Evidence that positively disposed employees are inclined to experience greater loyalty to the organisation and fewer intentions to quit may be underestimated. The present study investigated the role that the individual’s career attitude plays in the relationship between positive psychological capital (a composite variable based on hope, self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism) and subsequent loyalty to the organisation. An online survey was administered to New Zealand employees across five distinct industries. Regression analyses on a sample of 518 confirmed that a self-directed and values-driven approach to career management mediates the relationship between psychological capital and affective commitment to the organisation and turnover intentions. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for individual and organisational activities and recommendations for future research are provided.

Thesis (MCom)--Stellenbosch University, 2015 / ENGLISH ABSTRACT : The industrial psychology literature related to call centres highlights the negative aspects of call centre work environments and the resultant adverse impact on workers’ well-being. Call centres have been labelled the “coal mines of the 21st century”, “assembly lines in the head” and “satanic mills” (Janse van Rensburg, Boonzaier, & Boonzaier, 2013, p. 2). High levels of stress, high staff turnover and burnout are all factors that are often experienced by call centre agents (Banks & Roodt, 2011). However, Van der Colff and Rothman (2009) report that some call centre agents, regardless of the high job demands, do not develop burnout. These agents cope better than others under highly demanding and stressful work conditions. To build on these findings, the present study took a detailed look at factors affecting the well-being of employees working in call centres. Specifically, the question was asked, “Why is there variance in work engagement, job burnout and intention to quit amongst the employees in call centres?” The job demands-resources (JD-R) model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2014) was used as a framework to investigate the well-being of call centre agents employed in the outbound departments of two branches of a Cape Town call centre. The primary objective of this study was to develop and empirically test a structural model, derived from theory, explaining the antecedents of variance in work engagement, job burnout and intention to quit amongst call centre employees. The antecedents comprise transformational leadership (as a job resource), emotional intelligence and psychological capital (as employees’ personal resources), and emotional labour (as job demands) present in a call centre environment. An ex post facto correlational design was used to test the formulated hypotheses in this research study. Quantitative data was collected from 223 call centre agents by means of non-probability convenience sampling. A self-administered hard-copy survey was distributed to the two call centre branches, given that call centre agents agreed to participate in the research study. Measuring instruments consisted of (1) the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-17) questionnaire (Schaufeli et al., 2002), (2) the Maslach Burnout Inventory General Survey (MBI-GS) (Maslach, Schaufeli & Leiter, 2001), (3) the Turnover Intention Scale (TIS) (Ding & Lin, 2006; Lee, 2000), (4) the Emotional Demands and Emotion-rule Dissonance scales (Xanthopoulou, Bakker, & Fischbach, 2013), (5) the adapted Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 5x short) (Van Aswegen & Engelbrecht, 2009), (6) the Genos Emotional Intelligence Inventory (Gignac, 2010) and (7) the Psychological Capital Questionnaire (Luthans, Avolio, Avey, & Norman, 2007). The data was analysed using item analyses and structural equation modelling (SEM). A PLS path analysis was conducted to determine the model fit. From the 21 hypotheses formulated in the study, six were found to be significant. It is noteworthy, however, that 12 of the non-significant paths were related to the moderating effects. Hypotheses 1, 3 and 8 were also found to be not significant. However, hypotheses 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9 were all found to be statistically significant and therefore supported the JD-R theory (Bakker & Demerouti, 2014), which postulates that job demands are generally the most important predictors of job burnout, whereas job resources and personal resources are generally the most important predictors of work engagement. Also, it was found that call centre agents experiencing a high level of work engagement were less inclined to leave the organisation. The study’s findings shed light on the importance of developing interventions that can foster job and personal resources in the pursuit of optimising work engagement. In addition, the call centre agents can be bolstered in coping with existing job demands and cumulatively this also results in a decrease in the employees’ level of burnout and in their intention to leave the company. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING : Bedryfsielkundige literatuur met betrekking tot inbelsentrums beklemtoon die negatiewe aspekte van die werkomgewing van inbelsentrums en die gevolglike nadelige effek op werkers se welsyn. Inbelsentrums is reeds beskryf as die “steenkoolmyne van die 21ste eeu”, ‘”monteerbande in die kop” en “sataniese meule” (Janse van Rensburg, Boonzaier, & Boonzaier, 2013, p. 2). Hoë vlakke van stres, hoë personeelomset en uitbranding is faktore wat gereeld deur inbelsentrum-agente ervaar word (Banks & Roodt, 2011). Van der Colff en Rothman (2009) rapporteer egter dat ten spyte van hulle hoë werkvereistes, sommige inbelsentrumagente nie uitbranding ervaar nie. Hierdie agente vaar beter as ander onder hoogs veeleisende en stresvolle werkomstandighede. Om verder te bou op die navorsing wat reeds onderneem is, kyk die huidige studie na die faktore wat moontlik die welsyn van werknemers in inbelsentrums affekteer. Met ander woorde, dit soek na die antwoord op die navorsingsinisiërende vraag: “Hoekom is daar verskille in die werksbegeestering, werksuitbranding en intensie om die organisasie te verlaat onder werknemers in inbelsentrums?” Om op hierdie navorsingsinisiërende vraag te kan reageer, is die job demands-resources (JD-R) model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2014) gebruik as raamwerk spesifiek om die welsyn van inbelsentrumagente wat in die uitbel-departemente binne twee takke van ‘n bekende uitbelsentrum, geleë in Kaapstad, te ondersoek. Die hoofdoelwit van hierdie studie was om ’n strukturele model te ontwikkel en te toets wat die antesedente van variansie in werksbegeestering, werksuitbranding en die intensie om die organisaie te verlaat, onder inbelsentrumwerknemers verklaar. Die spesifieke antesedente wat in hierdie studie getoets is, was transformasie-leierskap (as ’n werkshulpbron), emosionele intelligensie en sielkundige kapitaal (psychological capital) (as werknemers se persoonlike hulpbronne), en emosionele arbeid (as werkseise) wat in ‘n inbelsentrum-omgewing teenwoordig is. ʼn Ex post facto korrelasie-ontwerp is gebruik om die geformuleerde hipoteses in hierdie studie te toets. Kwantitatiewe data is by 223 inbelsentrumagente deur middel van nie-waarskynlikheids gerieflikheidsteekproeftrekking ingesamel. ’n Selfgeadministreerde hardekopie-opname is in die twee takke van die inbelsentrum versprei, aangesien hulle ingestem het om aan die studie deel te neem. Die opname het spesifieke latente veranderlikes gemeet wat op die studie van toepassing is deur gebruik te maak van betroubare en geldige meetinstrumente. Hierdie instrumente sluit in (1) die Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-17) vraelys (Schaufeli et al., 2002), (2) die Maslach Burnout Inventory General Survey (MBI-GS) (Maslach, Schaufeli & Leiter, 2001), (3) die Turnover Intention Scale (TIS) (Ding & Lin, 2006; Lee, 2000), (4) die Emotional Demands en Emotion-rule Dissonance skale (Xanthopoulou, Bakker, & Fischbach, 2013), (5) die aangepaste Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 5x kort) (Van Aswegen & Engelbrecht, 2009), (6) die Genos Emotional Intelligence Inventory (Gignac, 2010) en (7) die Psychological Capital Questionnaire (Luthans, Avolio, Avey, & Norman, 2007). Die versamelde data is deur middel van item-analise en strukturele vergelykingsmodellering geanaliseer. ’n PLS pad-ontleding is onderneem om modelpassing te bepaal. Vanuit die 21 hipoteses wat vir hierdie studie geformuleer is, is ses bevind om betekenisvol te wees. Dit is egter merkwaardig dat 12 van die nie-betekenisvolle bane verband gehou het met modererende effekte. Hipoteses 1, 3 en 8 is ook bevind om nie-betekenisvol te wees. Hierdie nie-betekenisvolle bane kan op grond van verskeie redes ontstaan. Hipoteses 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 en 9 is egter almal bevind om statisties betekenisvol te wees en ondersteun dus die JD-R teorie (Bakker & Demerouti, 2014). Hierdie teorie hou voor dat werksvereistes oor die algemeen die belangrikste voorspellers van werksuitbranding is, terwyl werkshulpbronne en persoonlike hulpbronne oor die algemeen die vernaamste voorspellers van werksbegeestering is. Dit is ook bevind dat inbelsentrumagente wat ’n hoë vlak van werksbegeestering ervaar, minder geneig is om die organisasie te verlaat. Die studie se bevindings werp lig op die belangrikheid daarvan om ingrypings te ontwikkel wat werks- en persoonlike hulpbronne kan kweek in die nastrewing van die optimering van begeestering en om inbelsentrumagente te help om die bestaande werkseise te hanteer. Gevolglik sal hierdie uitkoms lei tot ’n vermindering in die werknemers se vlakke van uitbranding en in hulle intensies om die organisasie te verlaat.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The present study provided insight into authentic leadership, psychological capital and exemplary followership behaviour as antecedents of work engagement of employees. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was utilised, using a composite electronic questionnaire. Data was gathered by using a purposive sample of managers in a national South African healthcare industry organisation (N = 647). The portability of the measurement instruments to a South African context were validated through confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis. The psychological capital and authentic leadership measures retained its original factor structure and items, whilst the work engagement and followership measures were adapted to improve the internal reliability and construct validity of the instrument for the healthcare industry sample. The higher-order factor structure of psychological capital was also confirmed

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-02T21:42:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Edineide Maria de Oliveira - finalissima 0711.pdf: 423479 bytes, checksum: ae7098172cd8c953188c1b9d9a760817 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-10-06 / Intangible assets received special attention from scholars in recent years in the organization context of human resource management, since theoretical proposals were developed to understand (them) and measure them. Anchored in this line of research are human capital and psychological capital. While human capital is what workers can do, the psychological capital consists of a positive mental state made up of self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience. The overall purpose of his study was to analyze the relationship between human capital and psychological capital. It s about a quantitative study which involved 60 workers, students of the last period of Business Administration, with a average age of 23.85 years, mostly female, single and employed. Data for the study were collected in classrooms of a private university found in the Greater ABC area , through a self-administered instrument containing an interval measure of psychological capital with 12 items, validated for Brazil, and a measure of capital human with six questions,with two to measure the experience range and four to probe education. An eletronic database was design which was submitted to descriptive analysis and correlation (Pearson s) by means of SPSS 19.0 The results revealed that participants held a human capital represented by average 4.38 years work experience and that the majority (75%) had revealed to have a maximum of five years in this topic (regard). Regarding the dimension extent of education of human capital, the majority (96.70%) had not completed any graduate course, spent between 11 and 20 years to the studies(y) (81.60%), didin t exchange shift studies (93%), while 86.70% (is) already included in their academic curriculum complementary activities in the Educational Plan of Business Administration Course attended, and 73.30% had between one and three internships. The analysis poit out a median score of psychological capital, 9 accentuated strengthened by the difficulty of the participants to recognize that they are in a phase of success at work and could see the bright side of things on the job. Investigating the relationship between human capital and psychological capital significant correlations were not found. Given these results, it s presumable that the study s participants, for the reason of being predominantly young workers who have not yet completed an undergraduate degree, although in its way of life more than 10 years devoted to studies and worked for about five years on average still do not recognize themselves, in the presence of a consistent human capital psychological. The lack of relationship observed between the two intangibles advocated by theorists as important to ensure that employees can contribute to the company in pursuit of their goals seems to reveal that more studies are still needed and developing theory to support not only the assumptions about asset intangible as well as to identify the relationship of dependence that may exist between the categories of human capital and psychological. / Os ativos intangíveis receberam atenção especial de estudiosos nos últimos anos, no contexto organizacional de gestão de pessoas, visto que foram desenvolvidas propostas teóricas para compreendê-los e mensurá-los. Ancorados nesta linha de investigação, encontram-se o capital humano e o capital psicológico. Enquanto o capital humano representa o que os trabalhadores sabem fazer, o capital psicológico compreende um estado mental positivo composto por autoeficácia, esperança, otimismo e resiliência. Este estudo teve, como objetivo geral, analisar as relações entre capital humano e capital psicológico. Tratou-se de um estudo quantitativo do qual participaram 60 trabalhadores, estudantes do último período do Curso de Administração, com idade média de 23,85 anos, sendo a maioria do sexo feminino, solteira e empregada. Os dados para o estudo foram coletados em salas de aula de uma universidade particular, situada na Região do Grande ABC, por meio de um instrumento auto aplicável, contendo uma medida intervalar de capital psicológico com 12 itens, validada para o Brasil, e uma de capital humano com seis questões, sendo duas para medir a dimensão experiência e quatro para aferir educação. Foi criado um banco eletrônico, o qual foi submetido a análises descritivas e de correlação (r de Pearson) por meio do SPSS, versão 19.0. Os resultados revelaram que os participantes detinham um capital humano representado por 4,38 anos médios de experiência de trabalho , e que a maioria (75%) havia revelado possuir no máximo cinco anos neste quesito. Quanto à dimensão educação do capital humano, a maioria (96,70%) não havia concluído nenhum curso de graduação, se dedicou entre 11 a 20 anos aos estudos (81,60%), não realizou intercâmbios de estudos (93%), enquanto 86,70% já incluíram, em seu currículo acadêmico, atividades complementares previstas no Plano Pedagógico do Curso de Administração que cursavam, bem como 73,30% realizaram entre um a três estágios curriculares. As análises indicaram um escore mediano de capital psicológico, acentuado pela dificuldade dos participantes para reconhecerem que estavam em uma fase de sucesso no trabalho e de conseguirem enxergar o lado brilhante das coisas relativas ao trabalho. Ao se investigar as relações entre o capital humano e capital psicológico não foram encontradas correlações significativas. Diante de tais resultados, pareceu provável que os participantes do estudo, por serem predominantemente jovens trabalhadores que ainda não concluíram um curso de graduação, embora tivessem em seu percurso de vida mais de 10 anos dedicados aos estudos e trabalhado por volta de cinco anos em média, ainda não reconheciam, em si, a presença de um consistente capital humano nem psicológico. A ausência de relação observada entre os dois ativos intangíveis preconizados por teóricos como importantes, para que o trabalhador pudesse contribuir com a empresa no alcance de suas metas, pareceu revelar que ainda eram necessários mais estudos e desenvolvimento de teorização, para sustentar não somente as hipóteses acerca de ativos intangíveis, como também permitir identificar a relação de dependência que pudesse existir entre as categorias de capital humano e psicológico.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-02T21:42:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Osvaldo Pires Junior.pdf: 1028942 bytes, checksum: a603a9c8c5d1b35b8fd8de94d31dc67e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-04-10 / The need to obtain and keep the levels of excellence and satisfaction at work increasingly higher take organizations to a growing investments in management models oriented by support of its employees. This scenario takes to some questions: the organizational support affects the employee s satisfaction? Do individuals with higher psychological capital have more satisfaction at work? To try to answer these questions, the study had as a goal to compare and analyze the individual impact and combine of the constructs Organizational Support Perceived, Psychological Capital and Satisfaction at Work. The research was performed with 304 professionals, from public and particular companies, with minimum education equivalent to the average level, of both genders and varying ages. As an instrument to collect data, an autofill questionnaire consisting of three scales: Satisfaction at Work - SAW, Perceived Organizational Support - POS and Scale of Psychological Capital - SPC, will be used. To test the assumptions proposed in the conceptual model, quantitative approach will be used. The collected data will be analyzed by structural equation modeling the PLS algorithm and partials. The results show that the variable Perceived Organizational Support and Psychological Capital impact positively the variable Satisfaction at Work, since that Perceived Organizational Support has more impact on Satisfaction at work that Psychological Capital. / A necessidade de obter e manter níveis de excelência e de satisfação no trabalho cada vez mais altos leva as organizações a um crescente investimento em modelos de gestão orientados ao suporte dos seus colaboradores. Desse cenário emergem alguns questionamentos: o suporte organizacional impacta na satisfação dos colaboradores? Indivíduos com alto capital psicológico possuem um maior nível de satisfação no trabalho? Buscando responder a essas perguntas, o estudo teve como objetivo comparar e analisar o impacto individual e combinado dos construtos Percepção de Suporte Organizacional e Capital Psicológico na Satisfação no Trabalho. A pesquisa foi realizada com 304 profissionais de empresas públicas e privadas, com escolaridade mínima equivalente ao nível médio, de ambos os gêneros e idades variadas. O instrumento para coleta dos dados foi um questionário de autopreenchimento composto de três escalas: Satisfação no Trabalho EST, Percepção de Suporte Organizacional EPSO e Escala de Capital Psicológico ECP. Para atingir os objetivos propostos no modelo conceitual, foi utilizada a abordagem quantitativa. Os dados foram analisados por modelagem de equação estrutural pelo algoritmo dos mínimos quadrados parciais (PLS). Os resultados demonstraram que as variáveis Percepção de Suporte Organizacional e Capital Psicológico impactam positivamente a variável Satisfação no Trabalho, sendo que a Percepção de Suporte Organizacional exerce maior impacto na Satisfação do Trabalho do que Capital Psicológico.  

Magister Commercii - MCom / The current research aims to identify the variables that influence turnover intentions. In particular, this research explored the concept of turnover intentions by investigating the mediating effects of job satisfaction and psychological capital amongst a sample of 70 employees involved in the tourism industry. The study highlights that employees within the tourism industry within the Western Cape were the most satisfied with work content, and the least satisfied with leadership / supervision. The results emanating from the current study indicate that there is a strong, inverse relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention amongst tourism employees in the Western Cape. Furthermore, the study revealed that a statistically significant, inverse relationship exists between psychological capital and turnover intention. Multiple regression analysis revealed these variables significantly explained the variance in turnover intention. / South Africa

Magister Commercii - MCom / The interpretation of this qualitative study indicates that individuals, teams and the organisation can benefit through allowing focus of unlocking that which provides a positive stimulus during challenging times in organisational settings. For social scientists, and in particular behavioural scientists, including industrial psychologists that are interested in positive psychology, it is hoped that there is an invitation to grow this area of research further and to gain new insights and direction for what are the enablers to experience positive change and gratitude. / South Africa

Este estudo objetiva caracterizar o capital psicológico de líderes que trabalham em organizações de grande porte. Os estudos do Capital Psicológico têm suas bases na psicologia positiva, que evidencia as qualidades e aspectos saudáveis do indivíduo. O Capital Psicológico é um estado psicológico positivo de uma pessoa que está se desenvolvendo, e este estado psicológico é pautado em quatro dimensões, a saber: eficácia, otimismo, esperança e resiliência. Essas dimensões proporcionam melhor funcionamento em várias áreas da vida do indivíduo tanto no aspecto social quanto no trabalho. Com a restruturação no ambiente de trabalho, gerada pela necessidade de tornarem as empresas mais produtivas e, consequentemente, mais inovadoras, a área de gestão de pessoas tem revisto suas práticas e políticas, enfatizando ainda mais a importância de líderes e o seu papel na organização. Neste sentido, aborda-se o papel da liderança, cuja atuação, dentro do contexto do trabalho, é de fazer a gestão dos trabalhadores. Participaram desse estudo trabalhadores estudantes do curso de pós-graduação e tambem líderes de uma indústria de siderurgia, ambas na região do Vale do Paraíba Paulista. Para o método, utilizou-se a pesquisa qualitativa. Os instrumentos para coleta de dados foram: Inventário de Capital Psicológico no Trabalho e entrevista individual com roteiro semi estruturado. Os dados foram tratados conforme instruções do inventário e o conteúdo das entrevistas foram analisados conforme procedimentos de análise de conteúdo. O resultado do inventário apresentou por meio dos escores que as dimensões eficácia e esperança estão mais fortalecidas e interiorizadas, e as dimensões otimismo e resiliência precisam ser mais desenvolvidas. As informações trazidas na entrevista convergiram com o inventário dando maior significado à percepção dos líderes em relação as dimensões do capital psicológico, ou seja, organização e sistematização de processos como aspiração de autoeficácia no trabalho, feedback como validação do sentimento de esperança no trabalho, otimistas em relação ao alto desempenho, pessimistas em relação ao cenário econômico, resiliência como uma característica necessária à posição de liderança. O cenário em que os líderes participantes estão inseridos evidencia que as crenças eficácia, esperança, otimismo e resiliência são consolidadas na relação pessoal e interpessoal do dia a dia do trabalho. / This study aims to characterize the psychological capital of leaders working in large organizations. Studies of Psychological Capital have their bases in positive psychology, which highlights the qualities and healthy aspects of the individual. The Psychological Capital is a positive psychological state of a person who is developing, and this psychological state is based on four dimensions: effectiveness, optimism, hope and resilience. These dimensions provide improved functioning in several areas of the individuals life in both aspects, social and at work. With the restructuring in the workplace, generated by the need to make the companies more productive and therefore more innovative, the people management area has revised its practices and policies further emphasizing the importance of leaders and their role in the organization. In this sense, it addresses the role of leadership, whose work within the context of the work, is to make the management of workers.Participated in this study student workers from a master course from a public university who held the leadership position in the company they worked, and also workers leaders of a steel industry, both in the Vale do Paraiba Paulista region. For the method, it was used as approach the qualitative research. The instruments for data collection were: Inventory of Psychological Capital at Work and individual interviews with semi-structured script. The data were treated as inventory instructions and the content of the interviews were analyzed according to content analysis procedures. The result of the inventory presented through scores the dimensions that are more strengthened and internalized and dimensions that need to be developed. The information brought by the interviews converged with the inventory giving more meaning to the perception of leaders regarding the dimensions of psychological capital. The scenario that the participant leaders are emerged evidences that the beliefs of efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience are consolidated in personal and interpersonal relationship from day to day job. Thus, the psychological skills in the organizational environment proposed by the psychological capital are capabilities that optimize themselves in the daily relationship of work and worker.

Although much research has been conducted on the association between poverty and happiness, little is known about its mediators and moderators. Thus, our understanding of how – and the conditions under which -- poverty affects happiness is imprecise. This study assessed stress as a mediator of the negative association between poverty and happiness using a sample of 345 farmers and fish farmers living in Ghana. Further, Psychological Capital (PsyCap, consisting of hope, optimism, resilience, and self-confidence) was examined as a two-stage moderator of the poverty-happiness relationship, as mediated by stress. There was no support for the stage 1 moderation, and while there was support for stage 2 moderation, it was in a direction opposite from what was hypothesized (for overall PsyCap and PsyCapF2). The negative moderation at stage 2 suggests that PsyCap (overall and PsyCap2) is associated with a weakening of an unexpected positive association between stress and happiness. PsyCapF2, appears to reflect agency or general self-efficacy. Although the hypothesized model was not supported this study has provided insights into how future research of Ghanaians might be better designed. It also has shown that the positive PsyCap-happiness relationship found in several Western samples is replicable among Ghanaian farmers, a collectivist and highly religious community. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (Ph.D. Agriculture. (Agricultural Economics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / Many researchers in different parts of the world have advocated the use of irrigation water to reduce levels of poverty, especially among rural households. This is made possible through the development of irrigation schemes in these areas and giving the necessary support to these farmers. If this is done sufficiently, irrigation schemes` participants are sure to realise improved livelihoods and poverty reduction. However, different communities are faced with different challenges and are subjected to rules and norms applied in their respective communities. On one hand, farmers are individuals who also have personal beliefs and characteristics that may be critical in determining the success of their irrigation schemes. On the other hand, certain characteristics (e.g., unequal distribution of water and land) can be inherited as challenges by farmers in such communities, making it difficult to overcome and thus posing threats to the success of irrigation schemes. A purposive-multistage technique together with a simple random sampling were used to sample 300 smallholder farmers from the Vhembe and Sekhukhune districts of Limpopo Province. An analysis of data was done using a combination of analytic techniques such as the Binomial Logit, Principal Component Analysis, Multiple Regression Analysis, Poverty Indices and the Women Empowerment Agriculture Index. The latter was employed to examine whether or not there are efforts by the irrigation schemes to empower women. The main aim was to analyse the contribution and impact that irrigations schemes have on poverty reduction among smallholder farmers. There was also a need to consider the role that positive psychological capital may play in uplifting the hope, confidence, resilience and optimism by farmers in their irrigation schemes. The results revealed that women’s participation was high (58%) in the irrigation schemes as compared to men. However, this did not mean that women were empowered automatically. After administering the Women Empowerment Agriculture Index, it was found that women are actually disempowered in three (out of five) indicators that were used as a measure of empowerment. Meanwhile, most farmers who used irrigation, saw their livelihoods improve and their poverty status improve too. Irrigation was able to increase their yields, incomes, employment, and other household assets. It was again proven that positive psychological capital played a significant role in reducing poverty. However, factors such as lack of capital assets, social grants, illiteracy, old age, lack of vocational training and risk aversion in some instances contributed to poverty. In order to enhance the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, the government and other relevant bodies should see to it that agricultural extension services are improved and include vocational training for these farmers together with the provision of market information and business training. This may help farmers realise the importance of farming as a business and not relying on government for everything they need. A larger share of income for most farmers came from social grants and remittances. This is likely to have a negative impact on the success of irrigation schemes. Therefore, farmers need to be trained for self-reliance. The need to promote women’s participation in decision-making for water management and also suggests ways in which women’s access to water can be improved through equitable development cannot be overemphasised. There is also a need to conduct a study on the measurement and role of psychological capital in rural livelihoods using other methods such as revealed preference approach, experimental economics and behavioural economics.