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In a fast paced change external and internal business environment in which businesses are to deliver to their maximum capacity, there is little room for resistance to change by employees. Acknowledging all the elements responsible for resistance to change within the corporate world, the study aimed to find if there is any relationship between the emotional intelligence of employees and their resistance to change initiatives which slows down company potential to stay abreast of market needs. By making use of a 4-point Likert type scale and questionnaire data was collected from 47 pharmaceutical representatives based in 5 different provinces within South Africa. The analysis was done based on a variety of statistical methods such as Mann Whitney, Spearman’s rho’s. The results suggest that there is a definite relationship between the overall emotional intelligence of employees and resistance to change. The study focusses its efforts on the pharmaceutical industry that offers service and products to healthcare professionals. Perhaps research on other sectors of the business could offer a broader view of the impact of emotional intelligence on resistance to change as the representatives only make up a small proportion of the overall business. An important insight of this study is that emotional intelligence has proven to play a very significant role in a variety of functions of the business and deserves deeper investigation and attention. Although only a small share of the business formed part of the sample of the study, it is clear that the company has to address resistance to change and the initiators thereof. Little study has been done on the relationship between emotional intelligence and resistance to change within the South African market, adding available data relating to the topic relationship and importance. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

In a fast paced change external and internal business environment in which businesses are to deliver to their maximum capacity, there is little room for resistance to change by employees. Acknowledging all the elements responsible for resistance to change within the corporate world, the study aimed to find if there is any relationship between the emotional intelligence of employees and their resistance to change initiatives which slows down company potential to stay abreast of market needs. By making use of a 4-point Likert type scale and questionnaire data was collected from 47 pharmaceutical representatives based in 5 different provinces within South Africa. The analysis was done based on a variety of statistical methods such as Mann Whitney, Spearman’s rho’s. The results suggest that there is a definite relationship between the overall emotional intelligence of employees and resistance to change. The study focusses its efforts on the pharmaceutical industry that offers service and products to healthcare professionals. Perhaps research on other sectors of the business could offer a broader view of the impact of emotional intelligence on resistance to change as the representatives only make up a small proportion of the overall business. An important insight of this study is that emotional intelligence has proven to play a very significant role in a variety of functions of the business and deserves deeper investigation and attention. Although only a small share of the business formed part of the sample of the study, it is clear that the company has to address resistance to change and the initiators thereof. Little study has been done on the relationship between emotional intelligence and resistance to change within the South African market, adding available data relating to the topic relationship and importance. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The public image of nurses has been of great concern to the nursing profession. This image views nursing as a female occupation with nurses having little power over their practice. Researchers claim that the stereotypical public image of nursing could constrain nursing practice. For instance, nursing skills may be under- utilised and the health care environment may not adequately reward nurses for their performance. There has also been a concern that the constraints arising from the stereotypical public image of nursing may adversely affect nurses’ work behaviour. Based on the Person-Environment-Occupation Model of Occupational Performance, the thesis examined how the public image of nurses could impact on nursing practice. The thesis also explored the person-environment (mis)fit in nursing, which is characterised as (in)congruence between nurses’ professional orientation (i.e., nurses’ self-image, role expectations and work values) and their actual practice (i.e., nurses’ perception of the image of nurses held by the public, and nurses’ perceptions of their actual roles and the rewards available to them in practice). In addition, the thesis investigated the factors that could moderate nurses’ perception of the person-environment fit, and how this fit could impact on their job performance and turnover intention. (For complete abstract open document)

Please read the abstract in the 00front part of this document / Thesis (DPhil (Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Psychology / unrestricted

Background: Nowadays, companies from the technological sector confront extreme competition and itis always a challenge for leadership teams to increase competitiveness. This study aims to investigateinnovation advancement within tech companies in an international context from the leadership andmanagement incentives point of view. Leadership plays a vital role in giving direction to the path anorganization should follow. It is of significant interest to examine how leadership can drive anorganization to innovative thinking. Different approaches and leadership styles can be adopted andpracticed by leaders to produce different outcomes on employees’ creative culture. Additionally,individual characteristics of the employees such as self-efficacy and creativity may allow the innovativebehaviours to strive and create a workplace culture that is inducing innovative output. Innovative workbehaviour is becoming more popular or even mandatory within several firms in the technological sectorin contrast to previous decades. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how ethical leadership and participative leadershipstyle can affect innovative work behaviour and to examine if the creative process engagement and selfefficacylead to enhanced innovative work behaviour. Methodology: For this thesis a quantitative approach for data collection, as well as data analysis is used.This study is based on a SEM model which contains close-ended questions that were answered througha self-administrated questionnaire. The survey was answered by employees working at companies fromthe field of technology, covering different positions. A total of 177 respondents answered thequestionnaire, and the results were analysed both in quantitative and qualitative ways. IBM SPSSsoftware was used for the statistical analysis, and AMOS 26 for the Structural Equation Modeling tests. Results: The results of the statistical analysis performed unveiled that the aspects of ethical andparticipative leadership can positively affect creativity and innovation and that self-efficacy canpositively relate to creative process engagement.Conclusion: This study contributes in showing that two positive ways of management, ethical andparticipative can be introduced by leaders that are interested in increasing creativeness and innovationat work; it also shows that for the sample tested, ethical and participative leadership does not necessarilyhas a major effect on employee’s self-efficacy. Delimitations: The geographical locations, the time and sample size, the choice of participatingorganizations, and the framework designed for the evaluation of the theoretical problem are consideredas limitations for this study. This research is mainly limited to professionals working in the technologicalsector and the study is restricted in time since the participants had to answer in a certain time frame. Toconclude, the sample size of the survey even though is satisfactory for its intended use, could be higher. / <p>Presentation was conducted via video link and were chaired by Anders Wrenne.</p><p>Anders Wrenne e-mail: anders.wrenne@bth.se</p>

This thesis deals with counterproductive work behaviour, which manifestations among Czech employees are examined by internationally accepted questionnaire. Thesis tries to find out the answer to original hypothesis whether Czech employees have increased tendency to such behaviour. This behaviour is later dividend to four kinds: sabotage the results of own work, illegal enrichment, mobbing and displays of aggression at workplace. Thesis uses segmentation of extensive sample of respondents using age, sex, education, number of subordinates, number of job changes to provide more detailed insight of Czech employee and by doing so, it reveals high-risk segment of employees with tendency to counterproductive work behaviour.

Thesis (MComm)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / As a means to measure job performance, performance appraisal plays a central role in effective individual and organisational management (Behn, 2003). Sound performance management and performance measurement are fundamental to a productive workplace and critical for a high-performing organisation (Jordan, 2002). Performance appraisal research has shifted its emphasis from psychometric issues to the examination of rater cognitive processes and the social and contextual variables which affect performance evaluation. Since raters are important factors in successful performance measurement, one line of research has investigated the effect of similarity, between rater and ratee, on subsequent performance ratings. These studies have mostly relied on similarity measures based on physical similarity characteristics, such as demographic variables. The inconclusive nature of these studies’ findings suggests that the complexity of interpersonal similarity and its effect on ratings has most likely been oversimplified. In the social-cognition literature, substantial evidence exists that rater-ratee acquaintance shifts the focus of similarity judgment to “deeper”, sometimes unobservable, characteristics, like values, motives and attitudes. This research study investigates whether rater-ratee similarity in Big Five personality traits unduly influences task-orientated performance ratings. Self-report personality data (IPIP; Goldberg, 2006) were collected from university lecturers and their students (N = 152). Actual lecturer task performance assessment data (end-of-semester student feedback ratings) were gathered concurrently. Data were analysed through polynomial regression analysis and response surface methodology. Results indicated that ratee (i.e., lecturer) extraversion (r = .357), conscientiousness (r = .413) and openness (r = .178) had significant main effects on average performance ratings. Also, rater-ratee personality similarity in extraversion (p < .001), neuroticism (p < .01) and openness (p < .001) had a significant effect on performance ratings, with the effects of agreeableness and conscientiousness also approaching significance. The present study further extends earlier research by using task performance ratings as criterion measures — as opposed to earlier studies that used contextual performance ratings — and also used “upward” ratings of seniors, instead of peer- or ‘downward’ ratings of performance, as was done in earlier studies of personality similarity effects. The results suggest that (a) earlier conclusions that personality similarity does not affect performance ratings seem to be premature, (b) more research is needed to investigate why personality similarity affects ratings and last, (c) we do not yet understand the boundary conditions that affect this phenomenon.

Thesis (MComm)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The banking industry today is seen as a demanding world of work where employees are constantly exposed to high demands and this may have an influence on their work engagement levels and their organisational commitment. It seems that in this industry, employee turnover and absenteeism levels are high, and some employees seem to be de-motivated in their work. The impact of this changing world is most evident in changes in the employment relationship that exist between employer and employee. Employees are expected to give more in terms of time, effort, skills and flexibility, whereas there is a strong perception that employees receive less in terms of career opportunities, lifetime employment and job security. It is in view of the above work complexities that employee engagement has become a focus area, and in particular, to understand the mediating effects of certain psychological conditions in relation to work engagement. Should either employment party not fulfil its contractual terms in any way, the psychological contract will be breached or violated and the employee might attempt to balance the situation by reducing his or her job efforts and making use of various counterproductive work behaviours. Transformation or change of the working circumstances, such as during or after mergers, seem to present a serious challenge to the employment relationship and the prevailing levels of job satisfaction, organisational commitment and productivity. The research question for this study was: “To investigate whether differential exposure of employees of a retail bank to change-related stressors is associated with different configurations of perceived job demands and job resources, affective states, psychological contract, job engagement, burnout and counterproductive work behaviour, and to study the relationships between these variables with the view to understanding the development of the job engagement, burnout and performance-related behaviours of these employees”. This study utilised a quantitative descriptive research design to analyse the data using statistical procedures. All the data was statistical in nature. The sample (n = 300) comprised of employees of three main levels on the organigram such as, team leaders, team managers and employees, from the Regional Head Office in Pretoria. The primary research tool utilised to conduct the study was a self-compiled questionnaire. This was hand delivered and collected from all respondents. The six questionnaires constituting the composite questionnaire were: the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-GS), Counterproductive workbehaviour Inventory (CWB), Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), the Job Characteristics Inventory (JCI), Psychological Contract Inventory (PCI) and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS). The descriptive statistics reflected a majority of participants had been working for 1 to 4 years (34%) and 5 to 9 years (33%). The largest percentages of participants (74%) were team members while other participants were defined as team leaders (22%) and team managers (4%). The majority of these participants (59%) were also appointed prior to the merger while the median was calculated at 3 years for the amount of years the participants have remained in their current job band (salary structure). A very high percentage of participants (82%) did not manage people directly nor indirectly (83%). It was found that an inter-correlation existed between the demographic variables and the psychological constructs, confirming that the number of years employed was associated with a lower likelihood of psychological withdrawal. While the years of employment in the same position related positively with absorption, and negatively with perceived job resources, the level of abuse experienced, showed a positive association with the degree of psychological contract adherence by the employee and a negative correlation with the extent of perceived contract violation. Evidence was also found for the moderating effect of work engagement in the relationship between well-being and work engagement and between work engagement and some of the counterproductive work behaviour dimensions. Evidence also revealed that mental well-being was experienced some of the time and counterproductive work behaviour almost never. The higher burnout scores, coupled with the simultaneous higher level of work engagement could possibly be viewed as an exploitable factor. The limitations of the current study and recommendations for organisations are discussed. This study highlights the fact that virtually all the comparisons between the pre-merger appointees and the post-merger appointees were insignificant. Burnout was however much more evident with the post-merger group. Employee or employer obligations towards the respondents were also viewed as insignificant, irrespective of the differences in psychological contract each employee experiences. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die banksektor word vandag gesien as 'n veeleisende werksomgewing waar werknemers konstant blootgestel word aan hoë werkseise. Dit kan dalk 'n invloed hê op hul werksbegeestering en hul organisasieverbondenheid. Dit blyk dat hierdie industrie hoë vlakke van werknemeromset en afwesigheid ervaar en dat sommige werknemers gedemotiveerd is in hul werk. Die uitwerking van die veranderende werksplek is veral sigbaar in die verandering van die diensverhouding tussen werkgewer en werknemer. Van werknemers word verwag om al hoe meer opofferinge te maak in terme van hulle tyd, insette, vaardighede en aanpasbaarheid, terwyl daar ‘n persepsie bestaan dat hulle al hoe minder ontvang in terme van loopbaanontwikkeling, lewenslange indiensneming en werksekuriteit. Dit is binne die konteks van die waargenome kompleksiteit binne die werksplek dat werksbegeestering 'n fokusarea geword het,en in die besonder om begrip te ontwikkel vir die mediërende effek van sekere sielkundige kondisies in verhouding tot werksbegeestering. Sou enige van die partye nie hul kontraktuele verpligtinge in enige opsig nakom nie, sal dit ‘n verbreking of skending van die sielkundige kontrak tot gevolg hê en mag die werknemer poog om die situasie te balanseer deur sy of haar insette te verminder en verskeie kontraproduktiewe vorme van werksgedrag tegebruik. Transformasie van, of verandering in werksomstandighede, soos tydens of nasamesmeltings, skyn ‘n ernstige uitdaging te bied vir die heersende vlak van werks tevredenheid, organisasieverbondenheid en produktiwiteit. Die navorsingsvraag virdie studie was: “Om ondersoek in te stel of verskillende tipes blootstelling van werknemers van ‘n kommersiële bank aan veranderingsverwante stressors geassosieer word met verskillende konfigurasies van werkseise en werkshulpbronne,affektiewe toestande, die sielkundige kontrak, werksbegeestering, uitbranding en kontraproduktiewe werksgedrag, metdie oogmerk om die verhouding tussen die veranderlikes te bestudeer met die doel om die ontwikkeling van die werksbegeestering, uitbranding en prestasiegerigte gedrag van daardie werknemers te verstaan”. Die studie het gebruik gemaak van ‘n kwantitatiewe navorsingsontwerp om alle data wat deur statistiese prosedures versamel word te ontleed. Die steekproef (n=300) bestaan uit 3 van die vernaamste vlakke op die organigram naamlik, spanleiers, spanbestuurders en werknemers van die streekshoofkantoor in Pretoria. ‘n Self-saamgesteldevraelys, wat per hand uitgedeel en versamel is, is gebruik in die studie. Die ses individuelevraelyste waaruit die vraelys bestaan het,sluit die volgende in: dieMaslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-GS), Counterproductive workbehaviour Inventory (CWB), Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), die Job Characteristics Inventory (JCI), Psychological Contract Inventory (PCI) en die Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS). Die beskrywende statistiek reflekteer ‘n meerderheid van die respondent wat werkend is tussen 1 tot 4 jaar (34%) and 5 tot 9 jaar (33%). Die grootste persentasie van respondente (74%) was spanlede, terwyl die ander gedeelte van respondente verdeel is as spanleiers (22%) and spanbestuurders (4%). Die meerderheid van respondente (59%) was ook voor die samesmelting van die bank groep aangestel terwyl die mediaan bereken was op 3 jaar vir die hoeveelheid diensjare wat elke werknemer in hulle huidige posvlak was. ‘n Baie hoë persentasie van respondente (82%) het glad nie ondergeskiktes direk of indirek (83%) bestuur nie. Daar is bevind dat ‘n inter-korrelasie bestaan tussen demografiese veranderlikes en die sielkundige samestelling, wat weer bevestig dat die aantal jare wat individue in diens was, geassossieer word met die moontlikheid van ‘n lae psigologiese onttrekking. Terwyl die hoeveelheid diensjare in dieselfde pos posisie positief verbind word met absorpsie en negatief verbind word met waarneembare werkshulpbronne, word die vlak van wantoestand wat ervaar word, positief verband met die graad van nakoming van die sielkundige kontrak by werknemers en ‘n negatiewe korrelasie met waarneembare kontrakbreuk. Bewyse was ook gevind vir die modererings effek op werksbegeestering in die verhouding tussen psigologiese welstand en werksbegeestering en tussen werksbegeestering en somige dimensies van teenproduktiewe gedrag. Bewyse het getoon dat psigologiese welstand ook somtyds ervaar was, terwyl teenproduktiewe gedrag amper nooit ervaar was nie. ‘n Hoë uitbranding telling, gelyktydig gekoppel aan hoë vlakke van werksbegeestering kan moontlik beskou word as ‘n ontginbare faktor. Die beperkinge op die huidige studie en aanbevelings vir die organisaie is ook bespreek. Dié studie beklemtoon ook die feit dat al die vergelykings tussen pre-samesmelting aanstellings en post-samesmelting aanstellings totaal onbeduidend was. Uitbranding was baie meerduidelik opsigtelik onder die post-samesmelting groep. Werknemer of werkgewer verpligtinge teenoor die respondente was ook gesien as onbeduidend, ongeag van die verskille in die sielkundige kontrak wat deur elke werknemer ervaar word.

Thesis (MCom)--Stellenbosch University, 2015 / ENGLISH ABSTRACT : This study investigated the growing phenomenon of counterproductive work behaviour, and how personality and integrity affects this. It was deemed important to establish what contributes to counterproductive work behaviour. The aim of this study was to develop a new ethical integrity test and to investigate existing relationships between constructs that play a significant role in behavioural integrity. These constructs include honesty, conscientiousness, and counterproductive work behaviour. This study was therefore undertaken to develop an ethical integrity test and to determine the initial construct validity of the new test. Based on existing literature, a theoretical model depicting how the different constructs are related to one another was developed and various hypotheses were formulated. Data for the purpose of the quantitative study were collected by means of an electronic web-based questionnaire. A total of 318 completed questionnaires were returned. The final questionnaire comprised the newly developed ethical integrity test, HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised (HEXACO-PI-R), and the Interpersonal and Organisational Deviance Scale. The postulated relationships and the conceptual model were empirically tested using various statistical methods. Reliability analysis was done on all the measurement scales and satisfactory reliability was found. The content and structure of the measured constructs were investigated by means of confirmatory factor analyses. The content and structure of the newly developed Ethical Integrity Test was also investigated by means of exploratory factor analysis. The results indicated that reasonable good fit was achieved for all the refined measurement models. Subsequently, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to determine the extent to which the conceptual model fitted the data obtained from the sample and to test the hypothesised relationships between the constructs. The results indicated positive relationships between honesty and ethical integrity; conscientiousness and ethical integrity; and conscientiousness and honesty. Furthermore, the results indicated negative relationships between ethical integrity and counterproductive work behaviour; as well as honesty and counterproductive work behaviour. The present study contributes to existing literature on counterproductive work behaviour by providing insights into the relationships between honesty, conscientiousness, ethical integrity. This study developed an Ethical Integrity Test based on recent ethics literature. Preliminary evidence of reliability and construct validity for the Ethical Integrity Test was found. The limitations and recommendations present additional insights and possibilities that could be explored through future research studies. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING : Hierdie studie ondersoek die groeiende verskynsel van teenproduktiewe gedrag in die werksomgewing en hoe persoonlikheid en integriteit dit beïnvloed. Dit was dus belangrik om vas te stel wat tot teenproduktiewe werksgedrag bydra. Die doel van hierdie studie was om 'n etiese integriteitstoets te ontwikkel en bestaande verwantskappe tussen konstrukte wat 'n beduidende rol in teenproduktiewe werksgedrag speel, te ondersoek. Hierdie konstrukte sluit eerlikheid, konsensieusheid en integriteit in. Hierdie studie is dus uitgevoer om meer duidelikheid oor hierdie aspekte te verkry, sowel as om ‘n etiese integriteitstoets te ontwikkel. ‘n Teoretiese model wat voorstel hoe die verskillende konstrukte aan mekaar verwant is, is op grond van die navorsing oor die bestaande literatuur ontwikkel. Verskeie hipoteses is hiervolgens geformuleer. Data vir die doel van die kwantitatiewe studie is deur middel van ‘n elektroniese web-gebaseerde vraelys ingesamel. ‘n Totaal van 318 voltooide vraelyste is terug ontvang. Die finale vraelys is uit drie subvraelyste saamgestel, naamlik die nuut ontwikkelde etiese integriteitstoets, HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised (HEXACO-PI-R), en die Interpersonal and Organisational Deviance Scale. Die gepostuleerde verwantskappe en die konseptuele model is empiries met behulp van verskeie statistiese metodes getoets. Betroubaarheidsanalise is op die betrokke meetinstrumente uitgevoer en voldoende betroubaarheid is gevind. Die inhoud en die struktuur van die konstrukte wat deur die instrumente gemeet is, is verder deur middel van verkennende en bevestigende faktorontledings ondersoek. Die resultate het redelike goeie passings vir al die hersiene metingsmodelle getoon. Daarna is struktuurvergelykingsmodellering (SVM), gebruik om te bepaal tot watter mate die konseptuele model die data pas, en om die verwantskappe tussen die verskillende konstrukte te toets. Die resultate het positiewe verwantskappe tussen eerlikheid en etiese integriteit; konsensieusheid en etiese integriteit; asook konsensieusheid en eerlikheid getoon. Die resultate het verder negatiewe verwantskappe tussen etiese integriteit en teenproduktiewe werksgedrag; asook eerlikheid en teenproduktiewe werksgedrag getoon. Hierdie studie dra by tot die bestaande literatuur betreffende teenproduktiewe werksgedrag, deurdat dit insig bied in die aard van die verwantskappe tussen die konstrukte. ‘n Etiese Integriteit Toets is ontwikkel gebasseer op onlangse etiek literatuur. Voorlopige bewyse van betroubaarheid en konstruk geldigheid is bewys in hierdie studie. Die beperkings en aanbevelings van die studie dui op verdere insigte en moontlikhede wat in toekomstige navorsing ondersoek kan word.