Background: The literature has traditionally seen shirking as a negative phenomenon that leads to the productivity loss of individuals and organizations and thus has to be confronted with the help of control in the form of monitoring. However, considering that in the nowadays popular virtual work setting the ability to apply some controls can be hindered and the ethicality of electronic performance monitoring is questioned, there is a need to rethink the established view on shirking and explore the role of trust in it. Aim: Examine how managerial controls and trust impact employees’ shirking in the virtual work setting through the lens of employees’ perceptions. Methodology: A qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews. The interviewees are nine employees from various industries in Sweden who have less than 5 years of working experience in total and have been working within their last company for at least 6 months face-to-face and at least 6 months virtually under the supervision of one manager. Findings: The analysis revealed that employees who receive the control and trust that they want from their managers generally do not shirk, even with none or little monitoring when working virtually, but those who experience mismatches between control and trust wanted and received either tend to shirk or risk getting burnout and/or quitting the company. This highlights the importance of considering employees’ needs for both control and trust when addressing shirking in the virtual work setting. Moreover, a potential positive aspect of shirking was found in the way that occasional moderate shirking in combination with control and trust matches can have a positive impact on employees’ well-being and productivity in the long-term.

This thesis investigates managers’ use of power and its relationship to employees’ organisational commitment and job satisfaction and any other potential factors influencing the relationship in Nationalised Commercial Banks (NCBs) in Bangladesh. Earlier research focused only on employees’ perceptions of managers’ use of power in NCBs, and findings indicated a positive relationship between managers’ use of power and employees’ perceptions. The present research differs from the previous studies by linking managers' use of power with employees' organisational outcomes. The objective was to gain insights into ways in which the management of NCBs might use their power to enhance the levels of employees’ commitment and job satisfaction. Data were collected from several sources. Likert-type questionnaires were distributed to 600 employees in three NCBs and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 36 branch managers and four experts on banking. Complete questionnaires (in total 321) were included for data analysis using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and stepwise regression analysis. Both the bank managers and experts on banking interview transcripts were coded according to the interview schedule questions. The findings indicated a relationship between managers’ use of power and procedural justice, and employees’ organisational commitment and job satisfaction in NCBs. In the quantitative findings no significant relationships were found between gender, age, and education level, and power, procedural justice, commitment, and job satisfaction. The qualitative findings, however, suggested that employees’ age and education level were related to criterion variables; but the findings indicated there was no relationship between gender and criterion variables. The results of this study provide insight into how the management of NCBs can enhance the level of their employees’ commitment and job satisfaction. To improve managers’ use of power and its relationships with employees’ commitment and job satisfaction in NCBs in Bangladesh, there have to be changes at the individual and organisational levels. At the individual level improving managers’ power bases would involve basic education and specific job-related training. Managers should also be encouraged to enhance their skills through continuous self-learning. At organisational level top management should provide appropriate reinforcements for managers in learning about and improving their power bases.

This thesis examines the importance of employee perceptions of their organisation's visual corporate identity (VCI) particularly the symbolic 'corporate logo'. Employees' views of the logo reveal their perceptions of the organisation itself (Henderson and Cote 1998:15, Olins 1995:73) so are an important indicator of their positive or negative feelings towards their establishment. Previous research recognises the significance of employees' opinions, but has overlooked their perceptions of the VCI. In education, external marketing (including VCI) is of growing interest but there has been little concern with internal marketing. Methodology A mixed methods, sequential, explanatory case study into a UK independent school was undertaken. Quantitative data was obtained from questionnaires, distributed to the schools' employees and qualitative data from interviews; analysis reveals convergent and divergent findings.Findings The majority of the schools' employees consider the corporate colours and logo important, associate positive meanings with the logo and were proud to be linked to the school by wearing branded items. Employees felt affiliation for the logo and considered the VCI to be strong although responses differed depending upon gender, full or part-time employment, department, seniority and length-of-service. A new model has been developed, the IMP Test, that reveals the perceptions; the importance, meanings, and pride that employees attach to their VCI. Implications These findings reinforce and add to previous research of employee perceptions of their VCI (particularly in education) and it follows, towards their organisation. Utilising this approach, managers can gain a deeper understanding of employee perceptions which has implications for morale and motivation.

The prevalent enhancements in technologies alongside with globalization have given rise tomore flexible ways of operating, invoking the phenomena of working virtually. Telework is aform of a virtual workplace, where employees occasionally work on dispersed locations awayfrom the office. Previous research has found a positive correlation between job satisfaction andthe opportunity to telework much due to the flexibility the work arrangement offers. However,when delving deeper into the subject and employees’ understanding of the phenomenon,previous literature has found mixed perceptions among employees. In contrast to solelyexperiencing satisfaction in combination to telework some employees have reported it issuinga negative impact on their private life. Hence, the contradicting findings mentioned opened upfor additional research on the subject. This study aimed to contribute to the discourse by furtherexploring employees’ perceptions of telework; the opportunity to do so, and its impact on jobsatisfaction. The findings indicated that the employees perceived the opportunity to teleworkas providing additional value to the workplace. This as it primarily facilitated a better work andlife balance, as time could be managed more free- and efficiently. In conclusion, telework wassuggested to contribute to a higher level of job satisfaction.

This thesis examines the importance of employee perceptions of their organisation¿s visual corporate identity (VCI) particularly the symbolic ¿corporate logo¿. Employees¿ views of the logo reveal their perceptions of the organisation itself (Henderson and Cote 1998:15, Olins 1995:73) so are an important indicator of their positive or negative feelings towards their establishment. Previous research recognises the significance of employees¿ opinions, but has overlooked their perceptions of the VCI. In education, external marketing (including VCI) is of growing interest but there has been little concern with internal marketing. Methodology A mixed methods, sequential, explanatory case study into a UK independent school was undertaken. Quantitative data was obtained from questionnaires, distributed to the schools¿ employees and qualitative data from interviews; analysis reveals convergent and divergent findings.Findings The majority of the schools¿ employees consider the corporate colours and logo important, associate positive meanings with the logo and were proud to be linked to the school by wearing branded items. Employees felt affiliation for the logo and considered the VCI to be strong although responses differed depending upon gender, full or part-time employment, department, seniority and length-of-service. A new model has been developed, the IMP Test, that reveals the perceptions; the importance, meanings, and pride that employees attach to their VCI. Implications These findings reinforce and add to previous research of employee perceptions of their VCI (particularly in education) and it follows, towards their organisation. Utilising this approach, managers can gain a deeper understanding of employee perceptions which has implications for morale and motivation.

M.Tech. (Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / The majority of mine health and safety authorities around the world agree that the quality of safety standards is of increasing importance to the mining industry across the world (Kleyn & du Plessis 2016:309). Mining companies in many countries such as New Zealand, (an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean), Australia, South Africa and China have taken up the challenges of guaranteeing liability and improving performance of the safety and health of their workers, aware that many workers are injured, if not fatally. These incidents result in production loss. This study provides not only an opportunity to evaluate the status of the safety control measures of the work system in a mining company, but also enables management to pinpoint the causes of poor safety performance and implement efforts that ensure safety improvement. The primary objectives of this study were to examine factors influencing the adherence and employee perceptions towards safety control measures in a mining company. Furthermore, the governments in many countries have tried to implement legislation to try to curb the scourge of industrial accidents. Safety disclosures of the annual reports from the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) of South African mining organisations, discloses 10 major mining accidents that happened in 2015 at Northern Cape mining companies. Six of these accidents occurring from a small mining sector and four from a large mining sector, except previous year’s safety records as detailed in this study. A quantitative approach was adopted for the study. The data were collected using a sample of 200 participants in which a survey questionnaire was administered to permanent mine employees and full time contractors in the mine. A simple sampling technique was used and data were then analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 25.0 to formulate frequency tables and descriptive analysis graphs. Furthermore, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-test were utilised to analyse the data and examine significant differences between employee perceptions and attitudes towards safety control measures, age and length of service (Willemse 2009:118-121). The results reveal that although the mine was considered compliant, with its employees showing a positive attitude towards safety control measures, ANOVA revealed different perceptions of employees based on their age and years of experience. However, no differences were found in relation to gender and occupation. Based on the findings, this study further recommends future studies to be conducted in order to explore the effectiveness of implementing an internal system of self-evaluation as a starting point in any safety improvement process. An effective system of internal self-evaluation will trademark the mining sector internationally and improve workers’ safety by improving effectiveness and assurance of the control measures and the level of control performance criteria. The system should create the awareness of adherence to safety control measures and deal with employee perception towards safety adherence in mining. In addition it should be a system that ensures a structured and standardised approach to learning from incidents and that all necessary steps are followed to safeguard against repeats of incidents and accidents through an effective incident investigation process (Van den Berg 2014:11). The findings of the study revealed that the leadership in the mine has a strong, positive and significant influence on the performance of safety. In this regard, this study recommends that an effective employee engagement system to be developed and that mine managers establish a safety control charter that must be understood by the mine workers, develop a code of ethics that requires ethical and honest behaviour from all employees in order to improve safety performance and learn from these accomplishments. Mine workers will take their cue from the attitude and example displayed by management, therefore, it is recommended that mine management develop an organisational culture, which assigns authority and responsibility to employees and organises and develops employees with direction provided by management that determines the type of culture in that mine. To minimise or reduce the risk of health exposure of each activity as highlighted under Regulation 9 of the Mine Health and Safety Act (29 of 1996), it is recommended that mine manager’s enforce the use of protective equipment. The leadership and human resources, mine workers and all persons who may be affected by the mining activities in the surrounding area of operation need to be aware of the factors that can impact their well-being. The study also presented managers, mine owner and other decision makers within the mining company with important insight on key areas of factors that may require particular attention in order to enhance their operational strategies towards zero harm in the mine.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats studien är att få djupare förståelse för och kunskap om hur organisationen vi undersökt, hädanefter benämnt som Organisation X kommunicerar internt för att stärka/upprätthålla sitt arbetsgivarvarumärke och hur detta implementeras och i sin tur uppfattas av medarbetarna.  Metod: Studien är en fallstudie som tillämpar en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med en tolkande ansats. Den första delen av empirin samlades in genom två stycken semistrukturerade intervjuer med personer som arbetar med kommunikation och HR inom Organisation X. Den andra delen var en kompletterande enkät riktad till medarbetarna som utformades utifrån studiens teoretiska utgångspunkter tillsammans med resultat från intervjuerna.  Resultat och slutsats: Organisation X använder sig av medarbetarna som kommunikationsstrategi såväl internt som externt för att stärka sitt arbetsgivarvarumärke. Majoriteten av medarbetarna har en positiv inställning till X som arbetsgivare. Organisation X arbetsgivarvarumärke kan betraktas som unikt och kanske de allra viktigaste ur ett employer branding perspektiv - majoriteten av organisationens medlemmar uppfattar arbetsgivarvarumärke på ett liknande sätt.  Bidrag: Studien bidrar med djupare förståelse för och kunskap om hur Organisation X kommunicerar internt för att stärka/upprätthålla sitt arbetsgivarvarumärke och hur detta implementeras och i sin tur uppfattas av medarbetarna.  Förslag på framtida forskning: Vidare forskning föreslås studera huruvida chefskapet lever kvar inom en organisation som gjort en liknande omorganisation. Förslag till frågor som vidare studier kan ställa skulle kunna vara: existerar chefskap fortfarande inom organisationen? Om ja, på vilket sätt? / Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to gain a deeper understanding and knowledge of how the organization we study, hereinafter referred to as Organization X communicates internally to strengthen/maintain its employer brand and how this is implemented and in turn how this is perceived by the employees.  Method: The study is a case study that applies a qualitative research method with an interpretive approach. The first part of the empirical data was collected through two semi-structured interviews with people who work with communication and HR within Organization X. The second part was a supplementary questionnaire aimed at employees that was designed based on the study’s theoretical starting points together with results from the interviews.   Result and conclusions: Organization X uses employees as communication strategy both internally and externally to strengthen its employer brand. The majority of employees have a positive attitude towards X as an employer. Organization X employer brand can be considered unique and perhaps the most important from an employer branding perspective - the majority of the organization’s members perceive employer brand in a similar way.  Contribution: The study contributes to a deeper understanding of and knowledge of how Organization X communicates internally to strengthen/maintain its employer brand and how this is implemented and in turn perceived by employees. Suggestion for future research: Further research is proposed to study whether leadership survives within an organization that has made a similar reorganization. Suggestions for questions that further studies may ask could be: does leadership still exist within the organization? If so, in what way?

The dissertation deals with the disciplinary process of the South African Police Service - perceptions and preferences of members in the North Rand area of the Gauteng Province. A research question " How members of the SAPS in the North Rand area of the Gauteng Province perceive the disciplinary process" is investigated in this study. The researcher has conducted a quantitative research in the North Rand area of the Gauteng Province using questionnaires and literature study as the research method. The answer to the research question in this study is that members of the SAPS have a negative attitude towards the disciplinary process of the SAPS. There is also uncertainty about the duties of certain role players during the disciplinary process. / Public Administration / M.A. (Public Administration)

The dissertation deals with the disciplinary process of the South African Police Service - perceptions and preferences of members in the North Rand area of the Gauteng Province. A research question " How members of the SAPS in the North Rand area of the Gauteng Province perceive the disciplinary process" is investigated in this study. The researcher has conducted a quantitative research in the North Rand area of the Gauteng Province using questionnaires and literature study as the research method. The answer to the research question in this study is that members of the SAPS have a negative attitude towards the disciplinary process of the SAPS. There is also uncertainty about the duties of certain role players during the disciplinary process. / Public Administration and Management / M.A. (Public Administration)