The goal of this research was to provide an attitude assessment of how women perceive their roles in sports departments in the television industry.Fifteen female participants responded to a Q sort study which covered these specific subject areas: relationships with coworkers, relationships with management, career advancement opportunities, and work environment.An examination of the Q sorts revealed three distinct factor types that were labeled: Noncommitted, Loyalists, and Dissatisfied.The Noncommitted were satisfied with their feedback from coworkers and management and their willingness to incorporate these comments into the content of the sports broadcast. On the other hand, they did not see any advancement opportunities at their organization or in the industry, itself.The Loyalists did not speak about being held back by men in their organizations and they were not impressed with their promotion opportunities at their companies.Finally, the Dissatisfied group was unhappy because they did not receive support from upper management, only from their coworkers.Demographics had little impact on the interpretation of the three factors. However, if a woman was in the industry for 15+ years, then she usually received a higher salary or was given another job title, such as sports director. This was a rare occurrence though among this group of respondents. / Department of Journalism

This study is undertaken to investigate the effect job satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) has on the employees of Xstrata Alloys. Specifically, the focus falls on the supervisors employed at Xstrata’s Boshoek plant. The supervisors form the first line of management and therefore have the opportunity to influence the work force, be it intentionally or unintentionally, either positive or negative. It is the responsibility of every organisation to put measures in place to ensure a workforce of satisfied employees as the productivity and performance of the entire company could rest on this. This research study focuses on the quantitative method to obtain the necessary data. The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) short form is specifically used in the collection of data for this study. A few interesting findings are evident: supervisors that have been in a certain line of work for longer periods of time, perceive themselves to experience less praise for jobs well done, whereas employees who have been appointed in supervisory positions for longer periods of time, have even lower levels of general satisfaction. The supervisors in the different departments are found to differ in their perceptions of certain job satisfaction items. Supervisors in the Admin and Production departments, harbour more positive feelings about some of the items than the supervisors in the Engineering department. A difference in perception is also noted between the supervisors with Afrikaans and other languages as home language, regarding their perception of some of the items of job satisfaction. It is recommended that future studies should focus on including the whole workforce, opposed to only the supervisors. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

This study is undertaken to investigate the effect job satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) has on the employees of Xstrata Alloys. Specifically, the focus falls on the supervisors employed at Xstrata’s Boshoek plant. The supervisors form the first line of management and therefore have the opportunity to influence the work force, be it intentionally or unintentionally, either positive or negative. It is the responsibility of every organisation to put measures in place to ensure a workforce of satisfied employees as the productivity and performance of the entire company could rest on this. This research study focuses on the quantitative method to obtain the necessary data. The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) short form is specifically used in the collection of data for this study. A few interesting findings are evident: supervisors that have been in a certain line of work for longer periods of time, perceive themselves to experience less praise for jobs well done, whereas employees who have been appointed in supervisory positions for longer periods of time, have even lower levels of general satisfaction. The supervisors in the different departments are found to differ in their perceptions of certain job satisfaction items. Supervisors in the Admin and Production departments, harbour more positive feelings about some of the items than the supervisors in the Engineering department. A difference in perception is also noted between the supervisors with Afrikaans and other languages as home language, regarding their perception of some of the items of job satisfaction. It is recommended that future studies should focus on including the whole workforce, opposed to only the supervisors. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

It is proposed by scholars of consumer complaining behaviour that dissatisfaction occurs at two levels: (1) the primary level resulting from product or service failure; and (2) the secondary level resulting from an unsuccessful attempt at complaint resolution with the company held responsible. This thesis provides an integrated analysis of the triggers of voiced and non-voiced consumer responses to the level of primary dissatisfaction. A deductively derived two-factor taxonomy of consumer responses to dissatisfaction was developed out of the extant literature, to identify those responses to dissatisfaction analogous with both primary and secondary dissatisfaction. Based on this taxonomy, a deductively derived typology of consumer responses to primary dissatisfaction, together with two truncated alternatives, was also proposed. The proposed typologies facilitated two levels of analysis: (1) the unidimensional level relating to whether or not the dissatisfaction was voiced to the company held responsible; and (2) the multi-dimensional level of response style engaged in. At each level of analysis, the contribution to total explained variance of six trigger sets was assessed: pre-dissatisfaction situation, post-dissatisfaction situation, company/consumer relationship, marketplace/consumer relationship, psychographics and demographics. The validity of both the proposed two-factor taxonomy and the three typologies was examined through a cross-sectional survey of 1000 dissatisfied consumers across eight product and service categories. Findings supported the deductive basis of the taxonomy, where it was found that whilst exit behaviours and private negative word-of-mouth are analogous with the level of primary dissatisfaction, the incidence of public negative word-of-mouth, third party action and grudge holding was significantly greater among consumers experiencing secondary dissatisfaction. These findings also supported the deductive basis of the proposed typologies of responses to primary dissatisfaction, by empirically identifying those responses analogous with this level of dissatisfaction. At the unidimensional level of analysis, the trigger sets explained 54% ofthe variance between a voiced and a non-voiced instance of primary dissatisfaction. At the multidimensional level of the response style, 63% of variance was explained between response styles in the truncated typology with the most practical use for suppliers. On the basis of these findings, recommendations are made to practitioners on how to encourage supplier-friendly consumer response styles following primary dissatisfaction, and to discourage less friendly styles. The empirically supported truncated typology -distinguishing between passive, private responses, telling, and telling + private responses -represents an important strategic tool for suppliers to monitor and benchmark responses to primary dissatisfaction among their customer base.

The aim of this research was to explore the travel motivations of Taiwanese tourists who visited Australia, their satisfactions, and destination loyalty, as well as examining the relationship between customer satisfaction, need satisfaction, and destination loyalty. This study is important because of the fact that the number of Taiwanese tourists to Australia has decreased since 1999; however, there have not been any academic studies to ascertain the travel motivations of Taiwanese group package tourists who visited Australia, their need satisfaction, and future intentions. Furthermore, the literature on tourist need satisfaction, customer satisfaction and loyalty has been categorised into discrete areas of study, with little integration of these three concepts in the tourism literature. Thus, the relationship between these concepts is an area of theoretical interest that has been examined in this study. To achieve the aims of the research, one research question and 11 hypotheses were developed. The research question specifically explored the travel motivations of the Taiwanese when visiting Australia. Two hypotheses were designed to test the differences between Taiwanese travel motivations and their need satisfaction, and the differences between travel motivation groups. In addition, nine hypotheses were used to examine the relationships between customer satisfaction, need satisfaction, and destination loyalty. A four-stage research methodology was used. Firstly, the study adopted a qualitative approach using focus group interviews of 33 participants to explore the motivations of Taiwanese group package tourists to Australia. Following the qualitative study, two pre tests including a pre and post survey were conducted in order to develop the scales for travel motivations, customer satisfaction, need satisfaction, and destination loyalty of Taiwanese tourists. Finally, a formal pre and post survey was administered. A pre and post survey design was used to consider the potential changes in tourist motivations after the trip. Cluster sampling was used to select the travel agencies, and five travel agencies agreed to participate in this research. The collection of data for the formal survey began in September 2005 and was completed at the end of February 2006. A total of 547 questionnaires were fully completed with a response rate of 72.9%. The validity and reliability of the various scales for push and pull motivations, destination attributes/services, group package tour services, perceived value, equity, emotion, overall need satisfaction, overall satisfaction, and destination loyalty were examined using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, as well as Cronbach’s alpha, and all scales were found to be satisfactory. A total of 17 push and 18 pull motivation items were also determined. Taiwanese tourists had the highest travel motivation scores for ‘travelling around the world’, and ‘having a comfortable trip’, and were attracted by certain attributes of Australia, such as the ‘sunshine and scenery’, and ‘a place to go for good value’. The differences between travel motivations and motivation satisfaction were examined using a paired sample t-test, and the hypothesis was partially supported. Based on the results of these t-tests, importance-performance analysis (IPA) was used to analyse the motivation satisfaction levels, and the results showed that the main travel motivations of Taiwanese travellers to Australia were generally satisfied after the trip, with the push motivation factor ‘having a comfortable trip’ and the pull motivation factor ‘sunshine and scenery’ scoring highest on the satisfaction scale. Factor-cluster analysis was further used to segment tourists in regard to their travel motivations. The results revealed that there were four different travel motivation groups. These groups were significantly different in terms of their customer satisfaction and destination loyalty. The importance level of travel motivations of ‘high motivation travellers’ before the trip was high compared to other groups and the customer satisfaction and destination loyalty were also high after the trip. Taiwanese tourists were generally satisfied with their trip to Australia; however, only two tourist groups: the ‘high motivation travellers’ and the ‘comfort/attraction seekers’ showed any interest in revisiting Australia in the future. The relationship between customer satisfaction, need satisfaction, and destination loyalty was also examined using multiple regression analysis. The results confirmed the hypotheses that customer satisfaction had a positive impact on need satisfaction; need satisfaction positively influenced overall need satisfaction; and overall need satisfaction and overall satisfaction both had a positive relationship with destination loyalty. This shows that tourist need satisfaction and customer satisfaction are related, and customer satisfaction is the antecedent of tourist need satisfaction. Furthermore, tourist need satisfaction is influenced by travel experiences, and destination loyalty is influenced by overall need satisfaction and overall satisfaction. This research has contributed to theory, methodology and to practice. A relationship between customer satisfaction, need satisfaction, and destination loyalty was found. As a result, this study has also successfully integrated the concepts of travel motivation, customer satisfaction, need satisfaction, and destination loyalty. A pre and post survey methodology was used in this research to obtain Taiwanese travellers’ original motivations and their satisfaction levels. Finally, the findings concerning the motivations of Taiwanese tourists to Australia, their need satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and destination loyalty have been found to be useful for tourism managers to assist them in making successful business decisions, improving services, and developing new promotional strategies to encourage Taiwanese visitors to travel to Australia.

Thesis (M.H.A.)--University of Michigan, 1976.

Thesis (M.P.H.M. (Primary Health Care Management))--Mahidol University, 2005.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1986.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1992.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1976.