Tala, Ratsela Johannes2024-07-022024-07-022022-05https://hdl.handle.net/10352/736Ph. D. (Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology.Background The South African Police Service (SAPS) faces various challenges relating to service delivery, which is viewed as stressful, demanding, and dangerous. Members work long, stressful hours under adverse and challenging working conditions. These demanding working conditions correlate with experienced job embeddedness, job satisfaction and job performance. Moreover, in addition to these challenges police employees suffer from physical ailments, such as heart condition, hypertension and sugar diabetes, mellitus, and psychological problems, such as cynicism: feelings of hopelessness, suicidal thoughts and suicide. These challenges may lead to absenteeism, resignations and ineffective organisational performance. Many SAPS personnel at various academies have been employed in the Human Resource Development (HRD) for a prolonged time, and employee turnover is low. This suggests that they are committed to their job and experience job embeddedness. Research has shown that job embeddedness might predict job satisfaction and performance. The study aimed to investigate this relationship in the context of SAPS academy employees to inform SAPS management in assisting police officers in performing their role despite the challenges they face. Training is a high priority in the SAPS, the academies of which are expected to prepare future police officers to fill their roles effectively. However, the SAPS academies, which are expected to provide training and development, have limited human, financial and logistical resources owing to current political and socio-economic circumstances. Therefore, although employees in these academies may face challenges to their job embeddedness, job satisfaction and job performance, they remain in their jobs, which is a situation that the study aimed to explore. Aim The study described in this thesis aimed to investigate the influence of job embeddedness on job satisfaction and job performance amongst employees within South African Police Service academies, viewing it as a holistic construct. Methodology The research methodology followed to conduct the study was a combination of a literature review and an empirical study. Existing scholarship informed a theoretical understanding of the topic. An empirical investigation was conducted to achieve the aim mentioned above. In addition, a quantitative descriptive research design was adopted to investigate a sample of 400 employees working in the 23 academies nationally. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire as the collection instrument which was piloted with 25 respondents and then hand-delivered to the respondents of the main study. Simple random sampling accurately reflected the larger population (N=956). Results and Discussion The research results indicated that job performance and job satisfaction are causally related via job embeddedness acting as a mediator. Moreover, the relationship between job performance and job satisfaction was found to be non-recursive. The total effect of job performance on job satisfaction is larger (.5956) than the total reciprocal effect between job satisfaction as a predictor and job performance as an outcome (0.4061). The research supported the view that job satisfaction and job performance have a reciprocal relationship moderated by other variables such as job embeddedness. This finding does not support the initial hypothesis that job satisfaction acts as a mediator between job embeddedness as a predictor and job performance as an outcome. General As little research has been conducted on the relationship between job embeddedness, job satisfaction and job performance in the SAPS and the public sector in South Africa, relevant literature was not readily available for the study. In addition, the study had other limitations, which are highlighted in this thesis to inform similar future studies. However, the results provided insights that researchers in South Africa might find helpful, although the effect of job embeddedness as a holistic construct on various variables needs to further investigated in the context of the SAPS. Conclusions The study revealed that job performance, directly and indirectly, affects job satisfaction with job embeddedness acting as a mediating variable. The association between job satisfaction, job performance and job embeddedness as dependent variables and gender as an independent variable found no significant relationship. However, the relationship between race and first language as independent variables and job performance and job satisfaction as dependent variables differed significantly. In the questionnaire, white respondents agreed significantly less strongly with the job satisfaction and job performance constructs than the black African and coloured respondents. This difference was present in the task and contextual performance sub-dimensions of job performance. The Nguni first language group agreed significantly more strongly with the job performance and job satisfaction constructs than the Afrikaans first language group. This result was also true for the two sub-dimensions of job performance, namely task and contextual performance, with task performance being perceived as slightly more important than the contextual performance by the Nguni group. No significant associations could be found between age, educational level, marital status and the number of years employed as a government employee as independent variables and the three dependent variables of job embeddedness, job satisfaction and job performance. Recommendations The study led to recommendations for management practice, which might be helpful to the management of the human resource development division of the SAPS. The study provided essential information about the importance of job embeddedness in the working environment and its effect on employees’ job performance and job satisfaction who are expected to provide quality training in the SAPS. In addition, the study led to recommendations for future research by enhancing the knowledge base related to job embeddedness in the context of the South African public service sector. In conclusion, job embeddedness as a holistic construct and its relationship with other variables, needs to be explored further, especially in the context of the SAPS and its academies.enJob satisfactionJob performanceEmployeesSouth African Police ServiceSouth African Police Service academiesDissertations, Academic -- South Africa.South African Police Service.Police -- Job satisfaction.Performance standards -- South Africa.