D.Cur. / The aim of this study was to describe a job grading system for nurses in a specific private health service. Nursing personnel form a significant component of the manpower in private health services and must therefor be utilized in the most costeffective manner. The Labour Relations Act (South Africa, 1996) demands that the principles of fair labour practice must be applied in all dimensions of personnel management. In the dynamic relationship between the employer and employee within private health services, the nurse as employee has the right to fair labour practice. The job grading system is described by means of a qualitative, exploratory and descriptive research design within the context of a specific private health service in South-Africa. The system is described according to the Paterson job grading system (1957), the NIPN-Q system of the Institute for Personnel Management, the Peromnes system, the Hay-method and the JE Manager method of job grading. The methodological assumptions of the study are based on Botes' research model (1994) which implies a functional approach to the practice of Nursing Science. The context of the study is a particular private health service where all categories of nurses are employed. The aim of the system is the facilitation of fair labour practice as included in the legislation concerning labour relations. Within the context of this study, the implementation of the job grading system is the duty of the nursing human resources manager and to function as agent for the implementation of the job grading system implies specific internal sources such as abilities, attitudes and values in order to facilitate fair labour practice. The study takes place in four phases. During phase one of the study the expectations of the role-players with regard to a job grading system for nurses in a particular private health service were explored and described by means of focus group interviews as well as individual interviews with top management and supported by literature. Applying the strategies as suggested by Lincoln and Guba (1985:290) ensured trustworthiness. From this data a total of twenty-one statements were formulated. A theoretical framework for the job grading system was described during phase two of the study based on the identified concepts and relevant national and international literature. During the description of the theoretical framework, deductive logic was utilized to formulate statements for each concept. At the end of the theoretical framework, six sets of statements were formulated with a total of fifty statements. The contents of the job grading system were derived from the generated statements of the expectations and the statements from the conceptual framework by means of deductive and inductive logic. During phase three of the study, which comprised the development of the job grading system, the system was validated and refined by a representative profile of the different role-players. The system was also made available in English and guidelines for implementation was described. The emphasis in the guidelines is based on the principles of democracy and the facilitation of fair labour practice. During phase four of the study the system was validated and evaluated for its' operationalization value by means of individual application of the system by nurses holding certain posts in the specific private health care service. Content validity was determined by means of a content validity index as described by Lynn (1986). The unique contribution of this study is the description of a job grading system for nurses with fair labour practice as purpose. The strength of the study is grounded in the verification, validation and operationalization of the system, which is significant of the implement value of the system in the practice.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:10066 |
| Date | 11 September 2012 |
| Creators | Paolini, Magdalena Wilhelmina |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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