Absenteeism is a widely observed phenomenon that has received a great deal of attention from academics who argue that it is an excellent proxy for individuals' attitude to work and commitment to their jobs. Unfortunately, very little of this work has been done by economists. The little economics that has been done has tended to view absenteeism as a measure of the supply of effort. Given the paucity of economic analysis on absenteeism, the psychology, sociology and management literature is reviewed to examine the extent to which their approach and that of an economist have common ground. Upon careful reading, it becomes evident these disciplines offer similar perspectives. Probably the most researched area of absenteeism is the relationship between absence and turnover. Although there is much contention as to what the relationship between these two phenomena should be, most researchers view this as a means to test the hypothesis of withdrawal. This thesis examines the problem somewhat differently and suggests that the approach of much of the empirical work is misguided. An alternative methodology to examine these phenomena is suggested and tested using a very large and detailed database. The results suggest there is a positive correlation between absence and turnover, although the relationship is more complex than described in the literature. One area where economists have made a great deal of theoretical progress is in the examination of why absence might vary across firms. The key insight is that production technology may affect the shadow cost of absence and if the costs of absence differ across firms, then there will be different levels of motivation to reduce it. It is argued that not only will the shadow cost of absence vary across firms, it will also vary over time and a theoretical model is developed to demonstrate this. There is a presumption in the literature that absenteeism is inversely related with the business cycle. However, the empirical work on the subject only models absence as a supply side phenomenon. This introduces a significant identification problem. At the very time when individuals are least likely to go absent, firms' demand for reliable labour will be at its lowest. The empirical work in the chapter models absence from both the supply and the demand side and the findings confirm that both play a significant role in determining absence. The finding that firms' demand for reliable labour may vary through the business cycle is novel and receives further investigation. The data is dissaggregated to determine the robustness of the relationship between demand side factors and the business cycle. At broad levels of disaggregation, the results remain quite strong, although there does appear to be a difference between unionised and nonunionised workers. At finer levels of dissaggregation the results are not as conclusive. This is attributed to the relatively small samples used to derive the individual absence series and the resulting increased volatility that emerges due increased variability from the use of small samples.

Unhealthy eating and physical activity behaviours are common among nurses. As nurses spend a substantial proportion of their waking hours at work, interest in delivering interventions in the workplace to improve this populations' eating and physical activity behaviours is growing. This programme of research aimed to systematically develop evidence-based and theory-informed recommendations for a workplace intervention to change nurses' eating and physical activity behaviours. Methods: A systematic literature review of published randomised controlled trials was undertaken. Factors that behavioural theories suggest may influence nurses' eating and physical activity behaviours were identified through theoretical domains framework-informed qualitative interviews and a survey of nurses. Intervention recommendations were specified in terms of (i) intervention functions and policy categories using a Behaviour Change Wheel and (ii) theory-informed behaviour change techniques using a behaviour change technique taxonomy. Evidence related to the parameters of effectiveness for each technique was also taken into account during this intervention specification process. The selected techniques were then combined into a conceptual overview of a potential workplace intervention. Results: Data from 13 randomised controlled trials indicate workplace-based behaviour change interventions targeted to this population are effective in decreasing body weight. The evidence base is, however, limited in quantity and quality. Nurses' beliefs about important determinants of eating and physical activity behaviour change were identifed across 16 qualitative interviews and 245 survey responses and key determinants included: environmental context and resources; behavioural regulation; emotion; beliefs about consequences; knowledge and optimism. Based on this behavioural diagnosis, 24 behaviour change techniques suitable for targeting the identified determinants were chosen and combined into a potential workplace intervention. Conclusions: This thesis illustrates the utility of the Theoretical Domains Framework, the Behaviour Change Wheel and the behaviour change technique taxonomy for developing workplace intervention recommendations. The proposed recommendations address a gap in the current evidence base. Such an intervention, if implemented, has the potential to improve nurses' eating and physical activity behaviours and in turn, the health of nurses and the quality of healthcare delivery.

M.Ing. / The loss of skills and knowledge of technical professionals experienced by many organizations in South Africa has serious implications on the competitiveness of these organizations in the local and international markets. Organizations should come to realize that they should find creative ways to retain critical skills and knowledge and ensure continuity in terms of succession management. Technical professionals play a crucial role in society. They are responsible for maintaining the technologies that they developed — technologies that are used extensively everyday. The extent of society's reliance on technical professionals is staggering. They ensure that people have clean water, transportation, communication, and countless other necessities. Organizations cannot afford to lose their technical professionals and must find ways to retain them. Research was done on the retention of technical professionals and the research indicated that there are fundamental differences between technical professionals and the other staff in organizations. The characteristics of technical professionals require that they be treated differently from other employees. Separate reward systems should be designed for technical professionals because they have different motives for joining and staying with organizations than other employees. Rewarding and compensating technical professionals, with retention as the objective, require that more attention be given to non-financial rewards. Technical professionals require opportunities to develop themselves and to keep abreast of the latest developments in their fields. Very importantly, they have to be assured proper career development. Performance management of technical professionals is a contentious issue because many of the outputs of technical professionals are intangible and difficult to measure. Performance appraisal systems have to be very well designed and alternatives to conventional performance appraisals should be considered. Some alternatives are peer control, selfevaluation, and evaluation by subordinates. Structural accommodations should be made to accommodate technical professionals because of the cultural differences between professionals and non-professionals. Various accommodations could be effective depending on the nature of the business and the level of dependence the organization has on technical professionals. Some options are dual ladders, triple hierarchies, and broadbanding amongst others. These structural accommodations can ensure that technical professionals do not have to make the transition to management in order to obtain more responsibility, recognition and status in an organization. The transition to management, of a technical professional, might in some cases have detrimental effects on the organization and the individual. For example, the best engineer in a project team is promoted to manage the team. The consequence may be that the team loses their best engineer and the organization gains a manager with little or no management skills. The success of retention strategies are organization-dependant, however, the strategies discussed in this dissertation can help ensure that organizations retain their competitive advantage by effectively managing and retaining their technical professionals.

The objective of this investigation is to begin to develop an understandable, reasonably valid, and objective merit rating system for professional workers. It is recognized that all conventional merit systems have significant shortcomings. Therefore, by using a results-oriented approach which combines the best features of the critical incident technique with those of the forced choice method, it is hoped to accomplish this goal.

M.Comm. / The concept of employee empowerment has been associated with the participation of employees in the decision-making process in organisations. A number of approaches and articles have recently been written to expand and better the concept. Employee empowerment is a strategy that gives an ordinary employee an opportunity to have say in, and contribute to both the internal and external affairs of the organisation. In order for the strategy to be successful, the company executive should also take on the responsibility of ensuring that employees and other stakeholders are committed to the process of empowerment. This report investigates the manner in which employee empowerment could be used as a tool or aid to assist organisations in making better use of employees' thinking skills. The investigation looks into the process that should be followed in the implementation of an employee empowerment strategy. Furthermore, the model investigates affirmative action as a tool that could assist managers and organisations to better understand the concept. The report will also highlight the critical success factors that are important in striving to employee empowerment in an organisation. It will also investigate other available tools that can be used in a successful strategy. The issue of black economic empowerment also pops up as a tool that could empower employees in the process. Lastly, the report recommends guidelines that organisations could follow to succeed. The findings of the study have concluded that employee empowerment could be a powerful tool and is essential for employee development. This model tries to integrate the situational leadership model of Ken Blanchard, Carlos and Randolph with Yen-Yun Lin's conceptual model. The model of Blanchard, Carlos & Randolph looks at the stages that management or organisations should go through before and when engaging in an empowerment strategy. The model follows the situational leadership concept or approach. On the other hand the Yen-Yun Lin model looks into the four key dimensions that are critical in an empowerment strategy, namely empowering leadership, empowering culture, empowering management practices and empowering teams. The model tries to integrate the four dimensions and show the role that they play in the employee empowerment model. The tools developed in this model are a combination of a number of possible tools that could be used in the empowerment process, which I developed. The last part of the model attempts to indicate the beneficiaries of the process and the benefits that could be derived from empowerment. It further looks into how these benefits could impact on the organisation as a whole and their relationship to the process and the key dimensions.

M.Comm. / Businesses are increasingly moving toward wellness management a means of controlling rapidly increasing healthcare costs. In pursuing that objective, they are also starting to realise the benefits of worksite wellness promotion in other areas such as improved employee morale, productivity and reduced absenteeism. Various surveys in the USA reveal that the majority of employers have introduced some form of wellness promotion in various forms. In South Africa however, that is not the case with other business priorities still taking preference. It is also a prevalent fact that in both the USA and South Africa, it is the larger employers that have adopted such wellness programs; in both cases employers with more than 1000 employees. The actual market size for wellness practitioners at this stage is unknown in both the USA as well as South Africa, but it is estimated at $10 billion in the USA and about R 2 billion in South Africa. Although the current workplace wellness programs vary from company to company, the most popular programs include health assessment, physical activity, nutrition, weight management, tobacco control and smoking cessation, medical self-care, stress management and employee assistance. It was clear from the research that the following deductions could be made: more than 90% of chronic illness emanate from mental instability and stress from the workplace; more than 90% of stress conditions are caused through what is called Vocational misplacing (people in incorrect positions); more than 80% of South African employees are victims of vocational mismatching.

D.Com. (Industrial Relations) / This study contains the results of an investigation that was undertaken to determine managers' perceptions with respect to readiness for productivity bargaining. In the chapters dealing with the theoretical aspects, the author has defined productivity, analysed the factors that have an impact upon productivity and discussed the relationship between productivity, collective bargaining and worker participation. Remuneration systems, performance and productivity improvement were also discussed. A critical evaluation of productivity bargaining in practice was done in order to illustrate the abovementioned theoretical concepts from a practical viewpoint. A conceptual model of organisational change factors which determine the readiness for productivity bargaining and a questionnaire which was derived from it, was developed and provided the basis for the empirical research. Using the questionnaire and statistical analysis, the perceptions of management at different levels of seniority and who negotiate with trade unions on a decentralised or centralised basis within different industries in the PWV-geographical area, were tested in order to determine whether there are significant differences regarding readiness for productivity bargaining. The questionnaire addressed the following main dimensions: worker participation, productivity awareness and productivity bargaining and management behavior and values within the bargaining relationship. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested statistically. Firstly, the hypothesis was stated that there are significant differences between the perceptions of management at different levels of seniority regarding readiness for productivity bargaining. They would perceive readiness for productivity bargaining differently since it is expected that they would be at different levels of readiness for this form of collective bargaining. In order to ascertain whether the hypotheses are valid or not, a questionnaire was completed by 15 executive managers, 61 senior managers and 79 middle managers. The questionnaire was constructed using seven-point interval scales where the respondent could indicate one as extreme~y negative and seven as extremely positive in response to each item. Responses were grouped per management category in order to test the perceptions of managers at different levels of seniority regarding readiness for productivity bargaining. Use was made of a MANOVA, an ANOVA and a one-way F-test (Scheff~) and no significant differences were found between the perceptions of managers at different levels of seniority regarding readiness for productivity bargaining. The second hypothesis was formulated and stated that there are significant differences between the perceptions of managers regarding readiness for productivity bargaining in organisations with decentralised and centralised bargaining forums. The author suspected that the degree of centralisation or decentralisation of the bargaining process could have an influence on readiness for productivity bargaining. In order to determine whether the hypothesis (as stated) was correct, all responses in the two bargaining categories were compared with each other. The results were tested using the Hotelling T2 test and the author confirmed empirically that there are no significant differences between the perceptions of management which make use of different (centralised versus decentralised) bargaining forums. Thirdly the hypothesis was stated that there are significant differences between the perceptions of management regarding readiness for productivity bargaining in different industries. It was expected that industries would differ in terms of managers' perceptions of· the abovementioned aspect, but there was uncertainty as to whether these differences would be significant regarding productivity bargaining. Using a MANOVA, an ANOVA and a one-way F-test (Scheff~) it was determined that there are significant differences between the perceptions of ~anagement in different industries regarding readiness for productivity bargaining. Qualitative data which was obtained from Human Resources Managers, trade union representatives, academics/consultants and other authorities on the subject during a series of personal interviews conducted during the Pilot-study, was confirmed by the abovementioned empirical findings. The general conclusion is that there is not a readiness for productivity bargaining amongst managers in the PWV-geographical area. In order to develop this readiness, several actions are required as part of an integrated productivity strategy. Specific actions include a self-audit during which managers evaluate the present and desired levels of worker participation, productivity awareness and -bargaining and their own behaviour and values within the bargaining relationship. These recommendations are discussed in detail in the last chapter. A chapter was dedicated to the formulation of guidelines for management and organised labour regarding productivity.

M.Comm. / The use of employee share schemes as a talent management strategy and as part of companies’ reward systems has gained impetus. Most employers make use of the share option schemes because they are believed to align the interests of employees with those of the company, offer succession planning opportunities, attract , retain best talent, and motivate employees. What needs to be established is whether employee share schemes do in fact effectively contribute towards talent management strategies and organisational performance. The current prevailing global economic landscape and the effect of globalisation combined with the global framebreaking talent war requires South African companies to attract and keep the best technical, managerial and supervisor skills to remain competitive. Talent management includes components such as skills retention and attract ion, employee motivation, reward systems, employment branding, employee value proposition and other relevant initiatives that instil employee sense of belonging.

Magister Philosophiae (Land and Agrarian Studies) - MPhil(LAS) / This thesis explores the link between Fairtrade labelling and worker empowerment in the cases of LFFT and Stellar Organics in terms of: the reasons for becoming certified and commercial benefits expected from the Fairtrade labelling; the intergration of the Faitrade requirements into the structures and management of employee equity share shemes; the enabling or disabling factors for Fairtrade certification to contribute to the socio-economic development and empowerment of the workers. This thesis describes the two cases in detail according to these links and concludes that Fairtrade labelling has not significantly changed the trade relationships with large retailers for these two Fairtrade producers even though it has provided additional market access. The link between the Fairtrade requirements and the legal and administrativestructures of employee equity share schemes is complex and open to interpretation. Finally, the possibility for Fairtrade certification to contribute to the socio-economic development and empowerment of workers is dependent on changes in management and communicationbetween white farm owners and bleck workers which confronts deeply held paternalist beliefs. / South Africa

Magister Commercii - MCom / Proponents of lean production (LP) argue that successful implementation is dependent on creating an organisational climate that complements the adoption and implementation of innovation. Transformation of the organisational climate, from a culture of adversarialism (management versus workers) and worker exclusion (in terms of decision making) toward a culture of co-operation and worker participation, is thus a necessary complement to LP. Successful implementation of LP, and associated practices, thus requires the commitment of all stakeholders. This study explores worker attitudes towards transition to LP within a chosen company in the South African auto components sector. The study focuses on understanding worker perceptions of shifts in Human Resource and Industrial Relations practices which are associated with the transition to LP. The research reports on two surveys of workers to better understand their perceptions of the changes to the relationships among workers, and between workers and management. / South Africa