Bibliography: leaves 100-114. / The productivity and manpower situation in South Africa was reviewed. The necessity to involve workers at all levels in organizations was emphasized. The definition of "productivity", and the role of the human resources development (HRD) specialist was noted. The concept of "organizational culture" and the relationship to "climate" was discussed. The literature surrounding worker alienation, and the attempts to overcome this by means of participative work redesigns aimed at "worker development" was reviewed. The serious reservations which the organized labour movement has towards "participation" and designs such as quality circles (QC's) were noted and discussed. QC's themselves were introduced with an overview of their origins. The "trade war" between Japan and the West was mentioned, with particular note taken of the role of QC's and their subsequent usage and success world-wide. The critical importance of management commitment and a participative climate for the success of QC programs was emphasized. The present study was undertaken within a QC program in a large engineering company, and consisted of 187 experimental subjects QC members and 63 control subjects (non-SC members). Subjects were measured on the independent variable Organizational Climate which consisted of Trust a Involvement, Motivators, Communications, Decision making, Control Data, and Average Climate. These factors were obtained by means of performing a factor analysis on Likert's (1961) data from his Organizational Climate Scale. The dependent variable Personal Growth consisted of Life Satisfaction, Self-esteem, Powerlessness, Locus Of Control (LOC) and Purpose In Life (PIL). It was hypothesized that QC members would show more personal growth than non-QC members, but that this would be mediated by organizational climate and time spent as a QC member. The validity and reliability of the study were discussed. The results indicated that QC members were higher on life Satisfaction and Self-Esteem than non-members (P < 0.01). Both groups reported significantly more participativeness of climate over the previous 12 months, but QC members reported a greater increase. A significant (P <0.01) correlation was found between most Organizational Climate indices and Personal growth measures. It was concluded that QC participation brings about increased Personal growth, and that this growth extends to non-QC members in the same work area. A critical mediating variable however appears to be Organizational Climate, which must be truly participative if any intervention such as QC's is to succeed. This is consistent with the findings of other authors. The need for further research was discussed, and the role of climate was re-emphasized by way of conclusion.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/14388 |
| Date | January 1987 |
| Creators | Robinson, R J |
| Publisher | University of Cape Town, Faculty of Commerce, Organisational Psychology |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Master Thesis, Masters, MA |
| Format | application/pdf |
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