Gold mining in South Africa has played a significant role in the economic
development of the country over the past 120 years. The continued focus on
productivity, recruitment and consolidation in the South African gold mining industry
will result in a decline in production. Much of the decline can be attributed to natural
attrition as the industry has moved from a mass employer of limited, contract,
unskilled labour, to an employer of more permanent, mostly semi-skilled or skilled
labour. The objective of this research was to investigate the reliability of measuring
instruments of social support, role overload (qualitative and quantitative), job
satisfaction and turnover intention for employees in the mining industry. Further
objectives included empirically determining whether social support has a moderating
effect on the relation between role overload and job satisfaction and turnover
intention.
A cross-sectional survey design was used. A random sample was taken from a South
African mining company (N=250). Gender and age were included as control
variables. Individuals on Paterson grading E band to C Upper (managers) were part of
the sample. Five measuring instruments were administrated. Descriptive statistics and
inferential statistics were used to analyse the data.
The results obtained for the five scales proved the measuring instruments to be
reliable. The results show that when an employee feels that his/her work is more than
he/she can accomplish in the time available (quantitative role overload), the employee
will most probably also feel that his/her work requires skills, abilities and knowledge
beyond that of their own (qualitative role overload). It is also indicated that social
support from the supervisor increases the employee's positive attitude or pleasurable
emotional state towards his/her job or job experience (job satisfaction), as well as
heightens the probability of social support from colleagues. Furthermore, the more
positive the employee's attitude towards the job, the less the intention to stop working
will be (turnover intention). This intention to stop working will also be less when
social support from the supervisor is more and/or when the employee experiences less
feelings that his/her work is more than he/she can accomplish in the time available.
Turnover intention was predicted by social support from supervisor.
Job satisfaction was predicted by role overload (quantitative) and social support from
supervisor.
By way of conclusion, recommendations for future research are made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/1119 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Sieberhagen, Charl Francois |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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