Includes bibliographical references. / This research investigates the success of selection committees, at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town in making employement equity appointments since 1998/1999 to 2004. The focus is on the effectiveness of new procedures that have been integrated in the selection process of the faculty, since 1998/1999 to ensure employment actions appointments. An applied form of programme evaluation, process evalutaion, supported the theoretical framework of the study.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / This study investigates academic dishonesty among undergraduate commerce students using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). A total of 579 respondents from three tertiary institutions in the Western Cape in South Africa completed an online survey about their attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control towards academic dishonesty, their intentions to engage in academic dishonesty behaviours and their previous academic dishonesty behaviour. Correlation analyses indicated significant, positive relationships between all of the antecedents of the TPB.

This study examined the relationship between personality and work-family conflict amongst working fathers in South Africa. Two conceptual approaches to personality were employed: a variable-centred approach using the Big-Five personality dimensions (Costa & McCrae, 1992) and a person-centred approach using Asendorpf and Aken's personality prototypes (1999). Cross-sectional survey data were collected from working fathers in a variety of South African organisations (N = 237). Scale portability and robustness of the work-family conflict and personality scale was established through exploratory factor analysis. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that Neuroticism explained significant variance in work-to-family conflict and that Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness to Experience explained significant variance in family-to-work conflict. Cluster analysis confirmed the personality prototypes, Overcontrollers, Undercontrollers and Resilients in this sample. Analysis of Variance results showed no difference in experiences of work-to-family conflict across Resilients, Overcontrollers and Undercontrollers. However, results showed that Resilients experienced less family-to-work conflict than Undercontrollers. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. This study examined the relationship between personality and work-family conflict amongst working fathers in South Africa. Two conceptual approaches to personality were employed: a variable-centred approach using the Big-Five personality dimensions (Costa & McCrae, 1992) and a person-centred approach using Asendorpf and Aken's personality prototypes (1999). Cross-sectional survey data were collected from working fathers in a variety of South African organisations (N = 237). Scale portability and robustness of the work-family conflict and personality scale was established through exploratory factor analysis. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that Neuroticism explained significant variance in work-to-family conflict and that Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness to Experience explained significant variance in family-to-work conflict. Cluster analysis confirmed the personality prototypes, Overcontrollers, Undercontrollers and Resilients in this sample. Analysis of Variance results showed no difference in experiences of work-to-family conflict across Resilients, Overcontrollers and Undercontrollers. However, results showed that Resilients experienced less family-to-work conflict than Undercontrollers. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-66). / This study investigated whether a pre-screening questionnaire was able to predict job performance at a large financial institution. The pre-screening questionnaire comprised a biographical, integrity and interest subscale as predictors of job performance. A sample of 2145 job applicants completed the pre-screening questionnaire and these scores were used to establish the internal consistency of the pre-screening questionnaire. For the validity testing, a smaller sample of 449 job applicants was drawn to compare their test scores of the pre-screening questionnaire to their performance scores obtained, as the criterion. Each subscale was evaluated in terms of its predictive validity. The loglinear analysis revealed that the biographical subscale was a valid predictor of job performance. Despite being reliable i.e. integrity subscale with Kuder-Richardson coefficient of (r =.63) and interest subscale with an overall Cronbach Alpha of (r =.98), both subscales were found to be poor predictors of job performance. The findings suggest that the pre-screening questionnaire demonstrates predictive validity and utility in the selection process to some extent. Recommendations are listed to improve the overall reliability and validity of the pre-screening questionnaire.

The purpose of this study was to explore the nature of customer entitlement from the perspective of fine-dining waitstaff in South Africa. A power imbalance between customers and waitstaff is especially likely in restaurant environments because of the expectations of customer acquiescence and the notion that “customers are always right” (Fisk & Neville, 2011). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eleven waitstaff who were employed full-time in a fine-dining restaurant. Theoretical thematic analysis yielded five themes: (1) excessive demands, (2) mistreatment of waitstaff, (3) openly and excessive criticism of service quality, (4) entitled behaviour that affects other customers, and (5) aggressive behavioral reactions to unmet expectations. This study contributes to the limited research on customer entitlement in restaurant environments and provides a foundation for further research in this area.

Bibliography: leaves 119-140.

Includes bibliographical references. / The changing nature of work and an increased global need for organisations to remain competitive in the war for scarce skills and talent has influenced the manner in which organisations manage their talent. Organisations are altering their strategic imperatives to include more effective and highly attractive reward packages that attract top talented employees. As a result this could increase their competitive advantage in the market. Lately however, financial rewards and money is no longer enough to attract, motivate or retain employees. These changes have led organisations to seek out non-financial attraction rewards that are most effective in harnessing top talent. The main objective of this study was to establish which non-financial rewards and what combinations of these rewards were perceived to be most attractive to employees when considering a job offering. A secondary objective was to establish which non-financial rewards were most attractive to various demographic groups namely: gender, race, and age.

Orientation: In order to maintain a competitive advantage, employers need to understand the various factors (antecedents) that are conducive to employee retention and engagement. Social ties is one such factor that is believed to be related to job embeddedness and the intention to quit. Better understanding the role that social ties play in employee engagement and the intention to quit will hopefully aid the development of effective retention strategies. Research Purpose: An empirical study was conducted, within a sample obtained from the pharmaceutical industry, to investigate the relationship between social ties and intention to quit as mediated by job embeddedness. Motivation for the Study: The pharmaceutical industry is experiencing severe skills shortages, particularly in terms of pharmacists. Developing a better understanding of the role that social ties play in employee retention may assist these organisations in putting interventions in place to reduce undesirable voluntary employee turnover. Method: A quantitative research approach was employed to investigate the broad research question i.e. if the relationship between organisational and occupational social ties and intention to quit is mediated by organisational and occupational job embeddedness. A descriptive research design was employed and a questionnaire consisting of 36 items was designed using existing measures, to collect data. The questionnaire was distributed on l in e and convenience sampling was used to collect data across the pharmaceutical industry (n = 524). Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlations analyses and multiple regression analysis. Main Findings: Significant negative relationships were found between organisational social ties and intention to quit, and between occupational social ties and intention to quit. It was further found that organisational job embeddedness completely mediated the relationship between organisational social ties and intention to quit. Occupational job embeddedness completely mediated the relationship between occupational social ties and intention to quit. Practical / Managerial Implications: The value of social ties in an organisational setting is an under-researched aspect of employee retention. By developing retention strategies aimed at enhancing organisational ties and by facilitating occupational ties with co-workers, employers may be able to reduce turnover and so retain scarce skills. Contribution: The present study contributes to the current body of social science research as few studies have empirically demonstrated the mediating role of job embeddedness in the relationship between social ties and intention to quit. There is also limited empirical research conducted in South Africa that has investigated the relationships between organisational and occupational social ties, organisational and occupational job embeddedness and intention to quit. These results will hopefully be used to develop more effective retention strategies in the pharmaceutical industry.

This study examined the relationship between work-family enrichment and well-being amongst working fathers in South Africa (N= 242). Convenience sampling was first employed as approval was granted from human resource managers and directors from several organisations in order to survey their employees. Due to a low response rate, snow-ball sampling was then also employed. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the work-family enrichment scale is uni-directional as fathers did not distinguish between the two directions of enrichment. A three dimensional well-being scale measuring: social, emotional and psychological well-being was used to measure well-being of working fathers. Exploratory factor analysis however revealed that the well-being scale is bi-dimensional as fathers did not distinguish between the psychological and emotional well-being subscales. A composite variable called ‘psych-emotional well-being’ was therefore created. Correlation analyses revealed weak to strong correlations between work-family enrichment and both health and work-related well-being. Hierarchical multiple analyses showed that work-family enrichment predicted physical, psych-emotional and social well-being and work-engagement amongst working fathers. Management implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.

The importance of employee work engagement in modern organisations is evident in the global interest in human capital development. Positive outcomes associated with work engagement, such as job satisfaction and job performance, have been linked to constructs such as psychological capital. Mindfulness is a fairly new construct that has not been widely applied to work settings. Deriving from this lack of application of mindfulness to the work setting, this study sought to expand on the relationship between psychological capital and work engagement through the introduction of mindfulness as a mediator variable. A descriptive cross-sectional study of white-collar workers was conducted in South Africa and Zimbabwe. A survey was distributed to a sample of 203 participants, of which 52% were female and 47% were male. Consistent with previous research, the current study found that psychological capital was a predictor of work engagement, indicating a positive relationship between the constructs. Unique to this study was the result that psychological capital and work engagement both had positive relationships with mindfulness, and that mindfulness partially mediated the relationship between psychological capital and work engagement. This study also found that there were differences in the perceptions of psychological capital between South African and Zimbabwean employees in this sample. The findings of this study indicated the positive benefits that organisations can derive from developing psychological capital and mindfulness in their employees, such as improved work engagement, job satisfaction and organisational success. This study also provided unique contributions that can be investigated in future research.