocialité et des variables antécédentes. Finalement, cette thèse permet de mieux cerner les antécédents et le rôle des comportements prosociaux au travail. / Since the 1980s, the researchers investigating the behavior of individuals in the workplace have been increasingly facing the most spontaneous and voluntary behaviors which result in the improvement of organizational functioning. Known by several vocables such as organizational citizenship behaviors (Organ, 1988 ; Paille, 2006), organizational prosocial behaviors (Brief & Motowidlo, 1986 ; Desrumaux, Léoni, Bernaud & Defrancq, 2012…), these actions have been originally defined as "individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system and that, overall, promotes the efficient and effective functioning of the organization" (Organ, 1988, p. 4). However, empirical studies offer different categorizations. The first is based on groups of behaviors (Organ, 1988 ; Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Moorman, & Fetter, 1990) and the second on a division in two dimensions as they are moving towards a particular target (organization vs. individual), each containing subcategories (Williams & Anderson, 1991). Based on these categorizations and relying on the theory of social exchange, this thesis will examine the role of either organizational or individual variables both in the prosociality of individuals in the workplace. In fact, it is to analyze the influence of work-related characteristics (organizational justice and organizational support), job satisfaction, organizational commitment, personality, emotions and empathy on CPST. A full model that includes all these variables has therefore been proposed. This model suggests that organizational and individual inducers affect CPST by mediation of job satisfaction, affects and empathy. Analytical results of studies conducted for this purpose reinforce some relational hypothesis and tend to reproduce a two-dimensional categorization. Thus, the present study shows that the prosociality of employees is positively related to several criteria such as perceived organizational support, distributive, procedural, interpersonal justices and organizational commitment. The results also support the mediator roles of empathy and affects in the relationship between distributive and procedural justices, affective involvement and prosocial behaviors. In terms of contributions, this study gives rise to the establishment of a strong theorical basis to organizational prosociality of workers. Then, this research overcomes some limitations of the previous studies inherent to the study of a small number of prosociality dimensions and antecedent variables. Finally, this research provides more information about the history and role of prosocial behaviors at work.

This study will focus on the critical problems encountered by banks due to voluntary turnover of tellers. Voluntary turnover of bank tellers is a past and present problem for bank management. Job satisfaction and its relationship to voluntary turnover has been extensively studied since the mid-1950's, and continues to be an important topic. This dissertation is based partly on the Job Enrichment (or Two-Factor) Theory (Herzberg, 1959), and also on many other seminal studies conducted since then. This study analyzes how pay satisfaction, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment influence the intention to quit among bank tellers. The research question was: Does low pay satisfaction and low organizational commitment lead to high intention to quit among bank tellers? This study's results indicate that there was strong support for the relationship of these variables with intention to quit. The study was based on a representative sample and the results of the correlations rejected all four proposed null hypotheses. This study finds support for the hypotheses: pay satisfaction is negatively related to intention to quit; organizational commitment is negatively related to intention to quit; job satisfaction is negatively related to intention to quit; and job satisfaction is positively related to organizational commitment. At a confidence level of 99.99%, these results were highly significant. The study results indicate that pay satisfaction and overall job satisfaction were not at a fully satisfied level. Meanwhile, organizational commitment was high, which explains why the overall intention to quit was low. The tellers responded that they would be "somewhat likely" to "actively look for a new job in the next year." They also responded to the statement "I often think about quitting" with slight disagreement. Overall, the tellers participating in this study are somewhat committed to their banks and not quite satisfied with their pay or their overall job. The results of this study, one of a few involving more than one bank and with a statistically large sample, could also motivate management in banks and other industries to design and implement changes that will reduce voluntary turnover. This study of bank tellers was conducted while the banking industry is experiencing very difficult and unprecedented market conditions. Most banks have not only implemented a hiring freeze, but some have also cut personnel to try to increase profitability. The results of the study could have been influenced by the market conditions.

The primary purpose of this research study was to explore the relationship between ethical leadership (Brown, Trevino, & Harrison, 2005) and the three forms of organizational commitment (Meyer & Allen, 1997). Secondarily, this research explored the relationship between ethical leadership (Brown et al., 2005) and the four dimensions of transformational leadership (Bass & Avolio, 1994). This study extends recent research regarding ethics, leadership styles, and employee commitment by administering the Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS), the Three-Component Model (TCM) of Commitment (Meyer & Allen, 1997), and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-5X). The data was collected from a cross-section of 130 business professionals representing a variety of industries, occupation characteristics, and levels of organizational and supervisory responsibility, age, education, and job tenure. The hypotheses developed in this study found positive and statistically significant relationships between ethical leadership and two forms of organizational commitment; affective commitment (r = .55, p < .01) and normative commitment (r = .45, p < .01). The study also found highly positive and statistically significant relationships between ethical leadership and the idealized influence (r = .75, p < .01) and inspirational motivation (r = .70, p < .01) dimensions of transformational leadership.

The research herein was developed to gain a robust understating of the relationship of transformational leadership and work environment in East Africa (Bass & Avolio, 1994). Likewise, the study provides additional data and an examination of what correlation and impact the aforementioned have on organizational commitment. The research faced many challenges, including examining a new model in a high context society that relies heavily on enriched clan, subclan, tribes, super tribes, and communal relationships, which had not been tested prior. Valid and reliable survey instruments included 60 questions from the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-5X), 90 questions from the Work Environment Survey (WES), 30 questions from the Three-Component Model (TCM), and a demographic survey, which ensured research efforts were consistent with previous studies (Bass & Avolio, 1994; Meyer & Allen, 1991; Moos & Insel, 2008). Over 15,121 emails from 63 countries were sent out randomly from the Directory of Development Organizations (2010) database. The degree of accuracy and a high degree of validity was reached at a rate of .05 (Krejcie & Morgan, 1970). A response rate of 36.4% was achieved, which was acceptable for the study. The study relied on English as the language of choice, given that over 2,000 dialects and languages exist in East Africa, thereby reducing contextual risk significantly. The statistical methodology used incorporated advanced SPSS software to process the Mahalanobis distance and Pearson coefficients to test five hypotheses. There were 188 cases available for analysis and 22 cases identified through Mahalanobis distance as multivariate outliers. The findings conformed to previous studies of transformational leadership and organizational commitment in organizations as being highly significant and correlative. Work environment was found not to be significant to transformational leadership or organizational commitment. Therefore, more research is required to understand this phenomenon and to make recommendations to leaders and managers to increase levels of influence and encouragement in the work environment. By doing so, a greater return of investment should be obtained for companies, for work areas, and for the work force, which participates in the global marketplace.

This dissertation examined the relationship between the antecedents and consequences of employee engagement in a defense acquisition organization. The objective of this study as to determine whether or not the eight satisfaction facets of the Index of Organizational Reactions (IOR) (1976) could be used as antecedents, engagement and consequences constructs in place of the antecedents, engagement and consequences constructs of the Saks (2006) model of employee engagement. This study used the following three research questions: 1) Are the antecedents of the IOR (kind of work, amount of work, physical work conditions, supervision and financial rewards) related to employee engagement constructs (company identification and co-workers)? 2) Are the antecedents of the IOR model (kind of work, amount of work, physical work conditions, supervision and financial rewards) related to consequences (career future)? 3) Are the employee engagement constructs (company identification and co-workers) related to consequences (career future)? This study utilized the Index of Organizational Reactions (1976) to sample a defense acquisition organization (N = 177) to assess the proposed empirical model. The quantitative data from the study was used to perform Pearson correlation on 17 hypotheses. All hypotheses were supported and indicated positive relationships were present among the variables representing the antecedents, engagement and consequences constructs of the empirical model. In addition, confirmatory factor analysis was utilized as was done in previous studies performed by Dunham, Smith and Blackburn (1977) and Lee (1984). After the initial component matrix was obtained, a varimax rotation with Kaiser normalization was applied and indicated that the same factors that were found in the Dunham et al. and Lee studies were found in this research, providing additional confirmation for the original validation of the IOR. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was also used in this research and the results indicated that gender was a significant effect on the results of this study. This study also utilized qualitative responses to the survey items to provide additional data to determine whether or not there were common themes amongst the comments and whether or not the comments were in agreement with the quantitative responses. Results indicated that further study is needed in the areas of supervision, kind of work, co-workers, physical work conditions and career future.