Since the change in the political dispensation in South Africa in 1994, South Africans are under increasing pressure to accept the new, changing order as a given. The institution where the research was carried out, the South African Secret Service (SASS), has also not escaped these changes and there have been various developments which indicate that some employees are not adjusting to these changes.
The purpose of this research has been to determine to what extent a relationship exists between the presence or absence of certain psychological forces in individuals and the coping strategies which they use. The psychological forces were researched and analysed from the fortigenic paradigm, which is aimed at focusing on the origin of certain forces/strengths within man that are of cardinal importance for effective functioning.
In the literature study the main focus was on aspects such as coping with change, after which the coping p cess and the various coping types and strategies were addressed.
An important element of the literature study consisted of the profiles of copers and non-copers,
which focused on the cognitive, emotional and conative fields/areas. Three
different psychological approaches, namely pathogenesis, salutogenesis and
fortigenesis were addressed, with emphasis on the latter. The fortigenic approach was
analysed from the perspective of a number of forces, as identified by Strümpfer.
A combination of a quantitative survey design and a qualitative research design (the
phenomenological method) was used, with a sample population of 50 persons from the
research environment within the SASS. In the research five qualitative measuring
instruments (the Locus of Control Questionnaire of Scheepers, the Life Orientation
Questionnaire of Antonovsky, the Personal Views Survey of Kobasa, the Self-Efficacy
Questionnaire of Sherer & Maddux and the Self-Control Scale of Rosenbaum) and a
qualitative instrument (the phenomenological interview) were used to determine the
presence or absence of the fortigenic forces in the respondents. The measuring
instruments were applied to the whole population, after which a stanine scale was used
to identify persons with low and high scores according to the fortigenic construct. An
interview based on the phenomenological approach was done with five persons with
low and five with high scores.
According to the results of the empirical study a statistically significant difference exists
between the stanine scores of the five respondents with the highest scores and the five
with the lowest scores and it is possible to subject these respondents to the qualitative
measuring instrument. According to the qualitative measuring instrument (interview)
there is a moderate to strong relationship between the strength of the employees'
fortigenic forces and their ability to cope with organisational change. Three of the five
employees with low stanine scores showed a strong resemblance to the profile of a
non-coper, while two of the respondents showed a moderate resemblance. All five the
respondents who achieved high stanine scores showed a strong resemblance to the
profile of a coper.
Recommendations are made for future study. / Thesis (MCom)--PU for CHE, 1999.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/1614 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Raubenheimer, Bernard |
| Publisher | Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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