M.A. / The South African Police Service (SAPS) has an immense responsibility in terms of providing a safe and secure environment for every individual residing in South Africa. Members of this organisation conduct their duties under difficult and often dangerous conditions. These taxing working conditions add tremendous stress to the lives of police officials (Violanti, 1997). The stressors faced by police officials may vary with regard to frequency and intensity. Stressors associated with the working environment may spill over into their personal lives and may also lead to negativity at work which can also affect the quality of service that should be provided by police officials in South Africa. Various factors can be implicated in the stress process (Sulsky & Smith, 2005). Specific ways of coping have been identified in previous and current literature (Suls & Fletcher, 1985; Swanepoel & Pienaar, 2004). The present study focused on identifying a relationship between personality and coping. The coping styles that South African police officials employ also received some attention. Personality was defined as characteristics of the person that account for consistent patterns of feelings, thinking and behaviour. This study focused on the Five Factor Model in the conceptualisation and understanding of personality. The main aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between personality and coping amongst members of the SAPS. Each participant (N = 125) completed a consent form, a biographical questionnaire, the Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced questionnaire (COPE; Carver et al., 1989) and the Basic Traits Inventory (Taylor & De Bruin, 2006). The first research question related to coping strategies South African police officials employ. The second research question focused on what the relationship between the individual Big Five personality traits (Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism) and the coping styles (Problem-focused Coping, Emotion-focused Coping and Dysfunctional Coping) of police officials in South Africa.A non-experimental survey design was implemented in this study. Differential and inferential statistics were used to identify the most commonly used coping strategies and the relationship that exists between coping and personality. Examination of the individual personality traits in relation to coping was done through the use of Pearson’s product-moment correlations. The data was analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, version 15). The results indicated that Extroversion (r = 0.27; p < 0.01), Conscientiousness (r = 0.31; p < 0.01), Agreeableness (r = 0.40; p < 0.01) and Openness to Experience (r = 0.45; p < 0.01) had statistically significant positive relationships with Problem-focused Coping. Neuroticism (r = 0.39; p < 0.01) showed a statistically significant positive correlation with Dysfunctional Coping. Openness to Experience (r = 0.23; p < 0.05) and Agreeableness (r = 0.35; p < 0.01) displayed a statistically significant positive correlation with Emotion-focused Coping. Results in this study indicate that members of the SAPS lean towards using Problemfocused and Emotion-focused strategies rather than Dysfunctional Coping strategies. This study has implications for organisations such as the SAPS as it shed light on the different ways in which individuals are predisposed to cope with stress. It also highlights the influence of personality in the stress process and offers insight into possible ways in which individuals generally cope with stress.

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Magister Commercii - MCom / Perceptions of performance management in the South African Public Sector was characterised by high levels of unfairness owing to a bias in favour of those individuals that can write essays well. The essays would provide the evaluation team with an indication of the achievement of the individual as its relates to job performance, knowledge, insight, interpersonal relations and leadership qualities. Although the Performance Management system has changed from what was called the Performance Appraisal System to the Personnel Performance Management System that involves both supervisor and employee inputs, fairness perceptions remain unchanged. This study aimed to ascertain perceptions of fairness toward performance appraisals amongst public service raters and ratees on Level 1 to 12 who are subject to use the Personnel Performance Management System in the office of a public service organisation: National Department of Land Affairs Chief Directorate : Surveys and Mapping. / South Africa

The impetus that informs the drive for developmental state that promotes growth and development centres on the local capacity of the local sphere of the government to effectively discharge its responsibilities. The essence of this study is to evaluate the training of officials in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality and assess the extent to which service delivery has impacted on the lives of the community within this area.

SARS has issued a draft interpretation note dealing with the deductibility of expenditure and losses arising from embezzlement and theft by employees noting that it is not prepared to accept, as a general proposition, that embezzlement and theft by senior managers have become a risk which is inseparable from business. There is however another view that is in direct contradiction with SARS. An analysis of global fraud surveys reveal that senior employee fraud is on the increase. In South Africa, criminal cases against senior employees in the private and public sector indicate that their behaviour can lead to an expectation of theft, fraud or embezzlement at that level of employees. The tests developed by the courts for the deduction of expenditure or losses in terms of the general deduction formula require that such expenditure or loss be attached to the performance of a business operation bona fide performed for the purpose of earning income and will be deductible whether such expenditure or losses are necessary for its performance or attached to it by chance. It is submitted that the increase in fraud and behaviour of senior employees noted in the criminal courts have resulted in a change in the economic environment supporting the contention that theft, fraud or embezzlement are an inherent risk to business in South Africa. In addition, global precedence supports the view that senior employee defalcations are deductible but only to the extent that the perpetrator is not in a proprietor or shareholder role. SARS therefore appears to be turning a blind eye to the risk of theft, fraud or embezzlement by senior employees but there is sufficient evidence to support a taxpayer wishing to claim a deduction for such loss. In light of international precedence, National Treasury should enact legislation allowing a deduction or alternatively, SARS should align its view with such precedence.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the empowerment needs of councillors in a municipality. The main focus was to assess the successes or inadequacies of the empowerment programmes previously offered to councillors by the King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality. In order to achieve the research objectives an in-depth literature study was undertaken. A survey was also conducted to examine the level of empowerment being offered by the King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality to its councillors and the data was collected by means of self-administered questionnaires. The literature study proved the hypothesis to be correct, which stated that empowered councillors could enhance effective public participation, effective communication which could result in effective service delivery. The empirical study revealed that certain councillors require adequate training in areas such as communication skills, council’s rules of procedures and new developmental mandate assigned to local government. The empirical survey also revealed that there is limited mutual trust between councillors and the senior officials, immediate intervention is required to restore trust between councillors and officials. It has been recommended that King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality should not only provide regular “in house” training, but also training conducted by outside agencies is required. In certain instances, one may find that municipalities may not have fully capacitated persons for “in house” training. Thus, outside agencies which possess the relevant expertise such as universities and SALGA should be encouraged to also facilitate capacity training for councillors.

There is a perception that municipal employees are not committed to their jobs of delivering essential services to the residents.This perception is often exacerbated by media opinion that tend to project an unacceptable image about the work ethics and behaviour of public sector officials. Local government is at the coalface of services delivery in South Africa.Almost all complaints and service delivery protests are directed by communities to municipalities. This necessitates that local government employees should always be ready to serve the people with passion and vigour. From the advent of democratic dispensation in South Africa in 1994 the transformation of the public sector has become one of the central priorities of government.The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996) sets the agenda of a developmental state and outlines objects of local government in Sections 152 and 153 of the supreme law of the land. Flowing from this Constitutional mandate a legislative and policy framework is enacted to guide the municipalities to ensure effective and efficient delivery of services to communities .In this respect the study argues that central to the delivery of services is the human capital. The researcher asserts that it is not the building or any other municipal asset that will ensure delivery of quality services to citizens, but the employees. Employees have a responsibility to ensure that goals and objectives of the OR Tambo District Municipality are realised. The researcher contends that there is a perception that there could be low levels of job satisfaction within the workforce of ORTDM .This could have a negative effect to the provision of basic services to the public .Thus this study is aimed to investigate factors that may affect employee satisfaction in the ORTDM. High level of job satisfaction amongst employees may cause ahighly dedicated and committed workforce. The consequence of that could be a positive impact on municipal performance.

As a country, South Africa has undergone major social and political changes, specifically over the past two decades. Along with these changes, new legislation such as the scrapping of the Group Areas Act, changed the face of residential areas to one where suburbs now reflect the demographics of the country. Inevitably, changes in the business world also came about, one significant change being the promulgation of the Employment Equity Act (No.55 of 1998) which regulates employment practices in an attempt to make the workforce a true reflection of the South African population. The change in labour legislation came at a time when the effects of globalisation increased levels of competition amongst organisations. Understandably, certain business leaders raised concerns that the introduction of the Employment Equity Act could lead to a lowering of standards and therefore competitive advantage. The purpose of this research was to establish if these early concerns were indeed valid and if the implementation of this legislation had any negative impact on Telkom SA Limited (Telkom), the organisation selected for this study. Particular attention was paid to investigate the impact of the implementation of the Act on three critical areas of business, namely: Productivity; Profitability; and Customer satisfaction. In order to achieve the objectives of the research, the following approach was followed: Firstly, a comprehensive literature study was conducted to determine what led to the passing of this legislation and to establish what the literature revealed about the advantages and challenges of a diverse workforce; Secondly, the views of Telkom management in the Eastern Cape on the impact of the implementation of employment equity were obtained by means of an empirical study which involved the completion of a comprehensive questionnaire; and Lastly, the responses to the questionnaire were collated and analysed to determine the extent to which Telkom had implemented the legislation, and if the company had experienced any negative effects due to this implementation.

Anti-corruption measures are put forward as a panacea to effective procurement system, among other things, which ultimately improve service delivery. Corruption has demonstrated remarkable durability and flexibility to survive in all socio-economic systems with the conception of a corruption-free economy in reality, is hardly possible. Given this background, this study sought to evaluate the efficacy of the already implemented anti-corruption measures in the procurememt procecesses of Marondera municipality. To understand their effectiveness, relevant literature was reviewed. Different scholars point against the ineffectiveness of these measures, with Corruption Perception Index (CPI) from previous research showing devastating results in Zimbabwean local institutions. A further discussion of corruption cenception, different anti-corruption measures and legal frameworks gave a greater understanding of the area under study. In this study, a sample of 80 respondents was identified and data collected from them using both snow ball and purposive sampling methods. Thirty-five of them were females respondents and forty-five were male respondents from Marondera municipal community, with different demographic characteristics which was used for comparison of responses. Questionnaires and interviews were used as research instruments. Both the Quantitative and Qualitative research methods were used in the anaylsis of the data, to increase validity and reliability of the feelings.

Work design and content is changing. Accompanying this change has been an increasing demand by workers for policy makers to factor the issue of managing workers’ work and life. Work–life balance as a concept has attracted attention for several years as a result of individuals attempting to juggle multiple demands from both work and outside the workplace. The number of multiple demands on individuals usually vary from one person to the other and can increase or decrease at different stages of the person’s life. Essentially, this study reviewed work–life balance literature as espoused from the UK and US schools of thought. The purpose of this research is to explore the extent to which work–life balance policies and practices are a reality for employees and managers in the Nigerian banking sector; to investigate the adoption and use of policies/practices in Nigerian banks and finally to examine the barriers to and reasons for their muted adoption and utilisation of work–life balance policies and practices in Nigerian banks. This research is exploratory in nature and it adopted a mixed-method research technique which allowed for in-depth information from the respondents. The methodological approach used in this study is a qualitative dominant mixed method. A mixed-method approach was used in this study following the traditions of McCarthy, Darcy and Grady (2010); Kalliath and Brough (2008); Halford, (2006) and Beauregard and Henry (2009) to ensure the validity and reliability of the study and also to offer different insights in order to make the final result of the research more robust. A questionnaire and semi structured interview technique was utilised. The study was based on 20 of the 24 banks in the Nigerian banking sector. The total sample size was three hundred and sixty nine (369), of which two hundred and fifteen (215) questionnaires were completed and one hundred and thirty four (134) semi-structured interviews conducted for the bankers while (20) semi structured interviews were conducted for the trade union officials. In order to ensure that the cross-section of relevant respondents was as representative as possible, interviewees were divided into three categories: employees, managers and trade union officials. SPSS was used to analysis the quantitative data, while qualitative data was analysed using NVivo software through the coding of the large quantity of data collected. The themes that emerged from the analysis were used to discuss the research issues in the light of prior research findings from various empirical researches. The quantitative contribution of the study revealed that age was not significant to the bankers as regards issues relating to work life balance. The qualitative findings on the other hand revealed that there is diversity in terms of how both managerial and non-managerial employees understood and experienced WLB initiatives in the Nigerian banking sector. In addition, the study showed that cultural sensitivity affects how WLB is appreciated and utilised. The research also contributes to the spill-over theory by adding age, gender, implementation and benefits of work–life balance. This research has contributed to the body of knowledge on work–life balance issues in the Nigerian banking industry. This study also contributes to the existing literature on connotations of work–life balance by utilising a mixed method approach to explore and explain the different notions of work–life balance and usage of work–life balance initiatives.