Employees in the Occupational Risk Division (ORD) of a large petrochemical
company experience many difficult situations on a regular basis. This division of the
company comprises the emergency services, the security and the occupational health
divisions of the company. Even though every precaution is taken to ensure the safety
of employees in the company, accidents and incidents do happen. The employees of
the ORD are confronted with gruesome accidents, dangerous accident scenes where
they have to enter when everyone else is evacuated, and security breeches where they
may have to enter and resolve serious conflict situations. The possibility that their
work climate may contributed to their mental health status is suggested. It is suspected
that the stress of the job affects the mental health of the employees of the OCD, and
ways need to be found to reduce these effects.
The objective of this research was to determine the relationship between core self-evaluations,
role overload, powerlessness and health indicators of employees in the
ORD of a large petro-chemical company and to determine whether core self-evaluations
act as a moderator in the relationship between role overload and
powerlessness on the one hand and health indicators on the other hand.
A cross-sectional design was used. The sample consisted of 299 employees from the
Occupational Risk Division of the organization. Age, gender and level of education
were included as control variables. A comprehensive survey containing the measuring
instruments was administrated. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were
used to analyse the data.
Results obtained indicated that some of the scales were not reliable. Powerlessness
was dropped from the analysis and qualitative and quantitative role overload were
collapsed into a total overload measure. The results showed that a negative
relationship exists between role overload and core self-evaluations. A positive
relationship exists between role overload and neuroticism, poor health and
depression. Self-esteem, self-efficacy and locus of control are negatively related to
neuroticism and health, and neuroticism is positively related to poor health.
Depression was predicted by experiences of overload, levels of self-efficacy, locus of
control and negative affect (Neuroticism). General health was predicted by
experiences of overload, locus of control, neuroticism and the interaction between
overload and self-esteem. None of the scales predict medication use to a significant
degree.
Results further indicated that only self-esteem acts as a moderator in the relationship
between role overload and general health, but none of the variables of core self-evaluations
act as a moderator between role overload and depression or between role
overload and the use of medication.
By way of conclusion, recommendations for future research were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/704 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Bonnet, Margaretha Elizabeth |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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