Work context has many consequences for the psychological outcomes of employees. These outcomes also have consequences for the employer through possible loss of productivity, impaired health of employees which may be associated with absenteeism and turnover intention, among others. The literature also shows that these outcomes are not always the same even under similar working conditions. Theorising in cognitive psychology indicates that the way in which an individual appraises a situation may be more important to psychological outcomes than the actual presence of a stressor. Recently, personal resources have been hypothesised to influence these individual differences. Few if any studies have explored such personal resources as moderators in the relationship between work context and psychological outcomes, especially in the South African public service context. Thus, the general aim of this study was to determine whether personal resources (emotional intelligence, self-efficacy and explanatory styles) are moderators in the relationship between work context Gob demands and job resources) and psychological outcomes (psychological well-being and work engagement) in a sample of government employees. A cross-sectional survey research design was implemented. Data were collected from 459 participants with the following measuring instruments, the Job-Demands Resources (JD-R) Scale, the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), the Affectomemter-2 Short-form (AFM.), the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) , the Emotional Intelligence Scale (ElS), the General Self-efficacy (GSE) scale, and the Explanatory Style (ES) Questionnaire. A demographic questionnaire was developed by the first author to capture diverse information from the participants relating to gender, turnover intention, post level and so forth. Analyses were conducted mainly in 2 steps. Firstly, multiple regression analyses were used to test the main effects of work context variables on psychological outcomes. Secondly, two-step hierarchical regression analyses were used to test whether personal resources (emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, and explanatory styles) moderated the relationship between work context variables and psychological outcomes. Before testing the moderation, all independent variables and moderator variables (dimensions of personal resources) were centred so as to exclude the possibility of any multicollinearity in the regression equation. The results of the study, reported in three articles/manuscripts, showed significant main effects for work context and the personal resources as predictors of psychological outcomes. In the second place, the results also showed that the personal resources used in this study moderate the relationship between work context and psychological outcomes. In the first article, it was concluded that emotional intelligence is of potential value, especially in the public sector that is focussed on optimal service delivery, and where emotional encounters are stock-in-trade. Emotional intelligence is a valuable personal resource to cultivate for establishing, developing, and maintaining positive outcomes in psychological well-being in the workplace. In the second article, it was concluded that as self-efficacy beliefs facilitate actions and behaviour taken by individuals, it is important that feedback and modelling could play an important role especially in service-oriented work contexts that may need self-regulation of emotions. In the third article, it was concluded that as attributional feedback can induce change in how individuals perceive their success or failure in a task, the role of explanatory styles in psychological outcomes could be cultivated through active feedback given to employees on their performance and possibilities of future growth in the organisation. Overall it was concluded that a lack of job resources in the presence of high job demands will undermine psychological outcomes even in the presence of personal resources. Therefore, the consequences for health impairment and negative outcomes cannot be over-emphasised in a situation where job demands outstrip job resources. Employees in the public service require skills such as social and emotional competency, self-efficacy and optimism as these are important tools in dealing with the public. Employees must have initiative, flexibility, motivation to achieve, empathy, self-esteem and confidence, self-control, and group management among fellow employees and the public that is served by them. Although the limitations for this study are related to the fact that it was a cross-sectional research design and data was collected using self-reports, insights were gained about the role of personal resources in the relationship between work context and psychological outcomes. Based on all three articles, it was recommended that cross lagged panel studies may be useful in further clarifying the role of personal resources in longitudinal studies about the relationship between job resources and psychological outcomes and possible upward spirals arising from facilitating these relationships. Aspects of such studies may also include a qualitative assessment of what participants perceive as job resources and personal resources and these help them to achieve their goals. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

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

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence, work engagement, creativity and demographic variables. A non-experimental and cross-sectional survey design was used and the population consisted of 180 employees working within a call centre division of an insurance organisation in South Africa. The participating sample consisted of 85 respondents which indicated a response rate of 47.2%. The Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue-SF), Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-17), the Creative Personality Scale (CPS) and the Alternate Uses Tasks were administered to all participants. A theoretical relationship was found by means of a literature study. The results of the empirical study suggest that there was a significant positive relationship between emotional intelligence, work engagement and creative personality. Emotional intelligence was reported to be a significant predictor of work engagement. Significant results were also found in terms of these constructs and demographic factors. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

This research takes an iterative multiple case study approach and seeks new insight from common language in the workplace - specifically exploring what we mean when we say that we're at our best in work. Being at your best is a common term in the workplace but one that is not reflected in the academic literature. Given that it is commonly used, perhaps there is a common or shared meaning. Exploring that shared meaning could help identify how to get more from individuals and support the development of positive workplaces. There are three strands to this research thesis. Firstly, the notion of being at one's best is introduced. The literature review identifies an overlap in the concepts of work performance, engagement and commitment. These three concepts are complex and have challenges of definition and measurement. It is suggested that being at one's best can be understood as involving high performance, engagement and commitment and will involve factors that are consistent to each of the three concepts. The overlap of the concepts is demonstrated in the pilot studies undertaken in three retail stores: the highest performing store; the store with the highest staff engagement survey results; and the store with the longest serving (committed) staff. Interviews, wordlists and questionnaires were interrogated and consistent themes across the 3 contexts formed a tentative framework of positive subjective states and positive behavioural patterns. Secondly, this thesis explores the possibility of a shared meaning of being at one's best - extending the research to wider organisations. Further case studies are undertaken involving a total of 154 individuals in: a highly engaged hotel team; a high performing executive search team; the top performing shop managers in one company; and a study of individuals with at least five years' service and intending to stay in their jobs. The common experiences of these individuals form the refined framework that describes being at one's best in terms of: Positive subjective states (feelings); Positive behavioural patterns; and values. Individuals were feeling positive about themselves, their job, and their colleagues. They also showed positive behaviours related to achieving, supporting, and interacting. The connection between an individual's values and their work was also highlighted as playing a role in being at one's. The third and final strand of the research is the opportunity to reflect on techniques used to explore shared meaning. There is little consistency in the literature regarding how to explore shared meaning. The iterative approach of this research allowed for reflection on: interviews, questionnaires, word lists, focus groups and mental model activities as potential techniques for exploring shared meaning. The reflections provide insight regarding each technique and lead to the suggestion that focus groups are used earlier in the process of exploring shared meaning in the future.

Denna studie undersöker om socialsekreterares yrkeserfarenhet påverkar hur de uppfattar och hanterar sitt handlingsutrymme, liksom deras självförtroende och engagemang i arbetet. Effekten av yrkeserfarenhet är i stor utsträckning outforskad inom ramen för socialtjänsten och därför syftar studien till en utgångspunkt för framtida forskning avseende hur yrkeserfarenhet kan granskas närmare. Genom en webbenkät har 626 socialsekreterare och 54 biståndshandläggare från 40 svenska kommuner beskrivit sin yrkeserfarenhet och svarat på frågor om handlingsutrymme, självförtroende och engagemang i arbetet. Först utforskades signifikanta samband mellan 20 beroende variabler och socialsekreterares längd av yrkeserfarenhet. Signifikanta samband undersöktes närmare i en binär logistisk regressionsanalys, som även prövade livserfarenhet som en alternativ förklaring istället för yrkeserfarenhet. Resultatet jämfördes därefter med biståndshandläggare för att undersöka om sambanden kan finnas inom andra myndighetsutövande yrken. Slutligen undersöktes typ av arbetserfarenhet som en medierande effekt till längd yrkeserfarenhet i en ny analys. Resultaten visar att yrkeserfarenhet främst har ett förhållande till socialsekreterarnas självförtroende, och att detta är särskilt tydligt för dem med erfarenhet från barn och unga eller familjerätt. Studien argumenterar för att socialsekreterare behöver tillgodoses ett adekvat stöd och handledning oavsett nivå av yrkeserfarenhet och självförtroende. Det framkommer även indikationer på att sambandet mellan yrkeserfarenhet och självförtroende är signifikant för biståndshandläggare. Fyra variabler som initialt visat signifikanta förhållanden till yrkeserfarenhet kunde i den fördjupade analysen till större del förklaras av livserfarenhet eller verkade varken förklaras av livserfarenhet eller yrkeserfarenhet. Detta illustrerar problematiken att åtskilja kvantitativa mått av livserfarenhet och yrkeserfarenhet som förklarande effekter i forskning. / This study explores if social service workers work experience affect their discretion, self-confidence and work engagement. Since the effect of work experience is largely unexplored in the context of the social services, this study means to generate a starting point for future research. Through an online survey, 626 social service workers and 54 care administrators from 40 Swedish communes specified their work experience and answered questions about discretion, self-confidence and work engagement. First, 20 dependent variables were tested for significance to social service workers length of work experience. Correlations were closer examined in a binary logistic regression analysis, which also tested life experience as an alternative explanation. To examine if these correlations could exist within similar professions, significance was tested using care administrators. Finally, type of work experience was examined as a mediator to length of work experience. Results showed that work experience primarily had a significant relationship with the social service workers self-confidence, which was especially evident for workers with experience from child welfare or family law. The study proposes that social service workers need to be supplied support and coaching regardless of their work experience and self-confidence. Results also indicate that work experience correlates to self-confidence for care administrators. Four variables that initially showed a relationship to work experience could instead be explained by life experience, or could not be explained by neither work– or life experience. This illustrates the difficulty to separate measures of work- and life experience as predictive effects.

A representational predicament for an employee is a negative experience in which that employee believes that a key authority, such as his/her supervisor, has unfavorable perceptions about himself/herself caused by misconception, bias, or ignorance. That implies he/she is experiencing injustice at the workplace. Drawing for underlying explanations on the theories of interactional justice and equity, this study examines, through quantitative and qualitative methods, how autocratic leadership influences subordinates’ representational predicaments and in turn adversely affects subordinates’ behaviors in the workplace. The model developed in this thesis proposes that a subordinate is likely to have a stronger experience of representational predicaments if his/her supervisor adopts an autocratic leadership approach. It also predicts that a subordinate’s workplace behaviors are more likely to be influenced if he/she perceives that he/she has a representational predicament vis-a-vis his/her supervisor. To test the hypotheses, a total of 222 employees from 7 business enterprises in mainland China were surveyed through multi-wave questionnaires. Among this sample, 14 subordinates who scored high and 7 subordinates who scored low on a scale for representational predicaments were interviewed one to one and face to face. Results of structural equation modeling supported the mediating role of representational predicaments between autocratic leadership and subordinates’ workplace behaviors. In other words, the whole hypothesized model was well supported by both quantitative and qualitative data. Findings of this research bear both theoretical and practical implications, for the research not only examines representational predicaments in a new geographical context, but also advances the understanding of the underlying mechanisms that explain the mediating effect of representational predicaments. Furthermore, by having deeper insights into the adverse impacts of both autocratic leadership and representational predicaments, managers may be encouraged to seek to understand their subordinates better and thus avoid the adverse impacts that this research identifies.

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / The financial industry revolves around organisations that provide financial services to people in the community. The largest contributor is the banking sector followed by the insurance sector. Financial services organisations face an ever-changing working environment that is constantly increasing in its complexity. New market entrants such as banks provide insurance products, customer preferences change, technology changes quickly, and ever-changing legislation governs the way in which insurance organisations conduct business with customers. Having to continuously contend with the losses, regulatory changes, and risk management, while having to increase the shareholders’ value, all impact on the global financial services industry. They in turn increase the job demands on employees.

The objectives of the research were: (1) to conceptualise work-family conflict, stress, work engagement and personality from a theoretical perspective, exploring definitions, theoretical models and dimensions; (2) to investigate the relationship between work-family conflict, stress and work engagement; and (3) determine whether the Big Five personality traits influence how working women manage work-family conflict, stress and work engagement. A non-probability sample (n = 450) of working women aged 25 and older with children between 18 years and younger participated in the study. The findings of the study and the practical implications provide useful information about how working women with different personalities manage work-family conflict and stress, and how they can be engaged at work. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

[pt] O Modelo de Recursos e Demandas do Trabalho evidencia que as condições de trabalho são capazes de prever diferentes níveis de bem-estar no trabalho, como o Engajamento no Trabalho e a Adição ao Trabalho, duas formas de alto investimento de energia no trabalho. O Engajamento é a forma de funcionamento ótimo do trabalhador, marcado pelo prazer em trabalhar e a Adição é um sintoma de acometimento à saúde e o tempo investido no trabalho se deve a uma compulsão. Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo identificar a relação em rede entre o Engajamento e a Adição com variáveis apontadas pela literatura como antecedentes: recursos e de-mandas do trabalho, trabalho significativo, autoeficácia ocupacional, redesenho do trabalho, oportunidades de redesenho do trabalho e personalidade. Para isso, foram realizados dois estudos. O primeiro analisou os recursos pessoais e o segundo, os recursos do trabalho. Para análise dos dados, foram realizadas análises de redes com as respectivas variáveis. Sobre os recursos pessoais, o trabalho significativo foi a variável mais fortemente associada ao Engajamento e a extroversão, associada a altos níveis de neuroticismo, apresentou papel importante no desenvolvimento da Adição. Quanto aos recursos e demandas do trabalho, os recursos do trabalho foram os principais antecedentes do Engajamento enquanto as demandas do trabalho foram os principais antecedentes da Adição. O estudo sugere que a principal forma de promover o Engajamento no Trabalho e prevenir a Adição ao Trabalho é o investimento em recursos do trabalho e a redução das demandas de trabalho. / [en] The Job Resources and Demands Model shows that working conditions can predict different levels of well-being at work, such as Work Engagement and Work Addiction, two forms of high energy investment in work. Work Engage-ment is the optimal way of functioning for the worker, marked by pleasure in working, and Work Addiction is a symptom of health impairment, where the time invested in work is due to compulsion. This research aimed to identify the network relationship between Work Engagement and Work Addiction with var-iables pointed out by the literature as antecedents: job resources and demands, meaningful work, occupational self-efficacy, job redesign, job redesign opportunities, and personality. For this purpose, two studies were conducted. The first analyzed personal resources, and the second analyzed job resources. Network analysis was performed on the data with their respective variables. Regarding personal resources, meaningful work was the most strongly associated variable with Work Engagement, and extraversion, associated with high levels of neurot-icism, played an important role in the development of Work Addiction. As for job resources and demands, job resources were the main antecedents of Work Engagement, while job demands were the main antecedents of Work Addiction. The study suggests that the main way to promote Work Engagement and prevent Work Addiction is to invest in job resources and reduce job demands.

Background: Sudden change in work routine, as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, disrupted the historic patterns and created phenomena where people were forced to work remotely for a long-term period. Even when the restrictions were eased after the pandemic, business-as-usual concerning workplace was challenged since employees did not want to return to their 9-5 jobs. Therefore, employers are forced to rethink their legacy approach concerning where and when work can be conducted. Research Problem: With both employees and employers mutually convinced about the need for redefining how work can be executed, in parallel with negative correlation existing between extensive remote work and employee engagement, calls for exploring alternative flexible working arrangements. Research Purpose: In the context where neither extensive remote work nor fully on-site setups are perceived as the optimal workplace solutions after the Covid-19 pandemic, a hybrid approach may provide middle-ground, ideally combing the positive elements from both home- and corporate office workplaces, resulting in an enhanced employee engagement. Hence, the purpose is to understand how hybrid workplace impacts employee engagement. Research Question: What are the implications of hybrid workplace on employee engagement? Research Method: This research is qualitative and inductive, following relativism ontology and social constructionism epistemology. Grounded Theory as methodology, and data collected through 12 semi-structured interviews, concluded with grounded analysis to conduct interpretation and analysis.  Conclusion: The outcome of this study confirms that employee engagement is affected by hybrid approach as a workplace arrangement, either positively or negatively, dependent on conditions how hybrid approach is configured and implemented. Hybrid workplace elements which impact employee engagement were identified and are presented in this paper.