Human Resources Management

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Effects of supervisors’ leadership styles on job satisfaction in the logistics industry
(Vaal University of Technology, 2017) Tsepetsi, Tshepo Kingsley; Joubert, P. A., Dr.; Dhurup, M., Prof.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of supervisors‟ leadership styles (transformational, transactional and passive-avoidance) on job satisfaction in the logistics industry. This study advocates the way in which employees perceive their supervisors‟ leadership styles and their influence on job satisfaction. The fact is that employees play an indispensable role in the realisation of an organisation’s goals and therefore it would be more crucial for an organisation to have employees who are willing to go beyond what is required of them. In this study, a quantitative research method was used to investigate a sample size of 201 employees working in logistics departments in organisations situated in Southern Gauteng. In choosing a sampling method, convenience sampling method was used mainly because respondents were readily accessible and available to the researcher and also willing to participate in the study. Data were collected with the aid of a structured questionnaire and the results of the correlation analysis revealed that transformational, transactional, and passive-avoidance leadership styles are significantly and positively related to job satisfaction. Based on the findings of the empirical survey, it was revealed that a positive association was found between transformational leadership and job satisfaction. A negative correlation was found between transactional, passive-avoidance and job satisfaction. Furthermore, the regression analysis showed that a transformational leadership style positively influences job satisfaction. Therefore, it was recommended that, to address negative correlations between transactional leadership styles on job satisfaction, supervisors/managers elicit desired performance from subordinates by motivating them externally. This can be done by rewarding subordinates for behaving in the expected manner and punishing them if they deviate. It was also recommended that to address negative correlation between passive-avoidance leadership style and job satisfaction supervisors/managers ought to give subordinates autonomy to make their own decisions and be able to solve work-related problems independently. It is further recommended that since passive-avoidance leadership style is associated with unproductiveness, supervisors/managers avoid the use of such a leadership style. The study concludes by recommending that a newer style of leadership such as authentic leadership can be introduced in order to influence employee job satisfaction positively. Servant leadership style can also be applied as this may influence job satisfaction positively. The findings and recommendations of this study are important for supervisors/managers employed in the logistics industry since they provide insight regarding the styles of leadership that are more effective in influencing employee job satisfaction positively. The implications for future research offer several opportunities in the area of leadership and job satisfaction. The study used a quantitative research design whereas the use of a mixed method approach may provide more meaningful results. Since the sample size was restricted, the study could also be expanded to include employees from other departments, such as finances, human resource and marketing.
Employees' perceptions of the effects of retrenchment on job stress and organisational commitment in a mining company
(Vaal University of Technology, 2016-11) Seteni, Landiswa Pilvia; Joubert, P. A., Dr.; Dhurup, M., Prof.
In the decade before 2005, South African organisations have had to cope with an ever-increasing rate of local and global changes. There have been considerable and ongoing socio-political changes, resulting from new Government regulations. Most organisations have experienced some type of downturn, whether due to external business factors or poor internal performance. A typical response to organisational decline is retrenchment. Retrenchment is attributed to cyclical downturns, market losses or other economic factors, which oblige the employer to reduce the labour force numbers. Though there are so many ways of responding to organisational failure, this study focused only on retrenchment. A number of psychologists and human sciences researchers have studied the results of job loss due to retrenchment. Retrenchment brings loss of skills, loss of morale and commitment, as well as physical and mental health degradation, including stress that results in employees withdrawing physically and emotionally. The main purpose of this study was to outline the employees’ perceptions of the effects of retrenchment on job stress and organisational commitment in a mining company. The research methodology used in this study is a combination of a literature review and an empirical study. The probability sampling technique, which entails using simple random sampling, was used to select the sample of the study. The primary data were collected using a questionnaire. The measuring instrument contained 43 items. The measuring instrument was pilot-tested with 50 respondents three weeks before the main survey; the questionnaire was self-administered to the participants. For the main survey, data from 294 respondents were collected and analysed. Participants in the study involved surface employees, including management, administrators, engineers and artisans. Data were analysed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the various sections of the measuring instrument were computed to establish construct validity. Content validity was ascertained by pre-testing the questionnaire with the employees in the mine in question. Correlations were used to establish convergent validity of the constructs. Convergent validity was assessed to measure the degree of linear association of variables using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Discriminant validity was achieved by using regression analysis to show items loaded onto different factors in various sections which had more than one factor. Analysis was done using descriptive statistics on the demographic information of respondents. The results were also interpreted through correlation and regression analysis. The results showed that the effects of retrenchment did not have a negative impact on job stress (time stress and anxiety). This may be due to the mine in question planning and consulting with the employees prior to the retrenchment process. The results also showed that job stress (time stress and anxiety) is negatively associated with organisational commitment. Subsequent to these findings, it is recommended that employees (survivors) be updated on their future in the company in question. This could be done through regular workshops and counselling of employees. In order to motivate and engage employees, and thereby contribute to employee commitment, it was also recommended that organisations create open, supportive and fair organisational and team cultures, and ensure jobs are clearly aligned with organisational goals and have appropriate levels of autonomy, support and career development. Given that job satisfaction plays a huge role in organisational commitment, it was further recommended that managers need to actively improve their organisation’s job satisfaction to employees in order to achieve a higher level of organisational commitment. The study concludes by recommending that communication between employees and management should take place on a regular basis which can serve as a fundamental tool to retrenchment in the following manner:  Survivors will feel more committed to the organisation when the basis of retrenchment addresses the circumstances in the external environment, rather than the enrichment of shareholders or top management.  Communicating a clear vision of how retrenchment will benefit stakeholders, increases commitment since survivors can see a clear future for the organisation.  When survivors are treated with dignity and respect, they will feel more committed to the organisation because they feel appreciated.
The influence of entrepreneurial-related programmes on student intentions to venture into new business creation
(Vaal University of Technology, 2015-08) Matsheke, Onica Thandi; Joubert, P. A., Dr.; Dhurup, M., Prof.
Whilst entrepreneurial education has received a fair amount of attention both locally and internationally, there is, surprisingly, still no universally accepted curriculum dedicated to aspiring entrepreneurs at universities which adequately exposes students to an environment that encourages new venture creation. Furthermore, disparities continue to exist in the quality of entrepreneurship education programmes on offer within higher education institutions in South Africa, particularly in curriculum design, delivery methods and forms of assessment. Moreover, an entrepreneurial culture in South Africa has not yet reached the desired national level in comparison to entrepreneurship in other developed nations. This study examines the influence of entrepreneurial-related programmes on students’ intentions to venture into new business creation. This study is located within a quantitative descriptive research paradigm, which permits the testing of relationships among the various constructs through a structured questionnaire. The sample was drawn from final year students of the Faculty of Management Sciences at a university who were studying various business-related programmes in which modules on entrepreneurship were compulsory. Variables included in the study focused on the entrepreneurial content of the curriculum, attitude towards entrepreneurship, intentions towards entrepreneurship and general self-efficacy. Data provided by 263 respondents was analysed using correlation and regression analyses. The results revealed a weak predictive relationship between the entrepreneurial content of the curriculum and the attitude of students to venture into new business creation. In addition, students’ attitudes towards entrepreneurship showed low levels of prediction of students’ intentions towards entrepreneurship. Finally, the results showed that students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy did not appear to influence their attitude towards entrepreneurship. A possible reason for these results may be the notion that not enough enthusiasm is generated in students because the modules in entrepreneurship, whilst compulsory, are not offered as majors in the curriculum, unlike in dedicated entrepreneurship programmes. The major challenge in entrepreneurship programmes is the appropriateness of the content of the curriculum in developing student’s attitude towards entrepreneurship. Students who are not exposed to the content of the curriculum that allows the commercial use of entrepreneurial knowledge demonstrate a weak attitude towards entrepreneurship. The entrepreneurial content of the curriculum should be enhanced with improved teaching delivery modes that enable students to gain hands-on experience by seeing, touching and ‘feeling’ the business world. Contents of the curriculum should be designed to include learning outcomes which are for entrepreneurship rather than about entrepreneurship. An entrepreneurial content of the curriculum which is developed for entrepreneurship deals with real entrepreneurial activity and produces students who have a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship. In order to enhance the status of entrepreneurship, curriculum developers should include various aspects of entrepreneurship in all years of the students’ study programme. In order for entrepreneurship to be given ‘life’, provision should be made to support incubation start-ups at the university level with practical training. The feasibility of offering a practical, hands-on entrepreneurship programme should be explored.
Job satisfaction and intention to quit of employees in non-governmental organisations in Swaziland
(Vaal University of Technology, 2017) Msibi, Welile Nompumelelo; Janse van Rensburg, C.; Joubert, P. A., Dr.
The main purpose of this study was to identify and describe the factors contributing to job satisfaction among employees of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Swaziland and to understand the drivers leading employees to think of quitting. Non-governmental organisations are institutions that provide employment opportunities in addition to the private sector and government institutions. The success of NGOs is determined by the availability and commitment of efficient and effective human resources. However, currently, most NGOs are highly affected by staff turnover and, therefore, the quality of the service they provide to the beneficiaries is affected and the financial and non-financial costs of filling vacant posts is significantly increased. To investigate this, a quantitative study was conducted using a structured questionnaire. A total of 300 employees working in NGOs throughout Swaziland were invited to complete the questionnaire and 197 useable responses were collected. The reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha) and construct validity (factor analysis) of the questionnaire were determined. This questionnaire was found to be reliable and valid. The statistical results obtained in this study showed that both forms of job satisfaction (intrinsic and extrinsic) have an inverse relationship with employees’ intentions to quit and that intrinsic job satisfaction was found to have a stronger influence on intention to quit.
The relationship between employee retention and talent management at Illovo Sugar Eston
(Vaal University of Technology, 2014-03) Madau, Dolly Nomcebo; Joubert, P. A., Dr.; Grobler, B. J., Prof.
Talent, according to Michaels, Handfield-Jones and Axelrod (2001:12), is a sum of a person’s abilities, his/her intrinsic gifts, skills, knowledge, experience, intelligence, judgement, attitude, character and drive. It also involves the ability to learn and grow. Employee retention has to do with job satisfaction, job involvement, career satisfaction and commitment from employees in the organisation (Noorliza & Muhammad 2006:33-34). According to Ongori (2009:11), employees who are given such recognition by the organisation feel special, valued and appreciated, ensuring an equitable amount of service within it (Ongori 2009:11). The research focused on the relationship between employee retention and talent management at Illovo Sugar Eston with a view to ascertaining whether or not the organisation is possibly the reason for employees leaving for other businesses, and if so to look for possible strategies to help it retain staff. Talent shortage due to failure by organisations to retain staff with the necessary expertise is becoming a reality and it is important that this challenge is addressed expeditiously (Maxwell 2007:273). The main aim of the study is to investigate and highlight the need and importance of talent management, including attraction and retention of staff with required skills at Illovo Sugar Eston. This will include investigating the challenges relating to attracting and retaining talent within the organisation in order to ensure a continuous supply of qualified staff and to reduce labour turnover. The study will also touch on the importance of competitive incentives and rewards in the attraction and retention of employees. This will involve strategies to attract and retain talent, to support the attainment of the organisation’s strategic and short-term objectives, by ensuring that it has qualified people, committed and well-motivated to take the business forward (Armstrong 2002:13). Hummayoun and Muhammad (2010:2028) confirm that employees who are empowered are more likely to feel confident and strive for excellence in order to improve production and quality. To achieve these objectives, a survey was conducted among employees of Illovo Sugar Eston. The findings highlighted that exit interviews are not effective in the retention of staff in that they are carried out when the individual has already made a decision to leave the organisation. Judging from the results from respondents, it is clear that staff satisfaction leads to high productivity and plays a significant role in the retention of staff. The results further indicated that management strategies are not being used to the extent that they should be in the retention of talent, whilst most respondents felt that fringe benefits currently offered by the organisation had a positive influence in staff satisfaction and in the retention of talented employees. The influence of the Employment Equity Act (55 of 1998) resulted in employees from the non-designated group agreeing with the commonly held perception that people from designated groups use the provisions of the Act to look for better opportunities with other organisation.
The relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment among police officers in Sebokeng Cluster
(Vaal University of Technology, 2013-12) Kgopotso, Mashego Rizeth; Joubert, P. A., Dr.; Radebe, P., Dr.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment among police officers in the Sebokeng Cluster. To this end, occupational stress and organisational commitment of police officers were assessed. The review of the literature presupposes three source of occupational stress, namely, role overload, role ambiguity and role conflict and their hypothesized influence over or relationship with organisational commitment factors. The literature also indicates that there are three dimensions of organisational commitment: affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. The research design used in this study is qualitative research design. In this study a survey was used to collect data from 267 respondents. The Statistical Package for Social Science version 21.0 was used to analyse the data. The response rate was 199 (75%) of the total sample. Statistical techniques such as Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis, frequency analysis, factor analysis (Kaiser-Meyer Olkin and Bartlett's test of sphericity) and means scores were used to analyse data. The Pearson's coefficient revealed that the relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment was found to be low and weak. The level of occupational stress experienced by police officers in the Sebokeng Cluster was found to be low. In similar vein, police officers had organisational commitment to the police agency. The Sebokeng Cluster management can utilise the research findings to formulate appropriate strategies to constantly reduce the occupational stress and to improve organisational commitment among police officers. In order to deal effectively with problems of occupational stress, management in Sebokeng Cluster should provide a safe physical work environment and ensure provision of resources and materials for execution of duties. Furthermore, they should encourage healthy lifestyle for employees.
Virtual expert systems and decision accuracy of non-experts in technology consulting
(Vaal University of Technology, 2018-10) Van den Berg, Amelia; Joubert, P. A., Dr.; Kasonkola, K., Dr.
This objectivist, experimental study investigated the influence of virtual expert systems (VES) on the decision accuracy of non-expert consultants within a technology consulting contact centre environment. Because of the overwhelming availability of conceptual information, non-expert consultants experience challenges in making accurate decisions, and would benefit from augmented technologies, such as VES. VES hold the ability to capture and scale large volumes of decision variables for consideration by human experts when making decisions. A total of 40 participants were randomly selected from contact centres in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng provinces of South Africa for this study. Human logic was captured and scaled into a technology fault finding virtual expert and administered as an experiment to group participants. The experimental and control group participants were randomly assigned to the respective groups of 20 participants each. The control group was exposed to the paper-based, fault-finding manual. The pre-test and post-test data were collected based on four decision accuracy measures, namely individual performance, average call handling time, first call resolution and customer service. The Clarify performance system of the participating technology consulting company was used as data collection tool to record the findings used for Chapter 5. Statistical data analyses were performed using ANOVA and two-tailed significance tests to test the relationship between VES and decision accuracy in the pre-test and post-test phases of the study. The study found that the participant scores on the decision accuracy measures were only statistically significant on the measure of first call resolution measure (significance score of a p value <.05). On the other (three) measures, the scores obtained from experimental group participants showed more improvement than that of the control group participants. Consequently, the hypothesis that the use of VES enhance decision accuracy amongst non-expert technology consultants was accepted and the alternative hypothesis rejected. Some limitations pertaining to the resultant Hawthorne effect (the effect when some employees work harder and perform better when they are participants in an experiment) was noted amongst participants. This effect resulted from the use of team leaders in monitoring performance during the experiment and the involvement of the technology consulting company in determining the performance norms of the identified measures. Another limitation of the study related to the size of the sample where only two provinces were included. The limitation may affect the generalisation of results to other future settings when such a study is repeated. It was recommended that future studies in this field should make provision for a larger population, inclusive of other provinces to avoid these limitations.

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