Magister Pharmaceuticae - MPharm / Prior to 2007, South Africa’s government became concerned about the loss and inability to retain certain professionals in its employment. Health human resources were distributed in favour of the private sector and urban areas while rural areas survived on a meagre portion of health employees. In 2007, the government introduced a re-designed remuneration structure for individual skilled professions namely, Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD), with the goal to attract and retain professionals. This study qualitatively explores the perceptions of public sector employment (PSE) by pharmacists to extract how OSD-policy may or may not be succeeding. It also investigates the opinions of pharmacists on the promotional structure of OSD and opportunity for career advancement (CA) as a possible indication of organisational commitment. Participants were recruited from four career streams in OSD’s structure, all employed in the Department of Health, Provincial Government of the Western Cape. In the first stage of data collection, one-on-one interviews were conducted with key-informants which consisted of policy specialists (n=2) and management (n=2). In the second stage, focus group interviews were conducted comprising of production and supervisory pharmacists (n=27). Sampling strategies encompassed purposive, snowball and stratified sampling to ensure saturation of data and provide comparisons between groups and sub-groups. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts was performed using inductive coding in the first stage and apriori coding in the second stage. Themes and sub-themes were “reflexed” onto Human Resource and Work Motivation Theory by engaging a three question reflexive framework to ensure consistency in the interpretation of results. Eleven major themes emerged: overlapping of salary grades; variety of positions; being a manager of professionals; envisioning promotion; pay versus responsibility; pay equity and expectancy; OSD and attraction; OSD and retention; over-time and after-hours remuneration; interpreting OSD; and using unions to negotiate policy for professionals. 41 sub-themes that emerged were positively, negatively or neutrally connected to perceptions of PSE or CA. Positive sub-themes of PSE is that OSD has “ensured that entry level positions are extremely attractive” and OSD is “attracting more junior pharmacists to management positions”. Negative sub-themes of PSE include that a “retention strategy for experienced pharmacists tends to be neglected” and “some work related factors may nullify retention strategies”. Negative or stagnant perceptions of PSE produce an image that fails to care for individual employee needs and tarnishes the image of public sector employment. Positive sub-themes of CA are that OSD now “permits individual freedom of career path choice” and OSD “has created a variety positions through a broadened post structure”. Negative subthemes of CA are that “experienced pharmacists stagnate in their career” and “supervisors have a lot more responsibilities but get paid the same as production pharmacists”. Since the perception of career mobility is related to organizational commitment and retention, negative perceptions of career advancement may result in apprehension to develop via promotion or career path change. This can lead to employee boredom, complacency or frustration of career ambitions and eventual loss of staff. Some aspects of OSD, such as overlapping of salary grades, should be addressed by policy-developers to ensure the successful accomplishment of policy goals.

The thesis focuses on the construction of the work motivation theory in the socialist management discourse in the 1950s' Czechoslovakia. For that purpose, two texts representing two periods (1951 and 1957) were selected and subjected to critical discourse analysis. The analysis focused on characterising the place of production, the producers and the audience as well as on characterising the construed theory and the method of its construction. Furthermore, a change in the discourse was described; the fact that certain discourse schemes were applied prior to the onset of the communist power was pointed out; and certain differences in terms of construction of work motivation theories in the liberal West were illustrated. In connection with Foucault's concepts of subjectification and disciplination, it was shown that the socialist discourse can be understood as a method of construction of the specific subjectivity of the workforce, used in a strategy of distribution of human working potential of all citizens of the State that corresponded with the application of extensive economy. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Klientkontakt utgör en central del i handläggares arbete. Denna studie undersöker och belyser handläggares upplevelser, känslor och inställning vid utebliven klientkontakt och hur detta påverkar handläggares arbetstillfredsställelse, arbetsmotivation och arbetseffektivitet. När en klient inte kommer till ett bokat besök eller missköter sin avtalade kontaktfrekvens med sin handläggare, kan “en lucka” uppstå i arbetet där handläggarens tillfredsställelse, motivation och effektivitet i arbetet tenderar att förändras. Denna studie är kvantitativ och lägger vikt vid handläggares perspektiv på utebliven klientkontakt. För att få svar på frågeställningarna samlades data in genom en webbenkät. Enkäten skickades ut till sammanlagt 284 handläggare som är verksamma i Jönköpings län, varav 115 handläggare besvarade enkäten. Resultatet visar att handläggares känsla av stöd vid utebliven klientkontakt och möjligheten att lägga ner så mycket tid på klienten som handläggare anser nödvändigt, är av betydelse för handläggarnas arbetstillfredsställelse och arbetsmotivation. För de handläggare som upplever utebliven klientkontakt som ett hinder, tar det också längre tid för att påbörja en ny arbetsuppgift efter insikt om att en klient uteblir från avtalad kontakt. Handläggares möjlighet att utföra sitt arbete, vilket inbegriper upplevelsen att göra ett meningsfullt arbete som klienten har nytta/glädje av, förhindras då klientkontakt uteblir från handläggares vardagliga arbete. / Client contact is a central part of social worker’s work environment. This study examines and highlights social worker’s experiences, feelings and attitude in case of no client contact, and how this affects social worker’s job satisfaction, work motivation and work efficiency. When a client does not come to a booked visit or mismanage his/hers agreed contact frequency with his/hers social worker, "a gap" occur in the work where the social worker’s satisfaction, motivation and efficiency at work tend to change. This study is quantitative and highlights the importance of social worker’s perspective on client contact that fails to appear. To get answers to the questions data were collected through a web survey. The questionnaire was sent out to 284 social workers that are active in Jönköping County, of which 115 social workers responded to the survey. Data were collected from the municipalities of Jönköping County through an online survey. The result shows that the social worker’s sense of support in case of no client contact and the opportunity to spend so much time on the client as the social worker deems necessary, is important for the social workers job satisfaction and motivation. For those social workers that experience client contact that fails to appear as a barrier, it also takes longer to start a new task after the realization that a client fails to appear at the agreed contact. When the client contact fail to appear from social worker’s daily work, it prevents social worker’s opportunity to do their work, which includes to do a meaningful work that the client benefit of and enjoy.

This diploma thesis discusses the work motivation process from a psychological perspective. The key factor is derived from the understanding of work motivation theory in the public sector. This thesis is relatively connected to the bachelor thesis of the author from 2009 but contains many new ideas of the work motivation theory together with an inter-cultural framework. After describing the research methods and expected results, the author inserts new research findings. In conclusion, an analysis of the predicted results is presented together with recommended suggestions, generally applicable to all business units in the public sector.