Thesis (M.Com.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2016. / Annually R3.9 billion is lost due to illness and absenteeism in South Africa. Fewer than half of the top 100 companies in South Africa offer employee wellness programmes. The objective of this study was to research and test two theories namely Porter’s shared value and Friedman’s profits maximisation argument. These two opposing academic theories postulate that small business managers should and should not respectively spend profits on employee well-being programmes. The research problem addressed by this research study was the lack of knowledge of the impact of well-being programmes on well-being cost to company in SMME in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality area. The aim of the study was to shed light on small businesses and employee well-being in terms of well-being cost to company and if it is considered a priority in today’s competitive economy. This study made use of a mixed-methods approach, and the population consisted of small businesses in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality area. The sampling technique made use of a non-random sampling method called quota sampling to obtain 30 interviews for the qualitative portion of Part One and 507 completed questionnaires for Part Two. The research instruments therefore included interviews for Part One and questionnaires for Part Two. This study’s findings supported literature that argues that most small business do not implement, or offer employee well-being programmes. The findings showed that a mere 13% of small business in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipalities offered any form of employee well-being program at work. Although formal employee well-being programmes were not a priority, management style and intervention was shown to decrease wellness cost to company. Factors such as assisting female staff with their multi-role commitments, increasing educational opportunities for unskilled staff and reducing the amount of overtime for employees was found to significantly reduce the hidden expense of well-being cost to company. This study finds in favour of literature that argues that the negative impact to the business that does not address concerns such as absenteeism, high staff turnover, lowered productivity and lowered staff satisfaction is very high. SMME are vital to South Africa because of their economic contributions which range from their ability to create jobs and contribute to GDP. Increasing awareness of hidden costs to the small business, such as wellness cost to company will go a long way to assist SMME in surviving tough economic conditions in the global economy. / MT2017
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/21802 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Lewis, Beverley Ann |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (xv, 250 leaves), application/pdf |
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