Theses and Dissertations (Business Administration)
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Browsing Theses and Dissertations (Business Administration) by Author "Dhurup, M., Prof."
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Item A comparative study of entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intentions amongst students at selected South African institutions of higher education(Vaal University of Technology, 2022-01) Matsheke, Moses Jametane; Dhurup, M., Prof.; Mafini, C., Prof.Entrepreneurial intention (EI) is considered as an element used by researchers to measure the propensity of individuals to become entrepreneurs. Higher education institutions (HEIs) have been utilised globally by governments as mechanisms to increase the EIs of students by establishing entrepreneurship as an academic discipline and instituting entrepreneurship programmes at all educational levels. However, in South Africa, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) reports a decline in EIs in the last decade of the population aged 18-64 years. The current study investigated the influence of the entrepreneurship education (EE) at one selected Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) college and a University of Technology (UOT) located in the Gauteng Province, South Africa through a comparative analysis. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) were used as theories to underpin the study. In addition, Self-efficacy (SE), Need to Achieve (NA) and Instrumental Readiness (IR) were included as constructs to examine further variables for EIs. The study adopted a survey design and followed a quantitative research approach in determining the relationship between the identified variables. A self-administered survey questionnaire was used to gather the data from the sampled students at the selected HEIs. The total number of usable questionnaires was 390 from the TVET college and 362 from the UOT, giving a total of 752 responses. The empirical analysis was performed by means of the descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), Pearson correlations, and regression analysis. The descriptive analysis procedure was utilised to examine the demographic profile of the respondents as well as the perceptions of the respondents towards the research constructs of the study. The EFA procedure confirmed that all measurement scales applied in the study were unidimensional. The Pearson correlation analysis was used to examine the linear association between the constructs while the regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. The results of the hypotheses tests revealed that EE was statistically significant in predicting the EI of the students from both the TVET college and UOT. The tests further revealed that EE was also statistically significant in predicting the Attitude towards Behaviour (ATB), Subjective Norm (SN), Perceived Behavioural Control (PBC), SE, NA and IR of the students from both HEIs in a similar manner. However, PBC, SE, and NA were found to be statistically insignificant for the TVET college students while for the UOT students only SN, NA and IR were statistically insignificant. The study concludes that EE is an important tool that can be used to enhance the EI of the students at both types of HEIs. It further draws the conclusion that students from the TVET college are more dependent on external factors such as the support of their families and friends as well as the availability of resources to start thinking of starting their own business, whereas those from the UOT are more reliant on internal motivation. Based on the results, the study recommends that subjects in the curriculum in HEIs should have a learning unit dedicated to stimulating entrepreneurship amongst students. Such an approach might inspire students to venture into entrepreneurship.Item The influence of employee fit dimensions on job satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour and intention to stay in selected South African municipalities(Vaal University of Technology, 2021) Masoka, Josiah Coba; Joubert, P. A., Prof.; Dhurup, M., Prof.Given the inevitable changes and dynamics in the nature of the global market, the recruitment, attraction, employment, motivation and retention of valuable workers has become critical for the continued success of both employees and organisations. Organisations are continuously faced with the dilemma of uncovering and understanding employment packages that are essential in attracting fitting individuals to join their establishment and remain in such organisations for a longer period of time. Similarly, people spend a substantial amount of effort and time searching for organisations and jobs that matches their qualifications and skills; fulfil their specific needs, while meeting their goals and values. This study investigated the influence employee fit dimensions (person-job fit, person-environment fit and person-organisation fit) on job satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour and intention to stay. These different conceptualisations of fit have typically been studied independently, but this study responded to calls that proposed for a study that incorporated multiple types of employee fit dimensions in a single study. When deliberating on the different fit concepts, some empirical evidence confirmed the existing conceptual distinctions between the three types of fit such as person-job fit, person-environment fit, and person-organisation fit and how each fit dimension positively or negatively influences job satisfaction and the extent to which job satisfaction influences organisational citizenship behaviour. Furthermore, the study examined the influence of organisational citizenship dimension on intention to stay. This study is embedded in a post-positivist quantitative research paradigm. The positivism paradigm was adopted as its underlying philosophy is grounded on cause-effect relationships amongst constructs within a given theoretical model. Since the study was descriptive in nature, the reliability and validity of data was analysed and correlation analysis and regression analysis were also computed. The exploratory factor analysis was performed using the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test and the Bartlett’s test of sphericity in order to examine the appropriateness of data for factor analysis and to establish the interrelationship amongst constructs. Preceding the main study’s data collection process, a pilot survey was undertaken to examine the correctness and accuracy of the questionnaire. The data collected were examined with the use of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 25.0. The KMO values of all the constructs were above 0.80 which is well within the acceptable value of 0.50. Normality tests were performed using the skewness and kurtosis values and the standard deviation values ranged from 0.65311 to 1.05471 indicating that data was normally distributed. To confirm the consistency of the measuring instrument and its items, reliability tests were carried out and the results indicated that all the constructs were within range (0.786 to 0.891), having surpassed the threshold for reliability of 0.70. The results of the consistency of measures demonstrated that the measuring instrument was reliable. The correlation analysis revealed that there is a strong relationship between person-job fit, person-environment fit, person-organisation fit and job satisfaction. The results further disclosed a moderate association between job satisfaction with altruism, courtesy and civic virtue. A negative relationship is reported between job satisfactions and sportsmanship. A weak but positive relationship is shown between job satisfaction and conscientiousness. The results further indicate a moderate relationship between altruism, conscientiousness and intention to stay. The relationship between courtesy, sportsmanship and intention to stay is reportedly weak. The results indicate that a positive relationship exists between civic virtue and intention to stay. Regression analysis was also performed in order to establish the predictive relationships between variables. The regression analysis results indicate that person-job fit, person-environment fit and person-organisation fit are positive predictors of job satisfaction. Further, altruism, courtesy, civic virtue and conscientiousness contributed positively towards predicting job satisfaction. The results further reveal that sportsmanship showed no relationship with job satisfaction and weak predictor of job satisfaction. The results of the regression analysis further revealed that altruism, courtesy, civic virtue and conscientiousness showed no predictive relationship with intention to stay. However, sportsmanship showed strong predictive relationship towards intention to stay. The study proposes both the theoretical and practical contributions to the organisational behaviour and human resource management literature in the form of recommendations. Limitations and implications for further research is alluded to. The outcome of this study advanced a framework of the influence of employee fit dimensions on job satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour and intention to stay which may possibly benefit future researchers.Item The influence of organisational politics on job stress among small and medium enterprises employees in Matlosana Local District.(Vaal University of Technology, 2018-11) Letshaba, Ralebitso Kenneth; Dhurup, M., Prof.; Joubert, P. A., Dr.; Chinomona, E., Dr.Apart from the contribution and success of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through job creation, poverty alleviation and economic growth, there are still organisational factors such as organisational politics and job stress, which hamper the success of these enterprises. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of organisational politics on job stress among SME employees in Matlosana Local District. The target population concentrated on SME employees within Matlosana Local District in North West province, with the population size of N=431 respondents. A quantitative approach was applied, with the use of a cross sectional survey (questionnaire) to gather information on general political behaviour (GB), get ahead (GA), pay and promotion policies (PP), time stress (TS) and anxiety (AX). Data analysis was conducted with the use of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0 and the Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) version 25.0. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was applied in examining and testing the relationships between observed constructs and their causal latent constructs while Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to test the hypothesised relationships between constructs. The findings of the study revealed that there is a positive and significant relationship between organisational politics and job stress. The findings also emphasised that organisational politics is considered as a hindrance-related stressor that hampers the proper functioning of individual employees. This study concludes that organisational politics are the social ills of every organisation, it is upon the management of the SMEs to apply good human resource management policies to curb the politics. Contrary, if the organisational politics are not managed well, it will result in impacting the job outcomes such as job stress.Item Modelling transformational and transactional leadership, innovation and performance in selected South African Universities of Technology: a balanced scorecard perspective.(Vaal University of Technology, 2022-09) Mofokeng, G. L.; Dhurup, M., Prof.; Mafini, C., Prof.Universities of Technology are an essential institutional type in South African higher education. However, their performance often lags behind that of traditional and comprehensive universities, which inspires the need to use research to seek ways of improving them. This study focuses on the interconnection between transformational and transactional leadership, organisational innovation and performance in South African universities of technology. Performance was measured based on the balanced scorecard perspective. The study followed a quantitative method, using the views of 387 academic and non-academic professional respondents drawn from three South African universities of technology. Hypotheses were tested using correlations and regression analysis. The study identified three transformational leadership factors, namely idealised influence, intellectual stimulation and inspirational leadership that are relevant to the tested relationship. Six performance dimensions, namely internal growth, financial performance, internal processes, customer satisfaction, learning, and grants and income were also identified and used to measure performance. The three transformational leadership factors, idealised influence, intellectual stimulation and inspirational leadership all correlated with and predicted innovation. In turn, innovation correlated with and predicted the six performance factors (internal growth, financial performance, internal processes, customer satisfaction, learning, and grants and income). The study indicates that the transformational leadership style has a direct positive effect on institutional innovation in universities of technology. Furthermore, innovation is an important driver of performance. Therefore, universities of technology that place an emphasis on transformational leadership and innovation are likely to register superior performance.Item Motives for volunteering in sport organisations and the relationship with volunteer commitment and volunteer satisfaction(Vaal University of Technology, 2022-01) Tshabalala, Lebamang Francis; Dhurup, M., Prof.; Mokoena, B. A., Prof.Volunteering is a core component of sport service delivery and remains essential to the viability of the sport system in many sport organisations and communities. To this end, it has become incumbent for them to ensure that a sufficient pool of volunteers exists. Despite this assertion that volunteers in sport organisations are considered such a valuable resource, they are increasingly scarce and there is a considerable debate about the underlying structure or dimensionality of volunteer motives. Therefore, the primary objective of this study was to examine motives for volunteering in sport organisations within Gauteng province and its relationships with volunteer commitment and volunteer satisfaction. This research drew from the convergence of the social exchange and self-determination theories that were used in this study to provide a theoretical understanding as to why people engage in volunteer work and the outcomes thereof. In order to achieve the primary objective of the study, a quantitative research approach was adopted and a cross-sectional descriptive survey was utilised. A non-probability convenience sampling procedure was also adopted. Prior to the main survey data collection, a pilot study was undertaken by administering a questionnaire to 40 participants who did not form part of the main survey. The main survey data was thereafter acquired from 270 volunteers from conveniently selected sport organisations within Gauteng province through a structured self-administered questionnaire. The data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS version 26.0) and the reliability and validity analysis yielded satisfactory results in terms of the measuring instrument. Descriptive statistics were also computed to summarise the data into usable information by making use of frequencies, means and standard deviations. Exploratory factor analysis was used to statistically aggregate the large number of observed measures (28 items) relating to independent variable (volunteer motives) into a smaller set of three unobserved (latent) variables called factors while regression and correlation analysis were undertaken to establish the relationships among the study constructs in line with the objectives of the study. Results fromcorrelation and regression analysis respectively (r = 0.440; β= .410) revealed that volunteer motives significantly contribute towards enhancing volunteer commitment among volunteers in sport organisations. Furthermore, the study’s results indicated that volunteer commitment, in turn, contributes towards volunteer satisfaction of volunteers in sport organisations (r = 0.561; β= .561). Based on these results, this study recommends, among others, that management of sport organisations should explore the effectiveness of implementing an internal system of self-evaluation as a starting point to examine motives for volunteering. Furthermore, it is recommended that sport organisation management should develop an organisational culture which assigns authority and responsibility to sport volunteers. The study concludes by affirming the achievement of the study’s objectives, highlighting its limitations as well as identifying future research opportunities.